ABSTRACT
The concept of organizational development is of essential importance in order to maintain a sustainable industry; this can be seen in numerous articles and research projects presented in scientific magazines, books and conferences every year. In June 2008, the Future Factory project started at Lulea Univcrsity of Technology, Sweden, inspired by participatory research, aiming at breaking existing patterns in organizational development by involving stakeholders that often are neglected or underrepresented, such as women and young people. The project as such is interdisciplinary; researchers with deep knowledge from different areas; industrial production, design, gender and ergonomics are all contributing with their specific expertise in order to achieve an understanding of the phenomena. This paper will present some of the result achieved so far. The aim is to develop principles that contribute to an attractive, effective and sustainable industry and also to identify or develop methods that support effective change processes within the industry. Early results points at the need of creating flexible organizations with the human factor in focus; offering the employees the possibility to plan their schedule, be part of an ongoing structured development process and stay connected to the inner and outer cnvironment through diffcrent networks.
