Restructuring Of Work Research Articles

The Telecommunications Industry: Questions of State, Politics and Labour

U. Huws, S. Podro, E. Gunnarsson, T. Weijers, K. Arvanitaki and V. Trova (1996). Teleworking and Gender, University of Sussex, Brighton: Insititute for Employment Studies, Report 317, paper £22.00, 78 pp.U. Huws, with S. Podro, E. Gunnarsson, T. Weijers, K. Arvanitaki and V. Trova (1997). Teleworking: Guidelines for Good Practice, University of Sussex, Brighton: Insititute for Employment Studies, Report 329, paper £20.00, 37 pp.H. Katz (ed.) (1997). Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide, Ithaca and London: ILR Press (Cornell University Press), $49.95, 401 pp.The telecommunications industry has undergone massive change over the last two decades, raising questions about ownership, state intervention, technological change and future patterns of work. Historically, telecommunications companies have been part of the service sector, usually state-owned, and a highly regulated part of the modernising project of the twentieth century. However, beginning in the late 1970s with the elaboration of the neo-liberal political project, telecommunications companies became the object of government attention. They were subject to state re-regulation, as the industry internationalised, and patterns of work organisation began to change. As a consequence of this process of change, it is no longer clear where the boundaries of the industry lie, as telephony and related services become part of a broad-based computing, inform-ation and telecommunications industry (CIT). At the end of the twentieth century, CIT symbolises the advent of the service and consumer society, replacing the emblematic place of the automobile industry in mass production society.

Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide.

Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide.

»Vernetzte Produktion« und »post-fordistische« Reproduktion

The article reviews recent debates on production networks in political economy and labor sociology. The argument draws upon the findings of an extended empirical study of production strategies, supplier networks, and labor relations in the computer industry of California's »Silicon Valley«. The paper emphasizes the centrality of manufacturing work in today's information technology industry and discusses the implications of the recent restructuring of industry organization and work in this sector for critical approaches as developed in U.S. industrial geography, theories of the »new international division of labor«, European and German industrial sociology, and race and gender studies. A theoretical framework for an integrated analysis of the political economy of »post-fordist« production networks is developed from the context of French regulation theory.

Caught in the Crossfire: Women and Corporate Restructuring

AbstractSenior women managers who voluntarily left a crown corporation in the midst of corporate restructuring were interviewed to explore the factors leading to their departure. Several themes associated with the restructuring process emerged, some of which appear to be unique to women.RésuméIl s'agit ici d'un entretien mené avec des femmes cadres supérieures qui, de leur plein gré, ont quitté leur poste au sein d'une société de la Couronne en pleine restructuration interne. L'entretien, qui vise à explorer les facteurs qui ont amené ces femmes à partir, fait ressortir plusieurs thèmes associés au processus de restructuration, dont certains semblent ětre spécifiques aux femmes.

Factors influencing the role of management accounting in the development of performance measures within organizational change programs

Many companies are undergoing organizational changes encompassing innovative approaches to organizing production processes, restructuring work practices and developing new planning and control mechanisms. This paper explores the role that management accounting played in the development of performance measurement systems within five organizations implementing change programs. The major case study is of a large manufacturing firm undertaking changes which included the development of team structures, the adoption of a customer-focused strategy and the implementation of new performance measurement systems. In this company, a lack of integration of operational performance measures with strategic priorities contributed to poor integration of team activities with overall strategy. The paper proposes five interrelated factors that may help explain the extent to which management accountants contribute to the development of integrated performance measures and change programs. Case evidence drawn from a further four firms is presented to provide some validation of conclusions drawn from the primary case study.

A Career Advisory System for Australia?

This article presents a review of career activity, in particular as it relates to vocational education and training, and proposes a model for a system that incorporates an understanding of: • the transition to the changing world of work; • the range and variety of types of employment; and • the best means of utilising available pathways between employment, on- and off-the-job vocational education and training, and university study. In order to maximise the benefits to be gained from recent reforms in the education and training system, an improved career advisory system is needed to enable students to make informed choices regarding further study and employment. The continual demands for retraining, skills development, work restructuring and continuous improvement mean that the individual's need for ongoing opportunities for career information, counselling and advice can no longer be limited to the formal years of education. The Career Pathways project team, with the assistance of a reference group, undertook a range of tasks to collect data for the report. These included interviews, visits, focus groups, literature and policy reviews, and detailed analysis of practices of six countries: France, Germany, New Zealand, Canada the United States and the United Kingdom. This article represents a summary of the report, highlighting key findings and recommendations.

Re-Evaluating the Labour Process Debate

From the publication of Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital there has been a continued debate on the labour process in Britain. What relevance does this polemic have for the contemporary global restructuring of work? This article reviews the main developments within the broad labour process debate, including changes in the division of labour, control structures and cultural management. In addition, it links labour process enquiry to wider structural trends and the relationship between the idea of a specifically capitalist labour process and divergent national ways of organizing work. The authors argue that the tools and concepts of labour process theory remain equally important for analysing today's workplace.

