Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

ALEKSANDRA JANOVSKAIA
ago employment of people was priority number
one. At that time, unemployment was very high
in Slovakia - 20-30%’ (Interview March 2007).
A clear indicator of managerial ‘productionist’
attitude has been its desire of medium-term
modernisation of the plants: the goal has been
to attract more investment to the production
location, ensure production over time and
upgrade the facilities from low value added
to high value added. The overarching goal has
been to develop local capabilities and move the
company’s position within the group from the
periphery to the centre. In Škoda, improvement
in the quality of production has been described
by insiders as one of the crucial reasons for
success. The second reason stated has been the
recognition of the plant as a mature partner
within the VW group (Interview December
2006). Thus, despite the growing importance of
short-term cost efficiency pressures, the focus
on technology and production quality remains.
Responding to the question whether the
financial side has become more important than
the production side, the top finance manager at
VW Slovakia, responded: ‘No, I cannot say that
this is the case. The production and quality still
matter. The allocation of production resources
could have been different’ (Interview March
2007). Thus, despite a shift towards the logic
of cost efficiency, the financial parameters
still have not completely replaced mediumterm
goals of production and employment
parameters in managerial thinking.
A clear desire to build up local research
capabilities has also been emphasised. Even if a
large part of innovation know-how is imported
from the headquarters, especially in the field of
process innovation, the role of local managers
is not negligible. Even if local decision makers
are not fully autonomous, process innovation
still takes place (Interview December 2006).
Thus, the director for industrial engineering
at VW Slovakia was proud to report examples
of process innovation that were introduced in
his company. Thus, for example, the concept of
‘supplier basket’ was introduced in his plant to
deal with variety and complexity of the vehicles
constructed at the same assembly line.
Union representatives – together with
management – also continue to share a strong
‘productionist’ identity. Like management,
company unions see their goal in company
advancement and prosperity. An example of
union adherence to the ‘productionist mode’
is their emphasis on the union function of
assuring production quality and discipline.
Especially since the early 2000s, a high turnover
has been an increasingly important issue in all
plants. For example, in Audi Hungaria, labour
force fluctuation has been 1% per month in
2000, while the goal has been 0.4%. In VW
Slovakia, where turnover rates increased in
mid-2000s from 7-9% to higher levels of
9-10% annually, they are still reported to be
only half of turnover rates of other Slovak firms
(Interview March 2007). Unions have started
to capitalise on their function of assuring
discipline during the production process.
The HR director of VW Slovakia stated that
‘unions are our eyes and ears: what we
don’t see, they see’ (Interview March
2007). Furthermore, a productionist
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part of union identity is also visible
in the fact that unions also started
to develop a discourse based on the valuation
of skills and knowledge. Finally, unions are
directly involved in the issue of industrial