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Plant closing: A case study at Volvo and Renault
Author(s) -
Lindgren Antony
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing and service industries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.408
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1520-6564
pISSN - 1090-8471
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6564(199722)7:3<159::aid-hfm1>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - closing (real estate) , negotiation , dual (grammatical number) , engineering , operations research , manufacturing engineering , sociology , political science , law , art , social science , literature
In autumn 1992 the board of the Volvo concern decided to close down the plants at Kalmar and Uddevalla, the plants that for a long time had reputed Volvo to develop a new Swedish form of work organization within car industry. In this article I analyze the plant closing by the theory of dual industrial structures. I find this theory valuable. It provides a complementary sociological approach to the discussion. I point to the importance of the negotiations going on, at the time, of an amalgamation of Volvo and Renault, as well as of the corporate tradition of Renault, characterized by a Fordistic concept of production. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.