Discurso flexível, trabalho duro: o contraste entre o discurso de gestão empresarial e a vivência dos trabalhadores / Flexible discourse, hard work: the contrast between managerial discourse and workers’ experience

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

In recent decades, the prevalence of a discourse which asserts that Taylorism-Fordism was surpassed by a more flexible and humanized work organization model has been observed in the media and in the managerial literature. It has been noted that the main topics of that discourse – competence, work participation, teamwork and autonomy – deal with aspects which historically have been part of workers’ claims. In the research presented here these themes were used as an axis for analyses of workers’ experience in two automobile companies that have adopted the Japanese Model (or Toyotism) which of late has been the main reference for the idea of flexibility. In order to reach this objective, open interviews (individual and collective) were done, and informal talks were carried out with workers and trade unionists. Data analyses obtained allow us to conclude that the topics introduced in the managerial discourse do not deal at all with work humanization but with wider exploitation of the workforce. Notions of competence, participation, teamwork and autonomy are simply justifications to introduce ideological, personal and social criteria in selection and evaluation processes; to promote work individualization relationships; to use the workers’ cognitive capacities on behalf of production and to make workers responsible for quality products. The introduction of such topics also serves to demobilize workers’ organization in order to avoid any opposition to the companies. Managerial discourse, therefore, plays the role of legitimizing the power of companies, which is maintained by the threat of unemployment and “managed” (Bihr, 1998) by disciplinary mechanisms typical of taylorism and more sophisticated control mechanisms that aim to “modulate” (Deleuze, 1992) workers in order to use their intelligence and creativity for production purposes. The data indicate that the organization model adopted for the companies focused on in this research results primarily in the increase of mental suffering and illness among workers. On the other hand, it was also observed that trade union have adopted new strategies to combat company discourse and practices and many workers use everyday tactics which form a “network of antidiscipline” (Certeau, 1996) against aspects of work organization that are harmful to them.

ASSUNTO(S)

group work organização do trabalho participation poder professional autonomy competência suffering flexibilization industrial psychology trabalho em grupo competence sofrimento social psychology work organization participação psicologia organizacional flexibilização power autonomia profissional

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