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1. Introduction
This article seeks to contribute to our understanding of how, with the introduction of different socio-technical innovations, new flexible management systems impact work scenarios and reconfigure various fields of subjective work experience. The findings are presented from an empirical study conducted in the Chilean retail industry and framed by the contributions of social phenomenology of work (Dejours et al., 2018; Deranty, 2011) and the clinics of work (Guerrero & de Gaulejac, 2017b; Orejuela, 2018). These approaches reveal the paradoxical nature of these forms of management and work organization (WO). The study’s findings contribute to an understanding of the tensions and contradictions that the different actors in a work environment face in their work experiences as flexible management models are introduced.
Implementation of these flexible management mod els has been part of the historical process of capital ist restructuring witnessed in recent decades, which has involved, since the mid-1970s, a progressive transition from a Fordist-Keynesian development model to a new flexible, global, financialized, and networked model that combines with neoliberal forms of socio-political regu lation (Castel, 2010; Castells, 2001). This transition tended toward a downgrade of the value of work, the loss of rights and social protection, and a weakening of workers’ power and participation in companies (De ranty, 2011; Piketty, 2014). In the case of Chile, the early implementation of the neoliberal model during the Pinochet military dictatorship (1973-1990) involved pow erful changes to the societal matrix which led, in turn, to a radical restructuring of companies and the world of work (Stecher & Sisto, 2019). Especially involving large companies in the formal sector of the economy, new prin ciples and methods of flexible management and work or ganization were implemented progressively. When com bined with the logic of privatization, flexibilization, com modification, entrepreneurship, and competition, intrin sic to the neoliberal modernization model, these princi ples and methods have increased the precarity of employ ment and work experiences (Guerrero & De Gaulejac, 2017a; Ramos, 2009).
These processes form the background of the present study, which analyses the implementation of Lean Man agement (LM) -the most widespread flexible manage ment model in Latin America- in the setting of retail work in Chile. Retail is a strategic industry for the national economy and a poster child of the country’s ne oliberal modernization and business reorganization ex perience in recent decades (Stecher et al., 2020). The model’s implementation is analyzed with attention to the broader sociocultural, political, and economic con text of Chilean society and its business class, which also influences the relationship between subject, work, and organization (Orejuela et al., 2020). With its fo cus on a specific model (LM), in a particular industry (retail), and a delimited national context (Chile), the study highlights the importance of a situated analysis of the relationship between flexible management models and subjective experience, one that considers not only the processes of sociotechnical change within companies but also the broader sociocultural and socio-labor con texts of an economic and productive sector of the coun try (Garces & Stecher, 2023).
By adopting a psychosocial-phenomenological per spective (Deranty, 2011), the study understands subjec tive work experience as how subjects configure meanings around the technical and social demands that they face in a given work setting. Faced with these demands, sub jects build relationships and forms of sociability, give shape to a certain idea or sense of themselves, and take action to contribute and address the challenges that the workplace presents. The technical demands of the job re fer to the demands to which the subject is exposed given the prescription of the task and involve guiding one’s ef fort and activities according to the different rules and processes established by the organization (Dejours et al., 2018). Social demands (relations with peers, managers, and clients, for example) refer to the relationships of in teraction and coordination between individuals that are necessary, given the nature of all work as a social activ ity, to achieve the objectives of the production process. Among them, a sense of belonging and recognition are highly relevant dimensions of subjective experience in workspaces (Neffa, 2015).
Based on this conceptual framework and presenta tion of the study’s empirical findings, the article seeks to contribute to debates on the new forms of flexible production and their socio-technical and subjective im pact. From the approach used, it is assumed that flex ible management models institute new ways of organiz ing work, thus directly affecting how power, responsibil ities, the development of social ties, and recognition are distributed in an organization, all of which, in turn, are linked to particular dynamics of malaise, suffering, plea sure, and recognition in subjects (Dejours, et al., 2018).
More specifically, the article contributes to this area of debate by reconstructing the process by which LM was implemented in retail in Chile, and how it involved a reorganization of the technical and social dimensions of work and impacted the subjective experiences of differ ent groups of workers. The article focuses on three lean Management’s key principles/techniques that were part of the model’s implementation in retail stores: (i) the democratizing principle based on transparency (visual management tools); (ii) the principle of excellence and continuous improvement (Kaizen tool: “do more with less”, “zero errors”, “zero losses and 100% quality”); and (iii) the promotion of participation, horizontality and worker inclusion (tools such as Gemba, quality cir cles and others that speak to operatives’ empowerment).
