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MODULE 7: SOCIOLOGY OF WORK, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND LAW SECTION 1: THE CAPITALIST LABOUR PROCESS: From Fordism to Flexible Specialisation |
Also known as Taylorism, this concept emerged in the United States in the first two decades of the 20th century. Its fundamentals are:
Taylorism still dominates the world of production.
These fundamental principles are:
By the 1920's and 30's, Taylorism was no longer able to satisfy capital's requirements. This was because:
Note that 1 and 2 entail deskilling, while 3 entails control.
Braverman's argument is that Taylorism stripped workers of craft knowledge (deskilling) and autonomous control over the labour process. This led to the degradation of work in the 20th century, a process not unnoticed by workers, but it was apparently unable to stop (or reverse) the process. Since Taylorism still dominates the world of production, the practitioners of "human relations" "are the maintenance crew for the human machinery".
In 1914 Henry Ford introduced assembly line production in motor-car manufacture. This was a new system of work organisation. Fordism is a system of mass production of commodities along Taylorist principles. It emerged at about the same time.
It is accompanied by the regulation of the economy to ensure a sufficient demand for the mass consumption of commodities.
In the late 1960's Fordism ran into its own limitations: South and East Asian countries first became mass production imitators, then went beyond it and by developing flexible specialisation, posed a challenge to the existing developed industrial nations. Thus
Flexible Specialisation emerged in the 1980's in the West. Its main features are:
FORDISM | FLEXIBLE SPECIALISATION |
---|---|
A. PRODUCTION PROCESS | |
Based on economics of scale | Based on economics of scope |
Mass production of homogeneous goods | Small batch production of differentiated products |
Production-driven | Demand-pulled |
Large buffer stocks - "just-in-case" | No stocks, delivery or production "just-in-time" |
Quality tested at the end of production (rejects are detected late) | Quality control as part of the process (immediate detection of errors) |
B. LABOUR | |
Single-task performance by worker (deskilling) | Multiple tasks through multi-skilling |
No or little on the job training | Long on the job training |
Emphasis on diminishing worker's responsibility | Emphasis on worker co-responsibility |
Job security under appropriate conditions | High employment security for core workers, low job security for peripheral workers |