BRITISH CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY ASSIGNMENT.
Evaluate the extent to which the organisation and experience of work has changed from that of the "Fordist" period.
Fordism is defined as an organisation of industry and work which was seen as a .
system of mass production, assembly line work and strict regulation and structuring of .
work tasks (lecture notes). Dramatic changes in the organisation and composition of .
work over the last five decades have seen production becoming more flexible and.
specialised enabling a greater variety of goods to be produced. More multi-purpose.
machinery and equipment have ultimately reduced the size of the workforce thus.
producing a more highly skilled and responsible workforce. The traditional.
organisation of work still exists to some extent today recognised within the.
McDonalds food chain industry, but there is no longer one model of work but a .
variety of models in place which are constantly been adapted to the circumstances of .
the individual firm and its workers. This new process of continuous change is .
sometimes described as the "flexible" approach, where workplaces are high in trust .
and skills (Britain at Work 1998, pp75). This transformation has come about through .
a variety of reasons, which now will be discussed in detail.
Fordism rests upon a set of techniques based on Henry Ford who founded the Ford.
Motor Company in 1903. Ford saw the existing method of production as slow,.
laborious and inefficient. By introducing a complex division of labour, by breaking .
down the process of production into small-individualised parts, Ford reasoned .
(correctly) that costs could be lowered and profits increased. This production was a .
new way of thinking and doing, helped made possible by advances in machinery. .
Productivity could increase whilst decreasing the amount of time needed to produce. .
Through the assembly system workers had to work at the speed of the man next to .
