Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

Undersökningens syfte var att belysa den aktuella nedgången av medlemmar hos fackliga organisationer och öka förståelsen för hur de fackliga organisationerna arbetar för att nå ut till unga samt öka medlemsgraden i sina organisationer. Teorier vi har använt oss av är Lysgaards teori om olika betingelser som gör att människor antingen drar sig till ett kollektiv eller inte, Kjellberg teorier om individuella faktorer som påverkar, Mancur Olsens teori om free-rider problematiken samt Noon, Blyton och Noons teorier om olika faktorer som påverkar det fackliga medlemskapet. Vi har använt oss av svenska såväl som internationella källor som vi kunnat applicera på motiven till fackligt medlemskap. En kvalitativ metod gjordes där vi använt oss av ett bekvämlighetsurval blandat med snöbollsurval. Detta medförde en större geografisk aspekt där vi har respondenter från Malmö i söder och ända upp till Norrland. Till slut genomfördes åtta intervjuer med fackliga förtroendevalda där vi inte lagt någon värdering i kön eller ålder. Intervjuerna spelades in samt transkriberades och därefter kodades där vi fann nyckelord som vi kunde koppla ihop med våra teorier. Resultatet av vår studie visade på att det är varierande motiv men där nyttomotiven alltså vad de själva får ut av det men vi kunde även se att tryggheten är en stark faktor i dagens samhälle. Det motiv som var starkast för att inte gå med i ett fackförbund var en stark politisk aspekt som vi inte hade räknat med. Resultatet visade även på att fackförbunden jobbar i stort sett på samma sätt för att rekrytera arbetstagare till sina organisationer men nästan ingen har ett stort fokus på den yngre arbetstagaren utan arbetstagare som helhet. Sammanhängande för alla respondenter var att de inte själva såg någon minskad organisationsgrad på just deras ansvarsområde eller lokala klubb men alla var medvetna om att organisationsgraden över hela Sverige har en nedåtstigande kurva. Alla respondenter svara personligt med egna upplevelser och erfarenheter av den fackliga världen och dess olika uppgifter.

The prerequisites for local trade unions have changed in later years. Con-temporary changes in working-life raise new and important questions for the local boards to deal with. Changes of labour legislation anddecentralisation within the Swedish trade union movement have led to new tasks and greater responsibilities for the local trade unions. The role of learning in the local trade union-s attempts to deal with contemporary challenges is the focus of this thesis. The presented case-study aims at understanding the conditions and circumstances that shape the kind of learning that takes place in the board of a local branch of a Swedish trade union. The importance of the everyday context for learning is a fundamental approach to the study. Theories stressing the situated character of learning have been used for understand-ing the activities of the shop stewards participating in the social practice of local trade union work. The shop-stewards- attempts to deal with the challenges have been inter-preted as problem-solving. A pattern of three qualitatively different ways of solving problems has been identified. The shop stewards manage well prob-lems concerning the traditional trade union work, i. e. interpreting the legal framework in laws, agreements and instructions. There is no need for change. The second kind of problem-solving is about new problems within an area familiar to the shop-stewards. The shop-stewards also manage to solve this kind of problems. The shop-stewards do not manage the third kind, the new and complex questions where the legal framework is missing, e.g. outsourcing, competence development and bad working conditions as an effect of lean production. This third kind of problems can be seen as questions for destiny to the trade union and its members. Learning in local trade unions is not just a local matter. In order to understand the local trade union board-s difficulties to deal with the con-temporary challenges one must consider the aspects of power and relations to the counterpart, the employer. Decentralisation of trade union-work has changed the prerequisites for the local trade unions. New technique, ways of organising work and globalisation of production and ownership are examples of new and important questions for trade unions to deal with. These changed prerequisites concern the Swedish trade union movement as a whole.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007.

