| This thesis is about the Human Factor Problem (HFP), that is, the need to manage/control/coordinate people, and to incorporate them efficiently into particular settings and environments provided by specific systems and models of social and economic organization. Here the HFP is examined in relation to the area of work and more specifically, the case of the automobile industry (AI). The HFP, in its present form, can be identified through some current issues and debates regarding recent developments in the system of organization of work. In other words, the attempt of post-Fordist management to solve the HFP has generated discussion among scholars regarding the socio-economic implications of this attempt, in relation to workers, firms and to society as a whole. These issues and debates refer to workers' skills, democratization of the workplace and empowerment of the workers, union-management relationship, workplace surveillance, productivity and job satisfaction. Data, drawn from various case studies on the AI and from relevant government reports and statistics, conclude that the successful attempt for resolution of the HFP is dependent upon various contingency factors, such as workers' interpretation of the post-Fordist system, wages, the degree of union involvement in the shop floor, the degree of intensity of the tasks, the degree of autonomy that workers experience, regional characteristics and other particularities. |
