Disorganized Coaction: A New Way of Theorizing Workers' Resistence in the Indian Information and Technology Industry

The prevailing anti-union corporate cultures in the Indian IT sector are supported by the footloose nature of capital and the use of sophisticated human resource management strategies. Besides this, employees also harbour the view that a collectivist agenda is at odds with business interests. Hence, prior to COVID-19, employees quit their current jobs rather than engage in third-party intervention to redress their grievances. This was a passive way of showing their dissent. However, post-COVID-19, a more strident image of employees has emerged. Based on in-depth interviews with thirty participants, we argue that, as the economy recovered, management wanted workers to work from office (WFO), but employees resisted. While employers argued that WFO enabled building a strong organization culture, meeting the data security demands of clients, and ensuring better supervision, employees contended that working remotely gave them flexibility, helped them maintain work-life balance, and reduced their commuting costs. Employers had to postpone several deadlines for employees to return to the office due to this resistance and high attrition rates. Initially, the ability to resist was attributed to the tight labour market situation where employees had opportunities aplenty and enforcing WFO was difficult, but recent evidence suggests that this resistance continues despite the slowdown in the IT sector. This is quite an achievement for the non-unionized 5.4 million Indian IT workforce, who are acting individually yet cohesively. These employees did not, to any significant extent, coordinate the acts of confrontation, and their actions did not fit the definition of collective behaviour. Although they knew each other, they rarely met and had few close friendships. The shared problem of having to work from the office led to individual acts of nonconformity. This uncoordinated reaction by a group of individuals who share a widespread problem is an example of disorganized coaction.