Technical Innovation and Work Reorganisation in British Manufacturing in the 1980s: Continuity, Intensification or Transformation?

Abstract

This article discusses the implications of technical change and flexibility initiatives for the character of work reorganisation in British manufacturing during the last decade. It assesses rival interpretations, some of which discern major transformations and others which emphasise considerable continuity. It argues, against both these interpretations, that work reorganisation has often been piecemeal, bargained, contradictory and incremental, but has nevertheless tended to involve enhanced managerial prerogatives and diminished worker and union leverage. Despite appreciable diversity, involving a spectrum of relatively modest and more radical innovations, the dominant pattern of change has involved task enlargement and reductions in the porosity of labour, with a bias towards work intensification.