The effects of lean organizational practices on employees' attitudes and workers' health: evidence from France
Bouville, Grégor ; Alis, David
International Journal of Human Resource Management
2014
25
21-22
December
3016-3037
employees attitude ; job satisfaction ; occupational health ; work organization ; high performance work system
Work organization
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.951950
English
Bibliogr.
"Work organization has deeply changed during the last decade, in particular with the introduction of a new type of management production system in the industrial and service sectors – the lean production system. Few studies have considered the social outcomes of work organization forms. Using the high-performance work system (HPWS) theoretical framework, we first analyze the influence of these specific lean work organization practices and then study the effect of a lean practices bundle on job satisfaction, employees' intent to stay and health at work. The quantitative analysis that we carried out on a French national database (n = 24,486) gives ambiguous results. Our study highlights negative consequences of several lean work organization practices (delegation of responsibilities, problem-solving demand, standardization, job rotation) on job satisfaction, employees' intention to stay and health at work. However, quality management is positively linked to health at work. Lean work organization practices, as a bundle, have a deleterious effect on attitudes and health at work. To our knowledge, quantitative research has rarely been performed on the effects of a lean practices bundle on attitudes and health at work. Our study shows the contrasting effects and the risks associated with the development of lean production, which leads us to suggest some practical implications."
Paper
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