Open AccessFertile Ground: Homegrown Loyalty Makes For Globally Competitive Industry
Author(s) -
BRONDO KERI,
BABA MARIETTA,
YENIYURT SENGUN,
TOWNSEND JANELL
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-8918.2005.tb00022.x
Subject(s) - loyalty , sociality , workforce , marketing , order (exchange) , productivity , automotive industry , business , perspective (graphical) , dual (grammatical number) , industrial organization , sociology , economics , engineering , economic growth , computer science , artificial intelligence , ecology , finance , biology , art , literature , aerospace engineering
This paper proposes a theory to explain how rural sociality has influenced workforce behavior and productivity at a Global Manufacturing Systems' automotive assembly plant in mid‐Michigan. The paper argues that for over 100 years, rural and farming families in the region have been appropriating GM factories in order to sustain their rural life ways and remain part of their own ‘moral’ community. Loyalty to the company is conceptualized from the families' perspective as a requirement of sustainable communities, motivated by an intergenerational desire to keep GM in Michigan. Employee loyalty also benefits the company by ensuring high performance and quality. The link between sociality and performance is illustrated through statistical modeling of attendance data and maps produced through ArcGIS.