ABSTRACT
Digitalisation and flexibilisation both have the potential to radically change the organisation of work. Technological change has been proposed to move the occupational structure in the direction of polarisation. These changes are often studied at an aggregated level, but they are first manifested in the different organisational practices of private and public organisations. Therefore, by studying these local practices we can come close to the complex interrelation among digitalisation, flexibilisation and polarisation.
Drawing on qualitative, interview data collected at workplace level in three Swedish manufacturing companies, this chapter explores and exemplify how digitalisation and flexibilisation affect the organisation of work at the company level and how this may impact labour-market polarisation. We point to distinguishing characteristics and strategies of the case companies and illustrate the extent to which these different processes of digitalisation, flexibilisation and polarisation are intertwined. We find that all three cases show tendencies for polarisation, but not in any coherent way. Processes of digitalisation and flexibilisation are highly interrelated but may provide different combinations of outcome. Thus, treating digitalisation, flexibilisation and polarisation as separate processes, will likely result in a simplified understanding of the very complex and intertwined processes at hand.
