Newsletter from the Nordic Labour Journal 5/2013
Editorial: Job engagement is pure gold
How do you achieve job engagement and work commitment? In this summer edition of the Nordic Labour Journal our writers, experts and researchers explore what happens with job engagement when work pressure increases. Does job engagement really equal increased productivity? Is job engagement pure gold?
Could increased job engagement improve productivity?
There seems to be an obvious link between job engagement and high productivity. Nordic politicians highlight the work environment as a competitive factor and hope it can lead to increased growth. But it’s not that simple. There are loose cannons and lost sheep among workers too.
Nearly always fun at work
Solicitors are rarely considered to be the most relaxed and easy going professional group, but Helsinki solicitor firm Fondia is challenging the stereotypes. The office is teaming with recycled goods, soft values and fun and games – in all seriousness.
Experts: action needed to combat bad psychosocial work environments
A Nordic proposition to systematically measure businesses’ psychosocial work environments is getting expert backing. But the businesses must also play their part, and hiring a consultant is not always the best solution.
Pressure on online journalists challenges job engagement
New technology puts more pressure on journalists to be ‘online’ and makes their job situation more diffuse and the journalists more vulnerable. Meanwhile support systems have not changed. If you want to create commitment and job engagement you need to strengthen work environment resources, say researchers.
Moving public services to fight social marginalisation
The Swedish Equality Ombudsman, DO, has been asked by the government to prepare a move from Stockholm city centre to the suburbs of Tensta/Rinkeby – the areas which only weeks ago were shaken by riots. The Stockholm city council has also just decided to move its education department with 400 staff there.
Iceland’s Minister of Social Affairs: The importance of writing off debts
Eygló Harðardóttir is the Minister of Social Affairs in Iceland’s new government. The low number of female ministers and women in parliamentary committees has created heated debate. Most committees have an uneven gender distribution, which goes against the law. But the new minister is not particularly worried. She reckons the number of women will rise soon.
EU standardisation of services worries trade unions
Common EU standards are aiming to speed up cross-border trade in services. Just as long as this doesn’t mean introducing EU rules through the backdoor which would be in breach with member states’ labour law and collective agreements, say trade unions – whose concern is shared by the Swedish government.
OECD: Economic worries fuel immigration debate
The number of asylum seekers in the whole of the OECD topped 400,000 for the first time in eight years in 2011. Preliminary figures shows this trend carrying on in 2012. There are large differences within the Nordic region. In Sweden last year nearly twice as many people sought asylum as in Denmark, Finland and Norway combined.
Munch in the canteen – for Freia’s workers only the best was good enough
Edvard Munch’s iconic The Scream created art history when it was sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2012 for €91,033,826. The Scream is also part of the Anniversary Exhibition Munch 150, because Munch didn’t paint just one, but often several pictures of the same motif. The anniversary also features the Freia Frieze, which Munch painted for the workers’ canteen at the Freia chocolate factory in Oslo.
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