Organizational change and quality of life : individual and organizational perspectives on democratization of work in an insurance company

Sammanfattning: Organizations are always changing. How do periods of intensive change affect the employees’ quality of life. Changes are usually designed to increase organizational effectiveness. Sometimes attention is also paid to the employees’ reaction to these changes and these reactions are normally assessed for the personnel as a whole.Is it possible to add an individual perspective to the predominant organizational perspective when carrying out and evaluating organizational changes? This dissertation develops a frame of reference for studying the consequences of organizational change on the individual employee’s quality of life. This frame of reference is then applied to a longitudinal study of employees in a department involved in a change project for democratization of work at the Skandia Insurance Company. The change period covers the years 1972 to 1975.The conclusions of this study constitute a plea for new change strategies involving ‘change moderators’ and ‘tutors’, and for supplementing, rather than replacing, the principles on which the organizational solutions are based.