‘Ain't Misbehavin’? Opportunities for Resistance under New Forms of ‘Quality’ Management

Abstract

In this paper we explore the development of a new regime in a major bank where total quality management (TQM) has recently been introduced. A number of recent critics have suggested that TQM all but eliminates resistance either through a management regime that removes waste or through the totalising discourse it propagates. We argue that new management innovations associated with TQM and ‘empowerment’ are effective in increasing control over work processes and the subjectivity of staff. Even so, employees are able to retain some control over areas of their working lives. A central concern of the paper is to provide some limited evidence of how an analysis of subjectivity enhances our understanding of both consent and resistance at work.