The Swedish Working Life Fund — a temporary organization functioning from 1990 to 1995 — distributed 10 billion Swedish crowns for workplace development and initiated 25,000 projects. About half of the total labor market was affected. This evaluation study, which is built on case studies as well as a survey of a representative sample of the project population, describes the emergent characteristics of organization development in Swedish enterprises and services. In order to locate the efforts of the Fund within an explanatory context, the study draws on the idea of concept-driven change, of participation in development processes, of development coalitions, of infrastructure for change and of a society, that is supportive of change.

The Swedish Working Life Fund — a temporary organization functioning from 1990 to 1995 — distributed 10 billion Swedish crowns for workplace development and initiated 25,000 projects. About half of the total labor market was affected. This evaluation study, which is built on case studies as well as a survey of a representative sample of the project population, describes the emergent characteristics of organization development in Swedish enterprises and services. In order to locate the efforts of the Fund within an explanatory context, the study draws on the idea of concept-driven change, of participation in development processes, of development coalitions, of infrastructure for change and of a society, that is supportive of change.

This text proposes a development project within the field of work organisation, with participation from across Europe. It includes chapters on the nature and history of the idea of development coalition, largely rooted in the Scandinavian experience, and case studies from other European countries.

Action Research is one of the most practical and down-to-earth ways of doing research into working life. Beyond Theory draws on examples and actual cases to discuss action research within the framework of the modern, and postmodern, theory of science debate. While action research has been much criticized by the traditionalists, the book reflects a convergence between action research and positions emerging out of the critique of scientific traditionalism. Discussions between these two fields of knowledge, originally so very different, can enrich both. The book will be useful not only to researchers and academics but to anyone who is interested in the role and use of knowledge in social and organizational development.

In the 1990s, the public sector has experienced the same kind of productivity pressures as has the private sector in most of the western countries. In Finland, the state and the local government organs have pursued to meet these demands by cutting down their personnel costs and by applying various models of New Public Management. This book sheds light on the possibilities of solving the problems in public sector modernization by changing the modes of operations of work organizations. The results presented in the book are based on development expriences in Finnish municipalities, and cover a period of eight years (1991-1998).The participative approach is focused on the simultaneous development of the quality of working life and the productivity of services along the lines of Organizational Assessment. Thus, the book addresses some of the central issues within the debate on action research and on the modernization of the public services, such as “top-down” and “bottom-up” developments and the impact for the customers. A special feature in the book is a description of trade unions as actors in the development process and the role of trade union officials as developers.

This reference provides an overview of relevant literature to engineers, managers, accountants, occupational health and safety specialists, and industrial hygienists, so that they, and other professionals, can understand what has caused our workplaces to become primary sources of physical and mental illness.