WORKING TIME AUTONOMY AND DIVISION OF WOR K IN FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURINGCELLS

The study deals with a flexible manufacturing system where management allows workers a great deal of autonomy with regard to working time an d division of labor. The way people use their options to choose their working time was investigated in relation to individual preferences, l evel of qualification, division of labor in the group, the pay system, and the attribution of responsibility. Different facets of the phenom enon were highlighted through three different methodological approache s: analysis of the number of working hours during one year, time-budge ts during several weeks, and interviews. The options regarding working time were used quite differently by the individual workers, with resp ect to both length and distribution. However, these choices were only partially dependent on individual preferences. Rather, technological a nd organizational factors influenced the distribution of working time and free time, putting constraints on that at first sight appears to b c a very large autonomy. Technological factors, an incentive-based pay system, different levels of training of individual workers, and the a llocation of responsibility for the product led to a rather strict div ision of labor and for some workers to a dependence on the work (and t he presence) of others. This constrains autonomy with regard to workin g time and leads to dissatisfaction with the group and group work by s ome of its members, thus diminishing the positive appeal of the model.