Nearly every country that produces cars views the automobile industry as strategically important because of its direct economic significance and because it serves as a bellwether for innovation in employment conditions. In this book, industrial relations experts from eleven countries consider the state of the industry worldwide. They are particularly interested in assessing whether the loudly heralded model of lean production initiated by Toyota has become pervasive.The contributors focus on employment practices: the way work is organized, how workers and managers interact, the way worker representatives respond to lean production strategies, and the nature of the adaptation and innovation process itself.
Contributors: Paul Adler, University of Southern California Greg J. Bamber, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Gran Brulin, National Institute for Work Life Research, Sweden Arnaldo Camuffo, University Ca'Foscari and University of Venice, Italy Jos Roberto Ferro, Fundac Getulio Vargas, Brazil Afonso Correia Fleury, Universidade de So Paulo, Brazil Maria Tereza Fleury, Universidade de So Paulo, Brazil Philip Hirschsohn, Sloan School of Management, MIT, and University of the Western Cape, South Africa John Holmes, Queens University, Canada Mitsuo Ishida, Dosisha University, Japan Ulrich Jrgens, WZB Science Center, Germany Thomas A. Kochan, Sloan School of Management, MIT Pradeep Kumar, Queens University, Canada Russell D. Lansbury, University of Sydney, Australia John Paul MacDuffie, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Stefano Micelli, University of Venice, Italy Tommy Nilsson, National Institute for Work Life Research, Sweden Young-Bum Park, Young Nam University, Korea Frits Pil, University of Pittsburgh Siegfried Roth, IG Metall, Germany Saul Rubinstein, Rutgers University Harry Scarbrough, Warwick Business School, United Kingdom Michael Terry, Warwick Business School, United Kingdom Guiseppe Volpato, University Ca'Foscari, Italy