The article analyzes the introduction of these manage ment techniques in the broader socio-labor context of ne oliberal Chile, the changes these techniques involved in the organization and technical/social demands of work and reveals their impact on workers’ subjective experi ences. As it will be discussed since it is one of the central findings of the study, a major dimension of this impact is how the Lean model’s technical innovations opened new areas of subjective experience of a paradoxical nature for retail store actors.
With these purposes in mind, in the remainder of the article after this introduction, the main background of the study is presented, with a discussion of relevant concepts and Chile’s retail sector. The methodology of the study is then described. The results of the re search, based on the three Lean principles/techniques mentioned above, are presented next. The article closes with a brief discussion and conclusions.
1.1 Work, New Forms of Flexible Management and Subjectivity
From a psycho-social phenomenological and work-clinic perspective, work is understood as what a subject car ries out to reach their assigned objectives and what they add personally to deal with the gap encountered be tween what has been “prescribed” for them and what happens when the task is performed (Dejours, 2012). According to Dejours and Deranty (2010), the encounter with real work turns the activity of working into an affec tive and bodily experience that challenges our know-how in the search for a solution to carry out our task. Here, living work as experience involves an effort to close the gap between organizational prescriptions and the contin gent, unpredictable, dynamic situations that every task presupposes (Dejours, 2012).
Real work represents the sum of cognitive, emotional, and physical efforts that workers make to complete the task and achieve the result -despite or against- the prescriptions. The gap between the task as prescribed and the task as performed is of great importance for the subjective life of the worker, since it implies that their subjectivity must be mobilized not only by the effort, concentration, and physical strength necessary to per form a given task: an additional effort is required to close the gap between the procedure prescribed to exe cute a task and its actual effective completion, the clo sure of this gap between prescription and performance being the work of subjectivity (Dejours et al., 2018).
According to this paradigm, work is central to peo ple’s lives and their subjectivity, as it is an activity that organizes the human psyche (Orejuela, 2018) and is con stitutive at a subjective, sociopolitical, epistemological level, as well as in terms of power and gender relations in human life (Dejours & Deranty, 2010). This is why every work experience affects our subjectivity in some way. In every task two mutually dependent demands are encountered: one that is technical and another, social. Together they configure the space or field in which the subjective experience at work is felt. While the tech nical aspects relate to the norms, procedures, and pre scriptions that govern the work, the social aspects relate to relations of coordination and cooperation, group dy namics, and recognition at work.
Seen from this perspective, the technical and social dimensions of work are deeply entangled: the social link is inseparable from the activity of working and its techni cal dimension (Deranty, 2009). The technical has a spe cific social meaning, distinct from the general sociocul tural determination, in that technique creates its form of sociability (Deranty, 2009) and with it, a particular and situated subjective experience. This is why no work consists solely of a mechanistic application of procedures to situations that are prescribed in advance. All the greater, therefore, is the importance of knowing and un derstanding in greater depth the productive paradigms and management systems that govern our work, and how changes and transformations in these systems have a crucial impact on subjective experiences of work.
On this topic, various authors have pointed out how contemporary transformations of work and changes in flexible management models have been promoting new normative, technical, and relational orientations in the world of work. Emphasis has been given to aspects such as individualized performance evaluation and to tal quality management, which have brought with them a downgraded view of work as a cultural value, the dis memberment of collectives, and a weakening of forms of recognition, professional knowledge, and collaboration at work (Begue & Dejours, 2010). According to Deranty (2011), this emergence and consolidation of the flexible neoliberal model is appreciated and consolidated in a key management model: Lean Management.
According to its creators, this form of management has a universal and aseptic character: it is solely a tech nique that can be implemented in any context. How ever, from critical psychosocial/phenomenological per spectives, Lean is analyzed as a managerial mechanism of social domination, which has significant subjective im plications that transcend its technical nature and even the boundaries of work, by infiltrating the personal sphere and the representation of actors’ own experience, and capturing the desires and the imaginary of the individ ual with an offer of symbolic adhesion that attracts the actor and at the same time traps them in a type of work experience that is characterized by its paradoxical na ture (Deranty, 2011).
