10
The smaller firms also offer participation in profits
to their staff . The cooperation between small entrepreneurs
a.
seems to be easier than between the divisions of a firm.
2 Business Week April 18, 1983.
"A reflection of these developments can be Seen in the"
attempts of many big concerns to draw their lessons from them.
They attempt to decentralise, to create units with
a lot of independence which by their managers could be
operated as if they constituted separate small firms.
They also try to offer participation in the firms gains.
They encourage productivity committees on the Japanese pattern.
They increasingly concern themselves with the working
conditions. This is paradoxical in a time of great
unemployment: However, in technological industries the
/v turnoverrate for the highly skilled staff even in these
If /
conditions is high.
1
At the same time it seems that the economies of scale (internal)
3*
over a wide field are loosing importance. This is due to new
techniques like microelectronics which facilitate greater
flexibility ( ofmachine tools for example ). Miniaturisation
as a technical principle runs in a direction right opposite
\ 11 to the development whichhas dominated industrial life for
a long time and which has had so manytinfortunate consequences.
Re$uming^hese considerations we might say that it appears \
to be a characteristic and novel factor in present
developments that the human element in industry is getting
/V” OtCi.
attention^ perhaps in some cases already taking
precedence over technology.
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