Doubting Sweden's Way

Boredom on the job. Blue-collar blues. By any name, the problems of low morale and numbing monotony surrounding production-line work have been of considerable concern in U.S. industry. One alternative often cited by various work reformers is the team-assembly concept pioneered by the Swedish automakers Saab and Volvo, according to which workers in small groups perform rotating tasks rather than installing the same widget on a fast-moving, impersonal line. American sociologists and union and management officials regularly return from tours of such plants favorably impressed. But recently a group of six Detroit engine-plant employees tried the Swedish way by working at a Swedish auto company. Their conclusion: even Scandinavian-style factory work has its drawbacks.

The six Americans, all employees of General Motors, Ford or Chrysler, ranged in age from 21 to 53 and in experience from eight months to 21 years on Detroit assembly lines. They spent four weeks at a Saab engine plant in Sodertaelje, Sweden, under a Cornell University project funded by the Ford Foundation. According to a report completed last week by Robert Goldmann, a Ford Foundation program officer who accompanied the group, the six generally found the physical working environment at Saab better than at home. More work space per person and omnipresent safety officials made the plant less hazardous than those in Detroit. The factory was cleaner, cooler and much better lighted than the typical U.S. auto plant. The Americans also enjoyed the plant's annual St. Lucia Day celebration around Christmastime. Yet the workers came away with serious doubts about the plant's main feature--group work.

At the Saab plant, teams of three or four workers assemble light, four-cylinder car engines at a rate of up to eight per hour. Team members decide among themselves who will work on what part of the engine, and some of the Americans welcomed this change from assembly-line routine. Herman Lommerse, 53, a Cadillac engine-plant worker, felt as if they were "building little toys." But his colleagues found the pace of work unexpectedly fast. Said Joe Rodriquez, 36, a ten-year Ford employee: "If I've got to bust my ass to be meaningful, forget it; I'd rather be monotonous."

One particular peeve shared by all the Americans was the shortness of the lunch break: 24 min. for the 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift, and just 18 min. for the 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. Some of the Detroiters felt that after a point, even team assembly could become tedious. In any case, the group questioned whether the techniques used in putting together a small engine at a factory with limited capacity were applicable to the manufacture of heavier engines at million-unit-a-year plants in the U.S.

Regimented System. Working with a team, a few members of the group discovered, required accommodating themselves to the habits of others; they preferred to be responsible only to themselves. Perhaps most significant, the U.S. visitors tended to find the entire Swedish work system far too regimented and, though benevolent, demeaningly paternalistic. Labor unions seemed distant and too close to management. Despite the much touted Swedish system of worker participation in company decisions, the Americans preferred the more informal grass-roots unionism of Detroit.

Part of the Cornell-sponsored group's misgivings about their Swedish experience are traceable to cultural differences. The Americans were annoyed by having to change shifts every week--a Swedish innovation to allow working spouses to take turns with household chores.

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