Sleepers wake: stamping down on the custom and practice of night-shift operations

Case 7.1 The hegemonic power of management and the sacking of the night shift: Power-coercive strategies or Machiavellian management?

Patrick Dawson

Washdale Manufacturing is a washing machine factory that underwent significant change following the appointment of a new plant manager. In this short extract, the example of the night shift is used to stimulate discussion on political and ethical issues in the management of change (for a full reading of the case, see Dawson, 2003: 98–111).

Sleepers wake: Stamping down on the custom and practice of night-shift operations

Management at the plant were aware that there was something amiss with operating practices on the night shift (due to the high incidence of machine breakdowns) but they were uncertain about the cause of these problems. For them, cellular manufacture provided a useful opportunity to reassess night-shift operations. At this stage, they did not realize that night-shift operators had modified their work patterns to enable some ‘sleep time’ prior to the arrival of the morning shift. This behaviour became part of the custom and practice of night-shift operations and, hence, there was considerable group pressure for new members to conform to this method of organizing work which, as one employee recounted, ‘made life easier for all.’ As a consequence of working the machines as hard as possible for the first part of the shift, there was a higher incidence of machine breakdown on the night shift than at any other time. Aware that something was going on, management decided to install a system to monitor machine cycle times. As a manager recalled:

Postscript: This hard-line (power-coercive) approach was used by management to overcome factions of resistance that emerged during the main change initiative, although it should be noted that management combined this approach with the development of a programme for employee involvement which had the support and backing of the union.

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