Power, Structure and Technology (PST) – Institute for Social Research

Technological changes, such as information, communication technologies, robots, and public policy affect companies’ adaptability, and they influence their decisions on how, where, when and what should be produced. In many countries such decisions are taken in collaboration with labour unions.

Power, Structure and Technology – Opportunities and Challenges for the Labour Market focuses on how technology is changing what a business and a workplace is. We draw on insights from economics, political science, sociology and industrial relations, and conduct empirical analyzes of how and whether digitization affects the boundaries and structure of an enterprise and whether it shifts the balance between employers and employees.

Project Approach

First, we address how technological change such as digitalisation may affect firms and their structure, and areas within the workplace, depending not only on the type of the firm, but also on the type of union presence within the sector or firm. Technology, investments, super-firms, and the interplay with unions and negotiations are keywords.

Second, we address how changes in the temporary work legislation and the occurrence of domestic outsourcing influence inequality in the workplace and in the labour market in general with important implications for ethnic and gendered class based divisions. For example, we investigate the wage- and employment effects of domestic outsourcing at both ends of the labor market (for high and low-skilled jobs).

Third, we address the impact of product and service offshoring, i.e., moving part of the business abroad, affect workplace and labour market inequality. We examine the impact of offshoring on employment and wage growth within firms, as well as investigate the impact of employment and wage growth in general on the individual level, and provide a broader answer to the impact of offshoring on employment and wages.