Vol 1 No 2 Summer 2017

Management-By-Stress

Mike Parker

p>In a generation, new industrial management methods, often called lean production or Japanese management, swept away the management system that had dominated the US auto industry in the early postwar decades. The traditional “Big Three” auto companies lost control of their industry in the US as well as worldwide. Many of the tenets of lean production soon spread from manufacturing to services, including hospitals and schools. Some left intellectuals have been drawn to this system by its apparent efficiencies combined with claims of workplace equality and worker participation. This article challenges that perspective, identifies the fundamental mechanism of the Toyota-Japanese management system, and argues that it creates greater levels of exploitation, worse working conditions, and more difficulties for union organizing and worker resistance.

Some left intellectuals have been drawn to lean production or Japanese management by its apparent efficiencies combined with claims of workplace equality and worker participation. This article challenges that perspective.

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