High Performance Work Systems: The Digital Experience

by David A. Buchanan, James McCalman

Overview

Originally published in 1989. Management styles in developed western countries are undergoing a crisis phase. Increased levels of international competition and volatile trading conditions are creating new demands of job skills and responsibilities. The management challenge is to find work organization and employment strategies that sustain and develop employee performance and commitment.

This book analyses the ‘high performance work systems’ that a number of American and European companies have evolved to meet this challenge. It particular, it describes in detail the experiences of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) at their UK manufacturing plant. This study not only illustrates the benefits of new forms of work organization, it also explores some important myths, notably that technical and organizational changes can produce ‘effortless excellence’. It also provides practical management guidelines for the effective application of high performance work design.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815367208
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Series:	Routledge Library Editions: Management , #20
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

David A. Buchanan, James McCalman

Table of Contents

Foreword by Laurence V. C. Megson; Acknowledgments; Part One: Back to the Future; 1. Buried in the 1970s 2. Surfaced in the 1980s 3. Managing Change; Part Two: The Digital Experience; 4. Digital’s Achievement Culture 5. Stuffing Modules 6. Competitive Organizational Design 7. Pain and Rewards 8. Transient Structures 9. The High Performance Experience; Part Three: The Wider Relevance; 10. The Consequences 11. Large Scale Organizational Change 12. The Management Lessons; Appendix; Bibliography; Index