Gender and citizenship in the restructuring of janitorial work in Los Angeles

The author examines intersections of gender and citizenship with a study of building services janitors in Los Angeles County. Changes in the industry using 1970, 1980, and 1990 censuses, union reports, and field work are analyzed. The author finds that restructuring facilitated the entrance of Latinas into janitorial work. In Los Angeles County in the 1980s, building managers switched from employing union janitors to contracted, nonunion janitors. The contractors hired Latina/o immigrants to do the lower-paid, restructured work. The share of Mexican and Salvadoran women increased during the 1980s. In addition, Mexican and Salvadoran women moved into janitorial work at higher rates than men. Furthermore, Latinas who arrived during the 1980s entered janitorial work at higher rates than the 1970s arrivals.

COSMOS (computerized Safety, MaintenanceAnd Operation System Of The Shinkansen)

We have developed and begun to use a new integrated computer system named COSMOS for the operation and management of the Shinkansen. The trigger to have developed this system was that the previous computer systems named COMTRAC and SMIS became out of date so that they could not cope with the extension of the Shinkansen network. However, we did not simply intend to replace these systems. Taking advantage of the latest computer and communication technologies, we have aimed at restructuring of the whole work on the operation and management of the Shinkansen in this opportunity. Transactions on the Built Environment vol 34, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

Book Reviews : Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide. Edited by Harry C. Katz. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1997. 401 pp., $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper

Book Reviews : Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide. Edited by Harry C. Katz. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1997. 401 pp., $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper

Against Japanization: understanding the reorganization of British manufacturing

In the late 1980s, the idea of Japanization dominated debates about the restructuring of production, work and industrial relations in this country. There was, of course, some evidence to support the Japanization thesis; yet, even at the time of the strongest influence, there were indications that it did not describe what was happening very well. It now seems much more plausible to argue that British manufacturing companies were on a distinctive trajectory of development, which has only passing similarities to Japanese patterns of organization.

Social Reconstructions of the World Automobile Industry: Competition, Power and Industrial Flexibility.

List of Tables - Introduction: Competition, Power and Industrial Flexibility: Social Reconstructions of the World Automobile Industry F.C.Deyo - PART 1: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION OF FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION - The Transformation of Industrial Relations in Postwar Japan S.Levine - Japanese Automotive Transplants and the Transfer of the Japanese Production System R.Florida & M.Kenney - PART 2: DISPERSION TO THE PERIPHERY - Industrial Relations in the Korean Auto Industry: The Implications of Industrial Sector Requirements and Societal Effects for International Competitiveness R.Rodgers - Competition, Flexibility and Industrial Ascent: The Thai Auto Industry F.C.Deyo - PART 3: LABOR'S RESPONSE - Change, But in What Direction?: Divergent Union Responses to Work Restructuring in the Integrated North American Auto Industry P.Kumar & J.Holmes - The Politics of Industrial Restructuring: Transnational Firms' Search for Flexible Production in the Mexican Automobile Industry K.Middlebrook - A Diversity of New Work Organization: Human-Centred, Lean and In-Between L.Turner & P.Auer - PART 4: POLICY ALTERNATIVES AND SOCIAL OUTCOMES - Regulatory Frameworks and Development in the North American Auto Industry S.Herzenberg - Conclusion: Competition, Politics and the Social Construction of Flexible Production Systems F.C.Deyo - Index

The Sexual Division of Labour in Process Manufacturing: Economic Restructuring, Training and `Women's Work'

It is widely assumed that the development of enhanced skills appropriate to advanced technologies is an important means of increasing the employability of the socially excluded. This article tests this assumption through case studies in the food industry in Austria, Germany and Britain. The findings indicate that organizational restructuring, technological change and redeployment of labour have very different consequences for women and for men. In all three countries the restructuring of work and skills increased the marginalization of women, reinforcing gender cleavage.

The Making of Post-War Canada

1. Social Change and Society 1.1 Population Change in Canadian History 1.2 The Logic of Social Change 1.3 Social Relations of Fur Trade 1.4 Mode of Production and Social Formation 1.5 Capitalism and Social Change 1.6 The Post-War Generation in Canada 2. Corporate Capitalism in Canada 2.1 Features of Corporate Capitalism in Canada 2.2 Changes in Foreign Investment and Foreign Capital 2.3 Corporate Capital 2.4 Labour as a Commodity Under Capitalism 2.5 The Growth of the Capitalist Labour Market 3. The Restructuring of the Capitalist Labour Market 3.1 Capitalist Production and Mass Consumption 3.2 Participation of Women in the Labour Market 3.3 Division of Labour and Scientific Management Under Corporate Capitalism 3.4 Restructuring of Industries and Work 3.5 Changes in the Occupational Structure 3.6 Women and Jobs 3.7 The Wage Economy and the Family 4. Labour Reproduction and the Family 4.1 Response Strategies of the Family to the Wage Economy 4.2 Dual Earner Families, Earnings and Dept Load 4.3 The Cost of Labour Renewal 4.4 The Trend of Declining Fertility 4.5 Lone-Parent Families and Other Changes in the Family 4.6 The Wage Economy and the Family 5. The Demographic Shift and The Welfare State 5.1 The Demographic Shift in Canada 5.2 The Welfare State Under Capitalism 5.3 The Development of the Welfare State in Canada 5.4 The Cost of the Welfare State 5.5 The Fiscal Crisis of the State 6. Immigration and the Recruitment of Labour and Capital 6.1 Overview of Immigration to Canada 6.2 Changes in Canada's Post-War Immigration Policy 6.3 Immigration and the Skilled Labour Market 6.4 Immigrants in the Canadian Labour Force 6.5 Ethnic Diversity of Immigrants 6.6 The Recruitment of Business Immigrants and International Capital 6.7 Immigration and the Recruitment of Labour and Capital 7. Organized Interests and Collective Claims 7.1 Individual Rights and Social Inequality 7.2 Gender Inequality and the Women's Movement 7.3 Native Peoples and Aboriginal Rights 7.4 French-Canadians and Quebec Separatism 7.5 Visible Minorities and Multiculturalism 7.6 Collective Rights and Political Changes 8. Post-War Canadian Society 8.1 Social Change and Society 8.2 Advanced Capitalism and Capitalist Labour Markets 8.3 Women and the Restructuring of Occupations 8.4 Labour Reproduction and the Family 8.5 Demographic Shift and the Welfare State 8.6 Immigration and Labour 8.7 Organized Interests and Collective Claims 8.8 Canadian Society and Its Future APPENDIX

