What Makes a Good Worker? Richard Edwards Is Still Relevant

Since the 1970s, developed nations have seen the rise of the service economy, and forms of work organization have changed radically. As a result, employers have new requirements in the form of worker autonomy and so-called “soft” skills. These changes seem to mark a break with the expectations of submission and conformity highlighted by Edwards’s analysis. Nevertheless, the changes in employers’ practices reflect not so much the disappearance of forms of control as a shift towards less authoritarian but equally powerful forms based on the shifting of responsibility on to employees and the internalization of organizational norms. In making this case, we draw more particularly on the example of front-line workers in retailing and the hotel and restaurant industry.