Just Another Car Factory?

James Rinehart is Professor of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of The Tyranny of Work: Alienation and the Labour Process. Christopher Huxley is Professor of Sociology and Comparative Development Studies at Trent University. David Robertson is Director of Work Reorganization and Training for the Canadian Auto Workers.

For purposes of teaching comparative industrial relations of teams in organization theory, this is a useful primer.(New Technology, Work, and Employment) Just Another Car Factory? is, without a doubt, one of the most important publications to appear in the literature on Japanese work organization. It is a study of working conditions at CAMI, a joint GM/Suzuki venture located in Ingersoll, Canada, and organized according to Suzuki's version of Japanese or 'lean' production.... The book unequivocally demonstrates that work, working conditions, and work life in this plant do not correspond, in any way, to the idealized picture painted by advocates of the Japanese system.(Choice) The systematic and longitudinal surveying of employee attitudes... is a welcome feature of this book.(Industrial Relations Journal) This excellent work presents not only high-quality research linked to an overall research question, but also surprisingly rich data. Findings are displayed comprehensively, concisely, and with either avoidance or skillful explication of typical 'lean production' jargon.(Industrial and Labor Relations Review) This text provides a solid introduction to lean production as practiced in manufacturing today, and would be an excellent supplement to upper-division undergraduate as well as graduate courses focused on the labor process, labor-management relations, and/or studies of the manufacturing industries.(Contemporary Sociology)