Concept-Driven Change

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørn Gustavsen ◽  
Anders Wikman ◽  
Marianne Ekman Philips ◽  
Bernd Hofmaier
Keyword(s):  
Work Organization ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Strong Increase ◽  
Work Roles ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Organization Of Work ◽  
Productivity Increase ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Increase In Productivity

Sweden experienced a strong increase in productivity during the first part of the 1990s. Data from the Swedish Working Life Fund show that the productivity increase is linked to changes in work organization. These changes did not break with the Swedish tradition of expanding on work roles and the potential for learning and development among shop floor workers. The new element in the changed organization of work relates first and foremost to development processes as such, and new ways in which to broaden and accelerate such processes.

Women entrepreneurs, individual and collective work–family interface strategies and emancipation

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise St-Arnaud ◽  
Émilie Giguère
Keyword(s):  
Women Entrepreneurs ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Organization Of Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
The Family ◽  
Work Family

Purpose This paper aims to examine the experience of women entrepreneurs and the challenges and issues they face in reconciling the work activities of the family sphere with those of the entrepreneurial sphere. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a materialist feminist perspective and a theory of living work that take into account the visible and invisible dimensions of the real work performed by women entrepreneurs. The methodology is based on a qualitative research design involving individual and group interviews conducted with 70 women entrepreneurs. Findings The results show the various individual and collective strategies deployed by women entrepreneurs to reconcile the work activities of the family and entrepreneurial spheres. Originality/value One of the major findings emerging from the results of this study relates to the re-appropriation of the world of work and organization of work by women entrepreneurs and its emancipatory potential for the division of labour. Through the authority and autonomy they possessed as business owners, and with their employees’ cooperation, they integrated and internalized tasks related to the work activities of the family sphere into the organization of work itself. Thus, not only new forms of work organization and cooperation at work but also new ways of conceiving of entrepreneurship as serving women’s life choices and emancipation could be seen to be emerging.

Organization of work in Estonian university libraries: a review and survey

2014 ◽  
Vol 115 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 452-470
Author(s):  
Kate-Riin Kont ◽  
Signe Jantson
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Work Load ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Job Descriptions ◽  
Organization Of Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Job Duties

Purpose – The aim of the current article is to investigate satisfaction of the staff of Estonian university libraries with the organization of work by analyzing characteristics, aspects and dimensions of the work, such as self-realization and skills realization opportunities, task complexity, task interdependence and fair division of tasks. Design/methodology/approach – The data used in this paper is based on a review of relevant literature to provide an overview of the concept of work organization, and the results of the original online survey created by the paper’s authors, conducted among Estonian university libraries. The results are interpreted on the basis of direction in the literature, and the authors’ opinions, based on our long-term working experience in Estonian academic libraries. Findings – Although a number of Estonian university librarians were mostly satisfied with the division of labor within their departments, the respondents feel that duties in the library as a whole should be reorganized and workloads should be divided more equally. Almost half of the respondents have performed (in addition to their main job) duties that are not included in their job descriptions. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research has been previously carried out in the Estonian library context into work organization and coordination. Based on the current study, it can be concluded that the biggest challenge for university libraries in Estonia is to fixate clearly job descriptions and work procedures, divide job duties fairly and guarantee balanced work load. Additional duties should be accompanied with additional remuneration.

A Democratic Strategy for Organizational Change

1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Societal Perspective ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Industrial Democracy ◽  
Work Organizations ◽  
Organization Of Work ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Public

This article presents a model of democratic work organization based on concrete examples from Sweden. It focuses on how democratic work organizations can come about; how they can be introduced, developed, and protected; and, in general, how their growth can be encouraged. In the final section the perspective is broadened. The possibilities of creating an industrial democracy are discussed from a societal perspective. Women in the public sector are seen as a possible “avant-garde” in a union-based struggle for the democratic organization of work.

