ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SJ IN THE WAKE OF DEREGULATION AND ITS POSSIBLE IMPACTS ON THE COST STRUCTURE

This paper describes briefly the development of the organisation structure in the Swedish State Railways, SJ, during the years of deregulation and its possible impacts on the cost structure. A more profound aim is to be able to identify possible sources of scale economies and forces affecting the cost structure as well as to find out how the cost structure is affected by the deregulation. The research problem can be stated in three questions: 1) how has the organisation of SJ changed over the years from 1986 to 2000; 2) is there any relationship between deregulation and organisational change; and 3) what are the possible impacts of organisational change and deregulation on the cost structure? This paper is based on interviews and a selection of written sources. When interviewing people at SJ, I could distinguish four major phases. The paper is structured according to these phases. The paper presents the investigation regarding the relationship between deregulation and organisational change. Finally, possible impacts of organisational change on the cost structure are discussed. The hypothesis is that deregulation impacts the organisational structure, i.e. the internal organisational structure in a company as well as the organisational structure of an industry, i.e. the market structure. Deregulation leads to a changed market situation. Companies are likely to adapt their organisational structure to fit the new market situation. The cost structure is, then, affected by the organisational structure. Deregulation may also have a direct impact on the cost structure. The market structure might not change because of the deregulation, new entrants may not occur, but the threat of a potential competitor might be enough to impact the cost structure. For the covering abstract and the URL of the conference see ITRD E205769 (A)