Staying alive! The restructuring process in two Swedish steel and metal companies

Abstract: The thesis is based on a research project called Learning-in-partnership, abbreviated to “Learnpartner”. The work was organized as a joint research project between Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany, and managed by Leeds University Business School in the UK. Our project task was to describe best practice for partnership-based work on the labour market within the European steel and metal industry when responding to the process of restructuring.The research was based on case studies in two Swedish companies, where we conducted interviews with trade union people, employees, managers, and human resource personnel. The qualitative design was supplemented with interactive methods during discussions, workshops, and seminars, which meant involving practitioners from both the companies and the trade unions in interpreting the results. The theoretical framework relates to work organisations, industrial relations, competence development as well as conditions for sustainable development. In order to describe the research findings in this thesis, a model was used to highlight different factors that can influence change processes.The report describes empirical findings regarding the consequences of change processes taking place at organisational and at individual level. The results show that both the companies have been successful when it comes to responding to the restructuring process; however, there are some differences at individual level. The thesis highlights certain factors such as; management strategies, trade union involvement, workteams, employee participation and follow-up and discusses how they influence the entire process and the outcomes of restructuring work.Hanne knows the steel industry from her childhood. She grew up in a small district in Sweden where the steel mill was the biggest and (almost) the only employer. Her parents and brothers worked there until the rolling mill was closed down. Her previous relationship with the world of steel helped her while working on the thesis, and gave her some kind of justification to be inquisitive.Hanne Randle is a researcher and PhD-student at Karlstad University – department of Working Life Science. Besides from industrial relations and partnership, Hanne has researched; conditions for developing sustainable public sector jobs, developing a European standard for vocational education and training for explosive sector workers, older workers and lifelong learning, and workplace learning. As a mean to develop a joint learning process between researchers and practitioner her method in research is to involve participants into the whole process of the research.