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Файл:Сравнение социальных моделей Европы. Социальная и трудовая политика в Европе. Монография
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offices, or their consultants, place value on the physical presence, smartness,
personal hygiene, correct dress, pleasantness, capacity for verbal communication and self-control of candidates. These factors are especially important
for jobs involving direct contact with the public, for commerce, sales and
marketing. In services directed at young people (like fast-food, tourism,
photocopying shops, etc.) companies recruit according to the degree of
pleasantness and "cheerfulness" with which applicants are able to communicate and empathise with the client (Martín Artiles and Rebollo, 1997).
The demand for formal professional qualifications in industry depends
on the sector as well as the particular job. High technology industries like
electronics, chemicals, electricity and the graphic arts tend to demand professional qualifications. In the more innovative activities in technology and
work organisation, there is a tendency to replace older workers with few
qualifications with young people possessing formal professional qualifications, allegedly because young people adapt better to new technology and
can respond to the demand for multi-skilled workers. But this is not always
the only argument put forward. Other considerations include the lower salaries paid to younger workers, lower social contributions and flexibility offered by being able to recruit in accordance with seasonal variations in production.
In brief, initial formal professional qualification is not the determining
factor in personnel recruitment and selection policies, though such qualifications may well be necessary to compete on the labour market. Professional
training is not as important in obtaining a job as it is for in-house promotion
in companies. When it comes to recruitment, the social networks of kinship,
friendship and community are perhaps more important than merit and formal qualifications. Social networks allow companies to accelerate the process of searching, selection and recruitment as well as reducing the costs
incurred due to labour mobility.
Training policies and the development of qualifications at a company level
121
Training11 is another key aspect of personnel policies because of the need
11
12
to improve workers' professional knowledge and to integrate them into the
company. But training also seems to take place in response to the demands
of the two sides of industry when they are involved in the technicalorganisational restructuring of work and are in the process of negotiating
changes to the workforce to suit new circumstances.
Large service sector companies generally organise training programmes.
So do transnational companies which have a significant volume of business
and a high degree of technological innovation or change in work organisation; a unionised workforce; or a personnel or training department to promote this facet of workforce management.
Company training and retraining policies are not directed at all workers;
they are directed in a more selective way at groups which are already
skilled12, with a certain level of formal qualifications, and to those sectors of
the workforce who control production. We should note the strategic and
exclusive character of training and promotion policies in those large industrial and service sector companies which have complex hierarchical structures and offer career development opportunities. Access to these usually
depends on individual management decisions, so we can see that there are
two sets of criteria. With reference to the theory of internal markets (Dore,
1992), we can distinguish between a core of qualified workers in secure
employment and well integrated into the organisation and a periphery composed of the least qualified workers, in insecure jobs and managed in terms
of "free market discipline".
However, training does not have the same importance in all companies. In any case, in
accordance with the information provided by research conducted by the Grup d'Estudis,
QUIT (1997) we can see there are four groups. The first includes public administration, education and health where a more dynamic training process exists. A second group, which we
could call medium-high, is composed of the chemicals, transport, communications, finance
and metal mechanics industries. The third group is formed by commerce, hotels and other
services where training is noticeably less important. And, finally, comes the textiles, leather,
clothing and construction industries where there is a shortage of training.
Information provided by the available research shows that the general content of training
is, in the first place, informatics. Second comes training on new machinery. This kind of
training is part of the process of on the job learning. The third important area is languages,
and is especially directed at executives and technical and administrative staff. Next comes
marketing techniques, which seem to take the form of brief, pragmatic training. Courses are
generally organised by the large companies themselves and also by specialised external personnel (Sánchez, 1995:168).
122
Case studies (Lope, 1996; Martin Artiles, Miguélez and Pastor, 1996;
and Grup d'Estudis QUIT, 1997; among others) of training expenditure in
relation to salary levels show that training is mainly aimed at the core employees who effectively control production. This core is composed of three
groups or segments.
The first group is composed of executives, technical personnel, middle
management and certain groups of highly qualified white and blue-collar
workers, with further or university education and who exercise some degree
of control over their work. This implies that the companies tend to invest in
groups with a certain level of formal qualification, i.e. they train those who
have already been trained. These workers initially receive a formal induction introducing them to the so-called "company culture" i.e. the habits,
style and customs of the organisation. In addition, this group receives an
important "discreet" or informal training through workshops and meetings
aimed at getting staff to get to know each other and strengthen human interaction and group cohesion. This programme is directed at creating a social
relations system that will help build a corporate identity and encourage a
sense of belonging to the management group. This practice is especially
evident in the transnationals, although it is not exclusive to them.
