Dialogue and development: theory of communication, action research and the restructuring of working life

331.2509485

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Social science for social adion: a.. rd organizational renewal Volume 1

tional competition and political 1ge have created a new sense of behind a long recognized need jevelop new forms of work- and ·prise organization. The focus of r

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIII·URBANA 331.250148801780 CDD1 DIALODUE AND DEVELOPMENTS AliEN, MAAITRI

111111 3

"g "what is wanted" to "how to t about". Starting from some of 1e broad trends in contemporary European philosophy the book ribes, on the basis of experience 'lange programs in Scandinavian g life, some of the critical issues 1e interplay between theory and ice. The book gives, at the same 1,

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·s themselves can approach their �ms and challenges is playing an increasingly dominant role. Biographical note 1rn Gustavsen is professor at the wedish Center for Working Life, 1g professor at the University of and research fellow at the Work earch Institute in Oslo. His main :h interest is concerned with the le of theory in social change, an terest which is pursued through ing and participating in broadly ·ed change programs in working fe organized jointly by research, ment, unions and employers. He rten broadly upon such topics as 1d practice, the role of action in an understanding, strategies for ge and the development of new forms of work- and enterprise organization.

ISBN 90-232-2691-7

lliii�IIIIWIIII �111111

Series SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SOCIAL ACTION: TOWARD ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL

EDITORIAL BOARD Members: Hans van Beinum, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm, chair­ man Oguz Babiiroglu, Bilkent University, Ankara Claude Facheux, Fontainebleau, Erasmus University, Rotterdam Werner Fricke, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Bonn Nigel Gardner, PICT, University of Oxford Davydd J. Greenwood, Center for International Studies, Cornell Uni­ versity Dennis Gregory, Ruskin Hall, University of Oxford Bjorn Gustavsen, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm, Uni­ versity of Oslo Friso den Hertog, MERIT. University of Limburg Anders L. Johansson, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm Henk Leenen, publisher, Van Gorcum, Maastricht Frieder Naschold, Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin Casten van Otter, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm Robert Putnam, Action Design Associates, Natick, Ma. Annemieke Roobeek, University of Amsterdam Rene van der Vlist, University of Leiden

Bjorn Gustavsen

Dialogue and development Theory of communication, action research and the restructuring of working life

Arbetslivscentrum 1 992 Van Gorcum, Assen/Maastricht The Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm

"1992, Van Gorc um & Comp. b.v., P.O. box 43.9400 AA Assen, Netherlands No parts of t hi s book may be reproduced in an y form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmiued, in

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Dial ogue and development : theory of communication, action research and the re s t ructu ri ng of

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Acknowledgements

The main topic of this book is the relationship between social theory and soc ial practice. As a point of departure , it is a general analysis. It does, however. bu ild on concrete experience, in particular from the LOM programme : A triparti te workplace development programme which took place in S weden in the period 1985 - 1990. I would l ike to thank my colleagues in the executive comm ittee of the programme - Birgitta Nyri nder (The Swedish Federat ion of Salaried Em­ ployees ' Unions ), Lars Bjork (The Work Env ironment Fund, presently the Work Environment Foundation for the Bu i lding Industry), loge Janeru s (The S wedish Federation of Trade Unions), Berti! Oh lson (The S wedish Employers Confederation(fhe S wedish M anagement Group) and Erl ing R ibbing (The Work Environment Fund, presently the National Agency for Government Em­ ployers) - for excellent co-operation around a difficult task. About 60 research­ ers were involved in the programme, to them the acknowledgement m ust be made collectively. I would l ike, however, to mention explicitly those who were w il l i ng to become involved from the beginning and played a major role in the launching of the programme: Kerstin Rehnstrom (The Swedish Cou ncil for Management and Work Life Issues, presently the Foundation for Dialogue and Practice), Horst Hart and Bernd Hofmaier (The Swedish Center for Working Life ) . Casten von Otter (The Swedish Center for Working Life) m ade major contributions to the programme when he took responsibi lity for its efforts in the public sector. Peter Enstrom (The S wedish Center for Work ing Life ) has been responsible for much of the administrative tasks in connection with the center's part of. the programme; Anna Seth (The Swedish Center for Working Life) has carrie d a main responsibil ity for external contacts (in S weden and international­ ly) as wel l as processed the m anuscript for this book. Hans van B einum (The S wedish Center for Working Life) has been responsible for the training pro­ grammes and support systems w hi ch had to be developed as part of the LOM programme. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation of the will ingness of the S wedish Work Env ironment Fund to i nvest i n a workplace development programme with a substantial number of researchers involved - no mean risk to run and the board of the programme for its support. The LOM programme is part of a broader Scandinavian scene where other program mes and projects can be found; to some extent experience from other recent or on-going programmes are used in this presentation. In this context I w ould l i ke to acknowledge the importance of Ragnvald Kalleberg (U niversity of Oslo): Per H. Enge lstad and Oyvind PAishaugen (The Work Research In­ stitute, Oslo) and Lars A. Odegaard (The Norwegi an Confederation of Business -

v

and Industry) for contributions to Norwegian programmes as well as to the ideas described in this book. The Norwegi an Council for Applied Social Re­ ' search (NORAS) has given financi al support to Norwegian projects. A number of people have read and commented on various parts of this book, many of which were originally written as background papers for seminars and conferences organized within the LOM programm e or as information about the programme. This is the case for most of those mentioned above. I would, in addition, l ike to thank Robert Putnam (Harvard Uni versity, Boston) Thomas McCarthy (Northwestern University, Chicago), Claude Faucheux (Erasmus Uni versity, Rotterdam), Friso den Hertog (University of Limburg), Frieder Na­ schold (Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin), Werner Fricke (Friedrich Ebert Stif­ tung, Bonn), Peter Bachmaier (Freiuniversitat, Berlin), Allan Janik (Universitat Innsbruck), Stefan Aguren (The S wedish Management Group) Rolf Lindholm (The S wedish Employers ' Confederation) and Erik Lindhult (The S wedish Cen­ ter for Working Life ) for valuable comments. Finally, a collective acknowledgement must be given to all the enterprises and public institutions which, since the 1 960s, have been willing to enter i nto collaborative relationships to research around tasks of work- and enterprise development. The benefits for the participating organizations have not always been obvious and in particular not in the short run. We believe that this open and constructive rel ationship between working life and research is a very valua­ ble part of the Scandinavian scene. Stockholm December 1 99 1 Bjorn Gustavsen

VI

Contents

I

The LOM prog ramme: an outline

Introduction Fonnal characteristics The key concept: Democratic dialogue Main action parameters Other experiences

D

Back g round and points of departure

Introduction Some h istorical lines o f development Working life and industrial relations in Scandinavia The Industrial Democracy programme in Norway Parallel developments i n S weden Experiments and problems Participative design Local theory The diffusion problem and the fonnation o f collaborative relati�nships between enterprises

DI

I 3

3 4 9 11 11 12 14 15 17 17 19 19 20

The problem of legitimation and symbolic expression of new fonns of work organization

21

The situat ion in the e arly 1 980s A radicalization of the arguments

26 28

Theory and practice

I ntroduction The discourse on action research Spectator and participant Dialogues and practices Some remarks on the criteria for democratic dialogue IV

I

31 31 32 34 37

Organization development

Introduction Phases in the development The project development conference Achieving scope and broad participation

39 39 41 47 VII

,,

Development of supervi sory roles Product image and linguistic resources Management by dialogue Scope and integration The agricultural co-operati ve The Stockholm Tomteboda mail center Concluding remarks

v

The constitution of results

Introduction Constitution of results Evaluation Consoli dation VI

47 51 56 60 61 64 66

,,

68 68 72 73

..

