Putting Bourdieu's theory into practice : the Toyota Production System and a shared work ethos

Abstract

This thesis aims to apply Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to organisational study in a relational, systematic, and comprehensive manner. Specifically, I address a research question, namely, 'how can the employee work ethos be regulated without being merely the product of obedience to rules?' I argue that the work ethos formulation adopted by employees should then be based on actual and observable circumstances in the workplace, not on cultural-based choices. Fieldwork was undertaken over nine months (in 2019) in two designated, actual workplaces of a multinational company I refer to as Toyota Automobile Company (TAC) in Jakarta, Indonesia. I focused on both production- and non-production-related (production support) sections. A combination of three research methods - direct observation of workplace activities, unstructured discussions and interviews, workplace process mapping - was used to deploy Bourdieu's conceptual tools in practice. The Toyota Production System (TPS) applied in the two TAC workplaces was closely analysed. The application of Bourdieu's conceptual tools revealed that, first, TAC's regularities and tendencies underlying actual work practices on the floors of both workplaces regulated by the TPS needed to be identified. Second, along with additional knowledge learned during field research, those TAC's regularities were further processed, to extract broader or more generic workplace regularities that characterised the workplace in general. Third, based on the workplace regularities identified, which served as a platform, any tendencies associated with each identified workplace regularity became ingredients for formulating a 'workplace regularities-based self-driving work ethos'; as a result, a shared work ethos emerged. The shared work ethos was not built on Indonesian cultural expectations to bridge diverse industrial cultures. To be regulated without being merely the product of obedience to rules, the employee work ethos should be based on workplace regularities. Thus, this shared work ethos should already address the research question. Hence, I argue that any Indonesian employee who comes from one of the many diverse Indonesian cultures, and works in either production- or non- production-related (production support) workplaces, is able to adopt the shared work ethos - or what Bourdieu refers to as a 'feel for the game' and a 'feel for the workplace regularities' - which supersedes workplace rules.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English