Gothenburg Trial: Can Shorter Workday Raise Productivity?

Abstract

This case discusses an experiment conducted in the Swedish city of Gothenburg where a six-hour workday was introduced on a trial basis to find out the feasibility of introducing the six-hours a day working policy in Sweden. The policy was implemented in organizations like Svartedalens retirement home, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Toyota service centers, etc. in Gothenburg. The results were optimistic and increased the quality of work life of the participant employees. But, there was criticism against the policy that it needed extreme focus from the employees to work shortened working hours. There were also concerns that adopting such practices might not be viable for all types of organizations....

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Issues

The case is structured to achieve the following teaching objectives:

• Understand the significance of workplace policies and practices on employee motivation, productivity, and quality of work life.
• Discuss and debate the pros and cons of shifting to a six-hour workday.
• Analyze the viability of adopting a shorter workday in a particular industry .
• Identify the issues and challenges in shifting to a shorter workday.
• Explore alternative options to improve employee productivity as well as quality of work life.

Keywords

Gothenburg experiment, Workplace policy, Productivity, Motivation, Quality of work life, Work-life balance, Six-hour workday, Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, General Management, Toyota

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