IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v36y2015i3p457-477.html

Integrative strategy, competitiveness and employment: A case study of the transition at the Swedish truck manufacturing company Scania during the economic downturn in 2008–2010

Author

Listed:
  • Roland Ahlstrand

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate how and why the truck manufacturer Scania adapted to the economic downturn between 2008 and 2010 in the manner it did. First, Scania signed a crisis agreement on fewer working hours and lower wages, and, later, it signed an agreement stipulating fewer working hours, but without wage reductions. Both of these agreements were combined with investments in competence development and education as well as with the decision not to give notice to the employees, which was uncommon among Swedish companies. It is claimed that the company wanted to strengthen the competitiveness by integrating the unions and the employees even more in the business. An important prerequisite was the company’s Flexibility Agreement, which allowed the company not to give temporary employees new contracts and to let temporary employees leave the company as soon as their maximum employment period of six months expired.

Suggested Citation

  • Roland Ahlstrand, 2015. "Integrative strategy, competitiveness and employment: A case study of the transition at the Swedish truck manufacturing company Scania during the economic downturn in 2008–2010," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 36(3), pages 457-477, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:36:y:2015:i:3:p:457-477
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X13511345
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X13511345
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X13511345?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre Garaudel & Florent Noël & Géraldine Schmidt, 2008. "Overcoming the risks of restructuring through the integrative bargaining process: Two case studies in a French context," Post-Print hal-02441292, HAL.
    2. Tommy Nilsson, 1999. "The Future Role of the Swedish Unions Increased Local Cooperation for Production Development," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 20(3), pages 461-482, August.
    3. Keith Sisson, 2001. "Pacts for employment and competitiveness – an opportunity to reflect on the role and practice of collective bargaining," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 7(4), pages 600-615, November.
    4. Goran Brulin & Tommy Nilsson, 1991. "From Societal to Managerial Corporatism: New Forms of Work Organization as a Transformation Vehicle," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 12(3), pages 327-346, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lutz Bellmann & Hans-Dieter Gerner & Olaf Hübler, 2015. "Investment under company-level pacts before and during the Great Recession," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 36(3), pages 501-522, August.
    2. Marc‐Antonin Hennebert & Sara Pérez‐Lauzon, 2019. "The practice of collective bargaining in the private sector in Quebec (Canada): the changing ‘rules of the game’," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 240-255, May.
    3. Goran Ahrne & Wallace Clement, 1992. "A New Regime? Class Representation within the Swedish State'," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 13(4), pages 455-479, November.
    4. Magnus Sverke & Anders Sjoberg, 1994. "Dual Commitment to Company and Union in Sweden: An Examination of Predictors and Taxonomic Split Methods," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 15(4), pages 531-564, November.
    5. Klas Levinson, 2000. "Codetermination in Sweden: Myth and Reality," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 21(4), pages 457-473, November.
    6. Vincent Pasquier & Rémi Bourguignon & Géraldine Schmidt, 2020. "La négociation des Plans de Sauvegarde de l'Emploi, quels arbitrages ?," Working Papers hal-03045537, HAL.
    7. Patrick Ziltener & Heinz Gabathuler, 2018. "Working more in order to preserve jobs? Works councils in the Swiss mechanical and electrical engineering industry and the ‘Swiss franc shock’ in 2015," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5-6), pages 534-553, November.
    8. Valeria Pulignano & Paul Stewart, 2012. "The management of change. Local union responses to company-level restructuring in France and Ireland – a study between and within countries," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 18(4), pages 411-427, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:36:y:2015:i:3:p:457-477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.