Sustaining solidarity through social media? Employee social media groups as an emerging platform for collectivism in Pakistan

Saqib, Syed Imran, Lucio, Miguel Martinez, Allen, Maria L and Allen, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6463-9039 (2024) Sustaining solidarity through social media? Employee social media groups as an emerging platform for collectivism in Pakistan. Work, Employment and Society, 38 (3). pp. 636-656. ISSN 0950-0170

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Abstract

Forging solidarity or a collective approach amongst seemingly privileged white-collar professionals has been seen as challenging process. However, many banking employees in Pakistan feel marginalized and lack formal collective mechanisms within their workplaces to voice their concerns, leading some to participate in social-media groups. Drawing on various discussions linked to labour process perspectives, we examine how these banking employees use social media as a means to create broader and diverse collective bonds within their profession and build bridges to similar employees in other organizations within the sector. By doing so, we reveal that employees post on social media to express and affirm their concerns, offer broader support with one another, ‘cope’ with existing circumstances, highlight their unrewarded professionalism, and share relevant information around collective issues and experiences. Employees do not solely use social media to voice their immediate criticisms about their work. The paper draws on and contributes to new debates on collectivism and solidarity, revealing the opportunities for actions on social media.