Co-determination: What difference does it make? Individual Action Plans, co-determination and the potential positive implications of activation policies

Abstract

Since the early 1990s so-called ‘Individual Action plans’ have been used within Danish labour market policy in order to promote the (re)integration of unemployed peoples into the labour market. Here, an individual signed agreement (or contract) is made between the unemployed and the Jobcenter which outlines the objectives of participation in activation measures and the means by which the goals are expected to be achieved. Formally, the plan is based on dialog, user involvement and co-determination and according to the rules, the unemployed should ideally be involved in their own return to or integration into the labour market. Previous research has explored the extent to which user-involvement and co-determination has actually been carried out in practice. The article goes further by analyzing the impact of the feeling of co-determination in preparation of the Individual Action Plan on unemployed peoples’ own assessment of the impact of participating in activation policies on their prospects for returning to the labour market and their selfesteem. The article finds a strong and robust positive correlation between the feeling of codetermination among unemployed and the outcome of the process: The higher the feeling of co-determination in preparation of the Individual Action Plan, the more positive assessment of the impact of participating in activation policies on their prospects for returning to the labour market and their self-esteem. Hence, the effect from co-determination persists even after controlling for factors such as the type of activation (e.g. education, job training), subjective state of health, age, level of education, unemployment duration, willingness to work etc. The results indicate that co-determination makes a difference which must provide ‘food for thought’ in the planning of future activation policies.