ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have described the changing nature of work organisation and the effects which this, along with the insecurity and pressures associated therewith, have brought to bear on employees at all levels of the occupational hierarchy. In Chapter 2, we saw how many of the organisations in our survey had restructured their workforce in order to increase the temporal and functional flexibility of their employees. In the majority of cases, the employers we spoke to claimed that the new organisation of work had enabled them to increase productivity and profitability. Indeed, some of them asserted that without these changes their companies would no longer be in business. But, if, as our findings suggest, the new work environment generates high levels of stress and insecurity, the question arises as to whether these conditions can be sustained over the long term. If job insecurity and work intensification undermine the health and wellbeing of employees (and of their families), do they also damage the health and efficiency of the organisations for which they work?
