TY - JOUR AU - Helper,Susan AU - Kleiner,Morris M. TI - International Differences in Lean Production, Productivity and Employee Attitudes JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 13015 PY - 2007 Y2 - April 2007 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13015 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13015.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Susan Helper Weatherhead School of Management Case Western Reserve University 11119 Bellflower Rd Cleveland, OH 44106-7235 Tel: 216/368-5541 Fax: 216/368-5542 E-Mail: susan.helper@weatherhead.cwru.edu Morris M. Kleiner University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs 260 Humphrey Center 301 19th Street South Minneapolis, MN 55455 Tel: 612/625-2089 Fax: 612/625-6351 E-Mail: kleiner@umn.edu M1 - published as Susan Helper, Morris M. Kleiner. "International Differences in Lean Production, Productivity, and Employee Attitudes," in Richard B. Freeman and Kathryn L. Shaw, editors, "International Differences in the Business Practices and Productivity of Firms" University of Chicago Press (2009) AB - The study examines US-European productivity and worker attitude differences, focusing on changes in incentive structures. We analyze productivity and worker attitudes in five plants in the UK and US belonging to the same multinational producer of automotive sensors and actuators. We examine the firm's efforts to make complementary changes in product strategy and human-resource policies. In particular, we look at the impact of a Value-Added Gainsharing plan (VAG) that was introduced at different times among the four plants. Our analysis draws on multiple plant visits, surveys of almost all of the workforce, and confidential financial data. Our study offers a rare look inside a low-wage, non-union firm. We find that the VAG had an impact on productivity and profitability. We find that the UK plant's productivity and worker satisfaction was well below that of the US plants. However, neither our analysis nor interviews with managers suggest that differences in national institutions play a key role in explaining these results. ER -