Working Life Barometer in the Baltic Countries 2002 (pdf) - mol.fi

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WAGE EARNERS' POSSIBILITIES OF
INFLUENCING THEIR JOBS
POSSIBILITIES OF INFLUENCING JOB TASKS
The most recent empirical studies of the Nordic countries emphasise the significance
of task autonomy, assumed responsibility and commitment as factors
of increased productivity and, even wider, success of the company (Antila &
Ylöstalo 2002, NUTEK 1999). The idea of transferring responsibility, at least
partly, to the workers 1 is by no means new. It is related to the discussion of
work humanisation, which has been a much-discussed topic in work sociology
for decades now.
The great transition period the Baltic countries underwent in the 90's presumably
required also a change of task organisation at the same time as the entire
concept of work had to be re-evaluated. In the free market economy, the enterprises
cannot ignore the quality of work, times of delivery etc., which was still
possible in the time of the Soviet Union. To be successful, even to survive,
requires investments in either quality or price – more and more often in both.
According to several western studies, the outdated and hierarchical, so-called
Taylorist organisation of manufacturing, can only seldom respond to the stepping-up
competition and the hectically changing operating environment that
the enterprises have. The enterprise is more often dependent on the involvement
and commitment of its personnel and on extensive utilisation of their
competence. We shall not study here the chances of survival of the companies
from that point of view directly, but the answers given by individual employees
convey indirect information to us about how general it is among the Baltic
companies, in the spirit of the times, to be functionally flexible.
1 There are several books available on worker participation and its effects. See e.g. Guest & Knight
1979, Julkunen 1987, Womack & Jones & Roos 1990, EPOC 1995 and 1999, Flexibility Matters
1999, Gallie & White & Cheng & Tomlinson 1998, Kevätsalo 1999, OECD 1999, Appelbaum &
Bailey & Berg & Kalleberg 2000.