From powder to tool: Self-management of labor and production in a Brazilian factory recovered by workers

Abstract

Workers recovered from bankruptcy a metallurgic industry and constituted a self-managed industrial cooperative. Their peculiar way of coordinating the productive and commercial activities resulted in increased productivity, participation and employee satisfaction. Had they developed their own form of self-management in labor and production? This article presents a study that combines periods of interaction with co-workers during their work activities with the realization of semistructured interviews. The investigation revealed a daily work routine marked by freedom and concern. We found that, supported by freedom, workers circulate in the factory, talk during work and modify the production process. Freedom, therefore, leads to fl exibility, mobility, learning, communication and improvement of production processes. On the other hand, while dealing with the production, cooperative’s members also get concerned about the viability of the cooperative. Concern generates responsibility, mutual monitoring and confl icts among members. Together, freedom and concern enabled the combined increase of productivity, worker participation and their satisfaction. The conclusion of this study is that this way of working, free and concerned, characterizes their own mode of self-management of production and work.

Keywords: Social Work Psychology, self-management, organizational processes, recovered factories, industrial cooperatives.