Lean Production Assessed by Karasek’s Job Demand–Job Control Model

Abstract

Comments on the quality of working life (QWL) under lean production have varied from devastating criticism on the one hand, to eulogistic praise on the other. These contrasting positions can be related to researchers’ opposing societal stances and resulting interpretations, which are reinforced by the methodologies used and the absence of an external framework to judge QWL. Using Karasek’s job demand–job control model, the authors investigate a Dutch plant operating under a lean production (LP) regime in an attempt to resolve the controversy. The jobs in this plant can be placed in Karasek’s quadrant of low job demands and low job control, which means that antagonists of LP are right in claiming that the work is monotonous and repetitive, while the advocates’ claim that workers have sufficient job decision latitude also holds.