The Nissan Enigma: Flexibility at Work in a Local Economy

Garrahan, Philip; Stewart, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0720120209 ISBN 13: 9780720120202

Publisher: Mansell, 1992

This work looks behind the Nissan image of quality, consensus, flexibility and teamworking at what actually goes on in the workplace. It argues that Nissan's success in Sunderland has relied on a passive labour force deriving from internal social control and local unemployment, combined with support from a Thatcher government committed both to private ownership and to union restraint associated with the company. The authors conclude that Nissan is unlikely to regenerate the local economy as a whole, as skills required to manufacture Nissan cars are company-specific and components used come from Japanese suppliers.