The article explores the relationship between high-tech work reorganization and
worker commitment using case studies of three multinational electronics firms in the
Philippines. The author analyzes firms’ work organization strategies and
traces three work systems; the panoptic, the peripheral human resource and the
collectively negotiated work systems, and the corresponding types of commitment they
generate; coerced, purchased and bargained, respectively. The results show that high
performance and worker commitment is not incompatible with more traditional
managerial hierarchies and workplace control, and that the continuum of commitment
types leads to varying worker ability to leverage their commitment into real gains
in compensation, autonomy and participation.
Adler, Paul
(1995) ‘ ‘‘Democratic
Taylorism’’: The Toyota Production System at
NUMMI’, pp. 207–221 in
S. Babson
(ed.) Lean Work: Empowerment and Exploitation in the Global Auto
Industry.
Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press
.
2.
Appelbaum, Eileen
and
Rosemary Batt
(1994) The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems
in the United States.
Ithaca, NY: ILR/Cornell University Press
.
3.
Appelbaum, Eileen
,
Thomas Bailey
,
Peter Berg
and
Arne L. Kalleberg
(2000) Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-Performance Work
Systems Pay Off.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
.
4.
Arthur, Jeffrey
(1994)
‘Effects of Human Resource Systems on Manufacturing Performance
and Turnover’
, Academy of Management Journal37(3):
670–687
.
5.
Bailey, Thomas
and
Annette Bernhardt
(1997)
‘In Search of the High Road in a Low-Wage Industry’
, Politics and Society25(2):
179–202
.
6.
Becker, Howard
(1960)
‘Notes on the Concept of Commitment’
, American Journal of Sociology66:
32–40
.
7.
BLR/DOLE (Bureau of Labor Relations/Department of Labor and Employment)
(1999) ‘Labor Management Schemes and Workers’ Benefits in the
Electronics Industry’, Manila: BLR/DOLE, unpublished.
8.
Braverman, Harry
(1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital.
New York: Monthly Review
.
9.
Brown, Claire
and
Benjamin Campbell
(2001)
‘Technical Change, Wages, and Employment in Semiconductor Manufacturing’Industrial and Labor Relations Review54(2a):
450–465
.
10.
Brown, Claire
and
Benjamin Campbell
(2002)
‘The Impact of Technological Change on Work and Wages’
, Industrial Relations41(1):
1–33
.
11.
Cappelli, Peter
and
David Neumark
(2001)
‘Do ‘‘High-Performance’’
Work Practices Improve Establishment-Level Outcomes?’
, Industrial and Labor Relations Review54(4):
737–775
.
12.
Collins, Jane
(2003) Threads: Gender, Labor and Power in the Global Apparel
Industry.
Chicago: Chicago University Press
.
13.
Collinson, D.
(1994) ‘Strategies of Resistance: Power,
Knowledge and Subjectivity in the Workplace’, pp.
25–68 in
J. Jermier
,
D. Knights
and
W.R. Nord
(eds) Resistance and Power in Organizations.
London and New York: Routledge
.
14.
Delbridge, Rick
(1998) Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing: The
Workplace Experience of Lean Production and the ‘Japanese’
Model.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
.
15.
Deyo, Frederic C.
(1997)
‘Labor and Post-Fordist Industrial Restructuring in East and
Southeast Asia’
, Work and Occupations24(1):
97–118
.
16.
DOLE/BLES (Department of Labor/Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics)
(various years) Yearbook of Labor Statistics.
Manila: DOLE
.
17.
DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)
(various years) Dateline.
Manila: DTI, Statistics Division
.
18.
Edwards, Richard
(1979) Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace
in the Twentieth Century.
London: Heinemann
.
19.
Etzioni, A.
(1975) An Evaluation of Complex Organizations: On Power,
Involvement and their Correlates, rev. edn.New York: Free Press
.
20.
Florida, Richard
and
Martin Kenney
(1993) Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and its
Transfer to the US.
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press
.
21.
Godard, John
and
John Delaney
(2000)
‘Refiections on the ‘‘High
Performance’’ Paradigm’s Implications for
Industrial Relations as a Field’
, Industrial and Labor Relations Review53(3):
482–503
.
22.
Hackman, J. Richard
and
Ruth Wageman
(1995)
‘Total Quality Management: Empirical, Conceptual, and Practical Issues’
, Administrative Science Quarterly40(2):
309–344
.
23.
Halaby, Charles
and
D. Weakliem
(1989)
‘Worker Control and Attachment to the Firm’
, American Sociological Review55:
634–649
.
24.
Herzenberg, S.
,
J. Alic
and
H. Wial
(1998) New Rules for a New Economy: Employment and
Opportunity in Postindustrial America.
Ithaca, NY: ILR/Cornell University Press
.
25.
Hirschman, Albert O.
(1970) Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in
Firms, Organizations and States.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
26.
Hodson, Randy
(1991)
‘The Active Worker: Compliance and Autonomy at the Workplace’
, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography2(1):
47–79
.
27.
Hodson, Randy
and
Teresa Sullivan
(1985)
‘ ‘‘Totem or Tyrant?’’
Monopoly, Regional and Local Sector Effects on Worker Commitment’
, Social Forces63(3):
716–731
.
28.
Ichniowski, Casey
,
T.A. Kochan
.
D. Levine
,
C. Olson
and
G. Strauss
(1996)
‘What Works at Work: Overview and Assessment’
, Industrial Relations35(3):
56–74
.
29.
Katz, Harry C.
, and
Owen Darbishire
(2000) Converging Divergences: Worldwide Change in Employment
Systems.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
.
