Forget Japan: the very British response to lean production
| Pages | 224-236 |
| Published date | 01 June 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459810228298 |
| Date | 01 June 1998 |
| Author | Harry Scarbrough,Mike Terry |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Employee
Relations
20,3
224
Forget Japan: the very British
response to lean production
Harry Scarbrough and Mike Terry
Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Introduction
This paper presents evidence on the management of the labour process (and
responses to it) at Rover and Peugeot-Talbot. The analysis of this material is
intended to contribute to the wider debate on the claimed Japanization of British
industry (Bratton, 1992; Oliver and Wilkinson, 1992) in three main ways. First, it
will analyse existing studies of Japanization in terms of two major theoretical
models – labelled the “diffusion” and the “bolt-on” model – together with their
associated underpinning assumptions. Second, it will compare these models with
the recent empirical evidence gleaned from Rover and Peugeot-Talbot. Third, it
will outline an “adaptation model” of change based on this evidence. This model
highlights the creative role played by both management and unions in responding
to lean production.
To begin, though, with the interpretations which have dominated the
Japanization debate hitherto. The first, termed a diffusion model of change,
focuses on the generalization of Japanese production practices – usually termed
“lean production” in the West – to manufacturing industries worldwide. In
contrast, at least within the United Kingdom, we may discern a second model of
change, which we may call the bolt-on model(Storey, 1992, p. 269 in discussing the
implementation of HRM techniques; Taylor et al., 1994). This is a much more
sceptical account which directs our attention away from the implementation of
new approaches to a familiar picture of managerial opportunism and attempts to
run new systems alongside old.
The diffusion model
Any attempt to characterise many different studies in terms of a particular model
is bound to be a stylised account. With this caveat, the key assumptions of the
diffusion model can be summarised as follows:
(1) Lean production is a socio-technical innovation which offers significant
advantages over other methods. The drive towards leanness is seen as
conferring dramatic improvements in productivity and quality that no
other system can match. Opposition or resistance is said to be undercut by
the benefits which workers derive from the processes creating the
improved performance, and from the corporate results of such
improvement.
Although critics tend to equate Japanese practices with tighter control
and surveillance of the workforce (Parker and Slaughter, 1988) leading to
work intensification (Garrahan and Stewart, 1992), even in these critical
Employee Relations,
Vol. 20 No. 3, 1998, pp. 224-236,
© MCBUniversity Press, 0142-5455
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