Egil J. Skorstad

Lean Production, Conditions of Work and Worker Commitment

In the search of remedies to the industrial crisis of the Western world, lean production has been promoted as the proper answer to productivity problems. Furthermore, this mode of production is claimed to offer challenging and rewarding work at the level of production, thus fostering the reinvolvement of the rank and file. The arguments put forward in this article speak in favour of the opposite conclusion. This is done by discussing the economic logic behind lean production as well as the technology materializing from this logic that is, the characteristics of the production paradigm itself. According to the conclusion coming from this discussion, lean production will mean loss of autonomy and further intensification of work. Within such a context resistance will appear as a more probable reaction than creative involvement.

The worker collectivity and Anglo-Saxon theories of collectivity:

The Norwegian sociologist Sverre Lysgaard’s theory of the worker collectivity is virtually unknown outside Scandinavia. This article presents the basic principles of the theory and compares it to three British theories in the same research area of resistance at work: Stewart et al. on the collective worker and collectivism; Fox on the employee collectivity; and Ackroyd and Thompson on self-organization. The main aim in this article is to examine whether Lysgaard’s theory may have anything to contribute to the international body of theories on collectivity. It is concluded that it stands out as a more thorough analytical examination of the constitutional mechanisms supporting collective action when compared to the other theories discussed.

On the Track of the Worker Collectivity: Its Various Adventures Over the Past 60 Years

In the 1950s, the Norwegian sociologist Sverre Lysgaard investigated social relations at a pulp and paper mill, the result of which was his theory of the “worker collectivity.” This is an informal defense organization among subordinate employees against a company’s work organization and goals. Our research group returned to the same plant, which until 2012 was still a pulp and paper mill, with two questions in mind: Was the worker collectivity still present at the plant? What had happened since Lysgaard’s study when it came to the preconditions for the existence of the worker collectivity?