Employee involvement circles have become fashionable in Australia in recent years, with Ford playing a leading role. Ford is the market leader and has set a higher priority on improving quality and reducing interruptions than on labour intensification, and it has a militant and united workforce in its major plant. As a result its employee involvement programme has been conducted in the context of a generally conciliatory approach to shop-floor industrial relations, and in a spirit of quid pro quo with the workforce. It has not weakened the shop stewards, transformed Fordism or put an end to class conflict, but it has produced moderate advantages for both sides.
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