A FAMILY OF FAMILIES: WHEN FAMILY RELATIONS ARE WORK RELATIONS (WORKING-CLASS, STUDEBAKER, INDIANA, AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY, ORAL HISTORY)

This study explores the incorporation of the family into the workplace and examines the interwovenness of family and work in workers' way of life using an oral history aproach.;Second, work and family are two interwoven aspects in the way of life of human beings. While work and family remained closely linked for the early industrial working class, it is widely assumed that today the two spheres are separated for all classes. The study examines this process and focuses on World War II as a possible turning point in the meaning of work and family for working-class families. On the basis of hiring date, age and ethnic affiliation, the experience of the pre-war and post-war generations are distinguished.;The project concentrates on the experience of laborers at the Studebaker Automobile Corporation which for a century was the largest employer in South Bend, Indiana. Studebaker not only hired family members, but also proclaimed itself to be a "Family of Families" both in its advertising and industrial relations publications. The study analyzes the myth of the factory as a family and explores its acceptance by workers.;Interviews with forty-one former Studebaker workers from seventeen different families were conducted in the oral history tradition. Quotes and frequency tables present a comprehensive picture of the employees' life at work and at home. In addition, two samples of company publications were analyzed to probe into the origin and development of the work-as-family myth. The findings entail some interesting tasks for future research.;Two main problems are addressed. First, in the process of industrialization, the family frequently remained part of the workplace both in a literal sense by the preferential employment of family members and in a metaphorical sense by the emergence of paternalism as a system of management. This study pinpoints the possible form and function of the family at the factory and shows that kinship could and still can be part of the workplace in male industries.