Globalization and Job Insecurity in Danish Firms: A Multilevel Study

Globalization is on the agenda as a cause of job insecurity, but knowledge regarding the relationship between globalization, management practices, and employee job insecurity is in fact limited. This study aims to investigate this multilevel association, defining globalization by the interrelated aspects of competition, liberalization, and technological innovation, and management by offensive practices such as external collaboration, organizational change, numerical flexibility, and work intensification. Questionnaire data were collected in 2010 from 3392 employees of 569 Danish companies and analyzed with multilevel modeling. The results show that international collaboration and numerical flexibility are associated with higher job insecurity. The level of job insecurity varies with occupational position, age group, and company size. Because globalization and the management of globalization are associated with employee job insecurity, companies should react in a timely way to globalization pressures: for example, by involving employees, communicating clearly, and supporting employees with lower education

Capabilities for Innovation: The Nordic Model and Employee Participation

Technological developments combined with increasing levels of competition related to the ongoing globalization imply that firms find themselves in dynamic, changing environments that call for dynamic capabilities. This challenges the internal human and organizational resources of firms in general and in particular their ability to develop firm-specific innovative capabilities through employee participation and creation of innovative workplaces. In this article, we argue that national institutional conditions can play an enhancing or hampering role in this. Especially the norms and values governing relations between employers and employees are expected to be of vital importance. This article will follow a resource-based perspective on developing dynamic capabilities in order to test the importance of enhancing human and organizational capabilities for innovation in firms. In particular, the article will focus on some of the important institutional conditions in Danish firms derived from the Nordic model, such as the formal and informal relations of cooperation between employers and employees in firms and their function in building capabilities for innovation. The foundation of the empirical analysis is a survey that collected information from 601 firms belonging to the private urban sector in Denmark. The survey was carried out in late 2010

Capabilities for Innovation: The Nordic Model and Employee Participation

Technological developments combined with increasing levels of competition related to the ongoing globalization imply that firms find themselves in dynamic, changing environments that call for dynamic capabilities. This challenges the internal human and organizational resources of firms in general and in particular their ability to develop firm-specific innovative capabilities through employee participation and creation of innovative workplaces. In this article, we argue that national institutional conditions can play an enhancing or hampering role in this. Especially the norms and values governing relations between employers and employees are expected to be of vital importance. This article will follow a resource-based perspective on developing dynamic capabilities in order to test the importance of enhancing human and organizational capabilities for innovation in firms. In particular, the article will focus on some of the important institutional conditions in Danish firms derived from the Nordic model, such as the formal and informal relations of cooperation between employers and employees in firms and their function in building capabilities for innovation. The foundation of the empirical analysis is a survey that collected information from 601 firms belonging to the private urban sector in Denmark. The survey was carried out in late 2010

Assessment of work intensification by managers and psychological distressed and non-distressed employees:a multilevel comparison

Work intensification is a popular management strategy to increase productivity, but at the possible expense of employee mental stress. This study examines associations between ratings of work intensification and psychological distress, and the level of agreement between compared employee-rated and manager-rated work intensification. Multi-source survey data were collected from 3,064 employees and 573 company managers from the private sector in 2010. Multilevel regression models were used to compare different work intensification ratings across psychological distress strata. Distressed employees rated higher degree of total work intensification compared to non-distressed employees, and on three out of five sub ratings there were an increased prevalence of work intensification in the case group. In general, there was poor agreement between employee and company work intensification rating. Neither manager-rated work intensification nor employee/manager discrepancy in work intensification ratings was associated with psychological distress. Distressed employees had a higher total score of employee/manager agreed work intensification, and a higher prevalence of increased demands of labour productivity. This study demonstrates higher ratings of employee/manager agreed work intensification in distressed employees compared to non-distressed employees, challenging previous findings of reporting bias in distressed employees’ assessment of work environment

Globaliseringsparat?

Globalisering har udviklet sig til et dominerende begreb, når danske virksomheders og medarbejderes betingelser og adfærd skal analyseres. Men hvordan kan virksomhederne håndtere globaliseringens øgede konkurrence samt omskiftelige teknologiske og markedsmæssige betingelser? Et svar på udfordringen kan være at styrke de interne humane og organisatoriske ressourcer. Denne artikel vil analytisk forfølge et sådant ressourcebaseret perspektiv og undersøger, hvorledes virksomheder og medarbejdere har udviklet deres ressourcer i løbet af de seneste 15 år

Globalization and job insecurity in Danish firms: A multilevel study

Globalization is on the agenda as a cause of job insecurity, but knowledge regarding the relationship between globalization, management practices, and employee job insecurity is in fact limited. This study aims to investigate this multilevel association, defining globalization by the interrelated aspects of competition, liberalization, and technological innovation, and management by offensive practices such as external collaboration, organizational change, numerical flexibility and work intensification. Questionnaire data were collected in 2010 from 3,392 employees of 569 Danish companies and analyzed with multilevel modeling. The results show that international collaboration and numerical flexibility are associated with higher job insecurity. The level of job insecurity varies with occupational position, age group and company size. Because globalization and the management of globalization are associated with employee job insecurity, companies should react in a timely way to globalization pressures: for example, by involving employees, communicating clearly and supporting employees with lower education