Book Reviews : Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide

Book Reviews : Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide

International Competition, Inward Investment and the Restructuring of European Work and Industrial Relations

This article addresses the interplay between international competition and national institutional patterns. It discusses the involvement of Japanese transnational corporations (TNCs) in the contemporary restructuring of work organization and industrial relations in three European countries with historically disparate `systems', Britain, Germany and France. There are three main arguments. First, the operations and influence of such firms have been significantly mediated by existing national institutional configurations; second, such institutional complexes are marked not only by external pressures but also by internal tensions and contestation; and third, while Japanese TNCs have made a direct or indirect contribution to important shifts in work and employment relations, these have not produced a simple convergence towards a new production paradigm.

Telecommunications: restructuring work and employment relations worldwide

Telecommunications: restructuring work and employment relations worldwide

Industrial Transformation in Europe: Process and Contexts

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Europe in Flux - Gert Schmidt Change in East and West Transformation and Change in Europe - Richard Whitley Critical Themes PART TWO: PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION IN EUROPE: INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS Introduction - Gert Schmidt The Elegance of Incoherence - Gernot Grabher Economic Transformation in East Germany and Hungary From Privatization to Capitalization - Christian von Hirschhausen Industrial Restructuring in Post-Socialist Central and Eastern Europe Contention and Confusion in Industrial Transformation - Jeffrey Henderson, Richard Whitley, Gyorgy Lengyel and Laszlo Czaban Dilemmas of State Economic Management Organizing Markets in Central and Eastern Europe - Hugo Radice Competition, Governance and the Role of Foreign Capital PART THREE: REGULATION OF INTERESTS: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE Introduction - Gert Schmidt Labour Relations in the Making - Eckhard J Dittrich and Michael Haferkemper Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic Towards Corporatism? The Transformation of Interest Policy and Interest Regulation in Eastern Europe - Melanie Tatur PART FOUR: WORK RESTRUCTURING IN EAST AND WEST: LIMITS AND DIRECTIONS Introduction - Gert Schmidt Skilled Work in Contemporary Europe - Roger Penn and David Sleightholme A Journey into the Dark The Region of Baden-W[um]urttemberg - Hans-Joachim Braczyk, Gerd Schienstock and Bernard Steffensen A Post Fordist Success Story? Enterprise Transformation and the Redefinition of Organizational Realities in Poland - Krzysztof Konecki and Jolanta Kulpi[ac]nska Employment Relations in Multinational Companies - Csaba Mak[ac]o and P[ac]eter Novosz[ac]ath The Hungarian Case

Level Playing Field? Feminist Observations on Global/local Articulations of the Re-Gendering and Restructuring of Educational Work

In the world of educational work since the mid 1980s there has been much talk of restructuring. This reflects postmodern thinking, which favours decentralizing decisions to those at the work face, and encouraging multi-skilled and flexible workers. This article presents a feminist analysis of how such policies are reflected at the local level in four instances: Australia, Sweden, New Zealand and Israel. These examples indicate that management practices tend to be more modernist (hierarchical, controlling and centralizing) than postmodernist, and often have highly inequitable effects for women teachers. The article asserts that gender inequities in educational work have assumed a different form but have not been eliminated. However, the author argues that such global tendencies need to be considered in the light of specific cultural, economic and geographical factors, which affect how work is structured and how education is shaped.

Staff surveys: setting the stage for work restructuring.

Work restructuring is an intensive, time-consuming undertaking that succeeds when proper planning and a disciplined process promote open lines of communication between administration and staff. Surveying staff members to understand their values and how they are spending their time sets the stage for work restructuring. The data collected identify opportunities for change to improve care and increase staff satisfaction and become a baseline for benchmarking success. Surveys also identify what staff members value, what they want to retain from the current system, what needs to be better integrated with other departments, what activities can be eliminated, and any changes that already have positively affected care delivery.