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The paper examines the implementation of hybrid work arrangements (HWAs) in response to the covid-19 pandemic. It reflects upon the hybrid work phenomenon across various organisational and sectoral contexts and identifies areas for future research through a literature review and two pilot studies in Sweden. HWAs offer job quality benefits such as increased autonomy in terms of flexibility (i.e. in how, when, and where work is done) and improved work-life balance. However, hybrid workers also experience higher workloads and challenges in maintaining work-life boundaries. In the case of non-hybrid workers (i.e. workers who work exclusively on-site), previous research and our interviews point to almost exclusively negative effects: for instance, increased workloads due to difficulties in collaborating with hybrid colleagues, reduced autonomy, and worsened work-life balance. 

The purpose of the paper is to discuss hybrid work arrangements in relation to job quality across various sectors and organisational contexts. Moreover, as part of the process of designing an interdisciplinary HWA-research project in Sweden, between business administration and work science at Dalarna University, the paper also wants to discuss identified areas for future research and also the research project outlined in this paper.

This paper compares responses to crises through analysis of labour market policy in Sweden and the UK between the Global Financial Crises to the COVID-19 pandemic. In drawing on 'restructuring regimes' we offer insights into the dynamics of change in the two countries, focussing on the development of short-time working schemes. We argue that Sweden learned lessons from the GFC that helped prepare for future crises, whereas the UK's muted response left it ill-prepared for the COVID-19 crisis. The paper contributes to debates around restructuring regimes through an analysis of the journey between two crises in which we characterise Sweden's approach as proactive and pre-emptive and the UK's as reactive and ad hoc. By locating analysis in traditions of self-regulation and voluntarism in Sweden and the UK, respectively, we expand upon the role that industrial relations play in maintaining the stability, or not, of national restructuring regimes. 

This article examines different orientations to planning in the context of the post-redundancy transition of workers in the Swedish steel industry. The aim of the article is to extend our understanding of the role of planning in careers transitions. Drawing on careers transitions theories, the article explores the qualitative experience of the journey between a redundancy event and the employment situation several years later. Within the careers literature planning is regarded as important to transitions, yet there is a tendency to present planning as an ongoing and lifelong process. By going beyond the prevalent focus within the career literature on managerial, professional or creative industries workers, the article raises the question of whether highly agential, ongoing, lifelong approaches to planning apply to everyone. Data are based on working-life biographical interviews conducted several years after redundancy. The findings show that although some participants resembled assumptions within the careers literature, there are key variations relating to ongoing planning, reflecting differences in the expectations of agency and perceptions of structural constraint. The analysis identifies three orientations to planning – strategic, episodic and truncated – and explores these in relation to both post-redundancy transition outcomes and, crucially, the experience of the transition journey.

Existing research has found heterogeneity in the implementation of Lean and its outcomes in terms of employee involvement across countries. This article explores the potential role of labour–management relations. It relies on in-depth company case studies carried out in the aerospace industry in France and Sweden. The study finds significant variations in employee involvement – higher in the Swedish than in the French cases. Managerial orientations did play a role, as the ‘technocratic’ form of Lean in France echoed a more unilateral top-down conception of management, while Swedish managers appeared more receptive to the ‘involvement-enhancing’ paradigm. But the attitudes and behaviours of unions were also a crucial factor, as Swedish unions were very effective in impinging on the implementation of Lean at workplace level, while their French counterparts, often divided, adopted a more defensive stance, lacking expertise and implication in the promotion of high-involvement work organisations.

Denna studie fokuserar på de lokala partsrelationernas betydelse för utvecklingen av den organisatoriska flexibiliteten under en större hotellkoncerns omställningar under covid-19-krisen 2020–2021. Studien bygger på 26 semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter för arbetsgivarorganisationer och fackliga organisationer på branschnivå, samt chefer och fackliga företrädare på koncern- och hotellnivå. Intervjuerna transkriberades och tematiserades med hjälp av NVivo 12. I ljuset av en dramatisk nedgång i kundunderlaget mer än halverades antalet anställda: tillsvidareanställda sades upp och kontrakten för tillfälligt anställda blev inte förlängda. Vid sidan av ”tillfälligt anställda” tillkom en ny form av numerisk flexibilitet, korttidspermitterade, baserad på lagen om stöd vid korttidsarbete från 2013. Samtidigt genomfördes omfattande organisationsförändringar: avdelningar slogs samman, antalet chefer reducerades och i stort sett samtliga yrkestitlar förändrades. Anställda skulle arbeta i ”service team”, chefer skulle vara ”service lead” och andra, t ex receptionister, kockar, bartenders och städare, skulle tituleras ”hosts”. De fackliga organisationerna menade att denna form av funktionell flexibilitet, att ”alla skulle kunna allt”, ledde till ett allt stressigare jobb och var ett hot mot yrkesstoltheten. 

I syfte att analysera de lokala partsrelationernas betydelse för utvecklingen av den organisatoriska flexibiliteten tar vi avstamp i tidigare forskning om lokala partsrelationer. Den tidigare forskningen har till stor del handlat om parternas förhållningssätt till varandra när de arbetat för att nå lösningar och resultat i olika avseenden, hur intressen och maktresurser mobiliseras, förhandlingsstrategier och den fackliga organiseringens betydelse för den fackliga styrkan. Det finns begränsat med forskning om de lokala partsrelationers roll när det gäller organisationsförändringar med bäring på organisatorisk flexibilitet. I den här artikeln fokuserar vi på de lokala parternas betydelse för utvecklingen av den organisatoriska flexibiliteten med hänsyn tagen till de institutionella förutsättningar som rådde under pandemin