30.
Kinnie, Nick
,
Sue Hutchinson
and
John Purcell
(2000)
‘ ‘‘Fun and
Surveillance’’: The Paradox of High Commitment
Management in Call Centres’
, International Journal of Human Resource Management11(5):
967–985
.
31.
Knauss, Jody
(1998)
‘Modular Mass Production: High Performance on the Low Road’
, Politics and Society26(2):
273–296
.
32.
Kochan, Thomas A.
and
Paul Osterman
(1994) The Mutual Gains Enterprise.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press
.
33.
Kraft, Philip
(1999) ‘To Control and Inspire: US Management in
the Age of Computer Information Systems and Global
Production’, pp. 17–36 in
Mark Wardell
,
T. Steiger
and
P. Meiksins
(eds) Rethinking the Labor Process.
Albany: State University of New York Press
.
34.
Legge, K.
(1995) Human Resource Management.
Basingstoke: Macmillan
.
35.
Lincoln, James
and
Arne Kalleberg
(1990) Culture, Control, and Commitment: A Study of Work
Organization and Work Attitudes in the United States and Japan.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
36.
Lincoln, James
and
Arne Kalleberg
(1996)
‘Commitment, Quits, and Work Organization in Japanese and US Plants’
, Industrial and Labor Relations Review50(1):
39–60
.
37.
Loscocco, Karyn A.
(1990)
‘Reactions to Blue-Collar Work’
, Work and Occupations17(2):
152–178
.
38.
MacDuffie, John Paul
(1995)
‘Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance:
Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry’
, Industrial and Labor Relations Review48(2):
197–221
.
39.
McKendrick, D.
,
R. Doner
and
S. Haggard
(2000) From Silicon Valley to Singapore: Location and
Competitive Advantage in the Hard Disk Drive Industry.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
.
40.
McLoughlin, Ian
(1996) ‘Inside the Non-Union
Firm’, pp. 301–323 in
Peter Ackers
,
Chris Smith
and
Paul Smith
(eds) The New Workplace and Trade Unionism.
London and New York: Routledge
.
41.
Meyer, J.P.
and
N.J. Allen
(1997) Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research, and
Application.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
42.
Middlebrook, Kevin
(1996) ‘The Politics of Industrial
Restructuring: Transnational Firms’ Search for Flexible Production in
the Mexican Automobile Industry’, pp.
200–232 in
Fred Deyo
(ed.) Social Reconstruction of the World Auto Industry.
London: Macmillian
.
43.
Milkman, Ruth
(1991) Japan’s California Factories: Labor
Relations and Economic Globalization.
Los Angeles: Institute of Industrial Relations,
University of California
.
44.
Mowday, R.T.
,
L. Porter
and
R. Steers
(1982) Employee–Organization Linkages.
New York: Academic Press
.
45.
Mueller, Charles
and
Marcia Boyer
(1994)
‘Employee Attachment and Noncoercive Conditions at Work’
, Work and Occupations21(2):
179–212
.
46.
Mueller, Charles
and
Jean Wallace
(1992)
‘Employee Commitment’
, Work and Occupations19(3):
211–237
.
47.
National Statistics Office
(various years) Annual Survey of Establishments.
Manila: NSO
.
48.
Osterman, Paul
(1999) Securing Prosperity.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
49.
Osterman, Paul
(2000)
‘Work Reorganization in an Era of Restructuring: Trends in
Diffusion and Effects on Employee Welfare’
, Industrial and Labor Relations Review53(2):
179–196
.
50.
Penley, Larry
and
Sam Gould
(1988)
‘Etzioni’s Model of Organizational Involvement: A
Perspective for Understanding Commitment to Organizations’
, Journal of Organizational Behavior9:
43–59
.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey
(1994) Competitive Advantage Through People.
Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press
.
53.
Piore, Michael, J.
and
Charles F. Sabel
(1984) The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for
Prosperity.
New York: Basic Books
.
54.
Purcell, John
(1999)
‘Best Practice and Best Fit: Chimera or Cul-de-Sac?’
, Human Resource Management Journal9(3):
26–41
.
55.
SEIPI (Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines, Inc.)
(1999) The Philippine Electronics Industry: An Industry on
the Move.
Alabang: SEIPI
.
56.
SEIPI (Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines, Inc.)
(2001) The Philippine Electronics Industry: Driver of the
Philippine Economy; at: www.siepi.org.ph
57.
Shaiken, Harley
(1995) ‘Lean Production in a Mexican
Context’, pp. 247–259 in
Steve Babson
(ed.) Lean Work: Power and Exploitation in the Global Auto
Industry.
Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press
.
58.
Smith, Vicki
(2001) Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity
in the New Economy.
Ithaca, NY and London: ILR/Cornell University Press
.
59.
Tsutsui, William
(1998) Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in
Twentieth-Century Japan.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
60.
Van Heerden, Auret
(1998)
‘Export-Processing Zones: The Cutting Edge of Globalization?’
, paper prepared for ‘Global Production and Local Jobs:
New Perspectives on Enterprise Networks, Employment and Local Development
Policy’. International Institute for Labour Studies,
Geneva, 9–10 May.
61.
Wells, Miriam
(1994) Strawberry Fields: Politics, Class and Work in
California Agriculture.
Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press
.
62.
Womack, James P.
,
Daniel T. Jones
and
Daniel Roos
(1990) The Machine that Changed the World.
New York: Harper Perennial
.
63.
Zuboff, S.
(1988) In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work
and Power.
New York: Basic Books
.
