A Sustainable Workforce in Europe: Bringing The Organization Back in

Abstract

Globalization, economic fluctuations, the aging population, technological advances, and rapidly changing social structures pose new challenges to creating a sustainable workforce in Europe. While few would question the centrality of organizations in nurturing a productive and flourishing workforce, sociologists of work have long refrained from engaging with their role. This book responds to a growing chorus in research that we must ‘bring the organization back in.’ It has the following aims: To provide insight from an international comparative perspective into the availability of organizational policies for a sustainable workforce and their use by employees in different sectors across Europe. To analyze the consequences of the availability and use of investments in engendering productive and satisfied employees and cohesive and profitable workplaces in different sectors across Europe. To introduce and integrate the meso (organizational) level into research on the micro and macro levels of employment. This first chapter introduces the structure of the book and its chapters. The chapters are organized into three parts. In Part I, we provide a description of the data we gathered and the institutional background of the selected countries. In Part II, we analyze the organizational availability of various policies and how employees use them, highlighting barriers to investing in workforce sustainability at different levels. Finally, in Part III, we discuss the consequences of organizational policies for employees.