Control and Autonomy in Small Firms: The Case of the West Midlands Clothing Industry

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics of workplace relations in small firms. Case study evidence from three clothing firms in the West Midlands is used to demonstrate that workplace relations in small firms are not necessarily harmonious nor autocratic. Rather, they are complex, informal and often contradictory. Even in this most competitive of industries, it is not simply a question of management autocracy. There is always a negotiation of order which, in the context of the clothing firms in the West Midlands, includes the further dimension of ethnicity. Conventional views of the clothing industry which stress the prevalence of tight managerial control, intensive pace of work and strict discipline, are questioned in the light of the findings.

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