The labor process as a source of class consciousness: A critical examination

Much of the recent literature on the labor process has assumed that work content plays a prominent role in the development of class consciousness. Little systematic attention has been given to this assumption, however. The present study examines the relation between aspects of workers' jobs and their levels of class consciousness, using data recently gathered from a survey of workers in the communications industry. Contrary to the prevailing view, the results indicate that extrinsic job characteristics—e.g., job security, patterns of supervision, and working conditions—have much stronger effects on class consciousness than do intrinsic job characteristics. The implication is that analyses of the labor process may have focused too narrowly upon the work itself, at the expense of other critical aspects of the wage-labor relation. Models of the determination of class consciousness will need to consider the expectations workers bring into their jobs. Managerial violation of the workers' expectations may have more to do with the development of class consciousness than does the content of work alone.