Reorganization Of Production Research Articles

Productive Reorganization, Outsourcing, and Work Relations in the Offshore Oil Industry in the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro

This article analyzes the relationship between the intensive use of outsourcing and labor organizations on offshore oil platforms in the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The theoretical and methodological framework applied in our research is based on Ergonomics of Activity and the Psychodynamics of Work, from an ergological perspective. In addition to the more general trend of increasing precariousness, we highlight the potential loss of formal and informal knowledge resulting from the fragmentation of work collectives, as we consider the cohesion of these collectives to be a crucial element contributing to reliability in process operations. Increasing precariousness of work contributes to this fragmentation and one of its main causes is the uncontrolled increase in outsourcing of work. This situation has had nefarious consequences for workers' health and safety, suggesting that those who have adopted outsourcing as a labor management tool have failed to consider these harmful consequences as rigorously as necessary.

Qualidade de vida e estresse gerencial "pós-choque de gestão": o caso da Copasa-MG

Este artigo descreve e analisa o corpo gerencial de uma empresa pública no que diz respeito às variáveis de qualidade de vida no trabalho e de estresse ocupacional, tendo em vista o contexto de reestruturação produtiva e seus multivariados impactos nas atividades dos gestores e nos significados atribuídos a essas experiências de trabalho, implicando desgastes à saúde dos indivíduos. Foi feita uma pesquisa descritiva, de enfoque quantitativo e qualitativo. O questionário foi respondido por 96 dos 144 gestores. De uma maneira geral, a qualidade de vida dos pesquisados apresenta-se com níveis satisfatórios. A partir de uma análise conjunta dos resultados, aponta-se para uma realidade de estresse. Assim, a estruturação de políticas e práticas de gestão de pessoas mais abrangentes é necessária para a identificação, a desmistificação e o monitoramento do estresse ocupacional entre os gerentes da empresa, passando por pesquisas mais específicas de diagnóstico. Tais atividades são recursos adjacentes àreestruturação produtiva em curso, pois referem-se à gestão da força de trabalho e à mediação de conflitos.

Globalisation and health: the need for a global vision

The reduction of health inequities is an ethical imperative, according to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH). Drawing on detailed multidisciplinary evidence assembled by the Globalization Knowledge Network that supported the CSDH, we define globalisation in mainly economic terms. We consider and reject the presumption that globalisation will yield health benefits as a result of its contribution to rapid economic growth and associated reductions in poverty. Expanding on this point, we describe four disequalising dynamics by which contemporary globalisation causes divergence: the global reorganisation of production and emergence of a global labour-market; the increasing importance of binding trade agreements and processes to resolve disputes; the rapidly increasing mobility of financial capital; and the persistence of debt crises in developing countries. Generic policies designed to reduce health inequities are described with reference to the three Rs of redistribution, regulation, and rights. We conclude with an examination of the interconnected intellectual and institutional challenges to reduction of health inequities that are created by contemporary globalisation.

FIXED COSTS, THE BALANCED BUDGET MULTIPLIER AND WELFARE

In a two-sector model, where one of the sectors is monopolistically competitive and subject to increasing returns to scale but without love for variety, we analyse the effects of a balanced budget fiscal expansion. Such an expansion could increase the welfare of the representative individual, if elasticities of substitution in production and consumption are low. A reorganization of production takes place—increasing returns enabling a rise in real income.

Global networks and the reorganization of production in the clothing industry of post‐socialist Ukraine

AbstractIn this article we examine how processes of globalization and the nature of emerging inter‐firm relationships influence the organization of production in a post‐socialist region, using the case of the clothing industry in Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine. We combine insights from two perspectives, the global commodity chain approach and the new regionalism. The focus on both institutional setting and interfirm relationships is essential in regions undergoing rapid change. In the article we also use Burt's concept of structural holes and the idea of a competence‐difficulty gap to examine the nature of relationships within networks of firms, arguing that global integration can be viewed as a bridging process. The evidence comes from surveys and fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2004, providing a longitudinal analysis of the same firms. Among other findings, we show that the difficulty of doing business locally may make relationships more stable. With respect to industrial structure, international subcontracting and joint‐venture arrangements enable technological modernization in assembly and parts of preassembly, but also result in the demise of high‐value added competences.

