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Linda Weidenstedt

Contact information

Phone: 070-525 99 53
Email: linda.weidenstedt@ratio.se
Links: Google Scholar
LinkedIn
Profile Stockholm University

Linda Weidenstedt’s research keywords: remote work, self-employment, entrepreneurship, gig economy, platform economy.

Linda Weidenstedt holds a PhD in Sociology. Her research focuses on the future of work, with a particular interest in the platform and gig economy, self-employment, and entrepreneurship, as well as remote and hybrid work.

She is also affiliated with the Department of Sociology at Stockholm University, where she teaches and supervises theses in the field of Human Resources, Work, and Organization at both the undergraduate and master’s levels.

Related publications

Article (with peer review)

Tech-entrepreneurs’ psychological contracts with their institutional environment: Insights from Sweden

Eib, C., & Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2025

Published in

Economic and Industrial Democracy

Abstract

This qualitative interview study examines how high-tech entrepreneurs in Sweden (N = 11) perceive their contextual prerequisites and the expectations they hold towards their broader social and institutional environment. Findings from a thematic analysis reveal that participants have implicit expectations towards society and the state that are not being met, leading to frustrations, perceptions of unfairness, and cynicism. Through the lens of psychological contract theory, we demonstrate how the contextual framework shapes expectations and experiences of entrepreneurs, contributing to both psychological contract theory and to the contextualization of entrepreneurship.

Article (with peer review)

Stressed or happy – or both? Nuancing gig workers’ experiences with platform work

Weidenstedt, L., Palmtag, E.-L., Leick, B., & Cropley, M.

Publication year

2025

Published in

Economic and Industrial Democracy

Abstract

This study refines the understanding of gig workers’ experiences by showing that stress and job satisfaction can be parallel rather than mutually exclusive outcomes of gig work. By ‘gig work’ we mean piecemeal work using digital apps and platforms as part of the job. Using international survey data (N = 2385), we examine how demographic factors, socio-economic circumstances and work intensity are associated with both stress and job satisfaction of gig workers. Our results show that gig work can be both stressful and satisfying, with high work pace and physical activity enhancing satisfaction without increasing stress. These findings challenge the assumption that by default precarity leads to dissatisfaction, and they underscore the need to measure both stress and satisfaction of gig work. The exploratory study contributes to extant research on platform work by offering a nuanced perspective on gig workers’ well-being, with implications for platform design and policy to improve working conditions in the gig economy.

Article (with peer review)

Under my umbrella? Gig workers’ perspectives on career sustainability as employees in Swedish umbrella companies

Müller, F., Weidenstedt, L., Bernhard-Oettel, C., & Eib, C.Müller, F., Weidenstedt, L., Bernhard-Oettel, C., & Eib, C.

Publication year

2025

Published in

Journal of Vocational Behavior

Abstract

The rise of non-standard work arrangements has increased the need for research on career sustainability within these contexts, yet insights remain limited. In this study, we explore how gig workers employed by so-called umbrella companies understand and navigate their seemingly contradictory work arrangement. Building on the framework of sustainable careers, we conducted a reflexive thematic analysis with gig workers employed by Swedish umbrella companies. Results challenge the common portrayal of gig work as inherently precarious, as workers found ways to create a meaningful and sustainable career sequence. Participants perceived umbrella companies as enabling hyper-flexibility and hyper-individualization, thereby enhancing their person-career fit. However, they also acknowledged the limitations and potential societal challenges of this work model. We discuss how the sustainable career framework can capture the complexity of how employed gig workers made sense of their careers.

Article (with peer review)

Betwixt and between: Triple liminality and liminal agency in the Swedish gig economy. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space.

Weidenstedt, L., Geissinger, A., Leick, B., & Nazeer, N.

Publication year

2023

Published in

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X231172984

Abstract

In this paper, we identify when and why migrant gig workers experience liminality in the socio-spatial context of food delivery in the Swedish gig economy. We analyse qualitative interviews and informal conversations with food delivery workers in Stockholm through the lens of the territory-place-scale-network (TPSN) framework as developed by Bob Jessop, Neil Brenner and Martin Jones. We find that workers are challenged to deal with triple liminality regarding their work identities, workplaces and work organisation through platforms. Focusing on liminality as a central aspect of gig work, we further find that despite having little worker agency, some of the study participants engage in what we call liminal agency, that is actively pursuing possibilities for progress in uncertain states of in-betweenness. By unpacking the liminal dynamics that especially migrant food delivery riders are confronted with in their daily working lives, this study contributes to the debate on the migrant gig economy, the spatial turn in organisation studies and efforts from human geography to understand agency in precarious gig work.

Article (with peer review)

Working from home during lockdown: the association between rest breaks and well-being

L., Leick, B., & Sütterlin, S. (2022).

Publication year

2022

Published in

Ergonomics, 1-11.

