The paper offers a critique of Total Quality Management . It is essentially in three parts: the first examines the rise of TQM through the western experience of Japanese development, second it examine the nature of TQM's promised cultural change and, finally questioning the very notion of `quality'. It explores this development as -taking a metaphor from the work of Philip Crosby one of the 'guru's of Total Quality -a journey down the yellow brick road. The development of TQM being rich in icons and symbolism it is argued that it acts both to legitimate current changes in organisation through the penetration of the market and also as a market model of organisation based on customer and supplier links. In contrast to the claim of TQM to challenge bureaucracy it argues that, while it might counter some of its dysfunction's, it can be located within a bureaucratization process.

No abstract

Drawing on theoretical insights from work by Michael Burawoy on the ‘politics of production’ and ‘the game of “making out”’ this article explores ‘manufacturing consent’ within increased insecurity at sites of a global chemical company. It explores the role of the European Works Council and kaizen as ‘rituals of affirmation’ to corporate control within this ‘hegemonic despotic’ regime securing consent through the precariousness of local site employment.

This paper explores new working time arrangements around a critique of the 'commodification of time' to illuminate the contradictions of such new flexibilities. Two features of these new arrangements are seen as relevant for evaluating the Marx/Engels analysis. Firstly, those arguing the commodification of time represent all [can you suggest a wording that will make clear what this 'all' refers to?] having become a commodity outside of the processes of exchange for labour power. Significantly -and central in all working time arrangements -it is labour power that is sold, be it for a particular period of time, rather than the time itself. Hence, working time arrangements set boundaries against 'free' time or time in which labour power is not sold as a commodity, that 'free' time which was recognised in the traditional arrangements -fought over in early industrialism -which set premium payments against anti-social hours within 'overtime'. New working time arrangements tend to blur the boundaries between 'free' and 'working' time, assuming an availability of labour power to capital. While much of the promotion of flexibility stresses the possibility of making adjustment to suit social and domestic requirements it is more usually the means for altering working time to meet the demands of capital. The much vaunted case of Volkswagen has led to 'working time accounts' becoming the established temporal arrangement within the German car industry and increasingly becoming the norm for other European auto producers. The name given to these new working arrangements within the motor industry suggests that time has indeed become further commodified. For workers within these new time regimes, the hours owed to their employer is displayed along with their earnings -and deductions -on their wage slip.

No abstract