German Literature of the Eighteenth Century: The Enlightenment and Sensibility

The Enlightenment was based on the use of reason, common sense, and natural law, and was paralleled by an emphasis on feelings and the emotions in religious, especially Pietist circles. Progressive thinkers in England, France, and later in Germany began to assail the absolutism of the state and the orthodoxy of the Church; in Germany the line led from Leibniz, Thomasius, and Wolff to Lessing and Kant, and eventually to the rise of an educated upper middle class. Literary developments encompassed the emergence of a national theater, literature, and a common literary language. This became possible in part because of advances in literacy and education, especially among bourgeois women, and the reorganization of book production and the book market.This major new reference work provides a fresh look at the major literary figures, works, and cultural developments from around 1700 up to the late Enlightenment. They trace the 18th-century literary revival in German-speaking countries: from occasional and learned literature under the influence of French Neoclassicism to the establishment of a new German drama, religious epic and secular poetry, and the sentimentalist novel of self-fashioning.The volume includes the new, stimulating works of women, a chapter on music and literature, chapters on literary developments in Switzerland and in Austria, and a chapter on reactions to the Enlightenment from the 19th century to the present. The recent revaluing of cultural and social phenomena affecting literary texts informs the presentations in the individual chapters and allows for the inclusion of hitherto neglected but important texts such as essays, travelogues, philosophical texts, and letters. Contributors include: Kai Hammermeister, Katherine Goodman, Helga Brandes, Rosmarie Zeller, Kevin Hilliard, Francis Lamport, Sarah Colvin, Anna Richards, Franz M. Eybl, W. Daniel Wilson, Robert Holub. Barbara Becker-Cantarino is Research Professor in German at the Ohio State University.

The Deindustrialisation/Tertiarisation Hypothesis Reconsidered: A Subsystem Application to the OECD7

The diffusion of outsourcing, both national and international, and vertical FDIs among manufacturing firms, along with the higher integration of business services in manufacturing, has recently led to question the empirical evidence supporting the Deindustrialisation/Tertiarisation (DT) hypothesis. Rather than a real phenomenon, it has been argued, DT would be an apparent one, mainly due to the reorganization of production across national and sectoral boundaries. The empirical studies that have dealt with the topic so far have not been able to effectively rule out such possibility, because of two main limitations: the sectoral level of the analysis and/or the national focus. In order to overcome them, the paper carries out an appreciative investigation of the actual extent of the DT occurred in the OECD area over the '80s and the '90s by moving from a sector to a subsystem perspective, thus retaining both direct and indirect relations, and by referring to a pseudo-World of 7 OECD countries, thus taking into account the global dimension of the phenomenon. The results strongly support the DT hypothesis: although the weight of business sector services in the manufacturing subsystem increased, acting as a counterbalancing tendency to the manufacturing decline, subsystem shares significantly decreased, thus confirming DT as a more fundamental trend of modern economies.

Evaluating the Risk of Plant Closure in the Automotive Industry in Spain

This study looks at the reorganization of production in the context of a multi-plant firm in the automotive industry. Changes in such firms may result in the closure of some plants and/or the opening of others. The article provides a method for assessing the risk of plant closure, and then applies that method to a specific case: the automotive plants located in the Spanish region of Navarre. This entails acknowledging the factors that increase what has come to be known as the “degree of vulnerability” of the plant, including sunk costs and relative productivity levels. This paper can also be understood as a source of information for designing developmental after-care programmes for foreign direct investors in the periphery of the European Union.

Impacts of Chinese imports and coping strategies of local producers: the case of small-scale footwear enterprises in Ethiopia

ABSTRACTThe footwear sector in Ethiopia is dominated by cheap imports from Asia, particularly from China. This has inflicted heavy impacts on the sector, and threatened its competitiveness in the domestic market. This study examines the impact of imports and coping strategies of firms to withstand the competition. Firm level data were gathered from micro, small and medium footwear enterprises. The findings revealed that Chinese shoes are superior in design, price and quality, with the result that they have taken over the domestic market. The impact of Chinese imports on local producers varied from downsizing, bankruptcy, loss of assets and property, to downgrading activities and informalising operations. Firms have pursued coping strategies that focused on improving design and quality, as well as lowering prices and profit margins. Coping strategies appear to be differentiated by size of firms, and have some association with the performance of firms. The ways forward for local producers should focus on collaborative engagements of stakeholders and government to overcome the competitive disadvantages of firms. Training, technology, quality control, benchmarking and reorganization of production should be designed as a package of intervention. In addition, strengthening local producers to engage in collective actions and promoting exports should also be given proper attention.

