Humanization of the world of work
Under the term humanization of the world of work (HdA) various projects and programs are summarized, which are supposed to contribute to the improvement of working conditions in companies and companies, with the aim of reducing stress and expanding the scope of action of working people. The projects, campaigns and initiatives come from trade unions, government or academia.
According to Section 2 of the German Occupational Safety and Health Act , “measures for the humane organization of work” belong to the occupational safety measures .
The industrial psychologist Eberhard Ulich describes work activities as humane that do not damage the psychophysical health of the workers, do not impair their psychosocial well-being - or at least temporarily -, meet their needs and qualifications, enable individual and / or collective influence on working conditions and work systems and for development be able to contribute to their personality in terms of developing their potential and promoting their skills.
background
Until the 1960s, there was hope that with increasing automation in the world of work, the negative burdens of Taylorist forms of work would be eliminated. When these hopes were not fulfilled, an explicit need for action was identified and programs and initiatives attempted to counteract this. New, more "humane" forms of work (e.g. semi-autonomous working groups ) were tried out in the 1960s, primarily in Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden) and Great Britain.
Programs and initiatives in Germany
Overview
- 1974–1989 : State program “ Humanization of Working Life (HdA)” to improve work content and relationships and to reduce stressful and health-endangering work situations. The program was initiated by the then Federal Research Minister Hans Matthöfer .
- 1989–1996 : The state research and development program “Work and Technology” replaced the previous humanization program. In addition to scientific support, the transfer of results, i.e. concrete implementation, was added as an additional focus.
- since 2001 : State program “Innovative Work Design - Future of Work” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The focus is increasingly on research into future forms of work.
- since 2006 : In 2006, the German Trade Union Federation decided to conduct an annual representative survey of dependent employees in Germany for its DGB index good work .
1974–1989: Humanization of Working Life (HdA)
As part of the state program, which was initiated as a labor policy sub-program of the social democratic reform era, around 1,600 projects were funded, which from the outset stood in the area of tension between humanization and rationalization. In the 1980s, the focus shifted to innovation projects.
Since 2006: annual survey of good work
For precursors with the project Good work of the IG Metall had German Trade Union Federation on its Federal Congress 2006 to be carried out annually representative survey of salaried employees in Germany decided (computer-assisted telephone interviewing - CATI) on working conditions from the perspective of employees. The results of the data collected for the first time in 2007 are brought together in the DGB index Gute Arbeit .
See also
- Work structuring
- Job satisfaction
- Diversity management
- Good work
- Job enrichment
- Jobenlargement
- Job rotation
literature
- Hans Matthöfer : Humanization of work and productivity in the industrial society . European Publishing Company, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3.434-00343-6
- Nina Kleinöder, Stefan Müller and Karsten Uhl , ed .: “ Humanization of Work”. New beginnings and conflicts in the rationalized world of work of the 20th century (Histoire, Vol. 150), Bielefeld: transcript 2019. ISBN 978-3-8376-4653-5
- Thomas Sandberg: Work Organization and Autonomous Groups . LiberFörlag, Lund / Sweden 1982, ISBN 91-40-04820-9
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eberhard Ulich: Industrial Psychology . Zurich 1991, p. 122.
- ^ Thomas Sandberg: Work Organization and Autonomous Groups . LiberFörlag, Lund / Schweden 1982, p. 81 ff.
- ^ Walther Müller-Jentsch: Work and Citizen Status . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 217-219.
- ↑ Stefan Müller: The research and action program "Humanization of Working Life" (1974-1989) . In: Nina Kleinöder, Stefan Müller, Karsten Uhl (eds.): “Humanization of work”. New beginnings and conflicts in the rationalized world of work of the 20th century . transcript, Bielefeld 2019, pp. 59–88, here p. 59.
- ↑ Stefan Müller: The research and action program "Humanization of Working Life" (1974-1989) . In: Nina Kleinöder, Stefan Müller, Karsten Uhl (eds.): “Humanization of work”. New beginnings and conflicts in the rationalized world of work of the 20th century . transcript, Bielefeld 2019, pp. 59–88, here p. 80.