Another kind of training given to the core is that relevant to promotion
and replacement programmes. This is long-term training, carried out
through so-called investment in human capital, in young people who have a
university qualification. This training is carried out within large companies
and through specialised institutions, preferably universities and private institutes.
A second group is composed of middle management. This group includes workshop managers; managers and executives in service centres; and
certain levels of intermediate managers and foremen of the medium-sized
and large industrial companies. In addition to the formal induction, training
of middle management is usually focused on styles of leadership, communication, group dynamics, teamwork, quality control and others. Perhaps it is
a less continuous form of training, but it is also linked to promotion opportunities. It is conducted partly through formal classes and partly informally
through on the job training.
The third core group is composed of professional technicians who have
benefited from technological innovation. Workers in this group usually have
technical qualifications in areas such as mechanics, electricity, electronics
and hydraulics. In general, these workers form part of the maintenance
123
teams in medium-sized and large innovative companies. As indicated earlier, this is one of the groups of workers who have most benefited from retraining. These three core groups tend to receive continuous training (formal
and informal) and constitute what Kern and Schumann (1988) called "the
winners", i.e. the workers who are retrained as a result of technological innovation or through modifications in the organisation of work. In some
companies, these retrained groups are members of trade unions and demand
a greater role for unions in determining training and in the renegotiation of
occupational categories and promotion.
Meanwhile, on the periphery, there is a large group of white and bluecollar workers who have less formal or informal qualifications. This group
constitutes the majority of the workforce. The training they receive is basically of the "discreet" or informal kind. Induction, training and retraining
takes place on the job. The latter kind of training takes place when new
technologies are introduced or changes occur in the way work is organised.
In any case, it is a kind of training which is not formally recognised as such
and does not result in the acquisition of new qualifications. However, in
some cases, technological innovation and retraining results in a redefinition
of job classifications and negotiations with the trade unions with a view to a
limited degree of promotion. In any case, the concepts of "experience and
seniority" - or what could be understood as "practical training" - are of
greater significance and relevance as far as trade unions are concerned.
In other words, the intervention of the social protagonists and their criteria for taking action shows that training - including the policies themselves is not exclusively determined by technology. Training and retraining is the
outcome of a series of social pressures, the result of negotiations and interaction between social groups and of tradition, custom and the education system itself. Or, as pointed out by Homs and Prieto (1991), training is not an
isolated facet of a particular task; it is the result of an organised social reaction.
Contracting out
Finally, another aspect of the organisational rationalisation of companies
and work is the contracting out of areas of work, the decentralisation of part
of production and the externalisation of service and maintenance activities.
So, to start with, contracting out has been a way of externalising certain intensive labour tasks, for example the provision of services to company personnel such as canteens, cleaning, transport and security; and also maintenance, administration and accounting. Contracting out is a way of reducing
124
labour costs and reinforcing labour discipline in order to make the workforce easier to control. And, especially, to avoid the presence of workers'
representatives and trade unions on the premises.
Second, the decentralisation of production in the large industrial companies has been tided by the search for the same flexibility possessed by small
companies. The basic idea is that the technology and craft-based methods of
small companies allow them to make short production runs and adapt more
easily to fluctuations in the market. In addition, they are more able to adjust
the numbers of workers according to changes in production. They pay lower
wages and the workforce is less organised and more pliable because of the
weakness or absence of trade unions. These conditions allow greater flexibility in terms of working time, overtime and workforce mobility. Moreover, small companies are able to relate to community agendas and tap into
the network of social relations based on ethnicity, kinship, friendship and
community (see, among others, Becattini 1989; Jódar 1994; Martin Artiles
1995).
Summary and conclusions
1. There is no doubt that the most important innovation in industry is the
automation of production. Various studies show how automation aims to cut
labour costs, save time and reduce material and energy inputs into the production process. Therefore, Taylorist organisational objectives need not be
dispensed with. They are alive and well, and sit comfortably within the
same conceptions of modern automation; because, when all is said and
done, they facilitate the control and organisation of work.
Having said this, we should immediately add that, from the mid-1980s
onwards, we have witnessed the modernisation of work organisation and the
introduction of methods which modify the rigid principles of specialisation,
unified control, hierarchy, standard methods and individualisation of work
and production that characterised the classic model of work organisation.
These days, there is a tendency to reduce the number of scales in the management hierarchy. There is also a tendency to replace individual job classifications with more collective criteria indicating joint responsibility. It is
hoped that this will change the role of the workforce, provide a way of mobilising human intelligence and be the key to adapting technical systems to
the turbulence of markets and the corresponding variations of demand. In
other words, classic organisation has softened its image: the symbol of the
meshed gear which has historically represented the Taylorist ideal now
tends to be complemented by a more holistic approach based on the human-
125
isation of certain aspects of work. However, these new organisational experiences are generally isolated; limited to certain sections, departments and
workshops; and surrounded by or coexisting with old forms of work organisation.
