Martina Aksberg: The Impact of Work Organisation on the Employee's Future on the Labour Market

The presentation will be held in swedish.

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between work organisation and the employee’s future on the labour market. We base our study on the results from a survey and Swedish population and enterprise registers. The survey enables us to observe the work organisation of 1311 Swedish workplaces in 1998. By the use of population registers the employees of these workplaces are followed over the years 1999-2008 with respect to their positions on the labour market in each year respectively.

Three index variables are constructed to measure the work organisation in 1998 at the workplaces included in our study - numerical flexibility, decentralisation and individual learning. Numerical flexibility describes to which extent the company adjusts the number of employees according to the current need for labour. Decentralisation gives an indication of the level of responsibility, decision-making possibilities and cooperation among the employees. Individual learning describes the employees’ learning and professional development in daily work. For each year 1999-2008 respectively the individuals included in our study are categorised as being part of number of different categories of occupation. The ones of main interest for our study are; having or not having a job, employed by the same firm, employed by another firm, unemployed, on sick leave and disability pensioner.

The analyses are performed on individual level, with the category of occupation as response variable and the three index variables describing the work organisation at the workplace of 1998, as well as a set of variables to be controlled for, as explanatory variables. Logistic regression is used to make analyses of each year and category of occupation separately while the generalized estimating equation approach gives us the opportunity to include data from all years in the same model. Multiple linear regression is performed to find possible connections between work organisation and income development.

Our results show that numerical flexibility is negative for the probability of having a job in the future. Having worked in a numerically flexible firm decreases the chance of still being employed by the same company but also increases the chance of being employed by another company. It increases the risk of unemployment and has a negative impact on the wage development. The higher the value of numerical flexibility at the workplace in 1998, the larger are these effects. With some exception, the variable has an impact throughout the period, although the effect decreases with time. Many positive outcomes of decentralisation are found. It increases the probability of having a job and of still being employed by the same firm. Employees of decentralised workplaces tend to change job, being on sick leave and becoming disability pensioners to a smaller extent than others. We also find that decentralisation is positive for the wage development. Generally the variable has a significant but decreasing impact throughout the period. Individual learning is positive for the probability of having a job. It increases the probability of staying within the firm and hence decreases the probability of being employed by another firm. Furthermore it decreases the risk of unemployment and is positive for the wage development. It generally has a significant, but decreasing, effect over the years 1999-2008. The main conclusion that may be drawn from our study is that work organisation does have an impact on the employee’s future on the labour market.