Much of the hoopla surrounding quality circles, teams, and
high-performance work systems has been based on anecdotes and very
thin evidence. It has not been established that those employee
involvement strategies amount to anything more than another series
of management fads or ruses designed to get more out of workers
without giving them anything in return. This revelatory book,
written by some of the skeptics, lays some of the suspicion to
rest.
Based on their visits to 44 plants and surveys of more than
4,000 employees, Eileen Appelbaum, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and
Arne L. Kalleberg concluded that companies are indeed more
successful when managers share knowledge and power with workers and
when workers assume increased responsibility and discretion.
The study of steel, apparel, and medical electronics and imaging
plants revealed much. In self-directed teams, workers were able to
eliminate bottlenecks and coordinate the work process. In task
forces created to improve quality, they communicated with
individuals outside their own work groups and were able to solve
problems. Expensive equipment in steel mills operated with fewer
interruptions, turnaround and labor costs were cut in apparel
factories, and costly inventories of components and medical
equipment were reduced.
And what did the employees think? The worker survey showed that
jobs in participatory work systems often provide more challenging
tasks and more opportunities for creativity. Employees in apparel
had higher hourly earnings; those in steel had both higher hourly
earnings and higher job satisfaction. Workers in more participatory
settings were no more likely than others to report heavy workloads
or excessivedemands on their time. They were, however, less likely
to report involuntary overtime or conflict with co-workers, and
were more likely to be satisfied with their surroundings.
Manufacturing Advantage provides the best assessment available
of the effectiveness of high-performance work systems. Freestanding
chapters near the end of the book provide full documentation of
research data without interrupting the narrative flow.
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