So the changes in work organisation have not been so radical and drastic
as a certain kind of fashionable literature would lead us to believe. These
limitations become clearer when you look at how things are organised in
practice. Case studies show that new forms of work organisation are sometimes aimed at specific objectives in relation to the management of the
workforce: such as mobilising certain intellectual capacities, increasing motivation and involvement of employees in the work, improving the flow of
communication, achieving a greater control over hitches in production and
attaining quality objectives. It is certain that this kind of modern management is different to traditional Taylorism. But this does not necessarily
mean its substitution. At times, it is only a partial complement to Taylorism.
At other times, it does not even question the very essence of the technical
division of labour, nor the separate functions of departments, nor does it
enrich the content of work. The principles of division between the conception and implementation of work, rationalism, efficiency and order continue
to be full of life and in good health.
2. However, employee involvement and motivation seem to be key
concepts in the reorganisation of work. This is associated with making the
role of the workforce more dynamic and substituting the extrinsic Taylorist
carrot-and-stick method of motivation with the intrinsic motivation method
which depends on more democratic and participatory self-control. However,
the empirical evidence leads us to stress that the practices of direct employee participation are limited, both in terms of countries and the number of
companies. The cultural context and a higher degree of collaboration between school and company have a bearing on the development of a "cooperation" culture, as can be seen in Germany where it seems that the organisation of work is less hierarchical. The greater social inequalities, the weaker institutional strength of the trade unions and the greater distance between
school and company in the Latin countries have contributed to the development of a less co-operative and participatory culture that is not so favourable to improving motivation, involvement in work and direct participation.
In other words, we should not forget that the degree of technical division of
labour also depends on the surroundings, on the cultural and social context,
as has been observed by Maurice, Sellier and Silvestre (1987).
126
3. Furthermore, organisational rationalisation and the restructuring
of work has been characterised by the dualisation of the management of the
workforce. So direct employee participation seems to be a selective practice
within companies and limited to the core of qualified and strategic workers,
i.e. to the groups of workers whom it is in the interests of management to
motivate and encourage as a way of ensuring management control of production. On rare occasions, direct participation and involvement extends to
the whole workforce, because, apart from anything else, the organisation of
work is not the same in every workplace.
The dualisation of the management of the workforce has a double objective: integration and exclusion. Participation and involvement play an important role in the integration and identification of individuals or certain
groups with company values and objectives. Management literature constantly refers to the "company culture" to emphasise the existence of a
"company social system" with a universe of shared values that form a collective identity. The company aims to make this the ideological basis on
which the co-operation of the core trained workers who are valued for their
important role in the organisation depends.
Exclusion is nothing other than the management of the workforce in
terms of the discipline of the market. This discipline is reserved for the less
qualified workers engaged in tasks over which no strategic control is necessary. The recruitment of temporary workers (especially in Spain), externalisation and contracting out reinforce the mechanisms of power that guarantee
order and discipline within the company. The selective and exclusive nature
of human resource policies are definitively important in contributing to the
segmentation of the workforce, to the dualisation of labour management and
to the distinction between insiders and outsiders.
4. In the light of the empirical evidence, we ought to once again ask
ourselves about whether there really is a crisis in Taylorism. In the most
important literature of the last decade, we repeatedly find the recurrent (and
simplified) dualisation of, for example, rigidity and flexibility; elasticity and
adaptability; organisation of large-scale production and the production of
small batches; specialised machinery and versatile machinery; the strict definition of job duties and autonomous, participatory work; the lack of training under Taylorism and post-Taylorist professional retraining; vertical integration and the decentralisation of production; large companies and small
companies; standardised products and differentiated products; legalinstitutional regulation and deregulation of labour markets.
127
We agree with other authors, such as Sayers and Walker (1994), who indicate the advantages of this dualism: it allows rapid identification of any
differences generated by organisational transformations. However, it has to
be said that extreme dualist simplification can obscure much more complex
processes, when trends are treated as though they are consolidated realities.
Moreover, the mythification of the new concepts, such as the rhetoric associated with flexibility, conceals strategies intent on intensifying work,
weakening terms and conditions of workers, introducing strategies to divide
the workforce or, purely and simply, anti-trade union policies.
However, despite the exclusive nature of the new forms of labour management, perhaps the transformations occurring in the organisation of work
still provide an opportunity to humanise work and make it more creative,
discretional and autonomous. Perhaps homo faber may yet triumph over
homo economicus.
Translated from the Spanish
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