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MODULE 7: SOCIOLOGY OF WORK, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND LAW SECTION 1: THE CAPITALIST LABOUR PROCESS: The Flexible Firm |
The flexible firm, that is a firm which strives to operate along flexible specialisation principles, is looking for three kinds of flexibility:
Adapted from John Atkinson, "The Changing Corporation," p.19 in David Clutherback (ed.)., New Patterns of Work, Gower, Aldershot, 1985 |
This consists of fulltime permanent career employees, such as managers, designers, technical sales staff and craftsmen. Their employment security is won at the cost of accepting functional flexibility.
These are full-time employees with less job security , in the sense that they are offered a job, not a career. This group consists of clerical, supervisory or component assembly occupations.
Employees in this group combine functional and numerical flexibility. The approach is to maximise flexibility while minimising commitments to the workers with respect to job security and career development.
M Kelley (1989) evaluated competing claims in 1015 plants of which 43% used automated - programmable computer-controlled machinery. The results are summarised below:
Types of Control | ||
Plants (%) | Employment (%) | |
---|---|---|
Strict Taylorist | 24 | 47 |
Shared Control | 45 | 41 |
Worker centred | 31 | 12 |
Concentration on Small Batches | ||
Shared Control | 70 | |
Strict Taylorist | 50 | |
Source: Haralamous and Holborn, p. 350 |
Neo-Fordism constitutes attempts to go beyond Fordism without negating its fundamental principles. It sees mass production and flexible specialisation as ideal-type models. Hybrid forms of productive organisation are common. It involves: