Arbeitsintensität und Arbeitsintensivierung

In the face of the high and increasing levels of psychological demands at the workplace, work intensity is seen as a key dimension for work research and labour policies, and work intensification is regarded as a significant trend in current developments of labour. Against this backdrop, the article pursues two questions: First, how can work intensity be recorded and perhaps even measured? Several analytic approaches are presented and compared, with the result that a combination of quantitative inquiries and qualitative task analyses seems most promising. Second, the theory that work intensification is a growing trend in today’s world of work is questioned. The author argues that work intensification is by no means a new phenomenon but that together with trends such as digitalisation, changes in performance policy and the subjectification of work, new instruments, forms and actors have emerged. Hence, a case can be made to link the analysis of the development of work intensity to the analysis of performance control.