NEW CONCEPTS OF PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY

In advanced industrial sectors less qualified jobs are tending to disa ppear with fewer and more qualified jobs remaining. A 'new polarizatio n' has developed with the losers of rationalization ending up unemploy ed. Within the car industry one finds that the most advanced jobs in t he automated sectors are getting more qualified with no additional str ess. Also, in the more manual sectors group work is now being introduc ed but often in a 'structurally conservative' form resulting in short job cycles and little autonomy. The climate in society is influenced b y the unemployment that the new production concepts contribute to and may, in turn, influence whether structurally conservative or innovativ e solutions prevail.