Systematic working environment efforts in the Nordics – strategies and approaches

Special issue editors: Johnny Dyreborg, Klaus T. Nielsen, Lotta Dellve, Trond Kongsvik, and Sari Tappura.

This special issue has deadline for manuscripts dated 1 October 2024 and is expected to be published by the end of 2025. Manuscripts should be submitted to Journal manager Bo Carstens, bo.carstens@gmail.com. Please also contact Journal manager Bo Carstens, bo.carstens@gmail.com, if you have any questions regarding submissions.

Rationale

In the year 2000 the book ‘Systematic Occupational Health and Safety Management’ (Frick et al. 2000) was published, with participation of several Nordic researchers. This book was the first coherent scholarly presentation of the systematic management of the working environment in an international, European, and Nordic perspective. An overarching theme was that the working environment is an aspect of production and therefore top management has both reason and responsibility for prioritizing the working environment along with other strategic commitments in relation to production.

Another important theme of the book was the emphasis on how working environment issues are to be addressed by providing systematic structures and processes, which goes beyond what hazards or particular control measures are to be implemented. Furthermore, newer concepts were taken up, such as ‘proactive’, ‘integration’, ‘management engagement’, and the question of what characterizes a systematic management approach to improving the working environment. In the various Nordic regulatory systems, the systematic management-driven efforts are emphasized along with employee involvement, to ensure that work accidents, occupational diseases, and psychosocial working environment problems are prevented effectively.

We also see these efforts to implement a ‘systematic’ approach in the emergence of various certification systems. The most recent being the ISO 45001 standard on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS), which provides systematic structures and processes for continuous improvement of the working environment. Furthermore, these standards also focus heavily on the importance of management commitment and the involvement of employees.

Where are we today in relation to the management of the working environment? What about employee involvement in the improvement of the working environment, when this field is being professionalized? What about middle management and their role in the improvement of the working environment in the Nordic? Furthermore, to what extent have these efforts improved the working environment?

This special issue will explore challenges as well as positive developments in the improvement of the working environment, including experiences and insights from implementing systematic work environment in the regulatory system and at workplace level, since year 2000.

This special issue invites both qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods papers, and theoretical or conceptual studies. The questions that could be addressed include:

• How should we understand ‘Systematic Occupational Health and Safety Management’?
• What are the experiences and the status of the systematic working environment approaches at workplace level?
• To what extend are management working systematically with the working environment, and how are working environment activities integrated into other management activities?
• Who are the drivers of systematic working environment efforts at the workplaces? `
• Are systematic working environment efforts fostering improvements for all groups of workers? E.g., both men and women, young workers, part-time workers, digital platform workers, etc.  
• How do legislation, regulation, and enforcement support systematic working environment efforts at the workplaces?
• Do the implementation of systematic approaches vary across countries, across types of work and industries, and across types of work environment issues, such as sexual harassment, bullying, stress, musculoskeletal disorders, chemical exposure, accidents at work etc.?

• How important is the involvement and influence of workers, their representatives, and unions for successful Occupational Health and Safety Management?
• What are the prospects of systematic work environment approaches, and could such approaches be improved further? Or is the way ahead in another direction?

Bio sketches of the (guest) editors:

Johnny Dyreborg: Johnny Dyreborg (MSc, PhD) is a senior researcher at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, since 1999. He has a background in organizational sociology with post-graduate training in occupational epidemiology and qualitative methods. His main research focus is intervention research, in particular investigating effective accident prevention methods directed at the workplace. This includes evaluation of the effects of systematic working environment systems, safety climate change, and reviews of safety interventions for the prevention of accidents at work.

Klaus T. Nielsen: Klaus (Ph.D.) is a senior associate professor at Centre for Working Life Research at Roskilde University, Denmark, since 1992. Working environment (WE) has been his main research interest for many years, particularly with a sociological perspective on the impacts of WE policies and regulation – labour inspection strategies, the interplay among regulating actors, WE research – on the behaviour of companies – collaboration between managers and the workforce, compliance with regulations, and health and safety effects.

Lotta Dellve: Lotta Dellve (MSc, PhD) is a professor in work science at department of sociology and work science, and an associate professor in occupational medicine, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She is also affiliated professor in ergonomics at KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Her main research areas covers organisational and social work environment, leadership and organizing work. Most recent studies are conducted within public organisations and contribute to development of practices within occupational health and safety management and/or human resource management.

Trond Kongsvik: Trond Kongsvik (PhD) is a professor in safety management at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His has a background from psychology and sociology. His research has been within both formal and informal aspects of safety management, including safety indicators and audits, accident reporting, safety culture and climate, and application of action research in a safety context.