Abstract
Recent studies on control in organizations have focused either on bureaucratic arrangement or normative discourses without accounting much for the articulation of these arrangements with transformations at the societal level. By drawing on the literature on ‘banal nationalism’ and control, this paper shows how this articulation sheds light on mechanisms of societal control that lead to “disinherited” workers. Through an ethnography of a French company’s shopfloor, this paper examines the control dynamics that corporate narratives induce by drawing on the national one. It shows how control expands in these workshops as society at large becomes concerned with and engaged in the success of “Made in France” products. Workers, considered part of the heritage that the company puts forward, are consequently under pressure to achieve perfection while receiving no premium for either their extra effort or the heritage (presumed French know-how) that they maintain, creating a constant paradoxical feeling of pride in and frustration with their company.