Moderne Zeiten in der Automobilfabrik

We analyze the way action research can be used to take a very conventional kind of imposed change process and turn it into a more deeply transformative and yet practically successful intervention. In the project with the automotive supplier `AutoParts' our goal was to implement team organization. AutoParts' motive was a need to give the impression of being a `lean' company, and teams were thus seen as necessary. The top manager thought of the implementation as a planned process that should be discussed in the management team and then implemented. We participated in these discussions, but meanwhile worked out practical solutions together with the actual teams of workers as an action research project. The management team did not make any progress while the bottom-up strategy was quite successful. The main reason, as we will argue, was that this process helped the teams to reach beyond the `black box' approach and start reframing how the team concept could be useful in their particular work situation. The two teams we will describe also came up with quite different team concepts because their challenges were different. In our opinion, the success could not have been achieved without the action research method, where we were considered both insiders and outsiders, spent a lot of time on the shop floor, and worked together with the team members as co-researchers to define their own concepts of the team.

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“…Shingo, 1984;Yamashina, 1981) and analyzed during the 1980s (e.g. Doshe et al, 1985;Jürgens, Malsch & Dohse, 1989;Schonberger, 1982).…”

Section: Team Organization As a Management Fashionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming management fashions into praxis

Rolfsen

Knutstad

2007

Action Research

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“…Desweiteren ist noch ungeklärt, ob beispielsweise die in betrieblichen Kostenvergleichsstudien ermittelten Produktivitätssprünge in der Auto-und Stahlindustrie tatsächlich auf den Einsatz von Informationstechniken zurückgeführt werden können. Der signifikante Produktivitätsvorsprung der japanischen Hersteller in den 1980er Jahre beruhte nicht auf einem höheren Anteil von Informationstechniken (es sei denn man rechnet das auf Karteikärtchen beruhende kanban-System hinzu), sondern auf den mittlerweile allseits bekannten Prinzipien der schlanken Produktion und einer hohen Kapazitätsauslastung (Jürgens et al 1989;Scherrer 1992). Aus dieser Sicht wäre die positive Produktivitätsentwicklung der Old Economy Folge eines Lernens von Japan, und zwar einerseits hinsichtlich der Technik und andererseits dank des günstigen makroökonomischen Klimas auch bezogen auf höhere Kapazitätsauslastungsgrade.…”

Section: Dünne Empirische Basis Zur Beurteilung Der New-economy-theseunclassified

New Economy: Wachstumsschub durch Produktivitätsrevolution?

Scherrer¹

2001

PROKLA

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The article discusses the macroeconomic argument of a New Economy that allows for higher non-inflationary economic growth due to increases in productivity caused by the digital revolution. Besides presenting evidence put forward by mainstream protagonists of the New Economy, it explores an interpretation of the New Economy inspired by regulation theory. Specifically it looks at the stability of a finance-led regime of accumulation on the basis of the digital production paradigm. Some basic causal relationships of such a regime, especially the investment – profits, wealth – profits, and wealth – consumption connections, seem too fragile for suggesting that a stable new regime of accumulation has emerged. Furthermore, the New Economy thesis suffers from serious problems in measuring productivity in the service industries. Therefore, it seems just as plausible that the long „Clinton“-expansion was a singular event made possible by the special position the U.S. enjoys in the world economy.

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“…The clearest and most important differences between the companies could be found in the question of whether they oriented their strategy towards human or technical factors as the supposedly 'decisive' productivity resource [22].…”

Section: The Research Findings: the Common Ground Of Functional Fleximentioning

confidence: 99%