Page 196 - Mediterranea-ricerche storiche, n. 48, aprile 2020flip

196 Roberto Rossi

2) Technical control. Such kind of control was the consequence of
the crisis of the simple control due to the increase of competition
between firms and complexity of production. The worker is isolated
from other workers and fitted to a place, associated to a machine
and/or a production line in order to delimitate space and time for his
work action and generating a continuous flow process . The technical
62
control can be considered the evolution of labour management
stimulated by organisational growth and technological change. The
work organization was characterized by technical processes (i.e. the
assembly line) that imposed a regular work activity. Workers
performance was systematically measured, although discipline linked
to work-related criteria .
63
3) Bureaucratic control. The worker is subject to a hierarchical and
stratified institution – that replaces the supervising system –
constraining by the dictates of the "career ladder” . The bureaucratic
64
control mainly developed in the mid of twentieth century, based on
detailed description of work functions, however there are several
examples of a previous use of this system . In such case, the workers
65
performance was the objective of specified elaborated criteria
combined with work outcomes.
The workhouse/poor asylum seems to fit almost perfectly with a
mix of Edwards’ three stages model that provides a system of
management in which work was personally and directly controlled by
the managers of institutions (administrators, foremen, delegates, etc.),
while performance evaluation of workers was imperfect and critical,
and discipline was often unsystematic and inconsistent. Furthermore,
both the case studied established internally technical schools in order
to train the inmates with new skills. The technical schools will provide
inmates with the new production technology, the use of machines and
work discipline, overcoming the traditional ways of production. The
new skills will give to inmates the possibility to work outside the
workhouse when free and the “ticket” to be accepted by the society. In
this way, capital transforms labour power into profitable labour,
establishes control structures in order to reduce labour costs,
(re)constitutes skills and implements division of labour .
66

62 Ivi, p. 126.
63 W.M. Robbins, The Lumber Yards: A Case Study in the Management of Convict
Labour 1788-1832, «Labour History», N. 79 (2000), pp. 141-161.
64 Ivi, p. 131.
65 A. Caracausi, Mesurer Et Contrôler. Les Temps de l'organisation du Travail dans
les Manufactures de Laine de Padoue (XVIe-XVIIe Siècles) cit., pp. 18-19.
66 P. Thompson, Adler’s Theory of the Capitalist labour Process cit., p. 1362.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Aprile 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)