Challenging Scandinavian Employment Relations : The Effects of New Public Management Reforms

Paper by Christian Lyhne Ibsen, Trine P. Larsen, Jørgen Steen Madsen & Jesper Due 

In recent years, the public sectors in Scandinavia have to a varying degree faced significant changes often in the form of NPM inspired reforms. Sweden in particular, Denmark and less so Norway have adopted and implemented reforms entailing inter alia cutbacks in public sector employment, marketisation and management by performance measures. Such changes have elsewhere had significant implications for service provision and employment relations in the public sector. Building on the convergence/divergence approach, this paper examines whether this also is the case in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In doing so, we analyse recent NPM reforms and their effects on employment relations in the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish public sectors. The paper argues that although differences exist across the Scandinavian countries, it is evident that they have managed to adopt and implement NPM inspired reforms without dismantling their universal welfare services and strong traditions of collective bargaining in the public sector. Indeed, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have retained a collectivist approach through collective bargaining at sector level and negotiated local wage and working time practices for the larger part of staff. Trade unions remain key actors in setting terms and conditions in an ever still comprehensive public sector. This is not to suggest that change has been absent, and indeed restructuring is taking its toll on work environment, but developments have often followed the institutional context and cultural conditions inherent in each of the three Scandinavian countries.

Paper for the 15th IIRA World Congress, 24-27 August 2009, Sydney.