76 76 76 77 79 81 84

An overview of patterns a n d experiences

Introduction The LOM population Stages and achievements Comments to the figure Experiences and conclusions Creating and sustaining broad development VII

Change and context

87 87 88 92 1 00 1 05 1 05

Introduction The cluster The network The programme The national level The multi-level perspective VIII

Critical discussions

Introduction Democracy and power What type of research? Organization and democracy

� 1 07 1 09 1 14 118

Literature

121

Appendix: participants at the Aske conference

1 27

VIII

I The LOM programme: an outline

Introduction A m ain topic in this book is a development programme in working l i fe which occurred in S weden during the latter half of the 1980s. In this introductory chapter a brief outl ine of the programme will be given. In later chapters certain questions and issues will be pursued on a more detailed and specific level . It must be emphasised, however, that the book in general has an overv iew charac­ ter. The programme in case is substanti al and manifold - it encompassed about 1 50 enterprises and public institutions and about 60 researchers - and a detailed account can not be gi ven within the framework of one book. This book w i l l focus on t h e main characteristics of the programme, i t s location in the history o f action oriented work research a n d its m a i n outcome in terms o f results, ideas · and new challenges. As we will have occasion to touch upon several times action oriented re­ search in working life has had a changing fate. There have been periods, such as the l ate 1 960s and early 1 970s, when much faith was placed from different quarters in the abi l i ty of action research to give significant contributions to a restructuring of working life . There have been other periods, s uch as the late 1 970s and early 1 980s, when research has been more or less banned from any participation in real workplace development. It is always hard to assess the future, even the close one. There are, however, s igns that research and working life again move towards each other. Working life is under strong pressure towards change and there is a clear need to util ise such a {presumed) major source of ideas as research. On the other hand, there have been continuous debates and also conflicts surrounding the question of how the contributions should be made. Action research is mentioned : this has been a highly con­ troversial topic inside as well as outside the research communi ty . Research which does not aim at coming into direct grips with workplace real ities can. however, also be discussed. Is it reall y so that the world can be " enlightened " through a seem ingly endless stream of studies? Who are reading these studies? Who is to transform them into workplace real ity if those who have written the reports are unable or unwill ing to do it themselves? To bring development of new forms of work- and enterprise organization on the one hand and research on the other into closer contacts with each other there are clearly some major - and difficult - problems which need to be, if not solved in an ultimate sense of the term , so at least worked on so that the meeting ground between research and working l i fe can be constructed in a

better and more fruitfu l way. We believe the LOM programme to represent some steps in this direction and that the ideas and outcomes of this programme can constitute some of the elements which are needed for the relationships between research and working life to enter a new era. Contributions from research to change and restructuring in working life can take on a number of different fonns . Historically , however, the field experiment has played a key role in this context. A field experiment can be characterized as: - a concentrated effort - in one clearly spec ified workplace - where the main point is to test and enrich a theory which consequently must exist before the experiment - where research tends to take on a leading role - as the local representative of the theory and where the results are to be d iffused along the same channels as other results of " scientific efforts " . From the Hawthorne (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1 939), through the efforts of Kurt Lewin and followers (e.g. Coch & French, 1 953; French, I srael & As, 1 960) and those of the Tavistock group in the 1950s - such as the Ahmedabad experiments (Rice, 1 953; 1 956) - up until the Industrial Democracy programme in Norway in the 1 960s (Emery & Thorsrud, 1 969; 1 976) this was the main model, although it was successively redefined to less and less resemble a classi­ cal experiment. The use of " control groups" was, for instance, abandoned; in the ID programme one passed from doing one single experiment to doing a series of experiments w ithin one and the same programme, etc . . Even though these and other modifications emerged, the idea o f doing " ex­ periments " of one kind or another in specially selected workplaces e xcerted a strong grip on the thinking up until the middle 1 970s. In the period from then and until today, a quite different approach to change has emerged, in the fonn of what can be called broad programmes. Although these can v ary, they tend to take on the following characteristics: - They are broadly defined efforts which seek to cover all major issues, organizational levels and interest groups within the enterprise - Many enterprises are involved - in a pattern which encourages collaboration between the enterprises - Research plays a role which is complementary rather than leading The efforts are not steered by one single " theory of organization " . " Theo­ ry" can, furthennore, emerge as part of the process of change and does not have to be fully worked out in advance - Insofar as general theory plays a role, it is generative theory, that is: Theory about how to create local understanding and change - " Results " are diffused along a number of different channels. A main em­ phasis is put on personal contacts between the people directly concerned. The LOM programme is an example of such an effort and in a number of ways a pioneering one. 2

)

Formal characteristics

LOM is short for the S wedish tenns for " Leadership, organization and co­ detennination " . The programme had a five year cycle time, tenninating during 1 990. It came to encompass about 150 enterprises and public institutions (in the text the tenn "enterprise" is generally applied for reasons of convenience: it refers to private as well as public organizations). The programme was located at the Work Env ironment Fund which finances research and development in wor­ king life as well as to some extent also administers the efforts. The labour market organizations (the union- and employer federations) have the majority of the members of the board of the fund. The LOM programme had its own board, similarly composed, and an executive com m ittee consisting of six people of which three came fonn the l abour market organizations, two from the fund and one from research (this author). The purpose of the programme was, firstly, to initiate and support development of new fonns of work- and enterprise organization generated by labour and management together. The second main purpose was to develop a role for research in this type of context. The fund financed the external support to the enterprises but not "internal costs". It was presumed that the enterprises participated because they wanted to do something with important problems which would have had to be dealt with anyway . About 60 researchers came to be working within the programme, spread on a sub­ stantial number of different institutions. Even though the programme had a limited existence in time, one of the underlying ideas was to develop and test a network-type approach with a view to making it pennanent if it could satisfy the basic requirements of the various interested parties . Below. w e will first tum t o t h e main theoretical concept o f t h e programme the idea of democratic dialogue - and then to the main action parameters applied .

The key concept: Democratic dialogue

In a programme where collaboration between the participants is a key dimen­ sion (network programme) it follows that there i s a need for a concept of communication to funct ion as the key theoretical underpinning. In the LOM programme, the idea of democratic dialogue played this key role. It is operatio­ nalised in tenns of the following criteria (Gustavsen , 1985a: 1 988a) : 1 . The dialogue is a process of exchange: ideas and arguments move to and fro between the participants. 2 . It must be possi ble for all concerned to participate. 3. This possibility for partici pation is, however, not enough. Everybody shou ld also be active. Consequently each partic ipant has an obligation not only to put forth his or her own ideas but also to help others to contribute their ideas. 4. All part icipants are equal. 3

of 5 . Work experien ce is the basis for particip ation. This is the only type have. ts participan l al , definition experienc e which, by 6. At least some of the experience which each participant has when entering the di alogue must be considered legitimate. 7. It must be possible for everybody to develop an understandin g of the issues at stake . 8. All arguments which pertain to the issues under discussion are legitimate . No argument should be rejected on the ground that it emerges from an i llegitimate source. 9. The points, arguments, etc . which are to enter the dialogue must be made by a participating actor. Nobody can participate "on paper" on ly. 10. Each participant must accept that other partic ipants can have better argu­ ments . 11. The workrole, authority, etc . of all the participants can be made subject to discussion - no participant is exempt in this respect. 12. The participants should be able to tolerate an increasing degree of differen­ ce of opinion. 1 3 . The dialogue m ust continuously produce agreements which can provide platforms for practical action. Note that there is no contradiction between this criterion and the previous one. The major strength of a democratic system compared to all other ones is that it has the benefit of drawing upon a broad range of opinions and ideas which inform practice, while at the same time being able to make deci sions which can gain the support of all participants.

Main action parameters

The idea of democratic dialogue as indicated above, must be converted into a set of more specific means, or measures, to become operational in actual work­ place change. The LOM programme was based on the development and ap­ plication of four such action parameters: (a) Clustering enterprises. (b) The use of a certain type of conference. (c) B road-base and deep slice projects which span the main levels and areas of the enterprise. (d) The building of broader networks. a) Clustering enterprises

In the LOM programme the basic unit of analysis and change was not "the organization '' but a group, or c l uster. of organizations, ideally four. This means that each participating enterprise went through the development cycle together with three other enterprises. If we w ant to build network-type programmes, i t is necessary to develop the ability of each enterprise to work together with other ente1prises as a key part of the process itself At the same time, it would be too difficult to l ink, let us say, 150 enterprises to each other without any med iat ing

4

structures. " The c luster of four" plays the role of providing a learning ground for performing dialogues with others, for sharing experience, etc . . S uch cl usters can be developed o n the basis of different criteria: wi thin the LOM programme branches as well as regions as well as a shared interest in a specific topic formed the basis for formation of clusters .

