On 19 and 20 October 2006, the Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Organisation (IET) organised the first international conference on “Foresight Studies on Work in the Knowledge Society”. It took place at the auditorium of the new Library of FCT-UNL and had the support of the research project “CodeWork@VO” (financed by FCT-MCTES and co-ordinated by INESC, Porto). The conference related to the European research project “Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society” (WORKS), which is financed by the European Commission. The main objective of the conference was to analyse and discuss research findings on the trends of work structures in the knowledge society, and to debate on new work organisation models and new forms of work supported by ICT.

Taking into account the global trends towards vertical de-integration and functional integration, the WorTiS project is expected to be able to determine to what extent the Portuguese automobile industry is experiencing far-reaching changes as far as innovative (post-fordist) work systems are concerned. One of the objectives is to reach wider conclusions regarding the sector under analysis within a new multi-disciplinary approach, in connection with other research networks (namely, GERPISA and IMVP-MIT). It will recover relevant information in automobile companies located in Portugal (like, Toyota, Citröen, FIAT, Renault, Ford, VW, UMM), in order to understand how concrete practices have being developed in time, and update the scientific knowledge with the development of new case studies (Mitsubishi, AutoEuropa, Opel-GM, and other sub-contracting firms). is intended to present a new fieldwork methodology in order to analyse the variety, and contradictory character, of changes in work practices. The analysis would focus on the cases of automotive firms that operated, and are still operating, in Portugal. The effectiveness of such a tool will last far beyond the project itself.

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In this paper for a public debate promoted by the Portuguese President of Republic in 2000, we start from the basic definitions of information society and discuss the main measures proposed as targets in the firld of work and employment. Structural changes are analysed related with the economical and social dimensions of the information society, especially those related to the work organisation, education and training, and the labour markets. Finally recommendations are made on the topics of innovation, employment and development of information society.

Research activities at European level on the concept of new working environments offers considerable attention to the challenges of the increased competencies of people working together with automated technologies. Since the decade of 1980 the development of approaches for the humanization of work organization, and for the development of participative organizational options induced to new proposals related to the development of complex and integrated automated systems. From such parallel conceptual development emerged the concept of “anthropocentric robotic systems” and quickly it covered also other fields of automation. More recently, the debate also covers issues related to working perception of people dealing with autonomous systems (e.g. Autonomous robotics) in tasks related to production planning, to programming and to process control. In fact, today one can understand the wider use of the anthropocentrism concept of production architectures, when understanding the new quality of these systems. In this chapter the author analyses the evolution of these issues related to governance of ICT applied to manufacturing and industrial services in research programmes strengthening very much the ‘classical’ concept of anthropocentric-based systems. It is emerging a new value of the intuitive capacities and human knowledge in the optimization and flexibilization of the manufacturing processes. While this would be a pre-condition to understand the human-robot communication needs, there is also a need to take into consideration the qualitative variables in the definition and design of robotic systems, jobs and production systems.

Working teams in enterprise environment are considered as the most advanced forms of work organisation. This means the forms that can improve productivity quality of working life. Nevertheless, it prevails a slow development and dissemination of these advanced organisational forms in European companies. The reason for that lays in a complex linkage factors from social values to the economical pressures. But other factors are also related to the national systems of education training, to the different systems of industrial relations and technology policy.

The WORKS Project started two years ago (2005), involving the efforts of research institutes of 13 European countries with the main purpose of improving the understanding of the major changes in work in the knowledge-based society, taking account both of global forces and the regional diversity within Europe. This research meeting in Sofia (Bulgaria) aimed to present synthetically the massive amount of data collected in the case studies (occupational and organisational) and with the quantitative research during last year.

Today one can understand the wider use of the anthropocentrism concept applied to the production architectures, emerging a new value of the intuitive capacities and human knowledge in the optimization and flexibilization of the manufacturing processes. Having a flexible production and assembly system architecture that exists at UNINOVA-CRI, we will try to develop some exploratory hypothesis on the applicability of the hybridizing concept and its repercussions in the definition of working places, in their organization and formation of working teams. We will underline some aspects that should be taken into consideration when are design such systems, including some ergonomical aspects.