Abstract

One of the challenges with working from home (WFH) is the question of its effect on health and well-being. The impact of home working on health has so far not been studied extensively. We address this gap by investigating the association between internal recovery, operationalised as rest break frequency (low, medium, and high) during the working day, on self-reported musculoskeletal pain, and post-work recovery symptoms in WFH knowledge workers (n = 382). The analysis showed that failing to take frequent breaks was associated with a dose-response increased risk of reporting headaches. For post-work recovery symptoms, failing to take rest breaks throughout the day was associated with an increased risk of reporting psychological fatigue, physical fatigue, and sleep problems, and a decreased risk of psychologically detaching from work and experiencing adequate rest. Our findings emphasise the importance of remote workers taking recovery breaks from work demands in the maintenance of health and well-being.

Article (with peer review)

Managers on balancing employment protection and what’s good for the company: Intended and unintended consequences of a semi-coercive institution

Stern, C., & Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2022

Published in

Economic and Industrial Democracy.

Abstract

Sweden’s institutionalized employment protection legislation, ‘LAS’, is interesting theoretically because parts of it are semi-coercive. The semi-coerciveness makes it possible for firms and unions under collective agreements to negotiate departures from the law. Thus, the law is more flexible than the legal text suggests. The present study explores intended and unintended consequences of LAS as experienced by managers of smaller manufacturing companies. The results suggest that managers support the idea of employment protection in principle but face a difficult balancing act in dealing with LAS. From their point of view, the legislation’s institutional legitimacy is low, producing local cultures of hypocrisy and pretense. The article gives insights into how institutions aimed at specific, intended behavior sometimes end up producing unintended consequences fostering the opposite.

The article in total can be read here.

Working paper

Working Paper No. 357: Managing Work from Anywhere: Six Points to Consider for HR Professionals

Allstrin, S., Grafström, J., Stern, C. & Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2022

Published in

Ratio Working Paper.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to assist human resource practitioners, leaders, and managers in their decision-making processes regarding the future of remote work by contributing with insights into, and synthesis of, existing research regarding working from home and working from anywhere.
Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a general review of the international literature in the fields of remote work, work from home, and work from anywhere with the aim to inductively discern themes research hitherto has dealt with.
Findings: We identified three larger themes: (1) productivity and efficiency, (2) remote leadership, and (3) work environment and work-life balance, each incorporating subthemes that contribute to a greater understanding of relevant topics in the context of remote work. In order to provide relevant information regarding the research front and guidance towards worthwhile considerations for HR professionals, leaders, and managers, we summarize our results in six concise points, each suggesting relevant questions to assess in relation to the future of remote work.
Originality: Companies will be forced to determine how to approach the post-Covid era and establish a new status quo regarding the future of office work that, ideally, will be mutually beneficial for employers and employees—whether it incorporates office, remote, or hybrid work. To the best of our knowledge a general review of the literature on remote work with specific, evidence-based, points to consider for HR professionals has not yet been undertaken.

Article (with peer review)

Managers on balancing employment protection and what’s good for the company: Intended and unintended consequences of a semi-coercive institution

Stern, C. & Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2021

Published in

Economic and Industrial Democracy

Abstract

Article (with peer review)

Employee Empowerment and Paternalism: A Conceptual Analysis of Empowerment’s Embeddedness in Communicative Contexts

Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2020

Published in

Mrev management revue

Abstract

Empowerment as a management technique builds on the assumption that employees desire more power. Consequently, to a large extent, research on employee empowerment has focused on defining the type of power that should be contained in empowerment, identifying relevant mediating and moderating effects of and for empowerment as well as empowerment’s boundary conditions such as individual and social attributes. However, less research has dealt with communicative and relational aspects and how these may impact the outcome of employee empowerment. This paper uses an interactional perspective to conceptually analyse communicative meanings entailed in employee empowerment. Building on sociological theories of communicative interaction, it is argued that focusing on leaders’ and members’ ascriptions of meanings to each other’s communicative messages reveals paternalistic power structures that are of relevance for the failure and success of empowerment. A communicative analysis of common structural and psychological empowerment efforts suggests that members’ sensemaking of their roles and situations, as defined by formal (written) and informal (psychological) contracts, may not necessarily be in line with the communicative meanings intended by leaders’ actions, and vice versa.

