ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the implications of the high performance work group approach for the experience of work, training, skill requirements, and flexibility for managers, supervisors, builders, and support staffs, and for their work performance. The introduction of volume manufacture of small computer systems at Ayr was accompanied by the adoption of an approach to work organization described by management as ‘high performance work groups’. The main effects of the move from the assembly and test operation to volume manufacture of small systems were a reduction in work cycle times and a reduction in the size and complexity of the systems being built. The quality of working life movement in the 1970s saw work design innovations primarily as means to reduce absenteeism and labour turnover. Management involved in the introduction of the high performance ideas required confidence in their own ability to deal with the new environment, and confidence that the approach would work effectively.
