This study has been executed at the Public Employment Office, an institution that has been
subject for much debate during the last couple of years. The government has instructed the
Labour Market Board to change the Public Employment Office toward a more effective
organization. This study examines one of the Public Employment Offices that are included in a
pilot project that aims to improve and develop work methods with the objective to become a
more service minded organization. From this starting point we have investigated which effect this
organizational change has had on the employee within this organization and within the pilot
project. In addition we investigate whether attitudes of the unemployed has an effect on the
staff´s work situation. In connection to this we seek to produce proposals of how to improve the
work situation for the staff. The purpose of the study is thus to map out the staff´s experience of
the work situation within the pilot project. Our intention has been to comprehend the complex
reality of an agent at the Public Employment Office. To create a basis for our analysis and to be
able to answer the questions at issue, we apply theories regarding organizational change, learning
and health. The main results of this study indicate that learning has increased at the workplace.
The results also indicate that the new, more service minded work methods increase the demands
on the agents to be able to handle social relations with unemployed and with colleagues. Finally
we find that though agents have a high workload they find their work to be stimulating.
Högskolan i Halmstad/Sektionen för Hälsa och Samhälle (HOS) , 2008.