Flexibility at Work: Critical Developments in the International Automobile Industry

Recent transformations, such as outsourcing, modularisation and high performance workplaces, have had a big impact on the international automobile industry. This book covers the most relevant and recent developments in the car industry internationally. It includes a rich cross-border comparative analysis but also presents an in-depth national-based case study analysis covering recent transformations in the car industry in European and non-European countries. Both parts assess the extent to which recent organisational practices represent a pattern of organisational phenomenon known as 'lean production'. In particular, the book examines the impact of these developments on the organisation of labour, and the quality of working life in the sector worldwide.

Contents
Bureaucracy Transcended? New Patterns of Employment Regulation and Labour Control in the International Automotive Industry; V. Pulignano and P. Stewart
Lean Production and Quality of Working Life on the Shop floor: the Experiences of British and Italian Car Workers: A. Danford,
M. Richardson, P. Stewart and V. Pulignano
Lean Production: the Original Myth Reconsidered; D. Coffey and C. Thornley
Scope for Policymaking in a Globalized Economy: The Case of Car Assembly in Belgium; G. Van Hootegem and R. Huys
From Lean Production to Mass Customization. Recent Developments in the Australian Automotive Industry; R. Cooney and
G. Sewell
Labour Relations in the Modular System: Ten Years of the VW Experience at Resende, Brazil; J. R. Ramalho and E. M. V. Francsco
The Quest for Flexibility in the Mexican Auto Parts Industry: Three Tales from a Multinational Company; C. Lévesque

Author Biographies
VALERIA PULIGNANO is Professor in Sociology of Labour and Industrial Relations at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven, Belgium. She is also an Associate Fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) at Warwick University and at the University of West of England (UK). Her main research field is comparative industrial relations in European and no-European countries. A central aspect of her work concerns systems of workers representation at both European and national levels, labour internationlism, trade unionism, change in work organization and labour markets.

PAUL STEWART is Professor of the Sociology of Work and Employment in the Department of HRM at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He has researched and published on the labour process and labour relations in the international automotive industry for many years and is former editor of the British Sociological Association's journal Work, Employment and Society. He is a member of the editorial board of Capital and Class.

ANDY DANFORD is Faculty Research Director at Bristol Business School, at the University of the West of England, UK. His interests include Qualitative and quantitative research in the labour process and employment relations, Japanese management and lean production, and Trade union renewal strategies. He is a Member of the British Sociological Association and a Member of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA).

MICHAEL RICHARDSON is Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England. His research interests include labour history, as well as industrial sociology and the labour process. Together with Andy Danford, Stephanie Tailby, Paul Stewart and Martin Upchurch in 2005 he authored Partnership and the High Performance Workplace: Work and Employment Relations in the Aerospace Industry (Palgrave, 2005).

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