Breaking from Taylorism: Changing Forms of Work in the Automobile Industry

by Ulrich Jürgens, Thomas Malsch, Knuth Dohse

Overview

The future of one of the world's most important industries is examined from the perspective of work structures and labor relations policies. The authors examine the restructuring of the world automobile industry in the 1980s, and draw data from an in-depth empirical study of three leading car companies in three different countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. They demonstrate that differences among firms and countries have had a major impact on the way in which change has come about. This book is an important contribution to the study of mass production industries throughout the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521102537
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/12/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.02(d)

Table of Contents

1. The restructuring of the world automobile industry: opportunities for new forms of work; 2. Changing markets and the rise of Toyotism: the development of the national car industries since the 1970s; 3. Company strategies for answering the challenges; 4. Industrial relations in the process of change; 5. Reorganising quality control - between pressure for efficiency and a job enrichment orientation; 6. Coping with new technology: skilled workers between specialisation and flexibilisation; 7. Regulating work performance and plant efficiency: changes in control and structures of work; 8. Comparative achievements in labour productivity and changes in personnel structures: trends and development patterns; 9. Tapping new resources: skill levels and worker participation; 10. Is the assembly line obsolete?; 11. Modern times in the automobile factory: trends toward new forms of work

Editorial Reviews

"There are extensive sections on levels of productivity, quality indices, and ratios of direct and indirect labour which speak to the goals and interests of management. It deserves the attention of those concerned with the future of work. It points to the need for studies which focus on workers' assessment of change." Labour

"...offers both an important historical presentation of a crucial period of innovation in the 1980's and an informed analysis that links that earlier period to contemporary patterns of change....for those concerned with the complexity of real world processes of workplace innovation, their causes and consequences, this book merits a careful read." Lowell Turner, German Politics and Society

From the Publisher