Psychological working environment and the cooperation system within the LO area

Research paper by Steen E. Navrbjerg and Jonas Felbo-Kolding

At present a lot of attention is given to how psychosociological work environment affects productivity and the well-being of the employees. In a new report from LO, FAOS and TeamArbejdsliv have analysed how the cooperation regarding the psychological work environment can be improved in the cooperation system at the work place.

The main conclusion in the report is that the general cooperation between management and the employee representatives is crucial with regard to psychological work environment. This raises the question of how to create the best conditions for this cooperation. The report generally shows that there is a lot of focus on how to develop the cooperation on psychological work environment at workplace level. The report suggests that the trade unions need to use the available opportunities e.g. by empowering the employee representatives, using the cooperation consultants more actively, and articulating the psychological work environment in a way so that management listens.

FAOS’ main contributions to the report are publicised in this research paper. The paper consists of A) a literature review and B) an analysis based on 15 interviews with cooperation consultants and working environment consultants. Both analyses focus on experiences with different approaches to enhance employees’ well-being through the cooperation in the cooperative system – and not least barriers and catalysts for lifting well-being through merged committees, i.e. committees integrating the working environment system and the cooperative system.

The full report from LO is expected to be released in the autumn of 2014.

Read the research paper (in Danish only)