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Human Relations
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Toward Less Division of Labor? New Production Concepts in the Automotive, Chemical, Clothing, and Machine Tool Industries

Rik Huys

Higher Institute of Labour Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Luc Sels

Department of Applied Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Geert Van Hootegem

Higher Institute of Labour Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Jan Bundervoet

Department of Sociology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Erik Henderickx

Faculty of Economics, University Center of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

In this contribution, we focus on the results of the Belgian Trend Study. The intention of this study was to examine the prevalence of new production concepts within the widest possible range of companies in the automotive, the machine tool, the chemical, and the clothing industries. The Trend Study aimed to answer the following questions: is the Taylorist division of labor a thing of the past? What are the alternatives? Are shifts in the division of labor accompanied by another type of personnel policy, and do traditional industrial relations have to make way for this new approach? The methodological concept used had to guarantee that the findings at the level of each industry could be generalized. Though the picture emerging from the empirical data collected in the four industrial sectors is inevitably diverse, the data make it possible merely to suggest a neorather than a post-Thylorist or -Fordist concept.

Key Words: new production concepts • job enlargement/enrichment • post-Fordism debate • organizational change • organizational surveys

Human Relations, Vol. 52, No. 1, 67-93 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679905200105
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