JOB DESIGN, INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY AND THE QUALITY OF WORKING LIFE
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1979.tb00633.x |
| Date | 01 March 1979 |
| Published date | 01 March 1979 |
RE
VIEW
ARTICLE
JOB
DESIGN, INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY AND THE QUALITY
OF WORKING LIFE
DAVID
GUEST
Alternatives
to
Hierarchies
by Ph.
G.
Gerbst. International series
on
the quality ofworking
life,
Vol.
Democracy
at
Work
by
F.
Emery and
E.
Thorsrud. International series
on
the quality
of
working
Job
Design and Industrial
Democracy
by
J.
F.
Bolweg. International series on the quality
of
New
Forms
ofwork
Organizafion
by
L.
Klein. Cambridge University Press, 1976, 106 pp.. f3.95.
Personal
Goals
and
Work
Design
edited by P.
B.
Warr. John Wiley, Chichester, 1976, 278 pp..
1. Martinus Nijhoff, The Netherlands, 1976. 111 pp..
Dfl
37.SO.
life.
Vol.
2. Martinus Nijhoff, The Netherlands. 1976, 179 pp.,
Dfl
42.00.
working life,
Vol.
3,
Martinus Nijhoff, The Netherlands, 1976, 139 pp..
Dfl 42.00.
f10.25.
THE
present debate on industrial democracy overlaps in several respects with discussion
of
the quality
of
working life. Despite considerable disagreement about the meaning
of
these concepts, a number of social scientists have argued that the key to both lies in
improvements in job design. Socio-technical systems theorists are among the chief
advocates
of
this view and in this context, the work
of
Emery and Thorsrud in Norway
has attracted considerable attention. The first three books in an international series on
the Quality
of
Working Life are all concerned, more or less directly, with this work.
Emery and Thorsrud's book,
Democracy at Work,
is an account
of
what became
known as the Industrial Democracy Project. The main goals of the project were to
reduce alienation and increase industrial democracy through changes in the organisa-
tion
of
work and the design
of
jobs. The central management and union organisations in
Norway, and later the Government, provided formal support and financial sponsorship.
The project was carried out in the
1960s
and the book first appeared in Norwegian in
1970.
This English version contains some comments
on
subsequent developments, but
is primarily a description
of
the underlying philosophy and an account
of
the four change
programmes. These occurred in the wire drawing department at Christiana Spigerwerk;
in the pulp department at the Hunsfos Pulp and Paper Mills; in the electrical panel
department at the
NOBP)
factory; and
in
a fertiliser plant at Norsk Hydro. These
locations were selected as typical examples
of
strategic sectors
of
Norwegian industry
and because of their good industrial relations and willingness to participate in the
project. The number
of
workers involved was small, ranging from approximately
12
at
Christiana Spigerwerk to about
60
at Norsk Hydro.
The changes that were introduced were in line with conventional socio-technical
principles. leading to the formation
of
autonomous work groups. Two
of
the central
features are some built-in interdependence among workers within the group and greater
autonomy for the group
as
a whole. Much of the planning
of
the changes and the final
decision
to
implement them resulted from joint union-management action.
Were the changes successful? This question can be answered in several ways. They
seem to demonstrate that in the appropriate circumstances socio-technical principles
of
job design can be introduced through participative means. For the researchers, this was
important: but
it
was qualified by the failure
of
the experiments
to
stimulate much
of
the
way
of
similar work either within the same plants
or
elsewhere in Norway. For manage-
ment, the experiments could be judged successful because
of
their positive impact
on
productivity without any significant
loss
of
managerial control.
A
crucial question,
which is not clearly answered, is why these often substantial gains in productivity
occurred. Underlying the kind
of
socio-technical thinking
of
Emery and Thorsrud is a
119
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