Class Perceptions and Social Identification of Industrial Supervisors

Abstract

This verse, dating back some fifty years, illustrates how it used to be possible for someone being promoted to a supervisory position to perceive that he was crossing a major class boundary. Up until the inter‐war years, the position of supervisor in British industry, typically the “foreman”, was clearly differentiated from that of the manual worker, even though both parties usually shared a manual background. Supervisors were still the main agents of capitalist ownership over the labour force. As such they were granted considerable control over conditions of employment and methods of work. They enjoyed favourable job security at a time when unemployment often brought personal economic disaster to manual workers. A distinctive mode of dress, particularly the bowler hat, symbolised this superiority over labour. Within their local communities, many supervisors had superior standing as minor property owners and rentiers.

Citation

Child, J., Pearce, S. and King, L. (1980), "Class Perceptions and Social Identification of Industrial Supervisors", Management Research News, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 11-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027759