Management and employee control in current industrial work

This article examines how employee control is affected by the ongoing erosion of boundaries in work organization and established boundaries in the relationship between employees and management. One assumption is that the erosion of boundaries offers potential for increased employee control, meaning increased autonomy or self-determination at work (employee control how and when to do what). This assumption is supported by theories on the psychosocial working environment. Another assumption is that the erosion of boundaries threatens the frontiers from where employees can defend their interests, and consequently reduces employees’ control of their work (what and how much to do). This assumption is supported by “labor process theory.” This article studies control and the erosion of boundaries in two case factories in the food industry. Two perspectives are applied: the psychosocial working environment and “labor process theory.

Quality in Modern Nordic Working Life—Investigating Three Related Research Perspectives and Their Possible Cross-Fertilization

Nordic working life balance is important in the context of a highly developed welfare state, budget collaboration between the State and municipalities, and a unified labor movement. In working life studies, various research perspectives create meaning around and propose solutions for the many quality issues of modern working life. Welfare research, working environment research, and human resource management (HRM) research attack the multiple challenges of working life in different ways and share the overall objective of solving issues in modern working life. Research from the three perspectives, however, tends to compartmentalize life spheres. They conceptualize the modern working person as an individual, employee, or citizen, neglecting the complexity of lived life where all three spheres blur together, which possibly reflects the difficulty of making modern work life function well. This article is based on a structured literature review of the three main research perspectives (welfare, working environment, and HRM). We review existing international research, observing where the three perspectives show overlaps and identify 24 studies which cross-fertilize in the sense that two or more of the perspectives are applied at the same time in the same study. Our results show that while the perspectives share a common interest in solving the problems of the overlapping working life (OWL), they do so with different methods and criteria for success, and offer different solutions. We propose the concept “OWL” to analyze how working life studies create meaning around quality issues of modern working life. OWL’s main focus is the multiple challenges faced by working people who are simultaneously individuals, citizens, and employees. We arrive at two main cross-disciplinary themes: boundary and quality. The boundary theme reflects an approach to solving the issues of modern working life through improvements of the working life balance. The quality theme reflects an approach to solving issues in modern working life by addressing quality of work, preventing stress, burnout, etc. The review only finds three studies which try to encompass all three life spheres (employee, citizen, and employee), and even when the research perspectives are cross-fertilized, knowledge of possible effects of cross-fertilization is sparse. We propose further research in initiatives aiming at improving the complementing and supplementing of the three perspectives especially with regard to facilitation of families with small children, an intensified focus on inclusive workplaces, and a higher degree of correlation between HRM, working environment, and welfare policies

Indflydelse på egen arbejdstid som løsningen på tilpasningen mellem arbejdsliv og familieliv

Artiklen diskuterer, hvordan organisationsforandringer med henblik på at gøre to arbejdspladser mere familievenlige har forskellige effekter, selvom midlet begge steder har været en større medarbejderindflydelse på arbejdstiden. Den ene arbejdsplads er en traditionel mandsdomineret arbejdsplads med primært ufaglært arbejdskraft, den anden en traditionel kvindedomineret arbejdsplads med primært faglært arbejdskraft

The Naturalization of Gender Segregation in a Danish Bank

Through a qualitative interview analysis of a document handling department in a Danish bank, this article seeks to illuminate central aspects of how some jobs come to be seen as naturally female. Taking gendered organizational theory and Joan Acker’s concept of an ideal employee as our point of departure, we ask whether women are seen as the ideal employees in this femaledominated job function or as a residual to men as the actual ideal employees. The numerical female dominance in the document handling department is articulated as a matter of competencies, job content, and family obligations – for example, by framing women as good at multitasking, as enjoying routine work, and as primary caregivers. The article argues that this construction both draws on and alters historically formed stereotypes in ways that reinforce the gender segregation of the organization and make it hard to change

Prospective Study in a Porcine Model of Sarcoptes scabiei Indicates the Association of Th2 and Th17 Pathways with the Clinical Severity of Scabies

BackgroundUnderstanding of scabies immunopathology has been hampered by the inability to undertake longitudinal studies in humans. Pigs are a useful animal model for scabies, and show clinical and immunologic changes similar to those in humans. Crusted scabies can be readily established in pigs by treatment with the glucocorticoid dexamethasone (Dex).Methodology/ Principal FindingsProspective study of 24 pigs in four groups: a) Scabies+/Dex+, b) Scabies+/Dex-, c) Scabies-/Dex+ and d) Scabies-/Dex-. Clinical symptoms were monitored. Histological profiling and transcriptional analysis of skin biopsies was undertaken to compare changes in cell infiltrates and representative cytokines. A range of clinical responses to Sarcoptes scabiei were observed in Dex treated and non-immunosuppressed pigs. An association was confirmed between disease severity and transcription of the Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-13, and up-regulation of the Th17 cytokines IL-17 and IL-23 in pigs with crusted scabies. Immunohistochemistry revealed marked infiltration of lymphocytes and mast cells, and strong staining for IL-17.Conclusions/ SignificanceWhile an allergic Th2 type response to scabies has been previously described, these results suggest that IL-17 related pathways may also contribute to immunopathology of crusted scabies. This may lead to new strategies to protect vulnerable subjects from contracting recurrent crusted scabies