b) The conference The idea of democratic dialogue can be expressed in a number of different contexts. As an introductory arena, where people can be made subject to the ftrst exposure to this type of discourse, conferences are broadly applied (Gus­ tavsen & Engelstad, l 986a; Gustavsen, 1 988a). They were, for instance, used when clusters of enterprises were to start a development, for the purpose of exchanging experience between enterprises when development get under way, and for a number of other purposes . Conferences were appl ied not only to create links across organizational boundaries but also as a part of the develop­ ment processes within participating enterprises. It follows that the participation as well as the content of the conferences can vary . They are organized, howe­ ver, according to certain principles, which can be expressed as follows : l . There are no "lectures" or other efforts to " establish authorities" . Insofar as talks are to be given during a conference it is only in the form of brief comments to specific issues which have emerged as a natural part of the conference. 2. From point 1 it follows that it is the participants themselves who constitute the resources of the conference. It is the participants who are to develop problems, arguments, ideas . 3. This underlines that the participants themselves have relevant competence, perhaps not all the competence needed, but important parts of it. 4. The conference emphasises, furthermore, that efforts to develop organiza­ tions are collective: A number of people must work out ftelds of shared interests, pool their insights and develop new structures together. 5. Since a conference takes pl ace within time limits it emphasises that time is a key resource in organization development. 6. This key resource must in principle be equally shared between the partici­ pants. 7. Since the time is limited, the participants are exposed to the problem of dealing with complex and vaguely defined issues - such as "commit­ ment", "power" , "product qual i ty " - w ithin narrow time constrai nts. To be able to perform development work in actual practice this is necessary since in "real life " there is never time enough to "disc uss the concepts through ' ' . 8. The tasks generated by the conference - such as presenting group reports to the plenary - are made subject to rotation. 9. It is the responsibi l ity of the participants to reach results . 10. Two modes o f working are applied : Di scussions - which generall y take place in s m al l groups - and conclusions, which are worked out by the 5

groups but presented in plenary . This is to emphasise that democracy is not only discu ssion, it is also decisio n. 1 1 . Decisions normally presuppose that a process of concentration, synthe­ thization etc. i s performed. Group discussions must consequently be con­ verted into a set of brief concl usions to become operational. 1 2 . The disc ussions as such are important: People are exposed to dialogues of the type indicated in the previous section. 1 3 . These characteristics are not "presented " to the participants before the conference but are made manifest in the way in which the conference unfolds. Participants, topics and time can v ary. In, for instance, a conference where four enterprises meet to discuss to what extent they will engage in shared develop­ ment work, the participants would be vertical sl ice/inverted T project groups from these enterprises, preferably 8 10 people from each. The staff could come from the executive committee of the programme or from research organi­ zations which participated in the programme. The number of four follows from the point that although it is not common for the staff to sit in on group discus­ sions it must be done every now and then and since a conference the size of about 40 people can conveniently be broken into four groups it must be possible for the staff to cover this number. The topics in such a conference will usually be four: Firstly, what patterns of organization the participants would like to strive for; secondly, what problems they encounter in this context; thirdly, what ideas can indicate where to seek solutions and, fourthly, possible steps which can be taken in the near future and which can represent progress towards " the vision of a better organization " . The time is one and a half day . Other con­ ferences can be shorter or longer and have different types of participants, e.g. those who work together in a factory if it is an internal conference. For some further comments on design of conferences, see Gustavsen & Engelstad ( 1 986a), Gustavsen (1988a particularly pages 27 3 8 ) and chapter IV, pages 4 1 -46. -

-

c) Broad-base, deep-slice projects While, in conducting a field experiment, it is research which. on the basis of a " theory " , points out what is wrong with an enterprise and what is needed to set things right, in the LOM programme the problems to be dealt with and the direction to choose in doing it, emerged out of discussions where a number of people participated. Often, a series of dialogues, with many actors, are needed before anything resembling "a project" can emerge . In these discussions re­ search offers its competence as a discussion partner but not as a superior au­ thority. Two things follow from this: Firstly, that within an effort like the LOM programme, a broad range of different development projects are l aunched. Se­ cond ly, th at within each enterprise it i s necessary to seek a project pattern where the po int is not to focus on one single part of the organization or on one type of prob lem but rather to span broadl y over all the main leve ls, issues and interest groups . The chief reason for this is that in in v iting a number of actors to 6

participate in a democratic dialogue, what emerges is not a well structured map and logically ordered system of action parameters but rather a more loosely organized � t of topics and ideas for possible action. At least in the early round, democratic tl iscussions do not generate " coherent wholes " but loosely organi­ zed networks of points, considerations, ideas. It is not legitimate for us. as researchers, to reconstruct the products of these discussions to create " order" and " logics " . Rather, in designing projects, it is essential that the character of such democratically generated maps and suggestions is maintained. On this basis, a way of defining projects which to a large extent represents the an­ tithesis of "experiments " has emerged. In table 1 an effort is made to summari­ ze, although in a somewhat pointed form, the differences between an experi­ mentally oriented type of project and a type of project which is oriented to­ wards dialogue: It is a point in itself to generate projects within all the major areas of the enterprise, such as production, supervi sion, staff functions, higher-level ma­ nagement, etc .. Organization development refers to the enterprise as a whole and needs solutions to a number of different problems. Experience seems to indicate (Gustavsen, 1 987a; 1 988a) that it is better to work out these solutions in parallel than in sequence, among other things because this ensures that all the major levels and groups within the enterprise can - if they want to - be at the spearhead of the change process and do not have to find a place in a queue formed to spread a message worked out by others. On the other hand: The various efforts should not be isolated but co-ordinated, experience should be exchanged, etc., which means that there must be an i nternal network present for these purposes.

Table 1 : A comparison between experimentally oriented and dialogue oriented projects. Characteristics

Experimelllally oriented

Dialogue oriellled

The logic of the project

Linear

Interactive

Socio-technical and socio­

Theory of participative

psychological theory/theory

democracy

Chief theoretical source

of organization Legitimacy

The content of the solution

Participation in the process which creates the solution

Leading actors

Few

Many

Definition of initial

Zero point

On-going processes

Siruational map

Highly structured

Minimally structured

Procedure

"Big jump"

Stepwise

conditions

7

This leads to a type of developmental logics which c an be called interactive, in contrast to an approach which is based on letting events occur in sequence. In devel opment work a number of different theoretical sources can be rele­ vant. The shift towards a dialogue oriented approach does not mean that in­ sights generated within content-oriented schools of thought, such as most bran­ ches of theory of organization, systems theory , etc . , should be abandoned. Gi­ ven the right framework, practically all types of content-oriented knowledge can be relevant. This knowledge no longer forms, however, " the theoretical spearhead ''. This is, instead, sought in theory of participative democracy. This , in tum, affects the reasons why any specific solution to a problem of organization in a specific workplace can gain acceptance. Traditionally, re­ search claims to represent reason and rationality and solutions generated by - or by the help of - research should seek their legitimacy from their superiority, certain criteria given. Again, the point is not to argue that solutions should not be able to stand a reality test, but that a main element in creating legitimacy around solutions is participation in their development from those concerned. While an experimental approach must generally be organised and directed by a few people, an interactive approach opens up for initiatives, entrepreneurship, etc. from many different quarters and people. Hence it is possible to avoid too strong a dependence upon a few special ly committed people, a very common situation in organization development (Philips, 1988) but also a situation with a high degree of inherent instability. In an experimentally oriented approach it is common to define conditions as they are before the experiment starts as conditions which need to be changed. Existing conditions constitute a " zero line " in the sense that inherently they have no specific value relative to the aims of the development process. With the type of approach represented by the LOM programme this perspective has undergone change. Now it is more common to see the point of departure in terms of on-going processes of which at least some may be positively related to the type of change one wants to achieve. S uch processes can be directly in­ corporated and form one of the important cornerstones of the development work. Above, it is already mentioned that when inviting a substantial number of people to discuss a situation and how to improve on it what emerges is a broad map rich in elements and suggestions but not highly structured. This is in marked difference to the type of map underlying an experiment where order, structure and logics are extremely important val ues, if one is to be able to maintain the requirements normally associated w ith experiments, such as the need to perform strict "before" and "after " measurements, etc.. When seeing change of the type aimed for in the LOM programme as a temporary intervention in on-going processes it becomes unrealistic to try to create '' big j umps '', i.e. through trying to change the logics of an organization overnight. Instead, change is an evolutionary process which unfolds stepwise.

