전간기 영국의 자동차산업과 포디즘 (British Motor Industry and Fordism between the Two World Wars)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 영국사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 영국연구 / 24호 / 211 ~ 239페이지
· 저자명 : 이영석

초록

영국 자동차산업은 양차대전 사이에 지속적으로 성장했지만, 1960년대 이래 주요 자동차회사가 외국계 기업에 흡수 합병되면서 몰락했다. 전통적 해석에 따르면, 이 분야의 기업가들은 당시 새로운 생산원리인 과학적 관리와 포디즘을 제대로 수용하지 못했으며 그 결과 전후에 파국을 맞았다는 것이다. 그러나 수정주의 역사가들은 전간기 영국 경제의 특수성과 새로운 생산방식 수용문제를 연결 지어 해석한다. 영국 기업가들은 미국식 포디즘을 변용해, 노동자에 대한 직접 통제 대신에 성과급체제에 기반을 두고 작업속도를 결정하는 영국 특유의 대량생산방식을 도입했다. 이는 조직노동자들의 저항과 협소한 국내 자동차시장이라는 조건들에서 비롯된 것이었다. 이에 따라 반자동 및 자동기계와 숙련노동이 공존하는 특이한 생산과정이 정착되었다. 이러한 제도의 정착 때문에 1960년대 번영의 시대에 영국 자동차산업은 세계시장에서 급증하는 자동차 수요에 대처할 수 없었다.

영어초록

The British motor industry continued to be prosperous between the two world wars. At that time Britain was the second largest car producer in the world. But after the 1960s its major motor companies were merged into foreign companies. According to the traditional interpretation, the collapse of the industry stemmed from the fact that the motor industrialists had hesitated to introduce the principle of scientific management and Fordism to the production processes of cars, and as a result the industry lost its international competitive power and fell into catastrophe after World War II.
But recently the revisionists are trying to connect the transformation of Fordism into the new British system with the particular British labour relations and market situation. The British motor industrialists were also interested in Fordism and scientific management. According to revisionist studies, they tried to introduce to their production processes the transformed Ford system more suitable to the British conditions. There were two conditions that compelled the motor industrialists to transform the Ford system in Britain. One was the long tradition of labour movements in the workshops and factories, and the other the narrowness of the motor market in Britain. Under these conditions, British industrialists could not but seek to create the mass-production system on the basis of piece-rate system. For it to succeed, it required peaceful relations with the skilled labourers and craftsmen.
In fact, the introduction of scientific management and Fordism could be selected by the industrialists for the short term. But in reality, the relations between capital and labour were more important. While the American industrialists could recruit factory workers from a large pool of immigrants for the use of the Ford system, the British industrialists were facing an almost impossible task in trying to introduce it to their factories without any workers’ resistance.
The British mass-production system was also the result of its peculiar condition of the motor market. In Britain the demand for motor cars was very limited because of its small population in comparison with that of America. Futhermore, it was impossible for the British motor industrialists to focus on the mass-production of single model cars under the social situation influenced by their hierarchical tradition. So, they tried to develop and sell the more expensive car models, and to introduce the assembly line only partly to their factories. In short, the British motor industry showed a characteristic that allowed skilled labour and semi-automachinery to co-exist between the two world wars.

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