This character of the LM system as a generator of paradoxes is associated with the subjective challenge it poses to the workforce that arises out of a kind of “directed freedom” (de Gaulejac, 2005; Guerrero & de Gaulejac, 2017 a) or “paradoxical consent” (Boyer & Freis- senet, 2003), from which it is difficult to distance one self or think and act collectively. As their creators in dicate, the LM principles and tools propose: “[...] a superior way of doing things” (Womack et al., 2017, p. 253), amounting to a “management philosophy” that promotes the development of a mindset (a new men tality) based on the values that Lean promotes, such as a culture of merit, entrepreneurship, and competi tiveness. These are presented via the use of rhetoric about progress, modernity, quality, participation, and innovation, whose deployment challenges workers with a promise and offer of meaning while eroding and weak ening collective ties, as well as other symbolic references to work typical of occupational, union or class cultures (Garcés & Stecher, 2020).
In mainstream thinking, LM is promoted as a virtu ous system, which apart from eliminating “obstacles” in the production flow and increasing quality using “con tinuous improvement”, represents a participatory and democratic management style that involves employees as “agents of change”, by offering them the means to participate more actively in the work process (Wom ack et al., 2017). However, research from more critical viewpoints has shown that LM has important negative effects on work experience in terms of the health and well-being of workers: due to increasing work demands and the resulting exhaustion they generate; its effect on social relations, with increasing harassment behaviours and authoritarian expressions of power; loss of auton omy in work processes; subjective experiences related to malaise, ethical suffering, and the loss of boundaries between personal life and work; and finally, an enhanced asymmetry between capital and workers, the weakening of unions and work collectives (Garcés & Stecher, 2020).
Our studies reveal that this paradoxical nature of LM with its multiple promises and its various nega tive implications has been little studied empirically in Latin America, and the research is generally concen trated in the manufacturing sector (Garcés & Stecher, 2020). There is a notable lack of studies in the retail in dustry, which has become emblematic of business mod ernization in the services sector, as it is one of the largest employers in the private sector and has been a model for various processes of technological innovation and strate gies for implementing organizational flexibility, both in Chile and Latin America, as well as globally.
1.2 The Chilean Retail Industry and the Implementa tion of Lean Management
The Chilean retail industry consists of eight major busi ness holdings that own and operate chains of super markets, department stores, home improvement stores, and similar establishments. This sector -in line with the global development of this industry- has experi enced radical modernization since the late 1980s, with expansion, the opening of new stores, capital invest ment, and high market concentration in a few players (Calderón, 2006). Holdings such as Falabella, Cencosud, and Walmart-Chile have been listed among the largest private employers in Chile, generating around 280000 di rect jobs (América Economía, 2019). In general, it is a mainly young, female, low-skilled workforce, positioned in salesrooms where neo-Taylorized work processes pre dominate with strict standardization, surveillance, and restricted autonomy. There is a high turnover of workers and contractual heterogeneity due to the intensive use of part-time contracts and flexible working hours (Garcés & Stecher, 2023; Stecher et al., 2020; Stecher & Martinic, 2018). In terms of labor relations, the unionization rate in this sector is around 70% in the largest holdings, one of the highest at the national level (Stecher et al., 2020). However, this is a unionism with significant degrees of fragmentation that is pitted against business groups of large national capital with enormous economic power (Stecher et al., 2020).
During the last five years, since the rise of electronic commerce and the entry of new global players like Ama zon into the business, the industry has faced greater competition and a reduction in profits. In addition, the change in consumer purchasing habits, with a shift to electronic sales much accentuated by the GOVID pan demic, weakened the importance of the stores as sales channels. Given these developments, the industry has focused on the incorporation of new technologies, the automation and robotization of its processes, and the strengthening of its logistics and distribution areas, thus seeking to reduce labor costs and adapt to the industry’s new competitive scenario. In this automation process, LM initially had crucial importance, given the advan tages it offers for the standardization and process map ping that are key to installing a continuous flow system (Garcés & Stecher, 2023).