8

d) Networks

�

The clustering of enterprises, use of conferences and a broad-base project design are applied to create networks. In thi s sense networks are products rather than an action parameter. The long term aim is to establish a network - or perhaps rather a set of networks connected to each other - which cover most or all of S wedish working life and which can function as an infrastructure out of which change and development can grow and find resources to feed on in terms of ideas, support etc . . The LOM programme has made a contribution to the formation of such a broader network but it has not been able to develop it sufficiently far. Rather, this is a task which may take from lO to 20 years to accomplish. On the other hand, the programme did not start from zero point. Links and ties between enterprises of course existed to a substantial extent before the programme started, although generally for other purposes than initia­ ting and supporting organization development. Many networks ori ginally emer­ ging for other purposes can, however, be brought to bear also on organization development. In moving from the LOM programme in its existing form and towards the formation of broader networks a main point is to transcend the cl usters and convert them into broader, more open relationships encompassing a larger num­ ber of enterprises. Currently we are working with this transition. There is no uniform procedure to be applied here - each cluster m ust, as a point of departu­ re, be seen as unique and subject to special considerations.

Other experiences

While the LOM programme is the main source for this book some other pro­ grammes will be utilised as well. As will appear from the next chapter, when the LOM programme emerged in the middle of the 1 980s it was in many ways a turning point: While action research in working life had, for a period, been on the decline, this programme brought research back into this type of activity and on a certain scale. Towards the end of the 1980s other programmes started to emerge: Three such programmes will to some extent be used in this book: One is a small programme called ' ' The programme for comparative organizational analysis and development " located at the University of Oslo, another is the Norwegian Work Life Center which in itself is a five year programme and which is under rapid development at the time when this is written (late 199 1 ). One case is taken from still another effort, namely the various projects which have emerged as a consequence of the agreement made between the labour market parties in Norway in 1 98 2 on workplace development, but which did not acquire any major significance for the role of research until the end of the decade. The reason why such a mi xed group of programmes can be used to illustrate points in one analysis and discussion is because they are, to a large extent, built on the same type of theory and methodology. In the presentations and discussions, past tense is sometimes used while

9

present tense is applied at other times. Statements which refer to something which is unique for the LOM programme are in the past tense, since the pro­ gramme is concluded by the time when this is written. The other effons which will be utilized are however, ongoing, so are much of the activ ities generated by the LOM programme. Discussions of ideas, methodology and the l ike will generall y be done in present tense. The book is organized to reflect process rather than structure . The sequence of the chapters does, on the whole, reflect the stages in which the LOM pro­ gramme evolved, staning with initial conditions and ending with an overview of some of the discussions to which the programme has given rise. Thi s is a form which fall s natural to action research. While, for instance, a structuralist may have dedicated one chapter to each of the various topics which emerge, the whole to emerge when the last chapter is in place, in action research there is generally as many problems and open spaces present at the end as in the beginning. The hope is that they are different and that the road which is traveled in a project or a programme has implied some shifts in the location of the frontier of this type of research. ,

10

II Background and points of departure

Introduction

In modem society there is always a number of debates going on. Some of these are broad in the sense that they involve major parts of the population while others are going on in more select circles. Some debates emerge , unfold and disappear never to return, while others are more or less permanent. In this book we will enter the fields of three such debates: The first is about the role of social research, in particular about the " useful­ ness" of this type of research. In what way can this research be usefu l ? Is it at all a point to be usefu l ? Is it possible for this research to be usefu l ? Or - to tum the question around - is it necessary for this research to be usefu l to ful fi l its obligations as research? Under a number of different concepts this debate has been going on since the social sciences were created . Generally it has not been among the broad debates in soc iety - mostly it has been going on among some social scientists, theorists of science and the l ike. There have, however, been exceptions. In the famous year 1968 - when students all over the industrialised world rose against authoritarianism (real or imagined) - the role of social re­ search was one of the major topics and the echoes of the debates carried far beyond Academia. In more recent years the debates around postmodernism, the role of language in the formation of worldv iews, etc . , has provided a bridge between the research commun ity and a broader audience where the role and functions of soci al research is one of the major topics. The other debate - or " discourse " as debates are general ly called today - is about working l i fe and, in particular. about the characteri stics of · ' the good work " . What role should work play in society and for the individual? How should work be defined to fulfi l positive requirements? What requirements are positive in this context? The questions are numerous . The debate has generally been a broad one although perhaps not al ways as broad as should be expected. After all , most people are ' ' workers ' ' today and spend a substantial part of their life in a workplace. What then, could be more important than the way in which we do our work? Sti l l . this belongs to the major discussions in soc iety. The third discourse i s the discourse on change. Prov ided that we are in "position A" and want to get to " posi t ion B": How is t he transition to be made? It is c learly not suffic ient to say that ' ' now we want to get to B " - we do not get there simply by saying it. There is a need to have ideas about how to create the necessary movement: What iss ues and problems are involved, and what to do? If change is a quest ion of moving through several steps, what are II

these steps? Can change be seen as following "lawlike movements " ? Are there changes which fol low an exponential curve pattern; is the point that no tree grows into heaven valid for social systems so that all change is essentially of a rise and fal l character? The debate is on-going, often intensely, often more re l axed. " Change " is a concept which is, however, very much used today . When entering three major discourses it is of course not possible to cover them all and to do it in fu l l . The aim i s to cover the meeting ground between these di scourses. More specifically, focus w i l l be .on the following question:

How to create a better working life through processes of change to which research makes significallf contributions?

Some historical lines of development

Th is question is not a new one . One of the entrepreneurs of social research who posed it was Kurt Lewin and he did it in the 1 930s when in exile in the United States because of the advance of Nazism in Europe. He also developed an answer to the question. To i l l ustrate the answer we w i l l use a workplace project developed by some of this successors (Coch & French, 1 95 3 ) : In a factory ( Harwood) there was a technical change underway . Research was able to persuade the local parties to do an experiment. In connection with the change the workers concerned were div ided into three groups and given diffe­ rent forms and degrees of participation in relation to the change. One group was treated as usual , that i s : according to normal procedures. One group was given the right to elect special representatives who could go into di scussion with management about the ways in which the change was carrie d through , and the third group was g i ven direct partici pation . The change was done and various variables measured, such as productivity development, job satisfaction etc .. It turned out that the group with representative participation recovered faster after the change than the group with no participation and reached a higher level of productivity, and that the group with direct partic ipation recovered even faster and reached an even higher level of productivity. In this way a certain relations­ hip was establi shed which could. in a simple way . be e xpressed as follows: The more participation the better the ability to cope with change and util ise it for productivity purposes . Now, what was done here? Firstly, there was an invol vement from research Secondly. research played an active role; it did not only come to describe what happened when the enterprise carried the change through but research intervened in the process. The intervention took the form of an experiment. The experiment was not designed out of thin air but on the basi s of hypo­ theses and theory developed prev iously by Lewin and colleagues about the need for. and positive functions of, participati on (Lewin et al, 1 93 9 ) . It can be said that the process which was released in the plant was steered, or controlled, by a 12

theory as developed in soci al research. The interventionist perspective from research was combined w i th measure­ ment of critical variables i n the process. The results were presented as a verification of an hypothesis, an enrichening of this hypothesis and as a contribution to long term theory building in social research. It was in connection with this type of project that the notion of " action research" was originally introduced (Lewin, 1 946; 1 948). Th is is a somewhat odd concept since there i s a c lassical tradition of making a distinction between theory and practice. going back to the Greeks (Habermas-;--l-9 7 1 ). These words are meant to convey a relationship of opposition and if we equal theory to research and practice to action the concept of action research becomes some­ thing like " theory -practice". How can such a construction be defended? Two words which are meant to pertain to different phenomena do not for that reason have to be unrelated. Rather, they can point at different aspects, or dimensions, of one and the same process, or activity. The purpose does not have to be to make theory into practice nor practice into theory but to bring them close to each other so that theoretical as well as practical advances can be made through one and the same process. The phenomenon which was to perform the l inking function between theory and practice was the experiment. The experiment is the chief methodology of research in general. Without the experiment neither physics, nor medicine , nor biology. nor a number of other sciences would have existed. Experiments had already made their way into social research but mainly in the form of laboratory experiments where a group of people - usually students - were brought to perform some artificially constructed task or other while the experimenter used the occasion to study issues l ike " group leadership" , " problem solving" or the l ike. Lewin had lim ited faith in this type of experiment. They were too far removed from reality to actuall y represent real situations. The experiment had to be brought into real life, and the idea of the field experiment was born . In doing an experiment two events are so to say baked into one: While on the one hand expressing and enrichening theory the event i s also - since it happens in real l i fe - a real change for those involved. In this way Lew in and followers established a re lationship between theory and practice and at the same time generated a set of answers to the three problems sketched initial l y : The issue of t h e good work could b e l i nked t o worker part icipation, change could be seen as the direct application of social theory in field settings, and the field experi ment prov ided a role for research in thi s context. In many ways these were good answers : Firstly, the methodologies of soc ial research were l inked to those of research in general. Much of the criticism which l ater emerged against action research to which we w i l l to some extent return - has been voiced from a so-called positiv i st point of v iew. Thi s is in many ways an oddity since the experiment is really the core of po s i t i v i st methodology and action research is thus far more positi v i st than any other branch of social re searc h The favoured positivist .

