Lean production and broad control spans: An odd couple

Work organization in Norwegian industry has traditionally been characterized by industrial democracy. Industrial democracy implies that managerial prerogatives are limited by extensive and substantive worker participation, including union based representative participation in company governance and worker autonomy on the shop-floor. In the late 2000s, the interest in so-called lean production was renewed and intensified as a blueprint for “best practice”. The prototypical lean production work organization, pioneered by Toyota Motor Company, can hardly be described as democratic. According to some critical commentators, lean production represents a reversal to Scientific Management and managerial autocracy. In particular, lean production practices such as just-in-time logistics, process standardization and hierarchical governance leave little room for worker autonomy. The fundamental premise of this thesis is that work design in Norwegian industry needs to work out the tension between traditional ideals of industrial democracy and lean production. I argue that this tension can be approached in two principal ways. The first approach is to restore democratic work design as a radical alternative to lean production. The second approach is to aim for a combination of industrial democracy and lean production. The thesis critically evaluates each of the two approaches. Based on empirical findings and a theoretical examination of the performance of work organizations based on extensive autonomy, I argue that the first alternative is inferior. Extensive autonomy tends to upset both system wide coordination and organizational learning. The second alternative is a more viable design strategy. I argue that “democratic lean” work organization, that is, a coherent combination of lean production and industrial democracy, is possible. Democratic lean implies limited worker autonomy, but retains and renews the fundamental participatory and democratic qualities of the Norwegian working life, leading to efficient operations, continuous improvement and organizational learning. Coupled with strategic differentiation and extensive automation, a democratic lean work organization will enable Norwegian industry to thrive in global competition.