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The Swedish Working Life Fund — a temporary organization functioning from 1990 to 1995 — distributed 10 billion Swedish crowns for workplace development and initiated 25,000 projects. About half of the total labor market was affected. This evaluation study, which is built on case studies as well as a survey of a representative sample of the project population, describes the emergent characteristics of organization development in Swedish enterprises and services. In order to locate the efforts of the Fund within an explanatory context, the study draws on the idea of concept-driven change, of participation in development processes, of development coalitions, of infrastructure for change and of a society, that is supportive of change.
Union of Parts examines one of the central puzzles in the economic and political successes of West Germany (FRG). In the decades between world war and reunification with the East, the FRG provided a model for combining high rates of unionization and substantial labor peace—indeed, for collaboration between organized labor and organized capital as both groups faced the dislocations involved in adjusting to a changing global marketplace.
Since the 1990ies, organizations from different sectors have been operating in increasingly dynamic socio-economic environments characterized by unexpected events and instability. Organizations tend to adjust to dynamic environments by change initiatives promoting permanent reorganization. Such change initiatives often induce unintended effects, e.g. an erosion of trust, the violation of ‘psychological contracts’ in employees’ eyes or a decrease in organizational effectiveness. This book explores and analyzes whether such unintended effects can be anticipated or constructively dealt with by mindful change. The latter refers to the concept of organizational mindfulness that originally is linked to risk and safety research, e.g. in respect to ‘High Reliability Organizations’. In this book, organizational mindfulness is re-conceptualized addressing organizational change in the perspective of organizational sustainability. Moreover, it is explored how institutions foster or restrict organizations’ capability of organizational mindfulness in change processes.
This work examines a workplace development programme in Norway entitled Enterprise Development 2000. The purpose of the programme, and topic of this work, is to link research resources to the co-operation between parties in the labour market resulting in development, change and innovation.
A study which looks at the reciprocal influence of technological change and labour relations and includes case studies from six industrialized market economy countries, as well as a comparative chapter.; The book focuses on the introduction of microelectronic technology in machinery manufacturing, banking and printing to examine how workers participated in the changeover and how labour relations in the enterprises studied were affected by the new technology.
Supported bilaterally by Sweden and Norway, the Scandinavian Action Research Development Program (ACRES — Action Research in Scandinavia) emphasized conceptualizing research questions and self-conscious writing processes for experienced action researchers. Participants came from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Holland, Great Britain, and the United States. A learning experiment in the tradition of Scandinavian industrial democracy, ACRES had both intellectual and organizational tensions common to action research projects. This book includes theoretical and historical overviews of action research, reflections on the writing process, narratives about the design and difficult internal processes of ACRES, and a selection of the participants’ writings. A particularly unique feature of the book is the discussion of the problematic relationship between action research and conventional modes of research writing and an analysis of the complex social processes collaboratively managed projects create, in combination with a set of participant cases.
Work Organization has achieved recent prominence in European policy, as new employment guidelines are embodied in the policies of all European Member States. New forms of Work Organization, properly understood, offer collaborative competitive advantage to European enterprises. This book, based on decades of action research in separate European nations, identifies the research background from which these new insights and policy initiatives have emerged, with continuing lessons to be learned from differences. Work Organization is the missing link which enables innovation and training to produce sustainable increases in productivity: this is not mere academic theory but also vital practical bus...
Action Research is one of the most practical and down-to-earth ways of doing research into working life. Beyond Theory draws on examples and actual cases to discuss action research within the framework of the modern, and postmodern, theory of science debate. While action research has been much criticized by the traditionalists, the book reflects a convergence between action research and positions emerging out of the critique of scientific traditionalism. Discussions between these two fields of knowledge, originally so very different, can enrich both. The book will be useful not only to researchers and academics but to anyone who is interested in the role and use of knowledge in social and organizational development.
In the 1990s, the public sector has experienced the same kind of productivity pressures as has the private sector in most of the western countries. In Finland, the state and the local government organs have pursued to meet these demands by cutting down their personnel costs and by applying various models of New Public Management. This book sheds light on the possibilities of solving the problems in public sector modernization by changing the modes of operations of work organizations. The results presented in the book are based on development expriences in Finnish municipalities, and cover a period of eight years (1991-1998).The participative approach is focused on the simultaneous development of the quality of working life and the productivity of services along the lines of Organizational Assessment. Thus, the book addresses some of the central issues within the debate on action research and on the modernization of the public services, such as “top-down” and “bottom-up” developments and the impact for the customers. A special feature in the book is a description of trade unions as actors in the development process and the role of trade union officials as developers.
The second of a series of Yearbooks in the Work Life 2000 programme, preparing for the Work Life 2000 Conference in Malmö 22 - 25 January 2001, as a part of the Swedish Presidency of the European Union