Browsing by Author "Blomquist, Martina"

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CEO: 'We would never make it with full-timers. I don't think so' - A narrative study about the underpinning logic of a story behind nonstandard employment in the Swedish clothing retail industry
(2012-07-04) Blomquist, Martina; Bobeck, Gustav; University of Gothenburg/Department of Business Administration; Göteborgs universitet/Företagsekonomiska institutionen
This thesis, using a narrative approach, unfolds a story and hence questions its underpinning logic of nonstandard employment as expressed by representatives from the Swedish retail industry. As our mapping of the story indicates, the intertwined micro- and macrostories told by the interlocutors seem to function as to legitimise a logic that favours nonstandard contracts for the employees resulting in precarious circumstances for the same. Building upon Czarniawska’s narrative methodology (2004), we explicate this story using an antenarrative causality analysis. Further, we use an objectivist explanation and reach out to the Lacanian notion of fantasy as a means to explore our findings. Hence, the fundamental argument of this thesis is that there is a shared fantasy possessed by the employers that functions as a justification for them to act according to this nonstandard employment logic. Also, through its method, this thesis argues that this story has not ended yet.
Flexibel handel. En studie av bemanningsstrategier i svensk detaljhandel
(Gothenburg Research Institute, 2014-09) Tullberg, Maria; Walter, Lars; Blomquist, Martina; Gothenburg Research Institute
Sedan i mitten av 1990-talet har antalet personer med en tillfällig anställning ökat i Sverige. Utvecklingen inom detaljhandeln är likartad, om än på en något högre nivå än genomsnittet. Det är dessutom en sektor med förhållandeviss hög andel deltidsanställningar, en anställningsform som i sig erbjuder möjligheter till flexibel bemanning, bland annat genom att erbjuda mertid och behovsanpassad schemaläggning. Utvecklingen inom detaljhandeln har tillskrivits bredare, mer strukturella färändringar på samhällsnivå. Det handlar om förändrade köpmönster och ökade krav från konsumenter på flexibilitet och tillgänglighet när de göra sina inköp, något som sannolikt leder till utökade öppettider och behov av förändrade bemanningsstrategier. En annan förändring är beskrivningen av detaljhandelsbranschen som präglad av en allt hårdare konkurrens, med ökade krav på effektivt utnyttjande av lokaler, personal och andra resurser som följd.
Reshaped Employee Relations from Work Flexibility: A Study of Staffing Planning at a Swedish Pharmacy
(2013-07-05) Blomquist, Martina; University of Gothenburg/Graduate School; Göteborgs universitet/Graduate School
The aim of this article is to provide an in-depth account of how the organising of work has been reshaped at a Swedish pharmacy in order to meet new demands of work flexibility set by a reconstructed and recently privatised industry. In its aftermaths, a paradox has surfaced, as different groups of employees at the site become increasingly dependent upon each other to perform their work tasks while the altered working conditions simultaneously make the workers less inclined to do so. Hence, the paradox nourishes a set of conflicts among employee groups that negatively affect employee relations, which is likely to comprise organisational implications for the pharmacy over time. Using the process of staffing planning as a point of departure, this paradox is unfolded as being shaped by the influence of the prioritising of work tasks as well as a reigning professional hierarchy at the site. By using an ethnographically inspired approach at a single Swedish pharmacy, this article presents locally bound insights in order to more thoroughly understand the effects from flexibility demands upon organisations.