Workplace Reform and Implications for Productivity: A Workshops Field Study

Abstract

This paper describes a participative work-scheduling system and some outcomes from its employment in a heavy engineering workshop. Work groups that adopted the system were compared with groups that employed more traditional practices on a similar task. Those teams which employed theparticipativeschedulingpractices experienced a substantialgrowth on some work responses, includingproductfvity. The manifested and perceived differences were attributed to the higher levels of co-ordination and interdependence that were demanded by the successful employment of the work-scheduling system. The findings of this study also bring under scrutiny the credibility of strategies currently beingpromoted for improving productivity in the Australian workplace.