Our previous findings (Garcés & Stecher, 2023), con cerning the implementation of LM in this industry in Chile, refer to its origin in a tight circle of engineers and consultants in this field who, based on their role in academic managerial training, initially implemented it only in multinational manufacturing industries. How ever, it was not long before the model reached the ser vices sector, specifically retail, where companies, with an eye on the automation that the industry was deemed likely to face in the medium term, were attracted by the possibility of reducing their staff and promoting greater standardization of their processes. LM was introduced promptly, starting in 2011, in one of the largest corpo rate holdings, including its Latin American subsidiaries The other retail holdings implemented the model through the creation of Excellence Management that carried out continuous improvement projects in the remaining areas, or operations, logistics, and distribution.
Implementation was typically reactive rather than reflective, driven by the fashionableness of the model in business and consulting circles, with the participa tion of holding company owners or senior managers in some cases. It began with an extreme idealization of the model and a stake in its more philosophical versions, but then gave way to more instrumental approaches and finally to its relative disappearance in recent years (Gar- cés & Stecher, 2023). A situated analysis of this process shows how certain features of the Chilean sociocultural and socio-labor framework played their part in how the model was adopted and adapted in retail (Araujo & Martucelli, 2012): the high levels of individualism, so cial segmentation and exclusion in Chilean society; the tendency to idealize and copy what is foreign (Larrain, 2014); the predominance of typically authoritarian, hi erarchical and despotic symbolic patterns and matrices of sociability, which in recent years have come into ten sion with the desire and demand of individuals for more horizontal forms of relationship (Araujo, 2016); and the tendency of national business groups to generate prof itability through cost reduction and erosion of job secu rity, rather than through social investment and innova tion (Montero, 1990; Ramos, 2009). The effects of these broader socio-cultural traits were heightened by some features of the retail companies’ business model itself, such as the pressure for short-term profitability; its in sertion in a volatile, dynamic, highly competitive, and changing market; elitist and endogamous business power circles; and a marked hierarchy and power asymmetry in labor relations within stores (Garcés & Stecher, 2023).
2. Methodology
Concerning its theoretical and methodological approach, the study adopted a psychosocial-phenomenological per spective, aimed at reconstructing subjective experiences and dynamics in work settings from the actors’ perspec tive and relating these psychosocial dimensions to the defining institutional and structural elements of each work setting.
In terms of design, the study was exploratory and descriptive-analytical. It used a qualitative methodology that allowed a thick description of the configurations of meaning regarding the links, self-definition, and action strategies of the different actors involved in LM implemen tation processes in retail. This design was appropriate to the objectives of the research, in that it allowed access to the meanings associated with the phenomenon of interest. Given the design’s nature, it did not build on theoretically pre-defined hypotheses; instead, the study was mainly in ductive in its approach, setting the emerging findings se quentially against the study’s conceptual frameworks.
The study included 26 participants, of whom 23 were men and three were women1. All, in different ways, had played a part in the implementation of LM in Chilean retail. The distribution of the participants is shown in Table 1.
Participants were selected using the snowball strategy (Glesne, 2011), by which new participants were sought from the contacts already made -mainly through the Linkedln platform-. As an inclusion criterion, it was established that participants must belong to retail com panies that had a corporate program or area projects that had been operational for at least one year and whose name and objectives referred explicitly to LM and/or, failing that, to LM’s main management tools and techniques. Participants had to have worked between one and three years in the direction, management, and/or execution of projects in which the LM methodology was used and a minimum of six months specifically in the retail industry. Their work journal needed to be more than 32 hours. The purpose of these last criteria was to ensure that people were familiar with LM practices and tools and that these were part of their everyday working lives.
Regarding data production techniques, semi-struc- tured in-depth interviews were conducted, aimed at ex ploring the meanings that the study participants give to their everyday reality in retail, and specifically to their experience with the implementation of LM tools and the technical and social demands they impose. To this end, a topic checklist was created, which broadly included a) the meaning and definition of LM, b) perception of the use of its management tools and changes, considering both benefits and challenges, c) daily work and changes related to LM, and d) specificities of the Chilean re tail context (worker participation in decisions, cultural dynamics, leadership styles, etc.). The interviews were conducted between July 2020 and October 2021 on the Zoom platform.
