‘You monitor performance at every hour’: labour and the management of performance in the supermarket supply chain

Abstract

With reference to the performance management research agenda, this article focuses on the politics of production in food manufacturing and distribution companies in the supermarket supply chain. Burawoy's concept of 'factory regimes' is utilised to explore the broader context of labour process change in interlinked organisations in the retail supply chain. The article examines the extent to which new despotic or coercive regime characteristics are emerging that weakens the power of both suppliers and labour. In revealing changes in the nature and dynamics of performance regimes within these organisations, the article exposes the connections and linkages between workplaces as distinct moments in the integrated circuit of capital.Labour and performance management in the supermarket supply chain 1 circuit of capital. The overall concern is thus to contribute to growing debates exploring the changing nature of workplace performance regimes. Organised in four main parts, the article first explores performance management and production politics, focusing specifically on routine work and retail supply chains. It then describes the research method and data sources. The third part presents the substantive findings on the relationship between supplier organisations and their retail customers. How do these complex and changing exchange relations condition what Burawoy (1985) termed 'factory regimes' and patterns of conflict, cooperation and consent in the labour process? The fourth part provides an analysis of these findings and develops the wider implications for understanding the complex and changing structure of exchange and production relations.

The quantified self: What counts in the neoliberal workplace

“…This approach was widely criticized by labour process theorists (e.g. Braverman, 1974;Thompson and Smith, 2010;Newsome et al, 2013). Labour process theory focuses on labour power's ongoing transformations in the context of capitalism (Thompson and Smith, 2010) and is committed to identifying how the 'qualitative intensification of labour' seen in emotional, affective and aesthetic labour impacts working lives and the capturing of employees' tacit knowledge (Thompson, 2010).…”

Beyond the management–employee dyad: supply chain initiatives in shipping

“…The Newsome et al . (; see also Newsome, ) research on UK retailer supply chains showed that in order to meet the demands of their clients, suppliers adopted new technology to monitor labour performance and speed up work processes. Similarly, Pulignano () revealed in her study of supply chains in the Italian automobile industry that the management in supplier firms used supply chain pressure as a mechanism to tighten their control of their labour process.…”

The challenge of managing informally

“…Critically, despite the continued shift of responsibility for conflict management from HR to the line (McGovern et al, 1997;Teague and Roche, 2012), this concern has received little further consideration as the policy agenda has developed. Furthermore, it could be argued that the traditional preference of managers for informality (Rollinson et al, 1996) may sit uneasily beside increased emphasis on more systematic performance management (Taylor, et al, 2010;Newsome et al, 2013).…”

“…This includes appraisal and performance review practices as part of a developmental approach, but also involves the management of poor performance (Dunn and Wilkinson, 2002;Newsome et al, 2013) through the application of absence and capability procedures. Although these are also now more explicitly linked to disciplinary outcomes, managers are encouraged to act in a 'flexible and positive way' (Armstrong and Barron 2005, p.12) and there appears to be an emphasis on the benefits of informality as a way of building consensus and enhancing performance in the context of employee involvement for example (Marchington and Suter, 2013).…”