13

method in social studies - prestructured questionnaires - is generally far weaker from practically all possible positivist points of view. Secondly, a bridge was built between theory and practice. Social research does not have to be pure descriptions, or free floating reflections : It could be brought to bear directly on specific problems with a view to solving them . Thirdly, by emphasising participation as a key dimension Lewin could link a " micro event " within one single workplace to major social issues such as participative democracy and consequently avoid another criticism which is so­ metimes directed against action research namely that it c an only deal with small scale phenomena, since experiments can only be done with individuals and smal l groups. The idea of doing experiments did not immediately catch on. It is a difficult methodology to apply in the sense that there is a need to find workplaces able and willing to participate and to find operational solutions to a number of problem s, such as how to sample workplaces , how to design control groups, how to define the right variables to measure, etc . . Stepwise, however, the idea of doing experiments caught on. Crucial in this context was the establi shment of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in Britain, an event with which Lewin was associ ated. Initially, Tavi stock did not embark on an experimental course. Thi s emerged stepwise. In doing studies in coal-mines it was di scovered that a Taylorist type of work organization, based on a high degree of special isa­ tion of work roles combined with strong and detai led supervi sion gave poorer results on most dimensions, not least productivity, than a pattern based on a group of workers sharing a set of tasks and exercising their own j udgment concerning such issues as who should do what task at what time (Trist & Bamforth, 1 95 1 ; Wilson, 1 95 1 ) . The possibil ity of developing this point further through an experimental approach in the coal-mines was limited. A step further could be taken when the possibilities emerged for doing a project in a weav ing mill i n India (Rice, 1 95 3 ) . It was, however. with the Industrial Democracy programme in Norway (Emery & Thorsrud, 1 969; 1 976) that the idea of doing experiments took a major step ahead. At the same time some changes started to emerge in the experimental methodology . Before turning to this programme there is, however, a need to say a few words about the industrial relations system of the Scandinav ian countries.

Working life and industrial relations in Scandinavia

The Scandinavian countries are generally thought to be highly organized, pea­ ceful and collaboratively oriented as working l ife is concerned. By this is meant that the employees are generally organ ized and in industry-based, and not craft­ based, associations. that the employers are organized in corresponding branch­ based organizations and that there exists a network of l aws and agreements which deal s w ith most of the issues emerging in working l ife and ensures peaceful settlements rather than strikes, lockouts. go s low campaigns . and the

14

l ike (Gustav sen, 1 98 1 ; Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1 98 1 ). The potential for innova­ tion has, at the same time, often been seen as high since the administration of the industrial relations system has created a l arge number of contact points, channels, and joint bodies through which initiatives for change and refonn can be taken. The development of work refonn movements - for which Scandinavia has a reputation - is generally attributed to characteristics of this kind. In this "tourist version " of Scandinavian working l i fe there are some con­ tradictions. An orientation towards i nnovation is, for instance, hardly consistent with a very high degree of organi zation and regulation . S i nce an innovation is by definition a break with existing patterns and since these patterns are heav ily institutionalised as well as shared by everybody they should be especially diffi­ cult to break with. Nor does a high degree of regulation and institution al i sation by necessity mean a " lack of conflicts " . One may equally wel l argue the other way around and say that a heavy system of regulations and bOdie s to carry them through is owing to the danger of conflict breaking out anywhere and at any time. Furthennore, it may not really be true that there is such a large amount of regulation. Looking at the more specific content of laws and agreements one will often be struck by their procedural character: What they do is to institute a number of channels and procedures for dealing with issues rather than stating how they are to be settled. These rules emerged out of a conflict period i n Scandinav ian working life in t h e first decades of t h e century . There is n o " inherent peacefulness ' ' and "collaborative orientation " in Scandinavian wor­ king life. Constructive forces were, however, able to come to grips with the conflicts through the development of an industrial relations system which could stepwise gain suffic ient legitimacy and support to be efficient. Most ' ' grand theories " and general reflections on industrial relations in Scandinavia beyond this point means to move into very uncertain terrain. We w i l l not continue this type of discussion; the point i n this context is to underline that whatever charac­ teristics the i ndustrial relations systems of the Scandinavian countries have, these characteristics are c reated and not given by unequivocal hi storical condi­ tions. Their maintenance and further development demand, furthennore, conti­ nuous responsible action.

The Industrial Democracy programme in Norway

The cornerstone of this programme - which evolved in the latter half of the 1 960s - was a series of field experiments with autonomous work groups, more speci fically in a wire drawing mill, a mechanical assembly plant, a pulp depart­ ment and a fertilizer plant ( Emery & Thorsrud, 1 976; Qvale, 1 976b: Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1 98 1 ) . The emergence of the programme must be seen i n the l ight of an i ndustrial democracy debate which emerged around 1 960 and where the question of work organization to some extent emerged . Industrial democracy was no longer seen purely as a question of ownership patterns, board composi ­ tion an d the like, everyday conditions o n the shop floor had entered the debate . 15

Two researchers - Einar Thorsrud and Fred Emery, the latter from the Tav is­ tock - were able to persuade the labour market parties to launch a programme aiming at an experimental pioneering of new solutions to problems of work organization and worker participation. A joint steering committee was esta­ blished and the series of field experiments was launched. To a large extent the pattern originall y introduced by Lewin and associates was followed. Some differences did, however, exist: Firstly, the programme framework as such. While- previous field experiments had been single cases of collaboration between research and one single plant, or enterprise, the ID programme implied a series of experiments with in a common framework. The programme framework implied a collaboration between on the one hand research and on the other the labour market parties. It implied, furthermore, a collaboration between these parties as well. Thirdly, the aims pursued through the programme were more m anysided and complex than what had previously been the case. Although the experiments were to contribute to theory, they were also to provide i nputs into a number of other processes, such as training programmes, changes in other workplaces, �tc .. This was linked to a fourth point: Even though Lewin and associates as well as the Tavistock researchers had the aim of contributing to change in working life as a whole, the ID programme was the first effort where this was an explicit consideration. The experiments were done not only for their own sake but for the purpose of prov iding points of departure for national change. They were meant to be followed by a process of dissemination, or diffusion, on a broad scale. Compared to the original Lewin experiments some modifications were done, in particular in the sense of skipping some of the traditional requirements, such as the use of control groups. A control group can be dissociated from the experimental change but not from the social processes which surround the change such as meetings , discussions and the like. The Hawthorne project (Roethlisberger and Dickson, 1 939) had demonstrated that this type of " auxi­ liary activity " can be as important as the experiment - sometimes even more important. No effort was done to practice the idea of " random sampl ing" of people and workplaces. Rather, the experimental sites were chosen with strate­ gic considerations in mind. To mediate between research and local develop­ ment. local tripartite action groups were introduced, which is another break with the experimental methodology in the sense that research now becomes a partner in a jointly steered development process rather than the director of the process. Still, the changes fed on soc ial theory and the idea of doing experi­ ments was maintained. In looking at the reports from these projects it is seen that they are generally referred to as experiments , while the concept of action research was not used in this period.

16

Parallel developments in Sweden

Inspired by the Norwegian development a joint counci l for issues of collabora­ tion set down by the main labour market parties in Sweden, decided to launch a similar series of experiments. They were somewhat more broadly defined than the Norwegian ones and designed to systematically cover all the major i ssues and aspects of enterprise operations, such as production, supervision, office work, planning and management. The Norwegian pattern was generally follo­ wed, but one may possibly argue that the use of experimental criteria was tuned down still more. The researchers operated, for instance, in a more eclectic fashion and relied less strongly on one s ingle theory . Wh ile the Norwegian development relied heavily on socio-technical thinking a it had emerged at the Tavistock, the Swedish researchers rather tried to find the "element of theory " which could most well fit a particular problem. The drift towards eclecticism was reinforced by the emergence of more than one programme. Beside the parallel to the ID programme - in Sweden called the URAF programme after the S wedish abbreviation of the name of the above mentioned counci l - several other programmes and projects emerged. There were points of l ikeness with the URAF programme but also points of difference ( some of the major programmes of the 1 970s are treated in S andberg, 1982 and in Gustav sen & S andberg, 1 984, see also Gustavsen & Rehnstrom, 1 989).