For the analysis, we followed the thematic content analysis guidelines of Braun and Clarke (2006), a method ology suitable for the theoretical approach guiding the research, as it captures the richness and complexity of subjective experiences. It achieves this by breaking them down into themes and subthemes. This approach en ables a dynamic and open exploration of the wide range of meanings and experiences, emphasizing the richness of interpretation and how the themes represent the diver sity of experiences and meanings within the data. The thematic content analysis aimed to answer the question: How did the technical and social changes introduced by LM reconfigure subjective work experience from the per spective of these different actors? Following the six steps proposed by Braun and Clarke, the analysis included the following stages: 1) familiarization with the data, which involved a systematic and iterative review of the mate rial; 2) initial coding after an inductive analysis of the material; 3) analysis of the codes in search of topics; 4) checking coherence between the question, the topics and the previous process that led to the outline of a the matic analysis map. In this case, the map made it possi ble to establish the fields of paradoxical experience that emerge from the changes in the technical and social dy namics, considering the social and labor culture of retail and the central ideas of the model. 5) An interpretive and refined analysis of the themes that lead to choosing names, in this case of the subheadings of the results. 6) Preparation of the report, in which the analysis and co herence of the data are iterated using the social psycho phenomenology and work-clinic perspective, thus allow ing greater analytical depth and density for each of the topics and their relationship to the research question.
Before the interviews, the participants were informed about the study’s objectives and potential impact. They were then asked for their informed consent after being briefed on how their privacy, anonymity, and confiden tiality would be safeguarded.
3. Findings
3.1 The Chilean Lean Way and the Dilemma of Visual Management (VM) KPIs
[... ] a manager was chosen for each region, so this manager was a bit like a priest mak ing a sign of the cross over the stores: he went about preaching what continuous im provement was and reinforced it with market ing. For example, posters that were put up in the store, images of before and after, and in formation was also published about who the managers were in charge of Lean at the man agement level and also the stores. (Shift man ager, home improvement store chain)
As the interviewees described it, at a technical level VM was one of the best known and easily identifiable Lean tools. It involved installing a series of artifacts in the stores and warehouse areas of the retail companies that began to fill the walls with standardized procedures and control panels that provided visible results to moni tor the KPI (key performance indicators). The standard ization of procedures and the breakdown of objectives have led to individualization and an exaggerated respon sibility for results. This has generated a feeling of vul nerability and threat, especially for senior management and leadership cadres unused to demonstrating results.
That is the negative aspect. In Chile every one wants to be well evaluated, no one wants to get a bad grade, so they dress up what is wrong so that they come out well evaluated [...]. (Lean Consultant)
Concealing data to avoid seeming to fail to meet goals strains relationships within work teams, as they may feel compelled to tailor the figures to support their bosses. This creates a paradox where the standardization and visibility of results, promising justice, meritocracy, and equity, are welcomed by workers who see them as a way to ensure fair compensation and recognition. On the other hand, the openness and visibility given to results lead to an increase in the pressure for goal attainment, which heightens tension and competition within work teams, the distortion of figures, and the concealment of reality.
There is a kind of complicity between little groups. There is a lot of concealment of what is going on. So, for example, if someone in the line or lower down raises an important issue, that issue will probably “die” with a supervi sor or sub-manager, but it will never reach the top [... ] It has to be hidden. Although every one down there knows what is happening, at the top they have no idea. (Former Excellence Manager, Large store and supermarket chain)
The authoritarian and hierarchical nature of this work environment, along with its elitist and exclusive power structures, perceives this type of tool as a threat to their privileges. As a result, workers increasingly dis trust the system due to the fear of being fired. These fears compel them to prioritize pleasing their bosses over adhering to the Lean mandate, leading to the manipula tion of performance indicators. As a result, the model’s promise of transparency and democratization is under mined, creating unmet expectations of mobility, meritoc racy, and recognition among those who were hoping for shared responsibility, success, and failure in their work.
