The first Social Audit was carried out in Sweden (1985–88) by John Fry and Ulla Ressner
Worklife researchers at the Centre for Swedish Working Life (Arbetslivscentrum) and published in Sweden in 1988 by Allmäna Förlaget
Stockholm under the title Social Revision av ett Ämbetsverk.It was the result of a three-year study of Sweden's central bureaucracy - The National Labour Market Board (Arbetsförmedlingen).The study was based on interviews and questionnaires with over 1
000 employees at all levels of the organisation throughout the country and became the subject of debate in the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament).Its focus was to assess the correspondence between the work experiences of employees and management on the one hand
And the legislated and collectively agreed upon objectives for service
Work environmental and managerial policies in its established definition of effectivity in the workplace.In short
It was an assessment of the institutionalisation of a Democratic Rationality.That critical research resulted in the two researchers being relieved of their permanent positions with the Swedish research institution and paid by the Swedish state to leave Sweden to immigrate to Canada in August 1990.