Abstract
The tests at the end of the line for assembling switches for industrial machines were showing more and more often that these were faulty. They were returned to the workers for re-assembly. Soon, the workers requested that the line be stopped while they tried to find out what was wrong. They then discovered that a tiny component was often faulty, so the charge hand sent for a production engineer. While waiting for him, the workers assembled ten switches using faulty components and ten using fault-free components. When the switches were tested, the first ten turned out to be non-functional while the last ten went through quality control without problems. However, the production engineer did not believe in these results or the workers’ explanation of the fault. He spent a lot of time going through all the components, looking disdainful the whole time — while the line stood still.
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© 2012 Jan Ch. Karlsson
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Karlsson, J.C. (2012). The Faulty Switches. In: Organizational Misbehaviour in the Workplace. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230354630_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230354630_22
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33396-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-35463-0
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