Anna Pollert – författare

The profound changes in the labour market during the 1980s are examined in this book in relation to the ideas of flexible specialization and the "flexible firm" and Marxist regulation theory, supplemented by fresh empirical evidence concerning changes in the labour process. Three related concepts have emerged around which there has been a dramatic crystallization: Fordism, post-Fordism and, supposedly linking the two, various manifestations of economic flexibility. There has been, it is suggested, a profound change in the labour process towards the "flexible worker" and in the labour market towards a "flexible workforce". Three approaches to explain these changes are especially important and provide the major focus for this book: Marxist regulation theory; the notion of flexible specialization associated with the "new" institutional economics; and the model of the flexible firm derived from the managerialist literature. In the book, the diverse claims made by these three approaches are subject to empirical and theoretical investigation and their wider implications are examined in relation to emerging patterns of work in advanced societies.

`The book is well written and clearly structured, bringing together much dispersed material. The most interesting part of the book is the case study of the Czech engineering firm CKD. The case study gives an insight into the continuing processes of transition: transition is a process, rather than a jump from Socialism to capitalism. The author provides solid evidence on the ways in which adjusting to the market has proved painful, and in the end unsuccessful for CKD, which has been merged with another firm.

Overall, Transformation at Work provides a valuable insight into the realities of the transition process at the enterprise level' - Employee Relations

In this book, Anna Pollert questions the values hidden in the burgeoning literature on `transformation', and addresses the main concerns arising from these. In exploring the key issues of post-communist transformation, the author discusses important theoretical issues about the nature of change and continuity, such as historical, socio-economic and political effects of transformation, the broad problems of how workers and their organizations respond to change from command to capitalist economies, and case studies of how managers, workers and trade unionists experience these changes within their organizations.

Transformation at Work explores the key issues of post-communist transformation in Eastern Europe. The author discusses important aspects of the nature of change and continuity including: historical, socio-economic and political effects; how workers and their organizations respond to change from command to capitalist economies; and how managers, workers and trade unionists experience change within their organizations.