'

Experiments and problems

The drift towards a successive abandonment of traditional experimental require­ ments has been mentioned several times. This drift was linked to various pro­ blems and difficulties which emerged in the experimental period. These pro­ blems were, at the time, discussed under a number of different concepts - to the extent that they were recognized. When, below, an identification of some of the main problems - or families of problems - is done it must be remembered that this is done in the light of hindsight. At the time the situation was far less clear. A first problem - which was reflected in the eclecticism emerging in Swe­ dish research - was the problem of " controlling" an experimental development through one single theory, or through theory at al l . One may approach an enterprise or a workplace with the ambition of using one specific theory and associ ated methodologies - such as socio-technical design thinking - to steer the l ocal development, but it is a general experience that this is difficult. A lot of different problems and issues emerge and the theory may " fit " some of them but a number fall outside . They do not necessarily go against the theory , or invalidate it, they simply can not be brought into contact with the theory they pertain to things which do not fall within the realm of the theory . Changes in work organization on the shop floor can give rise to problems on the superv i ­ sory level, o n the level o f planning and management, and so o n . These pro­ blems can surface rapidly and unpredictably as soon as a change process is 17

started. When the process gets going it can in certain respects be likened to a train which can move fast as well as in many twists and turns. A second set of problems had to do with the subject status of those concerned by the changes. In doing experiments, local development is steered by a theory as represented by research. This, however, creates a problem : What about the views and ideas of those concerned? One may argue that these ideas are just what should be avoided since research is the body which represents reason and rationality. Against this, however, there are at leasnhree main arguments : Firstly, it may be that any specific research contribution does not represent reason and rationality. The social sciences general ly organize themselves in different - often opposing - " schools of thought " and who can guarantee that ' ' the right school ' ' is the one which is present in a particular workplace? Secondly, the idea of reason and rational ity as somethi ng emanating out of one single source called research has been questioned by many. not least within the research community itself. Thi s is, for instance, a main point within the deconstructivist development as represented by, for instance, Foucault (i.e. 1 980). Thirdly, even if it happens to be so that research can - given certain circum­ stances - represent " the right view " it may still be that this view can not be superimposed upon people : In the Harwood experiment outlined above, it was " proven " that worker participation is a good thing in relation to a change initiated by management. If this is the case, why is not worker participation a good thing in relation to change initiated by research? A third set of problems is the one referred to as diffusion problems. These became particularly pert inent since the idea was for the experiments to function as points of departure for broader processes of change. These broader processes did, however, not emerge, at least not in the period immediately after the experiments (Bolweg, 1 976; Sandberg, 1 982; Gustav sen & Hunnius. 1 98 1 ). This triggered off a debate about why obviously good solutions like autono­ mous work groups were not broadly adopted in working life. A number of ans wers could, and can, be given to this question. At this point we will only note the problem. Finally, there emerged a set of problems which can be called problems of legitimation. An example : When the Harwood project was replicated a few years later i n a Norwegian factory (French, Israel & A s, 1 960) the same rela­ tionship between participation and productivity did not emerge. The productivi­ ty development after the change was roughly the same for all groups, irrespecti­ ve of degree of part icipation . The explanation was that a set of issues which had to do with such values as solidarity between the workers had interfered in the process. It could be that the workers found a partic ipatively oriented pattern better than the conventional one but they were uncertain about its legitimacy. Was this the right w ay to change a workplace? What about fel low workers who had not been involved in similar change? Was it right to increase productivity, perhaps beyond the level of other groups? Could one be accused of bei ng a rate buster? These problems partly emerged because of the exi sten ce of an infonnal 18

social system among the workers local ly. stressing equality. solidarity and sha­ ring of conditions (Lysgaard, 1 960), partly because working life had given rise to major institutions, such as the union movement, where values, policies and settlements are expressed in numerous rules and procedures. " Change " is al­ most by definition a break with these institutional ly expressed rules and gu ide­ l ines and the problem is to what extent such breaks can be done. These problems - or problem fam i l ies - did not grow out of the experiments i n an immediate and sharply featured form. As mentioned already, this way of formulating them is the result of a long discussion and process of clari fication. Initially the problems came to the s urface in the form of experimental difficul­ ties, diffusion problems, and the l ike. Stepwise, however, the problems gained contours and efforts to work out solutions could start.

Participative design

The problem which first came to be identified was the subject status of those concerned. In the 1 970s Emery launched the idea of participative design, accor­ ding to w hich sociotechnical design is not done according to a blueprint worked out and administered by reseajch but in the form of a process where research and those concerned both p art icipate (for a col lection of contributions to the emergence of this idea, see Emery, 1989). Thi s idea can appear in different versions and with different implications: Participation from those concerned can be limited to the questions emerging when making more general ideas operational in a spec ific context, or it can cover more or less of the ideas as wel l . The effects of participation from those concerned can also be thought to differ. If it is bel ieved that research has the right theory, participation will not affect the outcome of the design process since the characteri stic of a right theory in this context i s that i t correctly reflects human preferences as these play themselves our i n a design process i f they are allowed t o play themselves out. The other possibil ity i s that the out­ come of the process w i l l be affected. The main argument for this view is that in a joint process all participants add something. As the idea of participative design was applied there emerged a drift towards letting those concerned in on successively more of the ideas and parameters of the change process while it also became c lear that part icipation adds something to the process. Expert design and participative design did not lead to exactly the same outcomes (Elden, 1 979).

Local theory In the history of ' ' theory of organization ' ' a long term drift towards the diffe­ rentiated can be noticed. While i .e . Max Weber (1958 ) generally worked with one pattern - bureaucracy - it stepwi se became common to make distinctions

19

org � nizatio n ( B ums between types of patterns - i .e. organ ic ve r:- us mech � n i stic _ forced wtth the mtroduc­ rem further was which ncy tende a & Stalker. 1 96 1 ) tion of conting ency th inking ( i .e. Woodw ard, 1 965). Con tingency thinking, i n tum. can be applied in different ways. In its most limited version it argues that all organizat i ons can be described with the help of the sam e variables - such as degree of centralization, degree of formalisation but that the values w i l l differ according to the conditions confronting each organization : A state bureaucracy may score h igh on formal isation while a Consultancy firm may score low, etc . . In a more radical version, contingency theory argues that differences between organizations i s not only a question of different values on the same variables but that there i s a need to apply di fferent variables to make meaningful descriptions of organ izations . The drift in contin­ gency theory has been towards th is more radical alternative (Scott, 1 990). When action oriented researchers developed the concept of " local theo ry " ( i .e. Gustavsen, 1 976: Elden, 1 983 ) it can be seen as a further radical ization of contingency thinking. The background for the emergence of this concept was the difficulties with applying any generalised theory of organization i n settings where research shares the responsibility for action. While descriptive research can filter reality through its own conceptual grid and stay content with ' ' des­ cribing what I want to describe · ' action research has to deal with whatever problems emerge w i thin the framework of a process of change . The process steers the problem-generation rather than a given conceptual framework. In moving from the more radical version of contingency theory and to local theory the main point is a shift in the position from which an understanding of a given organization is created . While contingency theory modifies the idea of a general theory of organi zation, local theory leaves this idea al together and looks upon the construction of a map of any given organization as a local process which can, however, rely on more general concepts. The way the concepts are selected and assembled is, however, a local process. -

The diffusion problem and the formation of collaborative relationships between enterprises

When using field experiments or other types of " leading cases " in a process of broad change, two presuppositions are made : Firstly, that it is possible to " take " something - a model, a solution, a pattern, or whatever - from one workplace and apply it in another. Such a possibility is, in tum, often linked to the hypothesis that the world consi sts of aggregates of equal elements or at least elements which are subject to general principles. Secondly, and as a consequence of the first point, that working l i fe can be changed through a sequential approach, moving from workplace A to work­ place B , from there to C etc . .

