Drawing on more than a decade of inter-disciplinary research, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the available theories, concepts, data and research on new work organizations and the concept of ‘work without boundaries’. - Explores a concept of work that is not restricted by traditional organizational rules like regular office hours, a single workplace, fixed procedures and limited responsibility
- Provides a comprehensive overview of the available theories, concepts, data and research on new work organizations
- Examines the shift of power away from organizations to make individuals accountable for their own employability and work
- Draws on over a decade of original research into ‘work without boundaries’ in which the authors are key authorities
- Brings together organization theory and work psychology with scholarship from related fields including sociology, social psychology, cognition and psychobiology
Table of Contents:
About the Authors vii
Foreword by Cary L. Cooper ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 The New Work 1
The new inequality 4
New markets and new structures 7
The new work life 13
What is so new about “The New Work”? 16
The new and the old work 18
The purpose and structure of this book 22
2 The New Rules of Work: On Flexible Work and How to Manage It 25
Flexible work 29
Flexibility through empowerment 35
Flexibility through substitution 48
Separate paths? 60
3 The New Work Life and the Dimensions of Knowledge 69
The cognitive knowledge demands 71
The social knowledge demands 81
The societal knowledge demands 97
The existential knowledge demands 107
Some concluding considerations 120
4 The Place of Work in Life 123
Separate spheres 126
Competing spheres 129
Coping with boundaries 130
Mutually favored spheres 133
New conditions outside work life: the consumption society 134
The moral supermarket 138
The market aesthetic 141
The new family 144
Organizing living 149
Conflict and balance in life 158
An individual matter 162
5 Work Life, Stress, and the New Ill Health 163
Stress as a social problem and research area 167
Stress models for the work life 172
The new work life as a source of stress 189
The new ill health 205
The new ill health, work environment, and the possibility space of work 212
6 Some Concluding Comments and Reflections 217
The deregulation of working life 218
The individualization of working life 219
The heterogenization of working life 220
The new inequality 221
New strains and symptoms 222
Flexibility and power in times of economic recession 223
Future – trust or new forms and fields for external regulation? 225
References 229
Index 253
About the Author :
Michael Allvin is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University and a licensed Psychologist. Gunnar Aronsson is Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University.
Tom Hagström is Professor Emeritus of Education in the Department of Education, Stockholm University and a licensed Psychologist.
Gunn Johansson is Professor Emeritus of Work Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University.
Ulf Lundberg is Professor of Biological Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, and at the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), affiliated with Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden.
