ABSTRACT
When this group of authors came together four years ago, it was with a sense of urgency. Many of us had been involved with workplace development for many years and there was now a feeling that the world was moving in a wrong direction. There were many indicators of increased pressures in work and we found that the notion of intensive work systems captured the essence of the situation. During the years that have passed the problems have worsened and remedies for a situation in which we, as humans, seem caught in a trap of increasing work demands and diminishing resources are nowadays high on the political agenda. Soon we came to the conclusion that formulating an alternative for the future was maybe more important than analysing the past. So with the adoption of the concept of sustainable work systems, we felt that we had at least an expression for an antipode that not only encompassed the abolishing of the sources of intensity, but more bravely saw work as a possible source of enjoyment and invigoration while still being high achieving.
