ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors analyse ‘new management’ as a concept, and break it down into a certain number of elements as regularly found in the discourse of both popular books on management and more research-oriented texts on new forms of management, work practices and flexible organization. They investigate the extent to which the readers find those different elements in practice in Swedish firms, and analyse the relationship between new forms of management and outcomes in terms of competitiveness and quality of work or worthwhile jobs. The ‘new forms of management’ bring with them and require new forms of work organization with more demanding jobs and the ‘empowerment’ of employees. With respect to labour relations at the workplace, a vast majority of the managers interviewed reported that employer/union relationships are characterized by cooperation and that the degree of cooperation is not related to the existence of new management.
