The transformation of work revisited: The limits of flexibility in American manufacturing

Students of work processes have increasingly debated the likely emergence of a flexible, ''post-Fordist'' pattern of work organization within advanced capitalist manufacturing industries. This paper uses qualitative methods to address the debate over post-Fordism, hoping to bring to light certain neglected aspects of shopfloor relations that bear upon the transformation of work. The study focuses on the changes that have occurred at four manufacturing plants in the pulp and paper industry located in diverse regions of the United States. Despite abundant opportunities for the redesign of manual workers' jobs, these mills provide only partial support for post-Fordist theory: The skills demanded of manual workers have indeed risen, as post-Fordists expect, but we find little indication of any expansion of craft discretion, nor of any nascent synthesis of mental and manual labor. instead we find trends toward the increasing centrality of process engineers within the labor process, a heightening of the barrier between expert and non-expert labor, and the symbolic devaluation of craft knowledge - in short, strong indications that Fordist principles of work organization have remained quite prevalent. The paper concludes by discussing the social and organizational factors that explain the tenacity of Fordism and that seem likely to obstruct the pursuit of workplace flexibility within U.S. manufacturing.