20

The diffusion problems as they emerged in the wake of the experi ments can be seen as a successesive fal ling apan of these two presuppositions. This brought fonh effons to make enterprises work together in processes of change and do it from the beginning. One example of such an effon was a job design workshop which was organized throughout most of the 1 970s by the labour market panies in Norway in collaboration with research and where 6 enterprises panicipated each time and where the emphasis successively shifted, away from ' ' lectures ' ' and other traditional ways of disseminating information, for instan­ ce about what had happened in earl ier experiments, and towards an increasingly heavy reliance on the experiences of the panicipating enterprises themse lves as they staned to construct changes in parallel (Engel stad & Odegaar . 1 979: Engelstad, 1 98 1 ) . This shift in approach led t o a n increase in the emphasis o n the local and variable, l ooking at each enterprise as a " universe of change " rather than a " ground for implementation of general ideas " . When interaction between en­ terprises become a major force in the process one has, at the same time, taken still a major step away from any notion of doing experiments, since ' ' the director of the experiment " is now almost completely done away with.

4

The problem of legitimation and symbolic expression of new forms of work organization

The problem of legitimacy has to do with the relationship between what hap­ pens within the workplace and a broader context. Th is context can incl ude a number of different systems of norms, values, institutions etc. When, below, we use a specific reform emerging in Norway in the 1 970s as an example, the point is to illustrate one way of l i nking workplace development and context. In this example the context includes a law. The law in case is the Work Env ironment Act of 1 977 which, in its anicle 1 2, contains rules about the way work is organized, more spec ifically the fol lowing:

Planning the work. l . General requirements. Tec hnology, organization of the work, working hours and wage systems shall be set up so that the employees are not exposed to undesirable physical or mental strain and so that their possibil ities of di splaying caution and observing safety measures are not impaired. Conditions shall be arranged so that employees are afforded reasonable op­ portunity for professional and personal development through their work. 2. Organization of work. The individual employee ' s opponunity for self-determ ination and professio­ nal responsibil ity shal l be taken into consideration when planning and organi ­ zing t h e work. Effons shall be made to avoid undiversified, repetitive work and work that i s 21

governed by machine or conveyor belt in such a manner that the employees themselves are prevented from vary ing the speed of the work. Otherwi se efforts shall be made to arrange the work so as to prov ide possibilities for variation and for contact with others, for connection between indiv idual job assignments, and for employees to keep themselves informed about production req uirements and results. 3 . Control and p lanning systems. The employees and their e lected union representatives shall be kept informed about the systems employed for planning and effecting the work, and about planned changes in such systems. They shall be given the training necessary to enable them to learn these systems, and they shall take part i n planning them .

4. Work involving safety hazards.

a) Performance premium wage systems shall not be employed for work whe­ re this may materially affe ct safety. Whi le the other points discussed above, such as the evolution of local theory and participative design, to a large extent will be dealt with in later chapters in the book, at least in terms of the extensions of these ideas, while this will be the only place where the rel ationship between workplace and context from a legiti­ mation point of view is discussed, a somewhat more thorough presentation will be made at this point. Why did the section quoted above enter an act, and what purposes is it s upposed to serve? By answering these questions we do, at the same time, discuss the problem of how to l ift ideas pertaining to new forms of work organization into a legal ly defined context and then, in tum, generate feedback effects back into the workplaces, thereby creating the process of inter­ action and mutual support between workplace development and context which is of crucial importance to the dimension of legitimacy. The point of departure was the discussions of workplace health and safety which emerged all over the industrial ized world in the latter 1 960s and early 70s (i.e. Ashford, 1 976). These debates to some extent implied a recirculation of traditional problems, such as how to prevent acc idents ( Mendeloff, 1 979). Some new e lements were, however, present, or at least elements which had not been so well recognized at earlier stages: 1) There was a growing awareness of the complexity involved in protecting health and safety in work (i.e. B obra & Schwartz, 1 98 5 ) . I.e. the focus on (potentiall y ) toxic substances was not only owing to the point that more and more dangerous substances entered working life - it is not quite clear to what extent this was actually the case - but also to the point that the number of new substances and chemical combinations made it increasingly difficult to oversee the situation and find out what effects were l ikely to occur, particularly in the long run. 2 ) Such problems as damage to the m usculo-skeletal system, which had previously been taken as unavoidable or trivial, were given increased attention. " Stress" and other so-called " psycho-soc ial " problems came on the agenda

22

(Bolinder & Ohlstrom , 1 97 1 ; Frankenhiiuser & Garde I I , 1 976; Gardell, 1 980). 3) While the tradition had been to focus on the more acute, or immediate, dangers there was now a recognition of the impacts of more modest exposures which do, however, last for a long time. 4) Changes occ urred in the frames of reference applied to the understanding of problems of work and environment, in particular the replacement of a ' fac­ tor-by-factor" understanding with an ecological understanding. 5 ) There was a pressure for participation, information , co-determ ination from the employees, as w itnessed by, for instance, the major programmes in the field developed by a number of trade union federations in Europe, not-letist, by the way , the Scandinavi an ones. When the first factory inspection acts were established, in Scandinav i a in the latter part of the previous century, there was little to rely on in terms of me­ thods, standards or other means, when the inspectors set about the task of deciding which working conditions were acceptable and which were not. To a large extent they had to rel y on personal judgment based on a subjective evalua­ tion of the workplace as a whole. In a way they played a ' ' political ' ' role i n the everyday sense of the term, as distinct from the later one of ' ' technical expert ' ' . S tepwise, however, the field became subject to " scientification " : Rules were developed to replace judgment, objectified measurements introduced, etc .. Cen­ tral in this development was the use of threshold limit values (TLV ' s ) in the form of quantitative expressions of how much of any given infl uence it is allowed to expose the workers to. By the time the work environment debate unfolded in the 1 970s this had long ago become the main approach to health and safety in working life and a corps of experts in the form of occupational health personnel, safety engineers and labour inspectors h ad grown forth in its wake . The problem was to what extent this was an adequate approach when designing a reform to grapple with the problems which constituted much of the background for the debates of the 1 970s : Was there a need for " more of the same " or was there actually a need to change the strategic perspective? This implied an analysis of the problems inherent in the traditional approach (Gustavsen, 1 980; Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1 98 1 ) : a) To proceed w i th a TLV approach it is necessary to split the work env iron­ ment into a large number of " factors " and deal with them separately. Then, however, synergistic effects. interaction effects, etc . , fal l outside. At the same time, studies of a number of different occupational groups, such as office wor­ kers, shop workers, transport workers, hotel- and restaurant workers, large groups of industrial workers, such as in the engineering industry, showed that the major negative effects of working conditions were brought about by the " total effect" of a broad set of factors rather than by highly critical single factors (an i l l ustrative example is a study of the work env ironment of hotel- and restaurant workers : Karlsen & Nress, 1 978; for a broad overv iew of studies see Karasek & Theorell, 1 990) . b) By relying on quantifyable TLV ' s it will be poss ible to regu late only those ·

23

factors for which such val ues can be worked out. These factors constitute only a part of the total work environment. c) By proceeding factor by factor it generally becomes necessary to establish one way causality between each factor and specific negative effects for reme­ dial action to be taken. Establishment of such simple causal chains is at best difficult - for the majority of work environment problems it can not be done at all . d ) The use o f TL V ' s and simil ar rules technifies the work environment problems and makes the dealing with them dependent upon experts of various categories. This demands, among other things, access to the necessary experti­ se, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Even Sweden, which is probably the country which has invested most in this field, is very far from " full coverage " , not to say that such coverage i s impossible . e) Finally, regulation according to threshold limit values does not consider very well the dynamic aspect of work environments as well as of the strategies necessary to deal with them . A further set of problems emerges out of the point that there is, legally speaking, often different occupational groups present in one and the same workplace. People who share the same work environment - an office, a factory - may very well be subject to different agreements, wage systems, etc . , but they can not have a different work environment. In one and the same office one group c an not settle for a temperature of 19 degrees Centigrade and another for 22. Work environment raises problems of co-ordination and mutual adj ustment beyond what is commonly considered in the agreement system . To these examples of problems and difficulties more could be added. Taken together they can be said to constitute some problem areas: 1. The problem of m ustering sufficient resources to deal with all the work­ places of a society, due consideration given to such issues as complexity, the need for an ecological understanding etc . . 2 . The problem o f making knowledge contextually relevant, that is: Operatio­ nal in specific settings where the point is often to reconstruct knowledge rather than to " apply " it. 3. The ability to deal with areas where there is little " existing knowledge " w hich can be brought into the workplace from outside - even in recon­ structed form - and where the problem is to achieve a maximum utilisation of local experience. 4. The problem of developing a total, or holistic, understanding of each work­ place and enterprise and a corresponding action programme. 5 . The problem of ensuring commitment to improvements from management as well as the workers on the local level. 6. The problem of being able to work consistently with the problems over time, w hile at the same time maintaining the ability of learning by doing. It is clear that only by bringing the local parties - management and workers in each enterprise, each workplace - into an active rol e will it be possible to find solutions to these problems. The general role in work environm ent improv e24

ment m ust be given to the local parties . Experts and inspection systems of various types can be given spec ially defined roles - initiation , support, control but not the overall responsibility for improvement. Compared to an expert­ heavy strategy this implies a figure - ground reversal of the actors. In developing the Norwegian Work Environment Act of 1 97 7 a set of prin­ ciples was introduced to initiate local work with work environment problems (Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1 98 1 ; Gustavsen, 1 988b): A broad obligation for management and the workers in each enterprise to be active within the field of health and safety . A broad right to rai se work environment issues on the local level. - An obligation to make active efforts to map, or uncover, work environment problems.