Lean follows a standardized Japanese pro cess that is implemented uniformly every where. What sets it apart in Chile, is the hu man interaction during these changes. The problem is the way we are the boss who is a jerk... is the boss of the other boss and so on. No one will let another person see what he’s doing, showing his process and not be ing afraid to defend his numbers. (Former Excellence Manager, large store and super market chain)
The Visual Management principle and tool brought about a technical shift in the retail industry. It made processes, results, and responsibilities visible, and also changed the dynamics of social relationships due to the tension, pressure, and competitiveness it introduced. This reorganization of work, especially in an industry with more authoritarian leadership, creates a paradoxical sit uation for workers. They are required to make their results visible, but they also feel compelled to conceal them, leaving them feeling exposed and vulnerable.
3.2 The Paradox of Achieving Excellence with Mini mal Investment: Doing more with Less
In [large store] a management team was set up that was charged with evangelizing Lean to everyone, and at every level, Lean was ap plied in the store, different specific processes and Lean workshops, which was like an evan gelization. I don’t know... training, talking about the 5S’s, training on waste, training on different things [...] (Project manager, chain of large home improvement stores)
In the realm of technology, the pursuit of continu ous improvement and overall quality is demonstrated through a set of success and quality measures, ultimately aiming for “zero errors, zero losses, and 100% quality”. Encouraging individuals to fully embrace and commit to these objectives necessitates the cultivation of a mindset that internalizes and appreciates them. To accomplish this, an extensive training program was implemented for employees, with no expense spared from the outset. For instance, the workshops could range from weeks to months in duration and could even involve interaction with Lean experts or training overseas. This serves as a significant motivator, particularly for middle manage ment -such as line managers and supervisors-, who view this approach as an opportunity for career progres sion and mobility. Additionally, it also benefits operation- al-level employees who are unaccustomed to training in this field and seek to enhance their skill set.
Employers in Chile have long held the belief that they must only train their employees in what is necessary for the specific job they want them to do. They fear that if employ ees learn more than that, they may be able to leverage their knowledge to get a better job or salary elsewhere, potentially increasing com petition for the employer. (Union leader)
In terms of the social aspect, employees with more seniority and were present at the start of the project tend to show greater commitment and adherence to LM. This is especially true for those who value aspects such as order, systematicity, and perfectionism. For many individuals, LM represents an opportunity for personal as well as professional development. As a result, they become advocates of the LM model, highlighting its ben efits and showing a high level of personal involvement.
I fell in love with Kaizen’s concept and phi losophy, because it just made sense to me in life. (Lean consultant and academic)
On the other hand, lower-skilled operational levels within the stores, have a different perception due to the lack of major investment in training and improvements in working conditions. There was a strong intensifica tion of work and its toll due to the continuous improve ment and pursuit of excellence. The call to commit to excellence, in a context in which wages are low and la bor turnover high, had little resonance in this segment. Employees in operational roles, particularly those work ing in supermarkets with the most challenging work ing conditions, had the lowest level of compliance with, and understanding of, the model. Dealing directly with customers in a high-stress, hostile, physically and men tally exhausting work environment meant that Lean’s improvement requirements were initially resisted, then quickly boycotted, and eventually forgotten and denied.
There is something like social fatigue that has to do with “stop taking me out and squeez ing me for as much as you can for as little as possible”, (former Continuous Improvement boss, department store chain)
Soon, the pressure for immediate profitability and the highly competitive business environment leads to budget cuts for LM consultants and managers. As a result, they need to find low-cost alternatives to engage their teams and maintain high standards of performance and quality within the required timeframe. This further strains the need for involvement from operational positions.
Yes, it’s very difficult, because they would like to receive their bonus. What we did was to say: “When we reach a certain level of service on the shelf” -making the require ment more modest- “and we reach 75%, we will have a barbecue”. And that, for exam ple, motivated them a lot. So, we tried to make it much more linked to that, rather than promising something difficult to fulfill, because, in the end, it is really difficult. Rais ing a wage is not so easy, giving a bonus is not so easy [...]. (Former Lean corporate manager, home improvement store chain)
This means the end of extended training and educa tion -the workers’ main motivation-, generating frus tration in all those who saw LM as a philosophy able to do justice and change the reality of retail by recog nizing the potential and professional development of its workforce. Committing simultaneously to quality and short-term profitability which undermines long-term de velopment is a source of frustration, especially when it involves making demands on others who are ultimately offered “less for more”.
