Union–management interface: Using the competing values framework as a diagnostic tool to bring increased involvement at the plant level

This article describes an organizational intervention jointly sponsored by the United Automobile Workers and the Ford Employee Involvement Executive Committee. The intervention was needed to rejuvenate the existing employee involvement (EI) process which had been in existence since the early 1980s. The EI process had achieved its purpose of making significant cultural changes at Ford, but was viewed as narrow in scope in light of existing organizational problems of quality, customer focus, and productivity. An organizational intervention was designed jointly by a committee of union and management personnel using the Competing Values Framework as a diagnostic tool to examine the current organizational gaps in the majority of Ford's manufacturing facilities. The article discusses the overall process and the significant results at four major plant facilities.