کار خوب - چشم انداز اتحادیه های کارگری سوئد در سایه تولید ناب

“The Good Work” (Det goda arbetet) was established as a highly praised and established concept in the Swedish working life debate in the middle of the 1980s. In this paper, we are going to discuss the concept in relation to the massive introduction of lean production in Swedish industry. The aim of this paper is to restore the theory of the good work into the industrial society of today. We will search for a model for ‘good work’ in balance between the demands from production and good conditions for a learning environment. The theoretical base for this paper will be found in both organisational research and research on production technology systems. We identify three strong trends in Swedish industrial companies giving both pitfalls and possibilities for the good work; the learning focus as a way to increase productivity and improve working conditions; Lean Production in most cases imply narrow short-cyclic work tasks; and the global market that reduces national discretion. As a result, we formulate a new set of criteria for “the good work”.

“The Good Work” (a translation of the Swedish concept Det goda arbetet) stands for a normative theory formulated by the Swedish Metalworkers' Union during the 1980s. The theory specifies norms for the conditions of a good work and a good work place, norms that were partly based on state of the art of the socio-technical and macro ergonomic research of the 1970s and 1980s and partly a set of political considerations. Parts of the theory can also be found in the modern management discourse from the 1990s and 2000s. The starting point of the paper is that the debate, ideas and strategies of “the good work” are rather invisible today. Our object in view is not to decide if the Swedish Metalworkers' Union was right or wrong, we rather want to discuss the concept of “the good work” in relation to a new theoretical and industrial context. “The good work” is not something that is given for all times, but rather something that continually must be updated in relation to new technology and changes in the social contexts. In this paper, we are discussing the concept of the good work in relation to the current management discourse and the prevailing industrial context. We identify three strong trends giving both pitfalls and possibilities for the good work; the learning focus as a way to increase productivity and improve working conditions; Lean Production in most cases imply narrow short-cyclic work tasks; and the global market that reduces national discretion. At the end of the paper, we present a proposal for a new model for “the good work” in balance between the demands from production and good conditions for a learning environment.