4. Passion with an umbrella: Grassroots activists in the workplace

Maureen Scully; Amy Segal

doi:10.1016/S0733-558X(02)19004-5

Login

Welcome:
Guest

Search for:

Browse:

Product Information:

Resources:

Research in the Sociology of Organizations

ISSN: 0733-558X
Series editor(s): Professor Michael Lounsbury

Subject Area: Organization Studies

Content: Series Volumes | Current Volume RSS

Options: To add Favourites and Table of Contents Alerts please take a Emerald profile

Document request:
4. Passion with an umbrella: Grassroots activists in the workplace

Document Information:
Title:	4. Passion with an umbrella: Grassroots activists in the workplace
Author(s):	Maureen Scully, Amy Segal
Volume:	19 Editor(s): Michael Lounsbury, Marc J. Ventresca ISBN: 978-0-76230-872-9 eISBN: 978-1-84950-149-1
Citation:	Maureen Scully, Amy Segal (2002), 4. Passion with an umbrella: Grassroots activists in the workplace, in Michael Lounsbury, Marc J. Ventresca (ed.) Social Structure and Organizations Revisited (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.125-168
DOI:	10.1016/S0733-558X(02)19004-5 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Full length article
Abstract:	This paper takes a “social movements” approach to employee activism regarding diversity and inequality in the workplace. The social context is often neglected in studies of organizational change, while the workplace as a locus of activism receives less attention from social movement theorists than other organizational settings. We do not seek to differentiate employee activists from quiescent employees but to understand the concerns, language, and tactics of small groups of employee activists when they mobilize. Our study is based on interviews with thirty-nine activists from nine grassroots employee groups in a 900-person division of a high technology firm. We learn how employee activists pursue changes that question power relations, draw links to broader societal issues, sustain their “passion” and collective efforts over cycles of involvement, manage risks to their careers and their mission, handle the protection and constraints offered by the “umbrella” of management, and make sense of their accomplishments. We close by highlighting the significance of local, fragmented change efforts. Without being too sanguine about employee activism nor too cynical about its cooptive function, theorists should allow a place for piecemeal change.