New worlds of work : varieties of work in car factories in the BRIC countries

364 Pages·2016·2.57 MB·English

by  Jürgens, Ulrich, Krzywdzinski, Martin

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NEW WORLDS OF WORK
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/2/2016,SPi
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/2/2016,SPi
New Worlds of Work
Varieties of Work in Car Factories in the
BRIC Countries
ULRICH JÜRGENS AND
MARTIN KRZYWDZINSKI
Translated by
Pete Burgess
1
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OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/2/2016,SPi
Acknowledgements
This study would not have been possible without the help and support of many
individuals and institutions. It represents the culmination of a research project
thatbeganin2008,whenourinitialthoughtsfirsttookshape,andconcludedwith
thepublicationofthepresentvolumein2016.Lookingbackoverthislongperiod,
wearegratefulfortheopportunitytothankallthosewhosecontributionenabled
ustobringthisworktofruition.
Firstandforemost,wewanttothanktheVolkswagenAutoUni,whosefinancial
support totheWissenschaftszentrumBerlinwasaprecondition for theproject’s
very existence. Inparticular,weareindebted toDrHorstNeumann,memberof
theBoardofManagementofVolkswagenAGforHumanResourcesandOrgan-
ization, for supporting our proposal and offering numerous substantive sugges-
tions that highlighted his own keen interest in the theoretical underpinnings of
humanresourcemanagement.
WeareespeciallygratefultoKenichiYokoyama,HumanResourcesManagerat
theheadofficeofToyotaMotorCorporation,forhisgenerouscooperation,advice
andhelp.Finally,wealsowanttothankourdiscussionpartnersatthelocalplants
oftheotherparticipatingcompanies,whoopenedtheirdoorstousandhelpedin
many practical ways. The study could not havesucceeded without their engage-
mentandsupport.
Our 353 interview partners—who remain anonymous as a condition of their
involvement—alsomadeanenormousandindispensablecontribution.Theywere
unfailing in their willingness to express their views with candour and openness.
Weareprofoundlygratefulto them for their inestimablecontribution and hope
that the way in which we have reflected their work situations and experiences
withinthistextwillserveasappropriaterecognitionoftheirrole.
OuroriginalresearchteamalsoincludedFlorianBecker-Ritterspach(atthattime
attheUniversityofGroningen).FlorianwasourexpertonIndiaandwasinvolved
in preparing and carrying out field research there. His own career development
then took a different track and this precluded further work on the project. We
wouldliketothankhimforhisexpertiseinacrucialpartofthestudy.
Theinitialfieldworktookplaceduring2009–11,withseveralfollow-upvisitsto
local operations in subsequent years. During all these visits, which often lasted
several weeks, we were supported in each country by a cooperation partner. We
areindebtedtothemallfortheirhelpandsupport.FollowingtheBRICacronym,
theyare,firstly,AdrianaMarottideMello(professorofproductionengineeringat
theUniversityofSãoPaulo).Herknowledgeofandcontactswithintheindustry
and her deep local understanding, based on her work as an engineer at VW,
together with her expertise in production engineering was enormously valuable.
Shortlybeforeourvisit,shegavebirthtoababygirl.Wecontinuetobeastonished
and impressed by her ability to combine the care of a baby with participation
in our project. Secondly, we want to thank Elena Shulzhenko (currently a
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/2/2016,SPi
vi Acknowledgements
postdoctoralresearcherattheInstituteforBusinessDevelopmentandTechnology
at the University of Aarhus in Denmark). Elena participated in our project in
parallelwithworkingonherdissertationontheintroductionofnewapproaches
to quality managementinRussian firms; her particularcontribution was herin-
depth knowledge of shop-floor processes in Russian manufacturing operations.
Thirdly, we are grateful to Sanjyot Joshi, who shared with us her deep under-
standing of HR systems and industrial relations in Indian companies, based on
herworkasanindependentHRconsultant.Finally,wethankYuNan(professor
attheBusinessSchool,UniversityofJilin)forhersupportandadviceonChina.Yu
Nan completed her doctorate on shop-floor training at Japanese firms in China.
Her knowledge of how new approaches to production operations and HRM are
being introduced in China, based on her own research and teaching, laid the
foundationsforanespeciallyproductivecooperation.
Manyofourinterviewsrequiredthesupportofinterpreters,andwearegrateful
to them for enabling us to work across language and cultural boundaries. Our
fieldworkalsoentailedtranscribingtheinterviews.Wherethisrequiredtranscrip-
tion in local languages, this was supervised by our cooperation partners. The
transcription and translation of interviews in Russian was carried out by Galina
Loheit. German and English-language interviews were looked after by Nikolas
Rathert,JohannFortwengel,andDirkZozmann.
