Fordism and Taylorism are responsible for the early success and recent decline of the U.S. motor vehicle industry

Ronald Degen (rjdegen@gmail.com)

No 81, Working Papers from globADVANTAGE, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria

Abstract: This paper identifies the ways in which the ideas of Fordism and Taylorism have been responsible for the success of the U.S. motor vehicle companies until 1955, and for their subsequent decline. On three occasions, the motor vehicle industry has changed the fundamental ideas on the process of manufacturing, and, perhaps more significantly, on how humans work together to create value. Under Fordism and Taylorism, the conditions of employment at the assembly lines became less and less bearable for the workers, and this resulted in an ongoing confrontation between management and the workforce, led by United Auto Workers (UAW). This confrontation resulted in escalating labor costs for the U.S. motor vehicle companies, and undermined their capacity to compete with the Japanese motor vehicle companies, who had developed a lean production system and a more humanistic management style.

Keywords: Fordism; Taylorism; decline of the U.S. motor vehicle companies; mass production system; lean production system; reflective production system; confrontational management-labor-relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M0 M1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-09-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-his, nep-hme and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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