Actors’ ideology in technology participation, in fifteen enterprises of auxiliary car industry in Catalonia

Abstract

Considering the certain degree of participation in technology achieved by workers and unions representatives of fifteen companies of the Catalonian industry of automotive components, an analysis of the «global culture» in each of these companies —deducted this last from the «aggregation» of the existing management and unions culture in these companies— made possible to verify that such participation levels were highly related to the kind of ideological-cultural conceptions —ideas, values and symbolical representations— present in the culture of both social actors; particularly, in that of the managers. That last one proved to possess the biggest hegemony to determine the «global culture » in every company and, consequently, the existing adjustment level between the above mentioned «global culture» and the participation levels achieved by the workers in the technological innovation. The final result was that the «global culture» was capable of explaining the participation levels in thirteen out of the fifteen companies studied.