ABSTRACT
It has often been argued that small employers maintain the identification of their workers through the cultivation of paternalistic relationships. Given the material conditions of production in the building industry, fraternalism represents the most appropriate managerial strategy for small-scale employers. The development of industrial capitalism has brought about the growth of large scale units of production. This growth, and its impact upon social relationships in industrial society, has attracted the attention of social commentators since the earliest stages of industrialization. Some writers have claimed that social relations in smaller units of production display a number of distinctive features. Small employers in the building industry cultivate a fraternal relationship with their employees who differs-significantly from that between farmers and farm workers as described by Newby and his associates. The chapter argues that fraternalism represents a way of organizing work largely without resort to clearly-defined hierarchical control.
