This study extends previous theoretical and empirical research on Blau and Boal's (1987) model of the interactive effect of job involvement and organizational commitment on employee withdrawal. Using longitudinal data from a survey among the nursing staff of a Swedish emergency hospital (N = 535) and register information on actual turnover, the results showed, in contrast to the statement of the original theoretical model, that turnover intention mediates the additive and multiplicative effects of job involvement and organizational commitment on actual turnover. The study suggests that the proposed involvement by commitment interaction is theoretically justified, and underscores the pertinence of investigating intermediate linkages in turnover research.

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Using data from 257 members of a Swedish public sector whitecollar local union, a first purpose of this study was to examine whether North American results concerning predictors of company and union commitment generalize to the Swedish industrial relations setting. Results of multiple regression analyses support the application of divergent models in predicting company and union commitment. A second purpose was to compare different methods of scale bifurcation that have been applied under a taxonomic approach to dual commitment. Similarities and differences in results produced by three sample-dependent (mean, median and cluster analysis) and one sample-independent (scale midpoint) split methods are examined. Implications of the findings are discussed.

wedish unionism has many unique characteristics (Kjellberg, 1989), S among them the high union density rate (around 84%), and the organization in just a few large unions in three national federations, one for blue-collar workers, one for white-collar workers, and one for professionals. Despite these specific attributes, there are important similarities between Sweden and most industrialized countries. Today, most unions, like Swedish unions, find themselves in a rapidly changing environment and are facing new challenges to the traditional ways of internal organization and task performance. The increase in alternative work arrangements (e.g., part-time employment), new information technology, globalization, and new management strategies to strengthen employees' commitment to the company (e.g., individual contracts) are all examples of factors that unions are confronting. One of the primary motives for the new managerialism is the recognition that the old control systems fail to develop the degree of employee involvement required in order to maximize efficiency in an increasingly competitive environment. The basis for organization is gradually shifting toward flexible specialization, market orientation, jobintegrated structure, and coordinated independence of small semiautonomous groups (Brulin

Despite the amount of privatizations around the world in recent decades, only limited research attention has been paid to how privatization affects the employees. The effects are likely to vary depending on the individual's position in the organization. The aim of this study was to investigate how employees' work‐related attitudes and strain changed after privatization of a Swedish acute care hospital, and to analyze whether the effects of privatization differed between employees at various hierarchic levels. Questionnaire data collected at a hospital 1 year before and 2 years after privatization, as well as at a hospital which remained a public administration unit, suggest only limited effects of privatization on a general level, but that employees at various hierarchic levels may be affected differently. While employees at a high level (physicians) and low level (assistant nurses) reported only marginal differences over time in work attitudes and strain, also in comparison with their colleagues at the comparison hospital, work attitudes of employees at the intermediate level (registered nurses) decreased after privatization. These results emphasize the importance of taking hierarchic level into account when a privatization is implemented and analyzed.