First of all: Employees in Norway are happy at work.
This is according to a new survey that was presented this week. This is precisely in line with previous research.
But many employees are now reporting this:
– Less influence, and a lot of dissatisfaction with the management.
This is what working life researcher Inger Marie Hagen at OsloMet tells FriFagbevegelse. She is one of several researchers responsible for The codetermination barometer this year.
Feeling of powerlessness
Since 2016, researchers have checked how satisfied Norwegian employees really are with their jobs.
Now the researchers see signs of a change:
– Many employees say that they have had less influence in recent years. And they say that the shop stewards have gained less influence, says Hagen.
The workers’ influence over time has essentially remained stable, the researcher emphasizes.
But she sees signs of what she calls “a weathering of local party cooperation”.
– It is a great paradox, at a time when we are talking about tripartite cooperation and the Norwegian model of inhalation and exhalation.
- 26 percent respond that they have had less influence on issues that are important to them in the last three years.
- 24 percent respond that they have gained more influence.
The proportion of managers who answer that they have gained more influence is twice as high as among ordinary employees without managerial responsibilities.
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More power
- 39 per cent agree with a statement that “the top management is getting more and more power”.
- 22 percent disagree with the statement.
6 out of 10 feel that the employer makes little provision for employees to express themselves. Just over half also agree with a statement that employees do not dare to speak out.
Hagen and the researchers behind the Co-determination barometer will have a debate about what democracy in working life means. The debate is vigorous overtime, Hagen believes.
– If people lose faith in party cooperation and experience that democracy in working life does not work, we have to ask ourselves whether this has consequences for feelings of powerlessness and faith in democracy in general, she warns.
– But are the numbers more alarming this year than in the past?
– We think we see signs in this material that the development is going in the wrong direction, replies Hagen.
Last year: One in four employees feel that they have had less influence in their workplace
– Urgent questions
The researchers have asked around 3,000 employees questions about how important it is to decide for oneself, how important it is to have freedom of expression and how important it is to cooperate with the parties.
– There are urgent questions now, when we see a democratic erosion in country after country, says Hagen.
She emphasizes that the picture is not clear-cut: There are also employees who say that they have gained more influence.
– But there is reason to start a debate about what ambitions we should have for Norwegian working life in the area of ​​democracy.
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– More efficient companies
Elin Ørjasæter is a lecturer in HR and working life at Kristiania University College.
She is skeptical of putting falling support for democracy in general in the context of what is happening in working life.
She believes that party cooperation has a great intrinsic value.
– I am concerned with co-determination and partner cooperation simply to get more efficient companies, she says.
If the cooperation between the parties deteriorates, it leads to more indifference among employees.
– For example, you don’t bother to suggest improvements, and you scurry away instead of taking action when it comes down to it.
Dissatisfaction with the boss
More than one in five employees express dissatisfaction with management, according to the new report.
25 percent of employees answer that they would not recommend their job to a friend or relative. Around half of these point to management as the problem.
According to the report, what most employees are dissatisfied with is the top management in the businesses, information from management and HR.
– Employees behave exactly as managers want. All groups in working life say they are concerned with doing a good job and developing professionally. It is the dream employee for every manager, says Hagen.
There is untapped potential for management here, she points out.
HR lecturer Ørjasæter says that when HR somehow takes over the partnership, co-determination and partnership are moved from line management.
– But it is the line management that must participate in the cooperation between the parties.
Staff units such as HR cannot make real decisions, and dialogue with HR quickly becomes collaboration without real meaning, Ørjasæter believes.
– The content of the collaboration is weathering, even if the number of meetings is the same.
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