This essay intends to focus on how the teachers in Sweden answers to a change in the laws regarding their right to use the strike weapon in negotiations with their employer. Before 1966 state-employed professions were not allowed to negotiate and take conflict action. In 1966 however a new law, giving the state-employed the right to negotiate with all that it entails, was passed. In the following negotiation the teacher called for strike action. My main material is the teacher union Lärararnas Riksförbunds’ own news paper Skolvärlden, which I have analysed with a qualitative text analysis. My theoretical perspective stems from how certain trade unions have worked with professional strategies in order to reach a ”professional status” for their profession. The results from my analysis show that the teachers used both professional methods as ”social closure”-techniques and the emphasis on the own professions autonomy and distinctive features, as well as more common union techniques as the strike weapon and the will to open up their union to some of the groups below.

Politisk identitet och klass- och könsmässiga strukturer undersöks i den tidiga fackliga organiseringen bland textilarbetarkvinnor i Malmö mellan åren 1889 och 1902. En tid av öppningar i tolkningen av könsmönstren är märkbar när den svenska fackliga organiseringen tar fart i slutet av 1800-talet. Kvinnorna tar sig ett utrymme som sedermera blir ifrågasatt.

The aim of this thesis is to study articles in DIK’s librarian labor union newspaper over a time period of 40 years, 1974–2014, to obtain knowledge about depictions of public librarians. The aim is also to examine which discourses that can be identified in these depictions. Discourse analysis believes that the language contributes to realizing reality and by studying articles in DIK’s newspaper an understanding of the public librarian profession can be provided. This essay may contribute to increased understanding, new perspectives and deeper knowledge of the public librarian profession. The thesis' theoretical and methodological framework is discourse analysis, more specific Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory. Relevant discourse theoretical concepts are applied in a text analysis of the empirical material, articles in DIK’s newspaper. In the analysis, the public librarian profession were studied from four angles: knowledge and skills, tasks, characteristic features and the profession. The results of the analysis reveal that the public librarians have knowledge and skills in several subjects, for example in service, literature and information. It has also shown that there is a breadth and variety in librarian tasks. The analysis has also shown that there are positive and negative statements about the characteristic features of librarians and that the profession for a number of reasons, such as female dominance and low pay, has a low status. Four discourses were identified in the material, and with that four ways to understand librarians were identified: The Literature Discourse, The Information Discourse, The Service Discourse and The Status Discourse. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Bakgrund: Studier visar på att den fackliga organisationsgraden som är central för maktbalansen i den svenska partsmodellen har minskat under 2000-talet men att det samtidigt finns skillnader mellan fackförbunden. Tidigare forskning visar på ett samband mellan individualiseringen i samhället och förändringar i den procentuella andelen som är anslutna till fackförbunden. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att analysera och jämföra hur fackförbundet IF Metall framställer sitt fackliga budskap genom sin medlemstidning Dagens Arbete och hur fackförbundet Unionen framställer sitt fackliga budskap genom sin medlemstidning Kollega. Detta mot bakgrund av de samhällsförändringar som medfört en övergång från ett samhälle präglat av kollektivism och Gemeinschaft till ett samhälle som domineras av individualism och Gesellschaft. Teoretisk referensram: Studiens teoretiska referensram innehåller Goffmans dramaturgiska perspektiv, Brunninges organisatoriska självförståelse, Jenkins sociala identitet samt Tönnies begreppspar Gemeinschaft och Gesellschaft. Metod: Metoden som används är en kvalitativ kritisk diskursanalys. Resultat: I resultatet framkommer att IF Metall framställer och förstår sig själv som traditionell, kollektivistisk, solidarisk, socialistisk samt principfast på ledarsidorna i medlemstidningen Dagens Arbete medan Unionen framställer och förstår sig själv som innovativ, personlig, solidarisk samt pragmatisk på ledarsidorna i medlemstidningen Kollega. / Background: Studies show that the degree of trade union organisation which is central to the balance of power in the Swedish part model has decreased during the 21st century but at the same time that there are differences between the trade unions. Previous research shows a correlation between individualisation in society and changes in the percentage affiliated with trade unions. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyze and compare how the trade union IF Metall presents its union message through its member magazine Dagens Arbete and how the trade union Unionen presents its union message through its member magazine Kollega. This in light of changes in society which has entailed a transition from a society characterized by collectivism and Gemeinschaft to a society dominated by individualism and Gesellschaft.   Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of the study contains Goffmans dramaturgical perspective, Brunninges organisational self-understanding, Jenkins social identity and Tönnies conceptual pair Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Method: The method is a qualitative critical discourse analysis. Results: The result reveals that IF Metall presents and understands itself as traditional, collectivistic, solidarity-based, socialistic and principled on the editorial pages in the member magazine Dagens Arbete. Unionen presents and understands itself as innovative, personalised, solidarity-based and pragmatic on the editorial pages in the member magazine Kollega.