Some of the phenomena where the “globalization” concept is applied include the internationalization of markets, globalization of culture, polítical hegemony of world by some states, or groups of states, the increasing power of supranational institutions, and the development of a global division of labour. A starting point to understand the global division of work is the study of how companies are re-structuring, once they are the key-actors in the decision on which work should be found and where. The “value chains” describe each step in the productive process of a final product or service. Separated units of value chains can be in the same company (in-house) or in different companies (outsourced). Similarly they can be in a same local, or in other location. Normalization of business processes, combined with digitalization of information and the development of telecommunication networks made possible the tele-mediated work. This paper presents results from the European WORKS project, where are studied Portuguese cases of firms that integrate globalized value chain, and are analized the implications on work organization models and the (new) professional structures.

There is an increasing importance of different productive architectures related to worker involvement in the decision making, where is given due attention to the intuitive capabilities and the human knowledge in the optimization and flexibilization of manufacturing processes. Thus having reference point architecture of a flexible manufacturing and assembling system existent at UNINOVA-CRI, we will present some exploratory hypothesis about applicability of the concept of hybridization and its repercussions on the definition of jobs, in those organizations and in the formation of working teams.

The interest to study this factory of GM group in Portugal is due to the facto of being one of the oldest assembly lines of the automotive sector still operating in Portugal (it was founded in 1963). Besides that, it went recently across a very intensive technological change, and then would be interesting to know the organisation of work model chose. The Opel factory occupies at the moment the former one that belonged to Ford Lusitana. There it has being under production some modules that feed the assembly line on JIT and in sequence. Although there were severe difficulties to implement the case study at Opel, this report could be done using secondary information and several interviews at the factory and initial visits. This Opel factory was recently closed down in the frame of a GM European strategy for re-structuring.

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The social dimension of worker-robot interaction in industry is becoming a decisive aspect of robotics development. Many problems and difficulties of robotics research are not only related to technical issues but framed by social aspects. Human-robot interaction (HRI) as a specific research field of robotics tackles this issue. The debate on social involvement in HRI design of a few decades ago must be re-opened. A start-up project was initiated in 2012 at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) to define a new research field and establish a conceptual framework on HRI. It was related to recent developments in the manufacturing industry and professional service robotics. The aim was to cooperate with other research teams to establish an expert network in this field. Special focus was placed on the design of work organisation models and issues of robotics technology design for worker (or operator) and robot interaction. In the current paper we present the most important conclusions from these research activities. –

This paper is based on a study about the Setúbal region, included in the internacional project “The Future of Industry in Europe” for the programme FAST-MONITOR of the European Community (1992-94). There were some information on the project VW/Ford for this region and those that are connected with research networks on industrial sectors (specially, on the automobile industry), and the network on the spatial and regional factors of regional development. Those studies allowed the scenario development on evolution trends of European industry and, specifically, on the automobile sector, and on the Setúbal region that was studied by the Portuguese team.

Some of the phenomena where the “globalization” concept is applied include the internationalization of markets, globalization of culture, polítical hegemony of world by some states, or groups of states, the increasing power of supranational institutions, and the development of a global division of labour. A starting point to understand the global division of work is the study of how companies are re-structuring, once they are the key-actors in the decision on which work should be found and where. The “value chains” describe each step in the productive process of a final product or service. Separated units of value chains can be in the same company (in-house) or in different companies (outsourced). Similarly they can be in a same local, or in other location. Normalization of business processes, combined with digitalization of information and the development of telecommunication networks made possible the tele-mediated work. This paper presents results from the European WORKS project, where are studied Portuguese cases of firms that integrate globalized value chain, and are analized the implications on work organization models and the (new) professional structures.

As a Norwegian sociologist pointed out recently at the Encontro Internacional de Vilamoura on Fishing, “the fisheries management is the management of people, not fish" This statement may surprise many specialists, but it puts once again a series of questions and problems in their true place: society, social relationships, individuals. It is necessary to adopt a new attitude, a new type of intervention, a new vision, which may mean “community management”, a system of co-management, new models of business organisation and consumer behaviour. Towards this end, sociology can and should contribute with its analytical instruments, with its set of scientific reflections and controversies, to the enrichment of the knowledge about a complex reality in profound change, such as that of the socio-economic fisheries system.

In this working paper is presented information on the Portuguese labour market developed with the support of the European project WORKS-“Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society”. Is still a on the process article and thus commentaries are welcome. The structure is based on the following topics: a) The employment policy (Time regimes - time use, flexibility, part-time work, work-life balance -, and the work contracts regimes – wages, contract types, diversity); b) Education and training (skilling outcomes, rules on retraining and further training, employability schemes, transferability of skills); c) Equal opportunities (relevance of equal opportunity regulation for restructuring outcomes, the role of gender and age regulation); d) Restructuring effects (policy on transfer of personnel, policy on redundancies, and participation or voice in restructuring).

