The modernization of the postal service: Identity, public service, and the meaning of work

This thesis attempts to understand the occupational culture and identity of postal workers between 1970 to 2000, investigating the importance of the ethic of public service. The study explores the importance of the experience of the Second World War in establishing a culture within the postal service, whereby a high value was placed on work as a service for the good of the public, and the way in which postal workers came to identify with this ethic. It examines how processes of modernization, that began with the removal of the postal service from the civil service in 1969 and accelerated with the election of the Conservative government in 1979 and the subsequent commercialization and marketization, led to a weakening of this service ethic, and erosion of the working culture and means of occupational identity of postal workers. However, this was not just a story of transformation, there were important continuities. The research is a case study of postal workers who were employed in the postal service in the Cannock Chase area of Staffordshire during this time, utilising an oral history method.