The Palgrave Handbook of the Sociology of Work in Europe by Paul Stewart & Jean-Pierre Durand & Maria-Magdalena Richea

Author:Paul Stewart & Jean-Pierre Durand & Maria-Magdalena Richea
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319932064
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Workplace Studies

A replication of Segerstedt and Lundquist’s study, mentioned above, was conducted in 1987–1988, almost 40 years later (Åberg 1990). It was carried out in one of the towns in the original investigation, the one with newer industries. The working life dimension was analysed by Mats Johansson (1990) who used interview data from the same three manufacturing companies included in the first study. Fewer individuals were interviewed, but the response rate was high. As the replication was limited to only one of the two towns certain analyses could not be done. It is also difficult to make comparisons across such a long period of time, but it turned out that, with a few exceptions, there had been clear improvements in the physical work environment. Another outcome was that, in all three companies, the proportion of blue-collar workers with qualified work had risen. However, rather many, and in particular women, had unqualified jobs in the study. Blauner’s (1964) vision that automation would lead to upgrading for everyone was not supported by the evidence. On the other hand, the proportion with an instrumental attitude to work—defined by Johansson as good incomes being considered a major factor for enjoying a job—seemed to have decreased except for female white-collar workers among whom it had increased.

In Segerstedt and Lundquist’s analysis the two concepts job satisfaction and morale played a crucial role. Johansson hypothesised that positive attitudes to supervisors and higher management (an element of job satisfaction) would be associated with stronger team spirit (morale). The various indicators used in these respects did not suggest that the team spirit had generally become stronger. Relatively large proportions of blue-collar workers did not feel that their work was appreciated by management and/or that their career opportunities were good. Negative answers of that kind were rather more widespread in the end of the 1980s than 40 years earlier. There was thus hardly any evidence of common company cultures in the three establishments. Most blue-collar workers felt a sharp distinction between ‘those up there’ and ‘us down here’.

A notable approach to the sociology of work is a study of Swedish workplaces, presented in a book by Carl le Grand et al. (1996a). The empirical basis was a survey to a sample of workplaces with at least 10 employees. Data were collected from about 2000 units in both the private and the public sector. Respondents were the head of the workplace and/or the personnel manager. Among the many results, it can be mentioned that workplaces where the possibilities for an internal career were good also tended to provide good opportunities for development within a job (le Grand 1996). There was, accordingly, no contradiction between the two strategies for expanding employees’ skills. In another analysis, it was asked why certain employers pay more than others for apparently similar work (le Grand et al. 1996b). Generally, this was due to strong relations of dependence, which in turn had to do with difficulties of controlling performance and with the relative segregation of the internal

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