A warm welcome to the course Work Environment Economics! This course starts October 26, 2026 at 10:15. You can either come to room T67 at KTH Campus Flemingsberg or join via the course Zoom link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/68850791341

This course gives you an introduction to the importance of the work environment to an organization’s operational performance and financial outcome, and how good working conditions contribute to increased employee performance, health and well-being.

During the course, we review fundamental terms and concepts related to work environment and personnel economics, and discuss how various physical, organizational and social factors can affect the productivity, efficiency and quality of an organization. Furthermore, we study different methods and models to estimate financial effects of the work environment.

The course is given during one study period and you are expected to allocate about 25 hours weekly for the course for lectures, workshops, webinars and self-study activities. Three of the course weeks are held at Campus Flemingsberg and the remaining weeks are off-campus where we keep in touch through webinars via Zoom and the online learning platform Canvas. However, for most of the teacher-led session you are welcome to join a classroom at campus, if you prefer that. The course includes an applied project where you are expected to suggest, describe and argue for a work environment improvement, and estimate the financial impact of the proposed change.

Dr. Linda Rose, lrose@kth.se is examiner and responsible for the course and its main teacher.

You are welcome to email me, but I encourage you to use Canvas for general questions regarding the course, literature or assignments that may be of interest for all students.

Please note! in order to be assigned a group for the mandatory project work, students must participate in the first class day. We kindly ask you to come prepared to the Introduction day by doing the following:

Read the Course Guide
Read the Project Requirements
Start thinking about a possible company and work environment problem for the project work. Reading the project requirements will give you a good idea of what makes a good project topic). We also suggest you talk to friends and others who work at companies to find out if they have a work environment problem that they would like help with analyzing and getting suggestions of improvements on.
Fill in the project group survey by the latest by Friday October 23 at 13:00. (The teachers will decide the project groups for the group project.)

More information about the course

The Course Schedule is also the course home page, and it shows what is happening in each week of the course, as well as student responsibilities in terms of seminar preparation and assignments.
The Syllabus provides information about the course and its intended learning outcomes.
The Course Guide provides more information about the course content, assignments and other important information about the course.
In Modules you find the course material that is digitally published, including the Syllabus and the Course Guide, Handouts from lectures etc.
In Assignments you find the course’s assignments that you have to submit digitally.
In Announcements you will find any announcements made to course participants. This could happen for example if a lecture is cancelled.
In People you can see which group you belong to in this course.

Welcome to the course, we who work with it are looking forward to meeting you!

Linda with colleagues