Technological change and co-determination in Sweden

In this book, Ake Sandberg and his colleagues examine how labor unions and corporations negotiate and cooperate on job design and computerization and technological change in the workplace. The research team at Arbetslivscentrum (Swedish Center for Working Life) examines organizational problem-solving, from planning and research to resolution. The book relies on several research projects and specifically on four illustrative case studies: a Swedish dairy, Postgiro (office processing payments to postal check accounts), an engineering workshop, and a sugar mill. Building on these studies, the authors compare employee and union participation in modifying and modernizing Swedish work environments to participation in similar situations elsewhere in Europe and the United States. This book is the first systematic overview and presentation of worklife research in Sweden oriented toward values like "good jobs" and employee influence on workplaces. It follows the renewal of labor law in the 1970s, especially the laws on co-determination--laws that regulate and encourage joint involvement by union and management in the decision-making process of the organization. Sandberg and his colleagues present extensive case studies that discuss and analyze job design, the present strategies and future role of unions, employee participation, and local union efforts to impact organizational and technological changes. The dairy and the Postgiro cases impressively illustrate the interaction of local and central unions to influence the early stages of decision-making and planning. The engineering workshop and the sugar mill cases demonstrate that union leaders can empower and influence the workers concerned through informal collaboration, relying on local resources to provide greater independence. As an important background, Swedish industrial relations is addressed and, by way of conclusion, there is a discussion of the challenges to unions caused by new, post-Taylorist forms of work organization and management. The authors consider a renewal of union strategy that involves the varying interests of individuals and a new emphasis on local union activity with central support "in a (solidaristic) policy for the good work."