This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (2) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Reveley, J. Articles by Taylor, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Beyond the Boundaries

An Ethnographic Analysis of Spatially Diffuse Control in a Small Firm

University of Wollongong, Australia

Simon Down

University of Newcastle, UK

Scott Taylor

University of Birmingham, UK

This article presents an ethnographic study of control and resistance in a small professional service firm in the port transport industry. We argue that informal interaction between the owner-managers and their employees at a site beyond the organizational boundary, namely the local public house, provided the setting for rituals of resistance in which the participants achieved a modicum of role distance. These rituals, in turn, fulfilled a latent 'tension-release function' (Goffman, 1990:241) that served subtly to reinforce and reproduce order in the firm. On the basis of this argument, our article makes a twofold contribution to small firm research. First, the specific combination of functionalist and interactionist approaches provides fresh 'insights into how the complex and contested dynamics of interpersonal relations in small enterprises are handled' (Ram, 1 999b: I 5). Second, our analysis suggests ethnographic research has considerable methodological potential to deepen the understanding of small firm employee relations.

Key Words: control • employee relations • ethnography • small firms • space

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Nadin and C. Cassell New Deal for Old? Exploring the Psychological Contract in a Small Firm Environment International Small Business Journal, August 1, 2007; 25(4): 417 - 443. [Abstract] [PDF]