The innovation in the employment behaviour is particularly clear in what concerns the sector composition of the employment changes: the persistent decrease of the industrial employment (even if within a framework of some recovery of the industrial product), a slight expansion in the employment on the tertiary sector, and an important growth of the employment in the construction and public works activities. We can identify then a considerable sector mutation concerning the industrial and the services sectors but also a growth of the atypical forms of employment. Portugal continues not being able to respond to the labour market needs (improvement in the education sector is critical to the catch-up process). The Portuguese cases studied point out to organisational changes supported by ICT, but not determined/induced by it. For most of the changes that were recently developed, ICT had an important role. We didn’t found explicit technological determinism in the relation between ICT and social exclusion.

This study was produced for the “Study of Instruments and Tools to anticipate the effects of industrial change on employment, trades and vocational qualifications” and for DG V (Employment) of the European Commission in the late 1994. It started when the previous Portuguese government was still ruling, the main policies were defined, and the available instruments were not used in a minimum extend. The new Government, issued from the 1995 elections, proposed “employment” as a major objective with horizontal responsibility. That’s also why there is now a Ministry for Qualifications and Employment, and another one for Solidarity and Social Affairs, not one for Employment and Social Affairs as the previous Government had. But more than that, this objective is considered to need a coordinated and consistent action that involves external affairs, industrial and regional policies, and the policies on education, training and employment, among others. The promotion of the “quality of employment” is being recently done at the working conditions, remuneration, social protection, occupational promotion levels, and the equality of opportunities towards employment and vocational training levels, and finally, the levels of qualification of human resources for a better labour market, education policy and training policy developments. In Portugal, the influence of the industrial change is produced in a top-down way; with (in some cases) an ex post analysis process to formulated training needs. This means that the industrial change impact is produced (normally, unexpectedly), and afterwards the responsible at the company level tries to know which training needs should be formulated in order those effects could be the smoother possible. The training needs at the company level is not based on anticipatory studies, neither is done any long term forecast on qualification, or even employment level.

In this paper is analyzed the work organization and the forms of quality control in a robotic welding station in a company of office equipment and metal components manufacturing. The robotic cell is recent and works in two shifts. Quality and production rationalization implied in this firms the adoption of a strategy of organization of teamwork, and it is supported the collaborative tools to decrease the possibilities for errors and to improve means and methods of manufacturing. The analysis of quality control process needed the use of productivity indicators. In this way it was possible to understand the connections between the function quality and the new form of work organization adopted in this innovative experience in Portugal.

At the beginning of the 21st century there are new expectations and challenges towards Technology Assessment (TA). Among these there is a new awareness on TA issues in education, in particular at universities. While TA was mainly an activity at extra-universitarian research institutions for a long time now there are new developments and initiative towards integrating TA issues in university courses. We will first give an insight into the international development. Secondly we will focus on the “TA and education” landscape in Germany and Portugal in more detail, followed by a description of new and emerging forms of cooperation between Portugal and Germany in this field which might serve as a model or an example for further cooperation between other partners.

At the beginning of the 21st century there are new expectations and challenges towards Technology Assessment (TA). Among these there is a new awareness on TA issues in education, in particular at universities. While TA was mainly an activity at extra-universitarian research institutions for a long time now there are new developments and initiative towards integrating TA issues in university courses. We will first give an insight into the international development. Secondly we will focus on the “TA and education” landscape in Germany and Portugal in more detail, followed by a description of new and emerging forms of cooperation between Portugal and Germany in this field which might serve as a model or an example for further cooperation between other partners.

In this working paper is presented information on the Portuguese labour market developed with the support of the European project WORKS-“Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society”. Is still a on the process article and thus commentaries are welcome. The structure is based on the following topics: a) The employment policy (Time regimes - time use, flexibility, part-time work, work-life balance -, and the work contracts regimes – wages, contract types, diversity); b) Education and training (skilling outcomes, rules on retraining and further training, employability schemes, transferability of skills); c) Equal opportunities (relevance of equal opportunity regulation for restructuring outcomes, the role of gender and age regulation); d) Restructuring effects (policy on transfer of personnel, policy on redundancies, and participation or voice in restructuring).