Working Life Research at LiU

Working Life Research is the collective term for research aimed at studying and analyzing terms and conditions of working life, on an individual, group, organizational and societal level. The research is conducted subject-oriented as well as multi-disciplinary and with a great variety of theoretical and methodological approaches.

Working life research can be divided into three main areas - work organization and leadership, work and health, and labour market. These areas can be attributed to different disciplines and faculties with somewhat different methods.

Research in work organization and leadership is all about management and leadership, learning and skills development, work organization and development of 'high-productivity production systems'. Further subjects of study are movement within and between organizations, influence and control at work and gender relations and power relations in the work place. The increase of globalization has meant that working life is highly influenced by factors and conditions in the world around us. It also affects the way we organize, manage and perform the work. A major challenge for working life research is to develop knowledge that supports a sustainable development of companies and organizations. Sustainable development can then be understood as a balance between an orientation towards (organizational) efficiency and development of working conditions conducive to health, equality, learning and the professional development of individuals in working life.

Research on work and health has previously been dominated by biological, physical and chemical health risks and their interaction with psychological stress, especially problems related to psychosocial factors in the work environment. The research has had a considerable impact, both nationally and internationally, and has proved to be of great practical importance in improving health in the workplace. In recent years, psychosocial environmental issues have been more in focus than physical environmental factors. There is also a greater element of gender, lifestyle and public health aspects. Working life research is therefore no longer limited to conditions in the workplace.

Finally, the labour market research includes the labour market's mode of operation and regulation. With the increasing internationalization, importance is accorded the issues of labour mobility, the common European labour market and the effects of globalization, migration and discrimination. There is also research on labour market relations, employment law regulation and studies of the role of EU law and how the Swedish model for the development of working life and society are affected by external factors.

HELIX VINN Excellence Centre is the largest single research environment within the work life research at LiU. The National Centre for Work and Rehabilitation is another large research environment.

Research

• HELIX
• Division for Education and Sociology
• RAR (WORK ABILITY AND HEALTH IN THE SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM)
• REMESO: Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society