Working paper

Ratio Working Paper No. 339: Broken commitments and unfulfilled expectations: An explorative study of Swedish Labor Court cases

Stern, C. & Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2020

Published in

Ratio Working Paper

Abstract

Little is known about what lies behind serious relational conflicts in the workplace. In this paper, we analyze conflicts emanating from perceptions of broken commitments and unfulfilled expectations as they appear in the Swedish Labor Court. Sweden is a highly regulated and formalized labor market, with high levels of unionization and collective agreement coverage. Yet in a social setting ripe with formal rules and regulation such as this, what role do informal promises and expectations have? The empirical material for this study consists of a sub-set of two years of Labor Court decisions dealing with situations where mutual consent of what has been agreed upon or what is to be expected from each other has broken down. We describe who, when and what causes workplace conflicts and provide examples of typical situations where relations break down to such an extent that the cases are taken to court. The results show some variation between employers and employees, men and women, as well as insiders and outsiders of the Swedish labor market model. Our exploration into court cases in a highly regulated and formalized labor market suggests that regardless of the amount of regulations, people build relationships that go beyond formal rules. And when they interpret and judge their social relations, they will sometimes do so differently – and sometimes the differences will cause severe conflicts. Even in Sweden.

Reports

Varför gigga som matkurir? Förutsättningar och förväntningar bakom okvalificerat gig-arbete

Weidenstedt, L., Geissinger, A., & Lougui, M.

Publication year

2020

Published in

Report on food delivery in Sweden

Abstract

Sammanfattning:
Den digitala gig-ekonomin, där utförare av arbete och uppgiftsägare matchas mot varandra med hjälp av digitala plattformar, är omdebatterad. Gig-ekonomin lovordas å ena sidan för möjligheten att vara geografiskt obunden och flexibel, medan den å andra sidan fördöms för bristen på anställningstrygghet och dåliga arbetsförhållanden. Delvis beror det på att gig-ekonomin består av en heterogen samling arbete. Sett till andelen individer som jobbar inom gig-ekonomin utgör denna arbetsform än så länge bara en liten del av svensk arbetsmarknad – i alla fall om man använder sig av en strikt definition av den digitala gig-ekonomin just som digitalt och plattforms-förmedlat. Likväl har gig-ekonomin skapat en viss oro och en del arbete bland arbetsmarknadens parter och myndigheter: Gig-arbete räknas inte enbart som atypisk sysselsättning utan har dessutom rört sig i stor utsträckning i ett ingenmansland gällande socialförsäkring, anställningsvillkor och arbetsmiljö-reglering. Vidare är det i nuläget oklart om giggare är anställda eller företagare. Oklarheter och utmaningar har fått uppmärksamhet i svensk media och i svenska rapporter, det finns också internationell forskning på området. Dock saknas det förståelse och en mer djupgående inblick i vilka det är som väljer att jobba som gig-arbetare i Sverige och varför de har valt den vägen. Att förstå vilken roll gig-ekonomin spelar i giggarnas egna liv – och kan komma att spela framöver – är viktigt att förstå oavsett gig-ekonomins storlek.
Den här studien syftar därför till att bidra med insikter kring individers val att arbeta inom den okvalificerade gig-sektorn i Sverige, där arbete förmedlas via en plattform eller app men utförs offline. Frågan undersöks genom att låta gig-arbetarna själva komma till tals och berätta om sina uppfattningar och erfarenheter av gig-arbete: Kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med 34 så kallade matkurirer, det vill säga individer som jobbar med leverans av restaurangmat. Leveransuppdragen förmedlas genom digitala plattformar och appar (Uber Eats, Wolt och Foodora). Respondenterna fick berätta om sin bakgrund, varför de har valt plattformsbaserat arbete, vad som motiverar dem att fortsatt arbeta inom gig-ekonomin, hur nöjda de är med detta sätt att arbeta, vilka problem de upplever i sitt arbete och vilka framtidsplaner de har.
Resultaten visar att det finns likheter i respondenternas bakgrund vad gäller härkomst, utbildningsnivå och möjligheter på den svenska arbetsmarknaden, medan ålder varierar. Exempelvis var åldersspannet bland respondenterna 19–48 år; bakgrunden varierade från grundskoleutbildning till universitetsutbildning men mer än hälften av intervjupersonerna hade minst tre år universitetsutbildning; och mer än hälften av de intervjuade härstammade från asiatiska länder såsom Pakistan och Indien. Vidare visade analysen av intervjumaterialet att många respondenter överlag var nöjda med gig-arbetet trots att de klagade över problem med plattformarnas management, plattformarnas transparens och på bristande engagemang och omtanke från företagens sida.
Rapporten mynnar ut i resultat som visar att identitet och kulturell bakgrund, den samhälleliga kontexten i Sverige, gig-arbetarnas ambitioner och visioner, deras inbäddning i den sociala omgivningen, samt deras hantering av gig-arbetet spelar en avgörande roll i hur de upplever sin vardag. Flertalet respondenter berättar om svårigheten att hitta ett jobb som matchar deras kompetenser och att de använder gig-jobbet som en slags buffert tills andra jobbmöjligheter dyker upp. Andra berättar istället att giggandet kompletterar studier, andra (deltids-) jobb, eller det parallella uppbyggandet av en egen verksamhet. Gig-arbetet ses av de flesta i studien således som en temporär lösning på vägen till ett annat framtida arbetsliv.
Dessa resultat leder till följande slutsatser: Bakom gig-arbetares beslut att jobba och fortsätta jobba inom gig-ekonomin ligger flera olika drivkrafter såsom en inre motivation, gig-ekonomin som en övergångslösning, och flexibiliteten och självstyrningen som gig-arbetet möjliggör. Slutsatser angående den framtida utvecklingen av gig-ekonomin berör å ena sidan konstaterandet att gig-företagen behöver ta ansvar och öka transparensen, exempelvis genom att utveckla förutsägbarheten kring hur mycket man kommer att tjäna på ett leveransuppdrag. Å andra sidan anser vi att en reglering av matleveransbranschen behöver göras med varsam hand. Gig-ekonomins heterogenitet bidrar med en mångfald av funktioner för giggarna, från övergångslösning och bisyssla till heltidsjobb, och dess tillgänglighet och öppenhet borde därför bevaras och stödjas. Samtidigt behöver matkurirers arbetsmiljö och villkor diskuteras.

