Citation

Seppala P. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 2004; 33(1): 15-27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The roles and job characteristics of supervisors and other white-collar employees connected with production were examined in eight manufacturing and printing companies that had implemented the principles of a lean organization and advanced information technology in the 1990s. Two hundred and twelve employees including production managers and employees from different organizational levels and different phases of the production process were interviewed. Two hundred and forty-four white-collar employees answered a questionnaire. The number of first line supervisors had decreased in all the participating companies, and in some manufacturing companies there were no first line supervisors in the production departments at all. In some companies the title of the previous supervisors had been changed to manufacturing manager. Their responsibility area was now larger and they were in charge of a broader manufacturing area or a product shop. Supervisors or other coordinating persons were still needed because of outsourcing and subcontracting. It seems that the supervisors' careers in the companies participating in this study had developed mostly in a positive direction. However, at the same time the amount of work had increased, especially in production in the manufacturing industry, and many of the respondents (45-55%) felt that their work was mentally strenuous.Relevance to industryThe study highlights problems and challenges that companies are facing when they introduce flat and lean organization models. The findings suggest that a radical reduction of supervisors is not always successful when the complexity of products and supplier networks increases. When the job contents of the supervisors become broader, more demanding and hasty, it is difficult to develop the new kind of leadership called for by new flat and team-based organization models.