The Effect of Jit and Tqm on the Resistance Behaviour of Factory Workers

The Effect of JIT and TQM

on the Resistance Behaviour of Factory Workers

Introduction

Since the 1980s various organizations have been adopting Just-In-Time (JIT) and Total Quality Management (TQM) factory systems from Japanese firms in order to withstand the ever increasing competition in the global marketplace. The JIT manufacturing was originally brought to perfection and successfully implemented by the Toyota Motor Corporation around 1980 and focuses on obtaining economic advantage by reducing carrying cost of inventory (Sakakibara, Flynn, and Schroeder, 1993, p.177); the TQM strategy was developed in 1949 by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) with the aim to exploit the potential of contributing quality to the end product of all organizational processes (Powell, 1995, p.16). Nowadays JIT and TQM have become inherent parts of the manufacturing industry, calling attention to not only business people but also academics.

One approach to analysing the implications of JIT and TQM systems for workers is presented in an ethnographic case study by Delbridge (1995) titled, Surviving JIT: Control and Resistance in a Japanese Transplant. While working in the panel shop of a factory manufacturing domestic appliances under the JIT and TQM manufacturing systems as an overt participant observer, Delbridge was able to record research data for the period of four weeks. Since the author chose to conduct his case study by means of participant observation, a research technique not much used in management and business research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007, p. 284), the question arises to what extent are the research results generated by the research of Delbridge (1995) reliable and valid. Thus, a close analysis of his case study including a summarizing literature review will be conducted in order to examine the research methods applied by Delbridge (1995) from an evaluative point of view.

The first section of the paper presents a short...