Are new work practices applied together with ICT and AMT?

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to analyze the association between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) and the adoption of a number of new work practices, such as job autonomy, teamwork, job breadth, suggestion systems and involvement groups. Special attention is paid to examining whether the strength of the association with new work practices is the same for the two technologies. The data used in the empirical part of the research come from a survey conducted in 281 Spanish manufacturing plants. The results show that ICT use among production workers is only positively related to higher coverage of involvement groups. On the other hand, AMT use is positively associated with the incidence of self-managed teams, job autonomy and suggestion systems. We have found differences between ICT and AMT in the strength of association with new work practices for self-managed teams and suggestion systems.

Keywords:

• AMT
• ICT
• manufacturing industry
• new work practices
• production workers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.