Over the course of this project, we benefited enormously from the supportive
atmosphere of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, one of the
fewresearchinstitutionsstillabletoengageinsuchalong-termresearchstudy.In
thiscontext,wewanttoexpressourgratitudetoProfessorDrJuttaAllmendinger,
who, as President of the WZB, made available the necessary infrastructure and
financialresourcesandhasalwaysbeennothinglessthanwhollyencouragingof
ourresearch.
Abookcannotexistwithoutapublisher.WewanttothankEmmaBoothand
ClareKennedyofOxfordUniversityPressfortakingcareofourtextandfortheir
understandingandpatience,despitethemanydelaysalongtheway.
Forthetranslationofthefinaltext,wewereextremelyfortunatetorunintoPete
Burgess.Petenotonlyservedasourveryabletranslatorbutalsomadesubstantive
suggestionsthathelpeddeveloptheunderlyingargument.ExtractsfromGerman-
languagesourcescitedinthetextweretranslatedforthisvolume.
A number of friends and colleagues offered themselves up for the ordeal of
readingthroughandcommentingonthefirstdraftof thisstudy.Fortheirspirit
and valour, we thank Wolf-Dieter Narr, Günther Schmid, Male and Wolf
Wagner,HellavonUnger,andlastbutnot leastourpartnersMargareteJürgens
andNanaKünkel.
Finally, we want to express our thanks to Grzegorz Lechowski, Nora Köpke,
VerenaKröss,Jan-LudwigSpieker,andMonikaPohlfortheirworkinpreparing
thediagramsandthefinalversionofthetext.
UlrichJürgensandMartinKrzywdzinski
Berlin,September2015
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,24/2/2016,SPi
Contents
ListofFigures xi
ListofTables xiii
ListofAbbreviations xv
1 Introduction 1
1.1 ResearchQuestionsandProblematic 1
1.2 TheBRICs:Brazil,Russia,India,China 6
1.3 TheCase-studyCompanies 10
1.4 ThePlants 16
1.5 MethodologyandData 19
1.6 Overview 25
2 TheoriesandtheResearchLiterature 29
2.1 Introduction 29
2.2 ConvergenceofHRPractices 30
2.3 VarietiesofEmploymentSystems 35
2.4 VarietiesofCultures 39
2.5 HRMSystemsintheBRICsintheResearchLiterature 42
2.6 HighRoadorLowRoad? 46
2.7 Conclusions 47
3 People,Places,andPlants 49
3.1 LocationsandActors 49
3.2 CarWorkers’Lives 50
3.2.1 SãoBernardodoCampo,Brazil 50
3.2.2 Kaluga,Russia 53
3.2.3 Pune,India 56
3.2.4 AntingandChangchun,China 59
3.2.5 NominalWagesandLivingStandards 61
3.3 PlantsandProductionSystems 63
3.3.1 Brazil 63
3.3.2 Russia 66
3.3.3 India 67
3.3.4 China 68
3.3.5 Summary 71
4 RecruitmentandVocationalTraining 73
4.1 Brazil:Breakingwith‘HireandFire’ 74
4.1.1 AFavourableRecruitmentSituation 74
4.1.2 AShopFloorWorkforcewithUpperSecondaryEducation 77
4.1.3 MartialArtsTrainingforProductionWorkers? 79
4.1.4 SkilledWorkerTrainingofVWandToyotaintheir
HomeCountries 82
4.1.5 SkilledWorkerTraininginBrazil:TheRoleoftheSENAI 85
4.1.6 Summary 87
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viii Contents
4.2 Russia:InitialStumblesonaChallengingTerrain 88
4.2.1 ‘OurLabourMarketisCurrentlyVeryDifficult’ 88
4.2.2 ProblemswithOpenRecruitmentfromtheLabourMarket 91
4.2.3 TrainingNeedsforProductionWorkersUnderestimated 95
4.2.4 TheDualSystemasanInnovationintheRussianContext 96
4.2.5 Summary 98
4.3 India:‘WeWantedtoMakeThisaCompletelyDifferentPlant’ 98
4.3.1 ComplexitiesofRecruitinginaCasteSociety 98
4.3.2 HelpWanted—Rural,Young,andPoor 103
4.3.3 The‘GuruSchool’forProductionWorkers 107
4.3.4 DifferingApproachestoSkilledWorkerTraining 110
4.3.5 Summary 112
4.4 China:‘YouCanTrainVeryEffectivelyHere’ 112
4.4.1 AnEnormousDemandforLabour 112
4.4.2 RecruitmentDirectfromVocationalSchools 115
4.4.3 AgencyEmploymentandInternships:ScopeforPrecarious
Employment 118
4.4.4 OnboardingandInitialTrainingonaMassiveScale 120
4.4.5 AComplexArrangementforTrainingSkilledWorkers 121
4.4.6 Summary 123
4.5 Conclusions 124
5 EmployeeDevelopment 129
5.1 CriticalJuncturesinHRFlow 129
5.2 EmployeeDevelopmentatVWandToyota:
TheHomeCountries 131
5.3 Brazil:LandofLifelongLearning 134
5.3.1 VWdoBrasil:‘WeAreTryingtoChangetheCulture’ 134
5.3.2 EmployeeDevelopmentatToyotaIndaiatuba:Blockedon
theShopFloor 141
5.3.3 CombiningWorkandStudy 144
5.3.4 Summary 146
5.4 Russia:DifficultBeginningsonanUnknownTerrain 147
5.4.1 VolkswagenRus:DangerofaViciousCircle 147
5.4.2 CareerDevelopmentatToyota:‘WeTriedtoTakeinto
AccounttheRussianMentality’ 150
5.4.3 EmployeeDevelopmentatGAZ:CombiningTraditionwith
Modernization 154
5.4.4 LowLevelofInterestinFurtherTraining 155
5.4.5 Summary 157
5.5 India:‘ManualWorkisWorthless’ 157
5.5.1 VolkswagenPune:WhatDoIndianWorkersExpect? 157
5.5.2 ToyotaBangalore:WorkLifePlansforIndianEmployees 160
5.5.3 Mahindra&Mahindra:‘EveryoneIsLookingforaCareer’ 165
5.5.4 Summary 168
5.6 China:LandofUnlimitedOpportunities 168
5.6.1 CareerPathsattheVWJointVentures:Home-grownCreations 169
5.6.2 CareerPathsatFAW-Toyota:AJapaneseSystemin
aChineseContext 177
5.6.3 CareersatGeely:TraditionalforWorkers,Western
forManagers 178
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Contents ix
5.6.4 CombiningWorkandStudy 180
5.6.5 Summary 181
5.7 Conclusions 182
6 PaySystems 186
6.1 DifferencesinRemunerationPhilosophies 186
6.2 Brazil:SeniorityorPerformance? 189
6.2.1 TheTraditionofSeniority-basedPay 189
6.2.2 BasicPay—SeniorityPrevails 191
6.2.3 VariablePay—NoThanks! 195
6.2.4 Summary 195
6.3 Russia:ScopeforOpportunism 196
6.3.1 TheSovietLegacy 196
6.3.2 TheLegacyofJob-basedPay 197
6.3.3 VariableRemuneration:‘IsItAlwaysObjective?’ 200
6.3.4 Summary 202
6.4 India:AGulfbetweenOperativesandWhite-collarWorkers 203
6.4.1 StrikingaBalancebetweenDifferentDemands 203
6.4.2 BasicPay:SeniorityorMerit? 203
6.4.3 VariablePay—Attention,TradeUnion! 205
6.4.4 Summary 207
6.5 China:PressureforPerformance 208
6.5.1 PayReformfromAbove 208
6.5.2 Person-basedPayPrevails 209
6.5.3 EnormousRangeofIndividualizedPay 214
6.5.4 Summary 216
6.6 Conclusions 217
7 ShopFloorWorlds 221
7.1 GenchiGenbutsu 221
7.2 Brazil:ModernizingProductionWith—orWithout—TradeUnions 223
7.2.1 VolkswagendoBrasil:AMajorCulturalShift 223
7.2.2 ToyotaIndaiatuba:TPSfromtheStart 229
7.2.3 Summary 235
7.3 Russia:‘TheRussianMentalityisDifferent’ 237
7.3.1 VolkswagenRus:AStrainedShopFloorEnvironment 237
7.3.2 ToyotaTeamRussia:WithaSmile 239
7.3.3 GAZ:TheMainAimIsChangingtheCulture 243
7.3.4 Summary 245
7.4 India:TheAimIsaNewWorkCulture 245
7.4.1 Volkswagen:‘WeAreNotGoingtoDoSpoonFeeding’ 245
7.4.2 ToyotaBangalore:‘ToyotaWayDoesNotMeanThat
OneHastoDoExactlytheSameasinJapan’ 248
7.4.3 Mahindra&Mahindra:‘WeAreTryingtoEvolveaNewCulture’ 251
7.4.4 Summary 254
7.5 China:AParadiseforShopFloorManagement 255
7.5.1 Volkswagen’sJointVentures:‘TheAdvantageHereistheHardWork’ 255
7.5.2 ToyotaTianjin:TensionsontheShopFloor 261
7.5.3 Geely:Unleashingthe‘BasicPower’ 264
7.5.4 Summary 266
7.6 Conclusions 266