SISTEMA DE PRODUÇÃO FLEXÍVEL E INTENSIFICAÇÃO DO TRABALHO: UM ENSAIO TEÓRICO

A forma como o trabalho está organizado atualmente é resultado de um processo de mutações que tem por exigências empresas mais flexíveis. Para isso, as empresas se reestruturaram e o “modelo” mais difundido da reestruturação produtiva, é a produção flexível, tida como um processo produtivo eficiente para a recuperação dos níveis de acumulação e exigências do mercado. Este modelo de gestão permitiu ao capital gerenciar a força de trabalho de maneira mais flexível, o que ocasionou um certo grau de intensificação aos trabalhadores que fazem parte deste sistema. A discussão deste “modelo” levantou grandes debates sobre o quanto esta técnica romperia significativamente com uma tarefa insalubre e parcelizada. Assim, o presente artigo aponta para o fato de que o processo de produção flexível, traz consigo profundas e, quase sempre, inesperadas mudanças no universo do trabalho, podendo afetar ainda de maneira significativa a saúde dos trabalhadores. Palavras chave: produção enxuta, saúde dos trabalhadores e intensificação do trabalho.

Ensino médio e educação profissionalizante em enfermagem: algumas reflexões

Este trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar as políticas de educação profissional, problematizando aspectos das mudanças efetuadas no ensino médio no Brasil. De maneira geral, as legislações aprovadas manifestam interesses das políticas neoliberais, dos organismos multilaterais e as implicações da reorganização mundial produtiva e da redução da participação do Estado nas políticas sociais. Explicita-se também a maneira de o país se articular ao processo de globalização mundial, num papel dependente, mais consumidor do que produtor de conhecimentos, perdendo a oportunidade de conquista de sua autonomia, inclusive no campo de formação profissional. Com base nas possibilidades aventadas, por essas legislações, para a organização curricular, defendemos que o ensino profissionalizante em enfermagem deve assumir uma perspectiva técnica integrada a uma educação geral, oferecida num mesmo espaço, diminuindo o risco de uma formação minimalista e aligeirada.

China’s Integration in East Asia:Production Sharing, FDI & High-Tech Trade

China has taken advantage of the globalisation process and has become an assembly country for firms in Asia, which have extended their production and trade networks to China. China’s position in the segmentation of the production processes has fostered its trade in high-technology products. However the rapid technological upgrading of China’s trade is associated with an increasing dependence on foreign capital and technology. The emergence of China has led to the reorganisation of production in Asia and to a triangular trade pattern: firms in advanced Asian economies use China as an export base and instead of exporting finished goods to the US and Europe, now export intermediate goods to their affiliates in China.

AN IMPERFECT PROCESS POLICY WITH PRODUCTION CORRECTION AND REORGANIZATION

This study applies imperfect production processes to obtain in-control state by production correction and reorganization. Production processes are classified into two types of state: one is the type I state (out-of-control state) and the other is the type II state (in-control state). The type I state involves adjustment of the production mechanism. Production correction is either imperfect; worsening a production system, or perfect, returning it to "in-control" conditions. After N type I states, the operating system must be reorganized and returned to the beginning condition. At the beginning of the production of the each renewal cycle, the state of the process is not always to be restored to "in-control". The mean loss cost until "in-control" state, is determined. The existence of a unique and finite optimal N for an imperfect process under certain reasonable conditions is shown. A numerical example is presented.

China's emergence and the reorganisation of trade flows in Asia

Abstract The emergence of China has intensified the international segmentation of production processes within Asia, but has not created an autonomous engine for the region's trade, as Asia still depends on outside markets for its final goods exports. The reorganisation of production has weakened the position of the advanced economies in Asia's trade, but up to now has not severely affected the position of the emerging Asian economies. However, the deterioration of China's terms of trade raises the question of the sustainability of its recent growth strategy.

Projeto profissional: o redimensionamento da carreira em tempos de privatização

A carreira profissional vem se redimensionando, especialmente pelos impactos significativos em decorrência das mudanças no mundo do trabalho contemporâneo. Destaca-se aqui a reestruturação dos sistemas de produção e gestão, a automatização e diversificação dos serviços no setor público, que nos últimos anos sofreram modificações, em especial as privatizações. Pesquisas apontam que programas de demissão utilizam expedientes de pressão e terror para garantir a adesão dos trabalhadores, causando uma série de impactos na sua subjetividade. Foi neste cenário que se configurou a pesquisa, junto a trabalhadores do setor público bancário, que vivenciaram a experiência de um Programa de Demissão Incentivada (PDI). O objetivo do estudo de caso foi identificar as repercussões do referido programa na construção dos seus projetos profissionais num cenário de privatização. Os resultados, de modo geral, apontaram que os projetos profissionais dos sujeitos foram desvinculados da instituição a partir do PDI e da ameaça de privatização.

