Teamwork in the Automobile Industry Ð An Anglo-German Comparison

Teamwork in the automotive industry varies significantly from plant to plant. This article compares teamwork in four automobile plants in Germany and Britain, and addresses two questions: (1) Do different models of teamwork fit into a bi-polar model of teamwork, being either innovative or structural conservative? (2) Do current models of teamwork signify a development towards post-fordism, or are they merely part of a neo-fordist rationalisation of production? The following answers are suggested: (1) Teamwork in different motor-car plants cannot be categorised in a bi-polar model; rather do they represent a continuum. (2) Teamwork moves manu- facturing away from traditional taylorist models of production, but does not over-come Taylorism altogether.