Suchergebnisse

The European car industry is in a crisis. The saturation of traditional markets, the need for product innovation and the Japanese challenge have put this industry, more than almost any other, under pressure to modernize. This modernization has a systemic character. It creates new forms of division of labour between producers and suppliers and removes the Tayloristic-Fordist production concept in the firms without any certainty as to what will take its place. This increased uncertainty creates a boom for personnel management, resulting from a new evaluation of labour capacity, from a production factor to a human and investment factor. New forms of workers' participation are being invested in what are the consequences? Quality circles are used as an example of the possible consequences of successful participation in the field of intra-company labour relations. In this context it is worth taking a look across the border. French management discourse is more pronounced and French sociological research more productive than in Germany. What can we learn from the French experience with participative management? Are there signs of an adaptation, perhaps a European road of development in the field of intra-company labour relations parallel to the internationalization and adaptation tendencies in industrial production? Our research shows which possible development perspectives participative management contains in the field of intra-company labour relations. Nation-specific and system-overlapping aspects are presented for that purpose.

'Le travailleur est le seul veritable expert en ce qui concerne son travail' (The worker is the only true expert with regard to his work). (Edmond Maire, General Secretary of the CFDT, 1977) Within the last few years participation has become a widespread word. But what does it stand for? In this article we try to highlight the meaning of the term participation and its political implications for the organization of work. Following the presentation of our theoretical approach, we undertake a limited comparative analysis of the state-controlled measures aiming at the introduction of forms of participation in the Federal Republic of Germany and in France. The main question is: how can direct participation be implemented?

This study sets out the political and economic background to the governmental activities which, in both countries and in conjunction with both entrepreneurs and trade unions, were brought into action during the 1970s to improve the organization of work. The problems that confront the representatives of the various interests as a result of these measures for the organization of work both at, and above, the level of the individual plant are discussed in detail: namely, the narrowness of the possibilities of exerting influence; the effects of increasing legislative regulation; the lack of competence in judging technological changes and their social effects; the ambivalence of corporate inclusion brought about by governmental measures. The lack of grass-roots democratic coupling of trade union work to the 'interests of the workers themselves, which is discernible in both countries has been remedied at least, formally in France. The employees' right of direct say concerning their working conditions, which was introduced by the Auroux Laws of 1982, offers the chance of a more participatory organization of work.

The article describes goals and organizationial structure of the goverlinmelntal research program 'Humanizationi of Working Life' in the Federal Republic of Germany and discusses the problems of crisis after the initial five-year period: the problems faced by the program because of the economic crisis and because of its own efficiency. The political, economic and social backgrounid arid the interests of the state in establishing the humanization program are analyzed as well as thle demands and practical efforts of employers and trade unions in this field. The conclusion to the article makes some proposals as to how to conisolidate work humanization as an integral socio-political strategy.