Summary
The purpose of this analysis report is to study the relationship between work environment management and company size and work organisation based on an electronic survey conducted by the Swedish Agency for Work Environment Expertise “Organisering i svenskt arbetsliv 2019–2020” (Work Organisation in Swedish Working Life 2019–2020). The analyses in this report highlight general reasons for differences in the level of developed work environment management practices at business sector level, but based on data from company level.
The factor for the level of developed work environment management practices used in the analyses in this report includes information on which functions (first-line manager, employee/worker, safety representative) in the company have been involved in work environment management and how the company has carried out work environment management (various work environment tools used, assessments and documentation of risks, action plan, monitoring of effects, work environment management resources). The more functions involved and activities carried out, the higher the level of developed work environment management practices.
The report answers the following two questions:
- Does company size play a role in the level of work environment management? If differences are attributable to company size, what form
do these differences take? Companies are divided into five size classes, the smallest having at least five employees. The emphasis is on the smaller company classes. - What is the relationship between the level of developed work environment management practices and work organisation, with particular emphasis
on learning work organisation? An aggregate factor for learning work organisation is used in the primary analysis. The aggregate factor is based on three sub-metrics: individual learning (workers’ participation in learning), participation/decentralisation (workers’ responsibility for planning and carrying out work), and structural learning (other structural conditions for on-the-job learning). The three sub-metrics are examined in a supplementary analysis.
The results show that learning work organisation is the primary factor contributing to the difference in companies’ level of developed work environment management practices. Company size also has an impact, but to a much lesser extent.
Author
Annette Nylund, who holds a PhD in Work Science, a Licentiate of Arts degree in Industrial Work Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science, process-managing senior analyst at the Swedish Agency for Work Environment Expertise. She is the author and has also performed the calculations included in the report.