Why can junior management consultants bill four-digit dollar amounts a day for working with corporations and industries where they have no experience? Why do blue-collar workers organise in industry-specific unions involved in collective wage bargaining, while white-collars organise according to educational or professional background, offering résumé proof-reading, or don’t unionise at all? The doctoral thesis Contract-Theoretic Analyses of Consultants and Trade Unions consists of three self-containing essays in Economics of Organisation. What Do Consultants Do? asks why firms pay large fees to outsiders in core activities like management. Standard explanations that see the consultant only as an expert fail to rationalize several industry phenomena. This paper instead focuses on the consultant’s role as a truth-teller in governance. The model finds a trade-off between being an expert and being a truth-teller, and that branding is more important for the latter category. Furthermore, there are natural barriers to entry among truth-tellers, which helps explain the high fees of the most well-renowned players. The Nature of Management Consulting evaluates the theoretical results in the previous chapter. Using market data from Sweden, the study finds that the upward price effect associated with a global brand is smaller for consultants with a broad range of services than for those with a narrow focus. This is hard to reconcile with the expertise explanations, but is consistent with the truth-telling theory. Interviews with experienced management consultants support this interpretation and several other predictions from the truth-telling theory. A Guild Theory of the Trade Union is an independent essay, developing a model where unions, like pre-industrialisation guilds, strike a balance between strengthening the bargaining position and fostering human capital. It links the organisational form of unions to investments in human capital and bargaining power. The predictions resemble evidence from the Nordic labour market. Groups with white-collar characteristics will be more prone to form profession-specific unions and advocate individual bargaining than blue-collar groups. Furthermore, there is path dependency in union formation, which fits the international pattern of unionisation rates. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007 S. 3-15: sammanfattning, s. 19-123: 3 uppsatser</p>

The formal governance structure is more complex in trade unions than in many other organizations. Trade union researchers have drawn attention to the tensions between union administrative and representative systems and the fact that control in unions is bi-directional from leaders to members (through formal control systems), and from members to leaders (through democratic structures). This study has shown that the utilization of market orientation methods has the capacity to strengthen the administrative system without interfering with or being hindered by the representative system. The findings related to market orientation methods presented in this thesis are not of such a character that they can be deemed to be specific for trade unions. Therefore, as a general rule, market orientation methods need no trade union-specific adaptation to be utilized. The setting for this study is Sif, a major industrial white-collar trade union in Sweden. The change process of Sif described in the thesis suggests an increased degree of market orientation. The study has focused on two specific tools/techniques; The Sif Barometer - an annual membership satisfaction survey, and The Design Dialogue Methodology – an internally developed group interview method. These methods have contributed to an enhanced level of market orientation. Propositions for better contributions to strategic positioning and service innovation are presented in terms of design principles. An identified problem is that the potential for double-loop learning has been limited in the organization. Some propositions for enhancing double-loop learning are set out: Knowledge enhances learning: the utilization of market information requires knowledge among managers and employees about the instruments used to ensure accurate interpretations and utilization of the results acquired. Knowledge thus has a role in breaking down the barriers preventing accurate utilization of market information. Task alignment is a viable strategy for the creation of learning micro-climates:  Learning through the change of work behaviors is the core element of a task alignment strategy. Task alignment is a strategy targeting learning capabilities in the organization that is not only an approach for solving problems in the long term, but also an immediate response to tangible business problems. Action research may contribute to double-loop learning: The action research method has inherent change properties connected to its "learning by change" approach. Actors should consider the discrepancies between espoused theories and theories-in-use: Various political behaviors hampering double-loop learning have been traced. A broad level of participation and involvement of managers and employees during the development or adaptation of the market orientation instrument can enable open and trustful discussions for enhancing double-loop learning. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005