When the New Zealand Government restructured the system of the public funding of
research (1990-1992) it created Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) as companies
operating in a global, market-led economy. One CRI, AgResearch, responded to this
environment by corporatisation and instituted a normative system of control of
workers which, through strategic plans, vision and mission statements, and
performance appraisal processes, encouraged workers to adhere to company goals.
This thesis, reporting on an ethnographic study of this CRI, shows how most
scientific workers (technical workers and scientists alike) experienced insecurity
through estrangement because the contributions they wished to make were less
valued both in society and in their work organisation. They were excluded from
participation in both organisational and Government policy-making, and felt they did
not ‘belong’ anymore. Scientists in particular were also experiencing alienation (in
the Marxist sense), as they were losing autonomy over the production of their work
and its end use. Scientific workers developed tactics of compliance in order to resist
these experiences and ostensibly comply with organisational goals while maintaining
and protecting their self-identities, and making their work meaningful. Meanwhile, to
outward appearances, the work of the CRI continued.
This thesis adds to the sociology of work literature by extending the understanding of
the concepts of compliance and resistance in white-collar work, particularly under
normative control, by developing two models of resistance. It adds to the stories of
the impact on public sector workers of the restructuring of this sector in New
Zealand’s recent history, and develops implications for science policy and practice