Re: Proper Rate of Learning LO1557

pcapper@actrix.gen.nz
Thu, 8 Jun 1995 09:37:37 +1200

Replying to LO1514 --

> Are you really sure the most important work is going on while chewing a
> pencil? I never saw a worse productivity than in japanese offices (nothing
> to do with the factories where they know how to increase productivity).
> When there, I saw a lot of bureaucracy (letters go through layers of
> management before being sent to anyone), some lazziness (I know it's not a
> thing to say, but it looked like it) and the difficulty to take any
> decision. Even the japanese are starting to doubt somme of their methods.

I was not attempting to claim excellence for Japanese attitudes - I was
merely reflecting on cultural differences. Nevertheless I think that my
point is that many Japanese do recognise that the busy bureaucratic work
is unproductive, and that many perceive innovation as arising from periods
of quiet reflectivity.

"I think that in industrial organizations, there is no
productyivity at all in the office side of the equation. A few years
back, Ford Motor Co. eliminated some 4,000 managerial positions and the
productivity of the whole comp[any improve. I really thinnkk that we are
waking up to a new era in which the administrative functions are being
scrutinized very carefully. The ones that are absolutely necessary are
being transferred to self-managed production who can, for instance, handle
budget concerns, inventories, fire and hire members; a few of them are
still being performed in house. Most of those administrative functions
that are not directly related to the main source of revenues are being
outsuourced (e.g., payroll). If we continue on this path, the number of
white collar employees will continue to decrease, and the "MBA side of the
house" will have to reinvent itself."

I think this is absolutely right. I have recently completed a case study
in a manufacturing plant where this was happening in an organisational
learning context. Each part of the operation was a separate cost centre -
including all management and support functions. Production cost centres
could choose to use internal centres such as personnel. engineering,
accounts, and so on - or outsource at their own discretion. The in-house
service cost centres kept their jobs so long as they could provide the
production cost centres with a competitive service.

This led to a powerful learning culture developing. Despite being an
allegedly 'low skilled' workforce, IT functions - including systems design
- are now almost entirely located within production work teams. The
company has nho personnel department at all now. On the other hand some of
the support functions redefined themselves and learnt new skills - and now
do contract work for other companies.

I should add that all of this was accomplished without a single forced
disnmissal. All people who found their TASKS disappearing were retrained
and redeployed within the plant, or assisted to leave if that was their
own preference

--
Phillip Capper
Centre for Research on Work, Education and Business
Wellington
New Zealand
pcapper@actrix.gen.nz