Local Strategies of Labor Control: A Case Study of Three Electronics Factories in China

2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Xue
Keyword(s):  
Work Organization ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Production Chain ◽  
Labor Conditions ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Labor Control ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Processing Zone

AbstractThis article explores production politics and labor conditions in electronics manufacturing in China. With case study analysis of three electronics factories in a production chain at an export processing zone, it examines external factors of labor regulation from local government or international challenges and labor market situations that help shape a sociopolitical environment for local strategies in global production. It also considers some key internal factors of firms—enterprise scale, market capabilities, and requirements of the labor process—that influence work organization on the shop floor. The central argument of this article is that manufacturing factories in the global production apply local conditions to work organization and take different strategies in recruitment and labor control within and beyond the workplace.

scholarly journals Former Glory and Challenges Ahead: The Definition of Working Life Research in Sweden

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Håkansta
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Science System ◽  
Public Science ◽  
University Departments ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Definition Of

This conceptual paper looks into the definition of “working life research” in Sweden and poses two questions: (1) How has the definition of the concept working life research changed over time? (2) Why has it changed? The paper is based on two studies using two different empirical sources. The first source consists of government documents related to science policy in general and working life research in particular. The second source consists of interviews with Swedish researchers. According to the results of the first study, there has been a gradual decrease in attention to working life research in government science science policy documents since the 1990s. Furthermore, there was a conceptual change in the early 1990s when working life research went from referring to work organization research to a broader definition also including work environment and labor market research. The results from the second study show that work science decreasingly appears in university curricula and in titles of university departments. They also show that currently active researchers, especially the younger ones, tend not to refer to themselves as “work scientists” and “working life researchers.” The author argues that the root cause of the apparent disappearance of the concept working life research has been the influence of neoliberalism, which, since the 1980s–1990s, has affected science policy as well as labor market policy. The effects of policy change on working life research are the loss of its previously so privileged position in the public science system and the weakening of what used to be its most important political ally: the trade unions.

scholarly journals Workplace Innovations as Reflected in the Romanian Economic Press

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Cristina Leovaridis
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Economic Journals ◽  
Economic Press

<p>Workplace innovations are designed to optimize production processes in firms and improve employees’ working conditions; few researches on this topic have shown that workplace innovations increased employees’ job satisfaction, as well as a sense of responsibility and autonomy, but also employees’ overall well-being, especially regarding to work–life balance and health. Workplace innovation includes aspects regarding work organization (job autonomy, self-managed teams, flexible working etc.), organizational structure and systems (devolution of decision-making to employees, fairness and equality, supporting employee initiative etc.), learning and development (high involvement innovation, staff learning and development, shared knowledge and experience etc.), workplace partnership (social dialogue, representative participation, involvement in change, openness and communication, integrating tacit and strategic knowledge etc.). This paper aims to highlight the main characteristics of workplace innovations in Romanian firms, as they are presented in some economical, business and academic, journals in our country. The research methodology consisted of a content analysis performed on four Romanian economic journals two from academic area (Management and Marketing and Management Dynamics in Knowledge Economy) and two from business area (Cariere and Biz). The dimensions of content analysis included the different types of workplace innovations and their effects on organizational performance as well as on employees’ quality of life at the workplace, the size and the source of capital and economic sector of firms that innovate in human resource management, barriers and drivers to the implementation of workplace innovations etc. The period for journals content analysis was 1 year, between January 1 and December 31, 2013. The paper contains a case study for each journal, including abstracts of the most relevant articles on the workplace innovations and related topics.</p>

scholarly journals Service Workers: Governmentality and Emotion Management

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-327
Author(s):  
Hing Ai Yun
Keyword(s):  
Service Sector ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Emotion Management ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Management Effectiveness ◽  
Service Workers ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Empirical Field

That all may be quiet on the shop floor could be a result of governmentality projects. But what lies beneath an appearance of professionalism? I undertook an empirical field study of workers in the service industry to examine contradictory and competing interests of employees and their employers and observed the dynamic constitution of subjectivity in situations of conflict. Based on a study of 56 service workers, this study first looks at the consensual orientation of workers towards their employment, then discusses a number of common demands required of workers in the service sector and investigates how workers deal with these management demands. My investigation of service workers disclose the internalised struggles experienced in their commitment to a prescribed, official image while attempting to maintain, at the same time, an integrous sense of self. By collecting stories of actual situations, I am able to show how patterns of emotion management, effectiveness of governmentality project, and agency work together to shape social behaviour in working life.

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