Enligt forskning är ständiga förbättringar ett väsentligt element i olika kvalitetsledningssystem, medan arbete med ständiga förbättringar i organisationer har undersökts vara ofta för begränsat i omfattning och svårt att hålla igång. Därmed var syftet med denna studie att bidra med kunskap om hur organisationer kan arbeta för att hålla ständiga förbättringar igång. Det empiriska materialet samlades in med kvalitativa, halvstrukturerade intervjuer av sju ledare som representerar till-verkande företag antingen i Sverige eller i Finland. Dessa företag har tagit i bruk Lean management och arbetar med ständiga förbättringar framgångsrikt. Resultatet visade att de studerade organisationerna har sina unika sätt att arbeta med och hålla igång ständiga förbättringar, även om det finns likheter. Enligt de studerade organisationerna gällde de mest viktiga faktorer som möjliggör att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar ledarskap, ledaregenskaper och strategisk planering; processer, arbetssätt och verktyg; samt arbetsmiljö och kultur. Kritiskt för att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar är att ledare prioriterar ständiga förbättringar och visar sig prioriteten på flera olika sätt, visade resultatet. Engagemang för ständiga förbättringar på lång sikt är nödvändigt och kan tränas upp. Medan viktigt för ständiga förbättringar är att alla arbetar med gemensamma praktiker, viktigt för att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar är att engagera medarbetare i att använda sina kompetenser till att utveckla dessa praktiker. Det finns olikheter i hur de studerade organisationerna ser att deras arbete med ständiga förbättringar skulle se ut om de hade de bästa möjligheterna att arbeta med ständiga förbättringar. Här hittades det också dock några liknande teman. I studien drogs slutsatsen att ständiga förbättringar har anpassats efter behoven och omständigheterna i organisationerna. Att utveckla praktiker själv är ett medel för att överföra principer som stödjer ständiga förbättringar i handling och att utveckla kulturen gentemot dessa värderingar och principer. För ett framgångsrikt arbete med att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar är det viktigt att utforma och utveckla strukturer och praktiker i anslutning till organisationens strategiska objektiv så att man beaktar organisationens kontext. / According to research, continuous improvement is an essential element of different quality management systems, while work with continuous improvement in organizations has been studied to be frequently too limited in scope and difficult to sustain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to contribute with knowledge on how organizations can work to sustain continuous improvement.   The empirical data was collected through qualitative, semi-structured interviews of seven leaders representing manufacturing companies either in Sweden or in Finland. The companies have adopted Lean management and work with continuous improvement successfully.   The results showed that the studied organizations have their unique ways of working with and sustaining continuous improvement, even though there are similarities. According to the studied organizations, the most important factors that enable sustaining continuous improvement were related to leadership, leadership attributes, and strategic planning; processes, techniques, and tools; as well as working environment and culture. The results showed that critical for sustaining continuous improvement are leaders prioritizing continuous improvement and manifesting the priority through several ways. Commitment to continuous improvement in the long term is vital and can be trained. While everyone working along with shared practices is important for continuous improvement, involving employees to use their capabilities to develop these practices supports sustaining continuous improvement. The studied organizations have differences in how they see that their work with continuous improvement would look like if they had the best opportunities to work with continuous improvement, even though some similar themes were found. The study concluded that continuous improvement has been adapted to the needs and situations of the organizations. Self-developed practices are means of putting the principles supporting continuous improvement into practice and developing the culture towards the values and principles. For a successful work with sustaining continuous improvement, it is important to build and form structures and practices in alignment with the strategic objectives of the organization, taking into account the organizational context. / <p>2018-06-27</p>

The Great Recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008 had a devastating impact on workers, leading to high levels of unemployment and underemployment, increased job insecurity and stagnant or declining wages. While the legitimation crisis of neoliberalism could be viewed as a turning point for labour internationally, the immediate response by political parties across the spectrum was one of austerity measures and cuts to welfare. As the largest collective representatives of workers, trade unions are at the forefront of mobilisations attempting to challenge this consensus. Simultaneously, they are engaging in new activities to enhance public awareness and understanding of the crucial role that trade unions play in the labour market. Thus, the 21st century crisis is creating both challenges and opportunities. Each trade union movement’s response depends on the different forms of power they possess and choose to deploy, their strategies and allegiances, and the specific socio-economic and political context in which they are situated. Questions concerning what constitutes union power and the ways in which it is being exercised and revitalized therefore represent fascinating lines of enquiry to explore. To do so, however, requires a new perspective on trade union power that recognises the significance of the media which has been overlooked in industrial relations theory. Drawing on insights from industrial relations, the sociology of media and social movement studies, this thesis proposes the concept of communicative power to trace how trade unions produce and circulate discourse through the media (either union-owned or corporate) to a mass audience. Methodologically, it uses the tripartite approach which focuses our attention onto three key communication processes involved in trade union attempts to exercise communicative power: the production of union discourse, the circulation of union discourse, and the reception of union discourse. This is applied to four cases involving seven union organisations in the UK and Denmark over a five-year period 2010-2015. Data was gathered using 40 semi-structured interviews with union officials and activists, content analysis of newspapers, union media outlets and social media, and secondary survey data. In sum, this thesis argues that the media is, and always has been, central to how trade unions exercise and revitalize power in society. And within the context of accelerating digital capitalism, it looks set to becoming an increasingly important determinant of their future trajectory.