Therefore, in summary, this principle and tool neces sitated a change at a technical level in retail. Achieving the desired excellence and overall quality required work ers to undergo intensive training. The tool fostered com mitment, involvement, and motivation in certain ranks that benefited from the training, but for others, it only resulted in increased work intensity and took a toll on their physical and mental well-being. This reorganiza tion of work within an industry unaccustomed to social and long-term investment creates a paradox for work ers. They are required to ensure profitability and qual ity with minimal resources, leading to a continuous im provement cycle that strives for excellence but with lim ited funding. This situation causes demotivation, frus tration, and exhaustion, especially for lower-ranking em ployees. It also creates unease for management, which feels that it demands too much from its workers in ex change for too little.
3.3 The Paradox of Limited and Subordinate Participation
The idea was for the workers themselves to introduce their boss, the store manager, and some people from the support office. Some experiences were memorable: for example, a worker told his wife the night before and rehearsed with her because he was going to introduce his ideas to his boss. It was the first time in his life that he would speak with his boss. These personal experiences turned out to be more powerful turning points than the actual changes being made in the store, (head of Continuous Improvement projects, home improvement store chain)
Together with the promise of training, the implemen tation of Lean involves a discourse that promotes the par ticipation and inclusion of all ranks in the work process. At a technical level, this means introducing tools such as genba (a strategy aimed at getting managers to immerse themselves in what is happening and going into the field), quality circles (spaces in which workers propose improve ments to their tasks) and performance dialogues based on Kanban boards, on which workers communicate their goals and daily tasks, as well as the obstacles they will have to face and possible solutions. These are accom panied by a heady discourse that calls for worker’s au tonomy and empowerment through participation in the redefinition of processes and decision-making.
And based on that, we started going to stores, to the genba: the place where the events oc cur, and to interview the workers, but it was only to interview them, to listen to what they had to say; the big decisions we made with the “enlightened ones”, sorry to put it like that, but it’s also to note the differences somewhat. (Continuous Improvement man ager, home improvement store chain)
At a social level, for lower-ranking workers, this kind of tool involved spaces for recognition that were unprece dented in this business, where little value is attached to worker’s knowledge and talent and there are no major ways to give visibility and listen, to their needs, diffi culties, and achievements. However, given the stores’ hierarchical culture compared to the inclusive and par ticipatory LM discourse, a kind of “hierarchical horizon- tality” prevails. Despite the offer of spaces for greater participation, there is a tendency to inhibit and restrict opinion and participation to its minimal expression.
[Referring to the manager] And he told me: “Listen, they are wasting their time, they are meeting up. What for? No! Tell these guys what they must do and that’s it”. That is a very deep-rooted notion of ours, the leader ship style, “I’m here to give orders and tell you what you must do. You are here only to listen” [...]. (Academic consultant, Lean expert)
Workers respond out of fear and inhibition. Although they are motivated by the recognition the model gives them, their participation is frustrating if they are asked to limit it. This hierarchical logic is reinforced by fear and the threat of being fired, which tends to inhibit their participation and leads them to maintain an atti tude of subordination, contradicting the encouragement the model aims to provide.
But in Chile, compared to other countries like Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina, people tend to have a stronger focus on hi erarchical levels. Not everyone, but many stay silent during workshops. I’ve noticed this, so what I did was encourage people to participate and extend the workshops a lit tle longer. (Former operations manager, a chain of large home improvement stores)
The paradoxical nature of this restricted and subor dinate participation is reinforced by the fact that the invitation to commit to organizing and participating in the implementation of LM occurred at the very time companies were advancing in staff reduction plans, which in part were one of the expected objectives of the stan dardization and process automation that were expected from LM techniques.
In the context of the Chilean retail industry, it is no table that, contrary to the situation in the international manufacturing literature, unions had minimal involve ment or influence in the introduction of Lean practices. Consequently, there were no discussions or agreements regarding the allocation of costs and benefits resulting from these innovations.
