ABSTRACT
The social sciences perspective on the impact of lean production on the workforce covers some positive aspects of lean, such as teamwork, job rotation, job enrichment, and job satisfaction—and many of the negative aspects of lean, such as work intensification, excessive overtime, and the extensive use of temporary workers. Compared to management, industrial engineering, and employment relations approaches, the social sciences have a more mixed-viewpoint toward the benefits and detriments of lean production. Derived from Marx and revived by Harry Braverman in 1974, labor process theory has been around the longest of these three critical veins of social science. Socio-technical theory coined by Eric Trist is a social psychological theory that has existed since the Kurt Lewin came to the United States in 1933. Lean production has spread to many different industries. It started in the auto industry and manufacturing.
