Labor: Global, National, Local: Dutch academic's pathbreaking book in industrial relations

An important recent book articulates an uptodate horizon of normativity for Christian labor unions and movements, reaching from level of generality down to depth-levels of particularity -- such as, most importantly, the perennial industrial problem of tension and even class-warfare on the shop floor.

Dr Maarten Verkerk's Trust and Power on the Shop Floor: An Ethnographical, Ethical, and Philosophical Study on Responsible Behaviour in Industrial Organizations (Paperback) impresses me as unique (it's available from Amazon).

Dr. Verkerk is now Prof of Reformational Philosophy at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. In one of his current activities, Dr Verkerk provides in English a brief personal autobio for an upcoming conferemce. Here's my expanded version of the resulting bio, the orignal published online as part of a digital-brochure for 2k9 summer's Christian Artists conference in the Netherlands (see Upcoming Events in the rW's frontpage sidebar). Held every four years, the conference is sponsored by a sectoral unit within the Christian labor union of the Netherlands CNV, the every-4-years conference is sponsored by CNV's affiliated Christian Artists trade-union (CNV-Kunstenbond). Verkerk's thumbnail bio:

After my chemistry study in Utrecht [presumably BS level], I worked for four years at the Technical University of Twente to write a thesis [PhD level]. After that I worked as a senior researcher at Philips National Laboratory in Eindhoven.

Then, for more than fifteen years, I performed a number of management functions in the industrial sector of Philips [publicly-traded private-sector megacorporation with an active multi-union system of representation of labor]. I worked in The Netherlands, Germany, and Taiwan. The size of the organisations varied from 30 to 850 employees.

A general characteristic of the technical sector is:

stress,
focus at the primary process,
continuous improvement,
motivating and training of employees,
complex interactions with marketing and development, and interaction with customers.

In 2003 - 2007 I worked in a psychiatric hospital. I started as a division manager; and after one-an-a-half years, I became the director. In this period I have reorganised the hospital, made it financially sound, implemented important innovations and led a merger with another hospital.

In April 2008 I became a member of the board of VitaValley, an innovation network in health care. Since August 2008 I have been and presently am the chairman of the board.

In September 2004 I was appointed as [a national-foundation's] "extraordinary professor" of reformational philosophy at the Technical University of Eindhoven. Amongst other subject-matters, I was teaching

philosophy of technology,
ethics of technology, and
ethics of management and organisation.

In July 2008 I was appointed [by the Special Chairs Project's trustees, of the Dutch Foundation for Reformational Philosophy" (about 600 members), appointed to be] an extraordinary professor of reformational philosophy at the University of Maastricht.

Professorships for special chairs at state universities. : Dutch universities can also appoint Extraordinary Professors on a part-time basis. This allows the University to bring in specialized expertise that otherwise would not be available. An extraordinary professor usually has his main employment somewhere else, often in industry or at a research institute or University elsewhere. Such a professor has all the privileges of a full professor (gewoon hoogleraar), may give lectures on special topics, or can supervise graduate students who may do their research at the place of his main employment. Due to this system, many university research groups will have several professors. There is however a clear distinction between bijzonder hoogleraar and buitengewoon hoogleraar. The bijzonder hoogleraar does not get paid by the university, but receives his salary from an external organization, such as a company, an organization or a fund [ -- like the 8 or so Special Chairs of Reformational Philosophy at state universities in the Netherlands, sponsored by the trustees for this purpose, of the Foundation for Reformational Philosophy]. The buitengewoon hoogleraar on the other hand is under a direct contract with the university. The same person may be both. Both types of extraordinary professor allow using the title prof., but contrary to full professors, they are not allowed to keep it after their contract ends.

Some Dutch universities have also instated Institute Professorships, which sometimes carry special rights, e.g. the absence of any obligation to teach undergraduate students.

Several topics of my management career are:

• the start-up of an actuator factory in Roermond. In a participative process a new organisation model was developed in which continous improvement, customer orientation and workers satisfaction were in the centre.

• the start-up of a new capacitor factory in Roermond. In the design a lot of attention has been given to the 3 P’s of corporate social responsibility: People, Planet and Profit. Total budget about 150 M Euro.

• the implementation of innovations in a psychiatric hospital (clinical path ways, community based psychiatry).

Over the years, I've taken on leadership responsibility in several different societal activities: (1.) in the local church (management, pastoral, liturgical), (2. in societal organisations (politics, workers unions), and (3.) in scientific functions (management, study, lectures, articles). At this moment I am the chairman of the board of the Prof. Lindeboom Institute, an institute for medical ethics.

On the second day of the congress August 3, 2k9, Dr Maarten Verkerk will workshop on "Why are those workers not employers. Why the trade-unions have to take care for the self-employed (including all the artists). The blessings of being selfemployed and the dangers. Measures to take. Timepressure of employers leading to unsafety and unhealthy and unsocial conditions. How is that in the cultural sector. Analyses and paths for directions. Testimonials."