Emerging production systems and industrial relations: Confusion, diffusion, and exclusion?

✍ Scribed by Marian Baird; Russell D. Lansbury

• Book ID: 101293325
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 56 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1090-8471
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6564(199821)8:2<141::aid-hfm4>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

Although there is debate about emerging production systems, there is little analysis of their direct impact on traditional industrial relations. In this article the authors begin with an exploration of the literature on production systems and argue that there is confusion between the characteristics of, and distinctions between, emerging production systems. As companies diffuse their own production systems, there arises not only a great variety of models, but also a convergence of the principle characteristics of these production models. These are identified as teams, multiskilled workers, and management-initiated employee participation programs. These "new" production models might best be generically termed "lean team" systems, and the consequences for labor and unions are potentially significant. Drawing on research in Colgate-Palmolive, a multinational manufacturing company operating in Australia, one such production model is examined. It would appear that the consequences of the new production system for the union are complex and potentially responsible for their exclusion.