Volvo’s approach to Job Design

Background
Though the importance of group work for individual well-being, organisational performance and collective learning has been a central feature of the Job Design literature for many years, its actual influence on work and organisational design in Western companies has been relatively small. One of the few exceptions to this has been Volvo, the Swedish motor vehicle manufacturer, which has been seen as a leader in innovations in work organisation since the 1970s. Indeed, it is probably not an exaggeration to say that in the 1970s, when it began moving away from traditional methods of car assembly, Volvo was more famous for its commitment to work humanisation than for the actual vehicles it manufactured (Blackler and Brown, 1978). As will be described below, Volvo's approach to reorganising vehicle production has evolved through a number of distinct phases: the abandonment of the assembly line in favour of group-based static assembly; the extension of group roles to include more collective responsibility and some decision-making autonomy; and the introduction of self-paced assembly work (Pontusson, 1990). It is also worth noting that the process of change was initially entirely management-driven (though the unions were involved or consulted on some aspects). The Swedish Co-determination Law, which came into effect in 1976, obliged firms to involve unions more but, in this instance, it may also have encouraged Volvo to be more radical in extending group work than might otherwise have been the case. However, through the 1980s in particular, the trade unions took a more proactive role. The move to more flexible forms of work organisation at Volvo went hand-in-hand with its move away from corporate bureaucracy and to more decentralised, localised management of its various vehicle operations. In addition, the last 30 years