Flexible Organizations and the New Working Life

289 Pages·2009·3.52 MB·English

by  Egil J. Skorstad and Helge Ramsdal

Flexible OrganizatiOns
and the new wOrking liFe
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Flexible Organizations
and the new working life
a european Perspective
Edited by
egil J. skOrstad
Østfold University College, Norway
helge ramsdal
Østfold University College, Norway
© egil J. skorstad and helge ramsdal 2009
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
egil J. skorstad and helge ramsdal have asserted their rights under the Copyright, designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company
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Union road 101 Cherry street
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Flexible organizations and the new working life : a
european perspective
1. human capital 2. Organizational effectiveness
3. industrial relations
i. skorstad, egil J. ii. ramsdal, helge
658.3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
skorstad, egil, 1945-
Flexible organizations and the new working life : a european perspective / by
egil J. skorstad and helge ramsdal.
p. cm.
includes index.
isbn 978-0-7546-7420-7 -- isbn 978-0-7546-9151-8 (ebook) 1.
hours of labor, Flexible--europe--Cross-cultural studies. 2. Organizational
culture--europe--Cross-cultural studies. 3. Organizational
behavior--europe--Cross-cultural studies. 4. Quality of work
life--europe--Cross-cultural studies. i. ramsdal, helge. ii. title.
hd5109.2.e85s56 2009
331.25'724094--dc22
09ANSHT 2008048575
isbn 978 0 7546 7420 7
eisbn 978 0 7546 9151 8 (ebook)
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables iv
List of Contributors xi
Preface xv
1 introduction 1
Helge Ramsdal and Egil J. Skorstad
2 the ambiguity of Flexibility 17
Egil J. Skorstad
3 the impact of Flexibility on employee morale and involvement:
large-sample Findings for Uk workplaces 43
Michael Rose
4 whose Flexibility? british employees’
responses to Flexible Capitalism 79
Harriet Bradley
5 a Package of Flexibility? 97
Birgitta Eriksson and Jan Ch. Karlsson
6 Protected, Firm-Specific, and Scarce: Explanations
of non-standard Forms of employment 111
R. Øystein Strøm
7 Combining Flexibility and workers’ motivation:
lessons from a study on italian and French hospitals 143
Philippe R. Mossé
8 striving for Flexibility, attaining resistance:
Culture Clashes in the swedish rail industry 163
Henrietta Huzell
9 the re-Organization of manufacturing and the emergence
of a Flexible economy in the Uk 187
Stephen Ackroyd
vi Flexible Organizations and the New Working Life
10 the Quest for Flexibility and governmental regulations
of working life: the Case of the 2005 norwegian worker
Protection and working environment act 209
Helge Ramsdal
11 what’s special about the nordic Countries?
On Flexibility, globalization and working life 233
Tor Claussen
12 Concluding remarks: the Complex dynamism
of the Flexible Organization 257
Egil J. Skorstad
Index 265
list of Figures
3.1 Number of flexibility practices and level of morale 69
4.1 graduate destinations in 2003 93
6.1 the OeCd (1999) ranking of member states according to the
establishments’ costs related to individual or collective dismissals 114
6.2 total labour force (left hand scale) in 1,000 persons
and percentage of women and unemployment (right hand scale)
in norway from 1972 to 2006 119
6.3 the average working year (left hand scale) and total hours worked
(right hand scale) in manufacturing and health in norway
from 1970 to 2004 121
6.4 normalized full-time employment in major norwegian industries
from 1970 to 2004 122
6.5 total and part-time employment for men and women
in manufacturing and the health services in norway
from 1996 to 2007 127
6.6 temporary work among men and women – 1,000 persons,
from 1996 to 2007 131
6.7 the percentage of workers engaged in temporary employment
in manufacturing, retail, hotels and restaurants (‘rethot’),
education and health services in norway from 1996 to 2007 132
6.8 the percentage of all and non-agricultural self-employed workers
in norway from 1970 to 2004 133
8.1 the management perspective and the resistance perspective
in relation to change within the domains of legitimacy,
restructuring and revaluating 172
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list of tables
3.1 Numerical flexibility: Employers’ use of non-standard contracts,
1998 and 2004 48
3.2 Numerical flexibility, organizational commitment, perceived
workplace relations 50
3.3 Numerical flexibility: Employers’ use of outsourcing, 1998 and 2004 52
3.4 Outsourcing, workplace climate and organizational attachment 53
3.5 Numerical flexibility: Jobs in workplace not guaranteed/exempt
from compulsory redundancy and approval of management,
perceived workplace relations and organizational commitment 54
3.6 Temporal flexibility: Overtime working, 1998 and 2004 57
3.7 Temporal flexibility: Overtime working, workplace climate
and organizational attachment 58
3.8 Temporal flexibility, effect of having a 24/7 work schedule 59
3.9 stretched contract working, manager informant agreed/
strongly agreed 61
3.10 Functional flexibility – Teamwork (definitions for 1998 and 2004,
restricted 2004) 63
3.11 training for job-switching, workplace climate and organizational
attachment 65
3.12 mean level (0–6) of largest OUg ‘formally trained’ do other job
(fxfunc_trainedojb) 66
3.13 actual job switching, workplace climate and organizational
attachment (wers 5 only) 67
3.14 Scope of flexibility practice in UK workplaces
with five or more employees 68
4.1 Changing proportions of firms reporting usage of different types
of flexible working 83
4.2 Percentage of firms in survey reporting availability of different
types of non-standard contractual arrangements 84
4.3 income levels by age group 92
5.1 Workplaces that have different types of flexibility (percentages) 99
5.2 types of work environments according to karasek’s model 103
5.3 different types of working conditions at the workplace
with various types of flexibility and various aspects of new
management (percentages) 104
5.4 Employees in different types of work environments at flexible
and non-flexible workplaces (vertical percentages) 105