Working paper

Working Paper No. 333: Balancing employment protection and what’s good for the company

Stern, C. & Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2020

Published in

Ratio Working Paper

Abstract

Like most developed countries, Sweden has institutionalized employment protection legislation, called LAS. LAS is interesting theoretically because parts of it are semi-coercive. The semi-coerciveness makes it possible for firms and unions under collective agreements to negotiate departures from the law, for instance regarding seniority rules and terminations due to employees’ fit and/or misconduct. In this sense, the law is more flexible than the legal text suggests. The present study explores how the semi-coercive institution of employment protection is perceived and implemented by managers of smaller manufacturing companies. The results suggest that managers support the idea of employment protection rules in principle but face a difficult balancing act in dealing with LAS. Thus, the institutional legitimacy of the law is low. LAS ends up producing local cultures of hypocrisy and pretense. The paper gives insights into how institutions aimed at producing good moral behavior sometimes end up producing the opposite.

Reports

Anställningsskyddets avsedda och oavsedda konsekvenser

Stern, L., Weidenstedt, L. & Sideras, G.

Publication year

2018

Published in

Arbetsmarknadsprogrammet

Abstract

Lagen om anställningsskydd är omdebatterad och skapar friktioner på svensk arbetsmarknad. Å ena sidan finns arbetsgivare som vill ha flexibla företag och rätten att leda och fördela arbetet för att främja verksamheten. Å andra sidan finns arbetstagare som vill ha trygga anställningar och rätt till en icke-godtycklig behandling. På aggregerad nivå får lagstiftningens avsedda och oavsedda konsekvenser förhållandevis mycket utrymme i debatterna såväl som inom forskningen, där studier exempelvis visar att ett strikt anställningsskydd hämmar företagens produktivitet. Mer sällan ställs frågan hur lagstiftningen tillämpas och upplevs fungera lokalt och i praktiken, det vill säga ute på företagen.

Den här studien syftar till att bidra med sådan konkret och lokal kunskap i syfte att undersöka avsedda och oavsedda konsekvenser av anställningsskyddets utformande i företagens dagliga verksamhet. Frågan undersöks genom tolv intervjuer med företagsledare i medelstora tillverkande företag med erfarenhet av att avsluta anställningar. Företagsledarna fick berätta om vad som hände, hur och när processen initierades, och när – men också hur – de upplevde att processen fungerade.

Resultaten visar att företagsledarna principiellt har en positiv inställning till anställningsskydd, men upplever att lagstiftningen inte fungerar väl i praktiken. Exempelvis står turordningsreglerna i konflikt med företagsledningens fokus på att vid arbetsbrist behålla rätt kompetens. Vidare menar de att avslut av anställningar på grund av personliga skäl är näst intill omöjligt.

Working paper

Working paper No. 296: Does One Size Fit All? Investigating Different Empowerment Orientations in the Heterogeneous Workforce of the Swedish Retail Sector

Weidenstedt, L.

Publication year

2017

Published in

Ratio Working Paper

Abstract

Empowerment research and practice is guided by the idea that empowered employees perform better due to a greater sense of self-efficacy and capability. Underlying this idea, there often seem to be two tacit, unexamined assumptions: first, that employees generally would prefer an empowered workplace to a less empowered one; and second, that all employees can be empowered by means of the same measures and changes as defined by empowerment research. The main research question asked in this study is whether those aspects typically associated with structural and psychological empowerment efforts at the workplace are indeed perceived as desirable and positive by all types of employees. Employees’ attitudes toward the success of empowerment efforts, and the relevance of such attitudes, are investigated by analyzing survey data from 268 employees in the Swedish retail sector. Results indicate that age and work intensity (part-time vs. full-time) as well as cohabitation have significant impacts on how empowerment efforts are viewed by employees in the sample.