Bettison, DavidDay, PatrickHumphries-Kil, M.2026-09-162026-09-161995https://hdl.handle.net/10289/18660The introduction to New Zealand of Japanese Management Practices and their later variations, here, collectively named ‘the management of quality’, is examined in this thesis. ‘The management of quality’ is seen as the most recent phase of a long transformation of the process of work control. ‘Work’, ‘workers’ and ‘managers’, regarded in this thesis as instances of social fabrication, are examined in their transformation from ‘serfs’ to ‘labour’ during early industrialization, and then to their contemporary re-shaping for future forms of global capitalism. While employees and ordinary citizens have had a measure of influence on the nature of these fabrications, it is argued that theorizers and designated experts have provided techniques which give employers significantly more impact. The thesis is divided into four parts. In Part One I draw on Foucault’s method of archaeology to examine the way in which capitalist practices came to be routinized in western countries, particular England and America. Part Two examines the Japanese transition to the predominance of capitalist practices and argues that a number of key features of their form of capitalism differ from those developed in the west. In particular, post World War Two Japanese developments in management techniques are examined as these were liberally drawn on in the effort to convert New Zealand workers and managers to new ways of organising work. This effort of conversion is the focus of Part Three. The introduction of ‘the management of quality’ was achieved through the skilled use of rhetoric that, to varying degrees, involved employers, managers and workers. I conclude in Part Four, that global capitalists, in their pursuit of ever decreasing costs and their desire to increase their mobility, benefit from the achievement of global standardization of work, workers and managers. ‘The management of quality’ has been used to advance greater control over apparently self-managing employees.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.Thesis