NAME:  JIAO  XUE

SY1910  

WORK, ORGANIZATION & SOCIETY

ESSAY QUESTION 5

It has been argued that the way in which work is structured and organised has changed over the last several decades.  Hence, the type of labour process and mode of economic growth varied in accordance with this argument.  As some sociologists and economists observe, the so-called Fordist way of organising work, whose principles tend to apply most extensively to conditions such as mass production and mass consumptions, has declined its effectiveness in terms of economic growth.  The characteristics of modern industrial society and organizations, according to some neo-Fordists view, are shifting towards to a new pattern that is clearly differentiated from the classic Fordist industrial structure: the post-Fordism.  

  The term post-Fordism can be defined as: "A pattern of industrial organisation and employment policy in which skilled and trusted labour is used continuously to develop and customise products for small markets" (Watson, 1995, 343).  Under this assumption, a irreversible tendency of market fragmentation emerges in the major capitalist economy; the consequences of this have been: flexible production process based on flexible machines or systems has replaced mass production process based on assembly-line techniques; the use of a large number of semi-skilled or deskilled workers has been replaced by a combination of multi-skilled and unskilled workers during the labour process.  In fact, the concept of post-Fordism has already gone beyond the manufacturing field that is previously dominated by Fordism, to an even comprehensive field, which includes the tertiary employment sector: the many types of services production, such as education, retailing or hospitals.  In this sense, the post-Fordism is likely to shape the dynamics of the capitalist economic system to a broader scope than the Fordist style of organisation and work could do.  However, many commentators (e.g. Kumar), argue that economies based on mass production are still common, while flexible firms, industries and economic systems are relatively few; manufacturing as a important means of sustaining a capacity to innovate and develop high-tech skills in an economy can not be replaced or overridden by service industry or any other industrial sectors.  Therefore, the debate about post-Fordism and post-industrial society is continuing, but it reflects the possibilities of new technological revolution of qualitative development for contemporary capitalist economy.  

   Most post-Fordists argue the Fordist-way of organising work has been encountering more and more resistances from workers; the principles of mass production and standardized products are increasingly challenged by flexibility and customised products form of production, so a new model of industrial system emerged! And 'flexible specialization' has been regarded as the heart of this new system: the post-Fordist analysis of economy.  This determines that: the production would be based on 'flexible' basis, in order to suit the shifting and differentiated markets that containing a diversity of consumer groups, each of who pursues different products; 'reinvestment in more flexible production equipment and techniques and new sets of products' (Jessop, 1988, 22), more general purposes machines are replacing special purposes ones, as a correspondence of increasing demand for differentiated goods and services; increasing productivity by implementing both 'functional flexibility' and 'numerical flexibility', i.e. through employing a core part of work force, which is made up of highly-skilled or qualified, adaptable  workers, to perform the 'functional flexibility', switching them between jobs and work tasks as necessary, and combined with a periphery part of work force, which mainly comprises of deskilled or semi-skilled workers, to perform the 'numerical flexibility', adjusting their number to the changing volume of work .  The former has relatively higher job security and job satisfaction, whereas the latter is likely to be under casually employed status; the former have stronger 'bargaining' power with their employers because they are 'knowledgeable' and not 'dispensable', they are better able to make negotiations with employers regarding salaries or working conditions, but the latter remains relative 'weak' positions and less powerful; the former has strong incentives to put commitment to jobs as in return, they get income rises, this makes them even enthusiastic and eventually put more commitment to their work.  This is vital in improving quality and performance for individual products! The post-Fordist mode of economic regulation involves such an emphasis on quality competing.  Quality-competitive production is the new predominant form of competition under post-Fordism; competition creates pressures to firms and encourages a market-led 'increasing profit' based on continuous innovation of technological process and products.  In a word, 'versatile labour and universal equipment can reduce the cost of customisation through economies of scope, extending the market for differentiated goods and facilitating new investments in flexible technologies, which narrow the price premium for customized products, extend the market and so on' (Paul Hirst and Fonathan Zeitlin, 199?, 3).  

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  Meanwhile, the organization itself has been updating under the post-Fordism assumption, in terms of structures and patterns.  'Decentralisation' is a typical structure of post-Fordist industrial organization, this is especially the case where large corporations splitting up into two categories: one is the developed 'decentralised' small business or production units, the other remains 'centralisation' in certain parts of the business.  According to Peters and Waterman (1982), this is 'simultaneous loose-tight controls', with a tendency to 'chunk' the big organization into 'small is beautiful' units (Watson, 1995, 350).  Firms disintegrating vertically and horizontally mainly represent this.  'Decentralised' units co-ordinate and co-operate ...

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