Shopfloor Apprentices under a Lean Labour Process
Insights from a British Car Plant
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3597722 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ron Roberts (0000-0002-2509-7238, Queen's University Belfast), Niall Cullinane (0000-0003-1972-276X, Queen's University Belfast) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Work Employment and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09500170251366186 |
| OpenAlex | W4414207266 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
This article considers how lean production changes the shopfloor learning experience of apprentices. Insights from labour process and communities of practice literature are used to interrogate the study. Evidence derives from apprentices' experiences in a British car assembly plant across several decades. The study compares pre-lean apprentices' experiences with those who learn under lean, considering how lean might reshape apprentices' shopfloor interactions with the plant community of practice. It finds that lean appears unfavourable to apprentices' integration into the community of practice by debilitating learning opportunities with mentors. The article concludes by theorising how inefficiency and waste may aid on-the-job learning for workplace apprentices
Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions
The theory contribution of case study research designs
Marx, Socialization and Labour Process Theory
From communities of practice to mycorrhizae
Labor and Monopoly Capital
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
Management Divided
Contradictions of the Labour Process, Worker Empowerment and Capitalist Inefficiency
The development and implementation of National Vocational Qualifications
Trade-based skills versus occupational capacity
Lean production and the German model
Marx, Machines, and Skill
Management Whipsawing
Situated Learning
Informal Practices in the Making of Professionals
Rethinking Situated Learning
On the role of habitus and field in apprenticeships
Transient craft
Stressed out of my box
Dimensions of collectivism
The missing middle
The tyranny of corporate slenderness
Apprenticeship in the 'Golden Age
Industry and Labour
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |