Occupational Communities: Culture and Control in Organizations

The organization is but one frame of reference for understanding work behavior. Equally powerful but largely unexplored social forces in the workplace are groups sired by the perception of common task. After developing the concept of an occupational community as a framework for analyzing the phenomenological boundaries of work worlds, the authors show how research on occupational communities can broaden our knowledge of careers, control, conflict, and innovation, topics traditionally approached from an organizational perspective.