Job design and industrial democracy

Job design and industrial democracy PDF Author: Joep F. Bolweg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146134364X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
The organization of work is under critique in many industrialized countries. Bureaucracy, specialization, repetitive technology, and hierarchical control structures are criticized by politicians, trade unionists, and social scientists. They argue for improved quality of work, for work democratization, and for the humanization of work. This book evaluates Norwegian field ex periments in the area of job redesign which started already in 1964. Norway has therefore a lead in experience compared to most other countries, particu to the United States, where debates and subsequent experiments re larly volving around the quality of working life and the democratization of work started only in the early seventies. The Norwegian social scientists who left their academic bastions and started action research drew heavily upon the 'open socio-technical system' thinking as developed by the Tavistock Insti tute of Human Relations in London. This descriptive evaluation study ana lyzes the job redesign experiments from an industrial democracy perspective and places the experiments in their national political and labor relations contexts. Special emphasis is given to the actual and potential role trade unions can play in shopfloor job design projects. The industrial relations of the United States is generally used as reference point in this study. system The theory guiding the experiments regards work democratization through job redesign as a first step in a bottom-up process of organizational demo cratization.

Job design and industrial democracy

Job design and industrial democracy PDF Author: Joep F. Bolweg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146134364X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Get Book

Book Description
The organization of work is under critique in many industrialized countries. Bureaucracy, specialization, repetitive technology, and hierarchical control structures are criticized by politicians, trade unionists, and social scientists. They argue for improved quality of work, for work democratization, and for the humanization of work. This book evaluates Norwegian field ex periments in the area of job redesign which started already in 1964. Norway has therefore a lead in experience compared to most other countries, particu to the United States, where debates and subsequent experiments re larly volving around the quality of working life and the democratization of work started only in the early seventies. The Norwegian social scientists who left their academic bastions and started action research drew heavily upon the 'open socio-technical system' thinking as developed by the Tavistock Insti tute of Human Relations in London. This descriptive evaluation study ana lyzes the job redesign experiments from an industrial democracy perspective and places the experiments in their national political and labor relations contexts. Special emphasis is given to the actual and potential role trade unions can play in shopfloor job design projects. The industrial relations of the United States is generally used as reference point in this study. system The theory guiding the experiments regards work democratization through job redesign as a first step in a bottom-up process of organizational demo cratization.

Design of Jobs

Design of Jobs PDF Author: Louis E. Davis
Publisher: Santa Monica, Calif. : Goodyear Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description


Disintegrating Democracy at Work

Disintegrating Democracy at Work PDF Author: Virginia Doellgast
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801464447
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
The shift from manufacturing- to service-based economies has often been accompanied by the expansion of low-wage and insecure employment. Many consider the effects of this shift inevitable. In Disintegrating Democracy at Work, Virginia Doellgast contends that high pay and good working conditions are possible even for marginal service jobs. This outcome, however, depends on strong unions and encompassing collective bargaining institutions, which are necessary to give workers a voice in the decisions that affect the design of their jobs and the distribution of productivity gains. Doellgast’s conclusions are based on a comparative study of the changes that occurred in the organization of call center jobs in the United States and Germany following the liberalization of telecommunications markets. Based on survey data and interviews with workers, managers, and union representatives, she found that German managers more often took the "high road" than those in the United States, investing in skills and giving employees more control over their work. Doellgast traces the difference to stronger institutional supports for workplace democracy in Germany. However, these democratic structures were increasingly precarious, as managers in both countries used outsourcing strategies to move jobs to workplaces with lower pay and weaker or no union representation. Doellgast’s comparative findings show the importance of policy choices in closing off these escape routes, promoting broad access to good jobs in expanding service industries.

New Forms of Work Organization in Europe

New Forms of Work Organization in Europe PDF Author: Peter Grootings
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412829618
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
A remarkable development in the sociology of work in recent years has been the explosion of brilliant cross-national and cross-cultural studies in Europe examining the conditions of labor against the background of different economic systems, and differences within each of the major free market, mixed welfare, and planned economic systems that dot the European landscape. In Vienna and Budapest in particular, a group of intellectual workers have gotten together for what can only be described as breakthrough studies in the conditions and purposes of work in post-industrial society. The question of new forms of work organization focuses on job satisfaction, participatory democracy in the work place, levels of productivity, and issues of health and safety in the occupational environment. That these elements are important have long been known. But what this collection of studies emphasizes is the specific mix that produced specific outcomes. It does not shy away from dangerous and tough questions: worker control and control of workers, political participation in contexts of authoritarian regimes, and personal rewards in contexts that once frowned upon private acquisition of capital. The volume is rich in empirical studies and draws the theoretical implications that can and already have had vast policy consequences for workers in the modern " context. Issues relating to job rotation, enrichment, enlargement and autonomy, and others related to new forms of organization starting with the shop floor and extending throughout the management of the enterprise as a whole are dealt with candidly. The social character of labor, long frowned upon as a mechanism for evading bread-and-butter issues, is now recognized, East and West, as a dimension of concern that is growing precisely as the size and character of the labor sector is diminishing. This is must reading for those interested in new forms of social and policy synthesis, and ways of meliorating competing claims of different sectors in modern societies.

Industrial Democracy and Worker Participation

Industrial Democracy and Worker Participation PDF Author: Barry Maley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Employees' representation in management
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Annotated bibliography of publications written in English on the theory and practice of workers participation, covering the period from 1960 to 1976 - includes a classified subject index and a list of secondary information sources which were consulted.

The State, Class and the Recession (Routledge Revivals)

The State, Class and the Recession (Routledge Revivals) PDF Author: Stewart Clegg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134716400
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
The contributions to this edited collection, first published in 1983, are based on two underlying themes. The first examines the major recession that took hold of the global economy during the 1980s and assesses its effects on key areas of social structure, including political and economic democracy and trade union representation. The second theme considers the limitations of state intervention in such changing circumstances, with particular reference to the welfare state. This is a comprehensive title, which is of great relevance to those with an interest in the current global economic situation and the potential impact of this on the welfare state and class structure.

Industrial Democracy in America

Industrial Democracy in America PDF Author: Nelson Lichtenstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521566223
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
A close examination of what came to be known among collars of any colour as 'the labour problem' with the railroad strikes of the 1870s.

Industrial Democracy

Industrial Democracy PDF Author: Paul Blumberg
Publisher: Schocken Books Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description


Manpower

Manpower PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Employment agencies
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description


New Forms of Work Organisation

New Forms of Work Organisation PDF Author: Lisl Klein
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521210553
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description
Monograph on new forms of work organisation and job design in connection with the quality of working life in Western Europe - analyses individual Motivation and attitudes to work and job satisfaction, and brief case studies on organisational choice, etc., and includes current trends and developments. Bibliography p. 103 to 106.