In this paper one presents and discuss the hybridation concept using some aspect that integrate it, as the physical architecture of automated systems (hardware), the information system that integrates that architecture and the working places design. Analyzed are also the inter-dependences of those aspects, and we have as a reference the flexible production and assembly system existent at UNINOVA-CRI. The focus is made on possible problems that can occur with the use of possible development of those systems, namely: a) full automation with centralized human control, b) non-automated process of shop-floor work with a system “one man, one machine”, c) hybrid system of automated cells with “elastic” human jobs.

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.

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).

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.

The foresight and scenario building methods can be an interesting reference for social sciences, especially in terms of innovative methods for labour process analysis. A scenario – as a central concept for the prospective analysis – can be considered as a rich and detailed portrait of a plausible future world. It can be a useful tool for policy-makers to grasp problems clearly and comprehensively, and to better pinpoint challenges as well as opportunities in an overall framework. The features of the foresight methods are being used in some labour policy making experiences. Case studies developed in Portugal will be presented, and some conclusions will be drawn in order to organise a set of principles for foresight analysis applied to the European project WORKS on the work organisation re-structuring in the knowledge society, and on the work design methods for new management structures of virtual organisations.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

No abstract is available for this item.

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.

This report begins with some general information and analysis of policy and regulation that were the subjects of discussion and exchange in the policy pillar in the first phase of WORKS. The second section is a synthesis of country information on general principles and trends of policy and policy enforcement. This is followed by a summary of sector information for the sectors chosen by the qualitative pillar to be the objects of empirical analysis. The last summarises research questions and dimensions to be guidelines for carrying out case studies and capturing the relevance and effects of policy and institutions at the workplace.

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This report begins with some general information and analysis of policy and regulation that were the subjects of discussion and exchange in the policy pillar in the first phase of WORKS. The second section is a synthesis of country information on general principles and trends of policy and policy enforcement. This is followed by a summary of sector information for the sectors chosen by the qualitative pillar to be the objects of empirical analysis. The last summarises research questions and dimensions to be guidelines for carrying out case studies and capturing the relevance and effects of policy and institutions at the workplace.

This report begins with some general information and analysis of policy and regulation that were the subjects of discussion and exchange in the policy pillar in the first phase of WORKS. The second section is a synthesis of country information on general principles and trends of policy and policy enforcement. This is followed by a summary of sector information for the sectors chosen by the qualitative pillar to be the objects of empirical analysis. The last summarises research questions and dimensions to be guidelines for carrying out case studies and capturing the relevance and effects of policy and institutions at the workplace. –

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WThis report aims to be the gathering of the main ideas that culminated in the presentation at the 1st Winter School of the PhD Programme on Technology Assessment (FCT-UNL) in December 2010. It is a guideline for future work development regarding Technology Assessment in Radiology, particularly having Magnetic Resonance Imaging, as an example. Therefore, as a background, it is necessary to understand what is “Technology Assessment”, how it developed and what it Europe’s interest in this area. Doing a transposition of this subject to health area, it is also important to understand the particularities of Health Technology Assessment. Portugal framework on this subject will also be addressed. As so, the Portuguese National Health System is characterized and the decision-making stakeholders identified, has well as the competences for the decision-making process in general. More generally, the different stakeholders perception involved in decision making, the mapping skills on technology assessment and decision making, the identification of indicators present in this decision making in Radiology, particularly in Magnetic Resonance area, are subjects to be addressed. To accomplish this, a research methodology was outlined, so that six research questions could be answered and five hypotheses could be accepted or refuted, in the future. With this research methodology, the Portuguese state of the art Magnetic Resonance equipment existence will be studied, using a survey as a resource. In the future, a mapping stakeholder technique will be used to identify the decision making key stakeholders and a survey will be applied to map theirs skills and competences in the process, where a pre-test was already applied.

In order to understand the decision-making process in a Radiology Department, taking the Magnetic Resonance Equipment as an example, this paper reports a project to be followed. It is a guideline for future work development regarding Technology Assessment in Radiology. The Theoretical Framework is divided is three big issues. The first is “Technology Assessment”. Starting with the definition of some important concepts, the history and development of Technology Assessment will be addressed. The aim of this issue is to give a general main idea concerning TA contextualization. Doing a transposition of this subject to health area, it is also important to understand the particularities of Health Technology Assessment, second issue. Portugal framework on this subject will also be addressed. As so, the Portuguese National Health System is characterized and the decision-making stakeholders identified, has well as the competences for the decision-making process in general. The third issue is Decision-Making and its aim is to give a general elucidation on decision-making matters. To accomplish this, a research methodology was outlined, so that six research questions could be answered and five hypotheses could be accepted or refuted, in the future. With this research methodology, the Portuguese state of the art Magnetic Resonance equipment existence will be studied, using a survey as a resource. In the future, a mapping stakeholder technique will be used to identify the decision making key stakeholders and a survey will be applied to map theirs skills and competences in the process, where a pre-test was already applied. The results of this pre-test are presented.

Nowadays, innovation has been understood as an overall strategy for a company. Thus, it should remain adapted, flexible and responsive to the market changes, where the company operates. For a company to succeed in the innovation process, it should be clear about their position on this issue. There are several dynamic systems of control and management innovation. One of these systems is the Innovation Scoring, developed by COTEC Portugal, a Corporate Association for Innovation supported by the Portuguese government. The Innovation Scoring is a support tool to encourage national companies to develop innovation in a more systematic, efficient and effective way, contributing to the strategic thinking of the company, about their innovation processes. It allows a more indepth knowledge about the different dimensions that sustain innovation processes. It allows also the identification of areas with potential improvement. In order to analyse and diagnose the innovative capabilities of a real organization, have applied the Innovation Scoring survey. One of the Central Hospital in the Greater Lisbon area (Public Business Entity), and more specifically, its Imaging Department was the case studied. Innovation Scoring System is a self-diagnosis survey and therefore self-fulfilled. However, to make the results more reliable and free from bias, it was decided to adapt the application method. Thus, interviews were conducted and the responses were used to complete the questionnaire later on. In the next step, we proceed to result analysis from the point of view of the innovation at the case studied. As a final result, the Hospital Imaging Department received a weighting of 224 in 1000, for the Innovation Index, which means that the Department has much to develop and work, regarding these issues. The results should serve as a basis of motivation and strategic thinking for the Imaging Department, in relation to their innovation processes. This working paper is structured into seven ch