where the works has played a central role for the development of the town over centuries. The company
is the main employer of the inhabitants of the town, besides the
municipality, and there is often more than one generation of a
family working at the company. The local area has a tradition of
producing steel that dates back to the 17th century. In earlier times
ore was used as raw material, but nowadays scrap metal is used for
the steel making. Today the company is part of a corporate group
producing steel products in several places around northern Europe,
which at the time of the study employed about 4000 people. At the
company studied there are about 1000 employees allocated to five
departments: the steel mill, billet mill, ring mill, hot rolled tubes
mill, and cold rolled tubes mill.