In dieser Studie werden Einstellungen zu sozialer Ungleichheit bzw. Gerechtigkeitseinstellungen und die Wahrnehmung von Einkommensungerechtigkeit durch die Bevölkerung in postkommunistischen und westlich-kapitalistischen Ländern zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten untersucht. Im Zentrum stehen vor allem die Determinanten dieser subjektiven Bewertungen und Wahrnehmungen auf der Makro-Ebene. Wie lassen sich Unterschiede in den Einstellungen und Wahrnehmungen zwischen Ländern erklären? Für westliche Länder wird davon ausgegangen, dass im Wesentlichen der Wohlfahrtsstaat als zentrales Verteilungsarrangement jeweils prägend wirkt. Um den Einfluss des Wohlfahrtsstaates zu überprüfen, wird einerseits eine Typologie wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Regime herangezogen. Andererseits wird auch der Einfluss wohlfahrtsstaatsbezogener Makroindikatoren als nähere Charakterisierung der ausgewählten Länder getestet, was in der international vergleichenden Einstellungsforschung bislang vernachlässigt wurde. In postkommunistischen Ländern, die seit dem Systemwechsel im Vergleich zu westlichen Ländern nicht durch lange wohlfahrtsstaatliche Traditionen geprägt wurden, stehen eher die unterschiedlichen Transformationsverläufe als Erklärungshintergrund von Einstellungs- und Wahrnehmungsunterschieden auf Makro-Ebene zur Verfügung. Da die objektiven Strukturen, Institutionen und individuellen Lagen in postkommunistischen Ländern einem stärkeren sozialen Wandel unterlagen, ist hier im Gegensatz zu westlichen Ländern auch mit einem entsprechend stärkeren Wandel der Gerechtigkeitseinstellungen und Bewertungen zu rechnen. Die Daten für diese Studie stammen aus zwei internationalen Umfrageprojekten, dem ''International Social Justice Project'' (ISJP) von 1991, 1996 und 2000 sowie dem ''International Social Survey Programme'' (ISSP) von 1987, 1992 und 1999. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich Gerechtigkeitseinstellungen, die als normative Grundhaltungen von Menschen eher prinzipieller Art sind, besser durch wohlfahrtsstaatliche Regimes erklären lassen, die diese Grundhaltungen institutionell inkorporieren und strukturell transportieren, während subjektive Wahrnehmungen von Einkommensungerechtigkeit besser durch konkretere wohlfahrtsstaatliche Makroindikatoren beeinflusst werden. / This study analyzes attitudes towards social inequality, justice ideologies and the perceived amount of injustice with respect to the distribution of income in post-communist and western-capitalist countries at different times, with a specific focus on the macro level determinants of subjective judgements and perceptions. How can country differences with respect to subjective judgements and perceptions be explained? One can assume that, for western countries, the welfare state is the main distribution arrangement shaping these subjective aspects. In order to analyze the influence of the welfare state, a typology of welfare state regimes is developed. In addition, the effects of macro indicators of the welfare state, conceptualized as more specific characteristics of the selected countries, are tested, which has been previously neglected in cross-national attitude research. In post-communist countries, which were not shaped by long national welfare state traditions as much as in western countries, the different transformation processes and their success are more suitable for explaining divergent macro-level attitudes and perceptions. As objective structures, institutions and the individual situations in post-communist countries have gone through a stronger process of social change than in western countries, a stronger change in justice attitudes, evaluations and perceptions can be accounted here accordingly. Data for this study come from two international survey projects, the ''International Social Justice Project'' (ISJP) 1991, 1996 and 2000 and the ''International Social Survey Programme'' (ISSP) 1987, 1992 and 1999. The results demonstrate that justice attitudes, which are rather basic normative attitudes, can be better explained by welfare state regimes which incorporate these basic attitudes institutionally and transport them structurally, whereas subjective perceptions, such as the perception of social injustice with respect to the income distribution, are affected by more concrete welfare related macro indicators.