"Nature vs. Nurture"

Jill Jusko

Industry Week

July 2003, pp. 40-46

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) has had a keen interest in High Performance Work Organizations for over 10 years. In 1997, the union established a High Performance Work Organizations Partnership Department at its headquarters. This article discusses three plants that have entered into the partnerships.

The key components of High Performance Work Organizations Partnerships are:

1. A full partnership between the union and management
2. Shared decision-making around the vital functions that are critical to the business, its costs, and the processes used to do the work
3. Development of continuous learning and skill building
4. Continuous integration of leading-edge technology that builds on the skills, knowledge and insights of front-line workers
5. A co-determined definition of quality
6. Shared technical and financial information
7. Ongoing joint determination of the cost of the design, prototype development, production and administrative overhead encourages the use of activity-based costing
8. The union accepted as an independent source of power for the workers
9. Dedicated people from both the labor side and management side assume leadership positions in the partnership
10. A jointly developed strategic business plan

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