The Development of Group Working in Biscuit Manufacture — A Case

Abstract

Job design/work organisation change continues to be the subject of much debate amongst practitioners and academics. Whilst many case examples have been reported (see Birchall and Burbridge for two reviews), often insufficient detail is provided to permit the reader to fully assess the impact of changes upon all parties involved. Rarely, for example, is reference made to planned changes which were not included in a final change programme. Here, we report a case involving changes in work organisation on a continuous process plant. Given space limitations we intend to concentrate upon a consideration of the approach adopted for the action research project, planned changes, the impact of those changes adopted upon management and employees and reasons for non‐adoption of some planned changes. The observations made derive from the views of the researchers involved in the project and their discussion with both managers and workers. Information from two surveys of employee attitudes is also included; the first was used as the basis for planning change and the second was undertaken eleven months following initial changes.