Japanese Management Techniques and British Workers

by Danford,Andy

• ISBN13: 9780720123685
• ISBN10: 0720123682
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-06-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Analyzing the impact of "Japanese-style" management techniques such as lean production, teamworking, kaizen (continuous improvement) and business unionism of factory workers, this text investigates different facets of the organization of the labor process and employment relations within 15 Japanese transplants in South Wales. There is an emphasis on the impact of the restructuring of workplace relations on both individual groups of workers and collective labour organization. The text provides an insight into the reality of factory life in the 1990s by incorporating descriptions of shop-floor observations, quantitive data and revealing comments from different grades of shop-floor workers, office workers and management.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vii
List of Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	xi
Japanese Management Techniques and the Paradoxical Absence of Labour	1	(17)
Japanese Lean Production in South Wales	18	(29)
Japanese Human Resource Management in South Wales	47	(25)
Local and Global Contexts to the Restructuring of Work at a British Factory	72	(29)
Lean Production Control and Labour Intensification	101	(22)
Teamwork and Kaizen: Disempowering Shop--Floor Labour	123	(36)
The New Industrial Relations	159	(29)
The Disciplinary Impact of Human Resource Management	188	(31)
Conclusion	219	(10)
Appendix: Research Methodology	229	(4)
Bibliography	233	(12)
Index	245