[... ] but I would say that it was nothing dra matic, nothing that involved the unions much, nothing like that (Former operations manager, home improvement department store chain)
The implementation of greater worker participation and voice in the retail industry involved opening up spaces for worker opinion and involvement at a technical level. However, senior management’s reluctance to engage with lower-ranking workers and a hierarchical and non-inclusive culture hindered the full realization of worker participa tion at a social level. This reorganization of work in an industry dominated by a vertical culture and a business model prioritizing short-term profitability created a para dox for workers. While they were invited to participate and be recognized in projects, they found themselves heavily regulated and subordinate in these spaces of participation. Simultaneously, they were also aware that the project was aimed at reducing labor costs, potentially leading to their termination from the companies.
4. Discussion and Conclusions
Based on these findings, it is important to highlight the contradictory and paradoxical nature of the experiences with the implementation of LM in the Chilean retail work environment. The unique characteristics of this en vironment influence how the model is adopted and how people engage with it. Therefore, by examining how certain common and intrinsic elements of LM intersect with specific features of the Chilean retail industry and its business culture, we can comprehend the mechanisms that give rise to the described paradoxes and contradic tions. These contradictions can be viewed as a product of this combination of elements and are important to understand in context.
Our findings demonstrate how LM’s restructuring of the technical and social demands of work gives rise to three paradoxical experiences. Each experience relates to a different principle and management tool promoted by LM and varies depending on the role of the different actors involved.
The first paradoxical experience concerns visual man agement, and the tensions faced by workers when the promise of transparency and democratization conflicts with the need to simultaneously reveal and conceal their results due to the specific nature of retail culture.
The second paradox relates to the conflicts arising from the principle of “doing more with less” and ad hering to LM’s cost reduction directives. While efforts to improve and undergo further training are motivating, they also put a greater strain on workers and make them more susceptible to dismissal as achieving excellence can lead to a decrease in the need for workers.
The third field of paradoxical experience concerns the invitation to participate and be recognized. Given the hierarchical and non-inclusive culture of this indus try, such participation is narrowly circumscribed and limited to a relation of subordinacy, while the same tool aims to drastically reduce the number of workers: “I invite you, but it is to later get rid of you”.
Emphasis is given to the contribution that social phe nomenology and the clinics of work can make to an un derstanding of new forms of flexible management and their impact on the formation of particular fields of ex perience. This article seeks to contribute to these ap proaches by insisting on the non-neutral character of management models in work reorganization, by show ing their impact on subjective experiences and thereby how the models affect worker’s malaise or well-being. In this regard, we should draw attention to how work ex periences impact relationships, self-perception, and be haviours, as suggested by theories on the centrality of work (Dejours et al., 2018). Even though this study is not conclusive on the issue, it can be postulated that in this reorganized work process and in the crucible of the paradoxes described here, a subjective experience of work emerges in which forms of connection are char acterized by mistrust, fear, and lack of mutual support; subjects are represented as actors trapped in the ambiva lence between what they want to become (via promises of inclusion and participation) and everything that pre vents this from materializing (power asymmetries, hier archies, short-term business logic, etc.); and forms of action prevail such as concealment, boycott, extreme attributions of responsibility and harassment, that can reveal to the base collective defence strategies that allow workers to face their tasks on a daily basis. As Dejours (2012) emphasizes, work involves more than just produc tion; it is about personal transformation through shared experiences and the creation of a society. Therefore, it is important to view the work environment and activ ities as going beyond mere employment. Our research shows that the organization and management of work have a significant impact on individuals’ thoughts, emo tions, and actions, not only within the workplace but also in broader social interactions.
The article explains how the contradictions in flexi ble management models vary depending on the industry, business culture, and work practices within a country and economic sector. This presents an important an alytical challenge for ongoing research, particularly in Latin America. The work environments and cultures in Latin America have unique nuances and characteristics that differ from the experiences studied in Anglo-Saxon research on these issues (Garcés & Stecher, 2020).
The text emphasizes the importance of advancing re search to deepen our knowledge about flexible manage ment models such as LM. It raises questions about the specific mechanisms that make these fields of experience paradoxical and how the reorganization of work affects interpersonal relationships and self-perception. The text also highlights the significance of management systems in shaping work organization and its impact on the well being of individuals. Finally, it is possible to point out that the development of this study, by illuminating the paradoxical character of work experiences in Lean Man agement settings, leaves open the question of the subjec tive experiences of researchers -including our own ex perience as authors of this study- in contemporary aca demic work settings, where flexible management princi ples have also been strongly implemented.