Globalization and social determinants of health: The role of the global marketplace (part 2 of 3)

Globalization is a key context for the study of social determinants of health (SDH): broadly stated, SDH are the conditions in which people live and work, and that affect their opportunities to lead healthy lives.In the first article in this three part series, we described the origins of the series in work conducted for the Globalization Knowledge Network of the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health and in the Commission's specific concern with health equity. We identified and defended a definition of globalization that gives primacy to the drivers and effects of transnational economic integration, and addressed a number of important conceptual and methodological issues in studying globalization's effects on SDH and their distribution, emphasizing the need for transdisciplinary approaches that reflect the complexity of the topic.In this second article, we identify and describe several, often interacting clusters of pathways leading from globalization to changes in SDH that are relevant to health equity. These involve: trade liberalization; the global reorganization of production and labour markets; debt crises and economic restructuring; financial liberalization; urban settings; influences that operate by way of the physical environment; and health systems changed by the global marketplace.

The Biography of the Object

TreViakov wrote Biography of the Object (or Biography of the Thing /biografiia veshchiy) at a time when the champions of the new proletarian realism were campaigning for the reinstatement of the sovereign human subject at the center of the fictional narrative. Under the slogan of the ^zhivoi chelovekj, members of VAPP (The All-Union Association of Proletarian Writers) and the Na literaturnom postu [On Literary Guard] group advanced the psychological novel as the most suitable means for constructing an image of the that was nuanced and complex enough to reflect the psychic density and existential inscrutability of human experience. But as some members ofLef pointed out, this cultivation of psychological complexity usually yielded stories that did not make sense. For example, Osip Brik noted in a review ofFyodor Gladkov's Cement (1925) that it was impossible for the reader to reconcile the novel's two plots: the protagonist Gleb's reorganization of production at the local cement factory, and the simultaneous foundering of his relationship with his wife. Although Gleb the producer and Gleb the husband coincide chronologically, they never converge. Brik explained that the schizoid structure of the novel's hero originated in a literary device that compresses multiple actants into a single character. What seemed to endow the heralded person with emotional complexity and richness was, in other words, just an aesthetic convention which in no way corresponded to the actual psychic structure of living people. The hero of the psychological novel was not one person, but a compound figuration of the multitude, as Brik explained: Heroism is a literary device that makes possible the attribution to a single (the hero) a sum of deeds (exploits) that in reality have been produced by the labors of an entire series of people. l TreViakov's biography of the object can be understood as a method for unpacking these impossibly dense accumulations of deeds within the device of the hero. Unlike the traditional novel, which filtered the complicated interactions of manifold social groups through the impacted psyche of a single character, TreViakov's object biography is a kind of ant iBildungsroman that focused not on psychological consistency, but on people who are declined

Geografia dos fluxos populacionais segundo níveis de escolaridade dos migrantes

A REESTRUTURAÇÃO produtiva induziu novos contornos na redistribuição espacial das atividades econômicas, que, por sua vez, influencia a redistribuição espacial da população brasileira. Este artigo procura identificar os padrões espaciais dos fluxos migratórios do país, tentando relacioná-los aos novos requisitos locacionais decorrentes da desconcentração da atividade econômica e interurbana. Para tal, foram delimitadas as principais redes migratórias do Brasil, tanto da população mais escolarizada quanto daquela menos escolarizada. As evidências apontam para uma maior regionalização dos fluxos populacionais, principalmente em relação às redes dos migrantes mais escolarizados. Concomitantemente, aqueles movimentos migratórios de mais longa distância, que caracterizavam os períodos de ocupação da fronteira agrícola-mineral e de mão-de-obra com baixa qualificação para as regiões industriais, experimentaram notório enfraquecimento.

Trabalho e estratégias empresariais no capitalismo global toyotismo e "captura" da subjetividade

Neste ensaio iremos buscar esclarecer o significado da gestão toyotismo e da "captura" da subjetividade, objeto de reflexão da sociologia industrial. O espírito do toyotismo tem permeado as inovações empresariais das últimas décadas, assumindo um notável poder ideológico cujos valores estruturam o "momento predominante" do complexo de reestruturação produtiva na era da mundialização do capital.

Trade, FDI, and the Organization of Firms

New developments in the world economy have triggered research designed to better understand the changes in trade and investment patterns, and the reorganization of production across national borders. Although traditional trade theory has much to offer in explaining parts of this puzzle, other parts required new approaches. Particularly acute has been the need to model alternative forms of involvement of business firms in foreign activities, because organizational change has been central in the transformation of the world economy. This paper reviews the literature that has emerged from these efforts. The theoretical refinements have focused on the individual firm, studying its choices in response to its own characteristics, the nature of the industry in which it operates, and the opportunities afforded by foreign trade and investment. Important among these choices are organizational features, such as sourcing strategies. But the theory has gone beyond the individual firm, studying the implications of firm behavior for the structure of industries. It provides new explanations for trade structure and patterns of FDI, both within and across industries, and has identified new sources of comparative advantage.