Tobias Karlsson
Senior lecturer
Downsizing: Personnel Reductions at the Swedish Tobacco Monopoly, 1915-1939
Author
Summary, in English
It is shown that most of the reduction was achieved by reducing the number of workers. Attrition, early retirements and buyouts accounted for about half of the reduction and layoffs for the other half. The management initially made cuts at both ends of the age distribution, but with the advent of mechanization, downsizing measures became more focused on older workers and the principle ‘last in, first out’ was abandoned in favour of a more need-based approach to layoffs. This policy shift was associated with an increased inclination of the management to involve the union in establishing the order of selection, which was a dilemma for the union leaders.
Gender was an important aspect of the downsizing process. Women were in the majority in the Swedish tobacco industry, but male workers had a strong position in the union. Tensions between union members of different sex arose after the management had been persuaded to substitute male for female workers in 1927.
Although downsizing involved delicate trade-offs for the company as well as the union, both organizations eventually managed to overcome the challenges. The Swedish Tobacco Monopoly is an example of a state-owned enterprise that was able to shed labour and take advantage of new technology.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Publication/Series
Lund Studies in Economic History
Volume
47
Full text
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Lund University
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- severance pay
- human capital
- internal labour markets
- economic history
- tobacco industry
- state-owned enterprises
- the Swedish Tobacco Monopoly
- the Swedish Tobacco Workers’ Union
- gender
- male-breadwinner norm
- mechanization
- workforce reductions
- hours-reductions
- layoffs
- inter-war period
Status
Published
Supervisor
- Christer Lundh
- Maria Stanfors
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1400-4860
Defence date
27 September 2008
Defence time
10:15
Defence place
Crafoordsalen, Holger Crafoords Ekonomicentrum
Opponent
- Susanna Fellman (Docent)