First line supervision without any supervisor: what do workers think about groupwork? Anthropological fieldwork at Volkswagen Hanover

Delphine Corteel

No FS I 01-301, Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: Groupwork is a particular form of work organisation typical for German factories that has been strongly influenced by union views. Management and trade unions present it as a radical innovation that calls into question the principles of the former Taylorist organisation on the one hand, and the meaning of production workers' work on the other hand. The workers I interviewed at Volkswagen in Hannover actually develop a different analysis of the new work organisation and of its outcome. Their original understanding invalidates the appellation of groupwork itself. They strictly separate the group: singular form of first-line supervision based on a new normative framework, and the work: the meaning of which has remained unchanged despite the implementation of the new organisation.

Date: 2001
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