Abstract
This study examines employees at a metal fabrication plant and their experiences with a workplace wellness initiative, which included on-site CrossFit classes. Interviews with 16 workers and participant observation revealed d/Discourses that rationalized worker compliance and resistance to the wellness initiative. Through a discourse tracing analysis, the authors propose the novel concept of parallel ideal worker identities to describe how organizational d/Discourses (de)valued (a) blue-collar worker and (b) “healthy worker” identities. These d/Discourses created resistance to the wellness initiative because they made salient how the organization privileged the “healthy worker” identity over the traditionally constructed blue-collar worker identity through unobtrusive control.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 542-571 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | Management Communication Quarterly |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2023 |
Keywords
- blue-collar work
- cross fit
- discourse tracing
- organizational identity
- unobtrusive control
- workplace health promotion
- workplace wellness
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Strategy and Management