(

- Participatory ri ghts for the workers . The duty to develop a local understanding of the situation and a correspon­ ding improvement programme. - Inclusion in the reform of specific rules about organization of work, to improve on conditions for direct worker participation, in the work environ­ ment improvement process . - Provided that there is agreement between the local parties they must have a broad right to exercise their own j udgment concerning problems and action. - Public power as exerci sed by the labour inspection should be used to force forth, support and sustain local initiatives and activity rather than to remedy specific shortcomings. If there is a large number of shortcomings in a speci­ fic workplace the major one is that there is no adequate work with the problems. Among these principles, the explicit regulation of work organization is included and we have arrived at the main reason for Art. 1 2 in the Norwegian Work Environment Act. It is important to underline that this article is not pri mari ly put into the act to combat stress, dissatisfaction, or the l ike. Insofar as it does so, it does it indirectly. The main point is to strengthen the conditions for direct participation from those concerned and in relation to all work environment problems (Gustavsen, l 988b ). Through the inclusion of Art . 1 2 in an act, the issue of new forms of work organization had been given legal recognition and expression. This was, fur­ thermore, done within a law deal ing with health and safety, a traditional huma­ nist concern as well as a major concern for the unions and for the employees individually - many employers and managers shared this concern as well . With Art. 12 the legitimation problems surrounding development of new forms of work organization were on the whole done away with in Norway . This holds even if such an article is not automatically " implemented " in a simple sense of the term . To what extent it can be implemented depends not least on the abil ity to solve the other problems sketched previously in this chapter. For a major impact on the legitimation problem to occur the symbolic aspect of law is sufficient (Some data and comments about implementation can be found in Gustavsen 1 985b; 1985c ). 25

Originally, Sweden did not get a work environment act exactly parallel to Norway in this respect. When the Swedish law was made , a spec ial expert group to look into the issue of work organization was set down and the group recommended direct regulation (SOU 1 976: 3 ) . Thi s was, however, not acted upon by the legislator. The Swedish system was that such questions as are covered by Art. 1 2 in the Norwegi an Act were in pri nciple included by the Work Environment Act but only in the form of general c lauses, not specific regulations. In the motives etc. of the law it was, furthermore, presupposed that issues of work- and enterprise organization were to the given a broad place in efforts on enterpri se- and workplace level. Furthermore , organization of work was a major background for the Co-Detennination Act of 1 976; an act emer­ ging out of considerations of industrial democracy and re lying on e xpanding the topics subject to negotiation as the chief vehicle in this context. Although organ ization of work was a major background factor for the act it m ust, howe­ ver, again be noted that one did not find ways to give this a c lear and pregnant expression in the act itself. A step further towards a more explicit dealing w ith organization of work was taken with the agreement on development which was made between the labour market parties in 1 982, as a concreti sation of certain aspects of the Co-Detenn ination Act ( Gustavsen, 1 985d). Being fairly vaguely formulated and characteri sed by declarations of intent rather than operational procedures this is not an ideal legitimation basis either (to some extent we will return to the way in which this agreement was appl ied in the LOM programme, see Chapter VII, pages 1 0 1 - 1 02 ) . The legitimation basis for n e w forms o f work organ ization w a s consequently somewhat weaker in S weden until 1 99 1 w hen a revision of the Work Environ­ ment Act was carried through, resulting in, among other things, a section paral­ lel to Art. 1 2 i n the Norwegi an act. Consequently, the legitimation basis i s now the same in both countries.

The situation in the early 1980s

During the latter part of the 1 970s activities were going on which implied work along the lines indicated by participative design, local theory , network organi­ zation of change and the work environment umbrella played a major role (Gus­ tavsen & Hunnius, 1 98 1 ). S ince problem solution is a question of courses of action there is a need for a certain amount of relevant activity to be able to continue to work with the problems and push the frontiers forwards. Towards the end of the decade this activity level became an increasi ngly problematic condition : I n Sweden the various programmes and projects within the field stepwi se died out or came to their end and were not replaced by new init iatives. By 1 980 there was very l ittle action research or related activities left. Practically none of the researchers, or research groups, which had been invol ved had stable in­ stitutional and financial conditions ; the dissolution of the pro grammes also 26

generally meant dissolution of the research groups. In Norway the sit uation was not quite as critical . due to the existence of the Work Research Institute in Oslo and the Institute for Industrial Social Research in Trondheim which surv ived in institutional terms. Also these institutions we­ re, however, forced i nto a more defensive role due, among other things, to difficul ties in generating the necessary programme- and project basis. These developments were probably due to several different factors, about which broad spec ulation is possible. This l i ne w i l l not be pursued here. Two points, however: One way of looking at the situation is to say that the approa­ ches generated by research to deal with the problems of the post-experimental phase may have been relevant, but they did not emerge fast enough and force­ fully enough to prevent the downswi ng. A second point has to do with the role of research in the new type of strategy which was stepw ise emerging: One main reason behind network-oriented efforts based on local forces and developm t;_nt in parallel is that people can not only - not even primarily - " learn frohl.. theory " . at least not theory in a traditional sense . The chief source of learn ing in this field is experience which is gained through participation. Among the things which are learnt through participation is what roles the other actors in the network play, research incl uded. In the new type of strategy research could, in principle, only communicate with the participants. The problems of research emerged w i th those who did not participate, i.e. because they were " steering comm ittee members " w i th no duty to participate in the making of experience . On this level the question often emerged of " what is research now doing since we no longer do experiments " ? The first elements i n what came t o be a phase o f recovery emerged i n Swe­ den as well as in Norway in 1 982 when the labour market parties - in paral lel made general agreements on workplace development (Gustavsen, 1 985d). Ini­ tially, however, these agreements meant no change in the general situation : In S weden there was no intention on the part of the labour market parties to use research within the context of the agreement. When the first major step to implement it, in the form of a specific programme cal led " The programme for new technology, work environment and work organization " emerged in 1 983, research was not involved. Towards the end some research was brought into the programme but largely in the role of rapporteur. In Norway research was in principle meant to be a partner also under the new agreement - and got two places on the board which was established to take care of the implementation - but on the operational level it was difficult to establ ish collaboration. With the LOM programme the situation changed in Sweden, in Norway it never reached as low an ebb as in S weden but the recovery came later: It was not until the end of the 1 980s that the collaboration between research and the labour market parties stepwise started to once more improve and at the time when this is written - late 1 99 1 there is a very rapid build-up of new pro­ grammes in Norway , with research as a major partner. This, however, is an­ other story which w i l l , w i th a few smaller exceptions, not be dealt with in this -

27

book. Here. the main focus will be on the LOM programme. Before turning to this programme we will, however, summarise and reinterpret some of the pro­ cesses indicated above.

A radicalization of the argu ments

Above. a set of problems emerging out of the idea of doing field experiments has been identified and discussed. However briefly we have also touched upon the various approaches which emerged to deal with the problems. Before tur­ ning to the more speci fic characteristics of the LOM programme, there is a need, however, to take this debate one step further. With its approximately 1 50 participating organizations and its very strong emphasis on dialogues and asso­ ciated action parameters, the programme represents some substantial steps fur­ ther along the lines indicated above, as wel l as a transformation of some of these lines. Let us imagine that we take the problems associated with field experiments and interpret them more radically. in the following way : Firstly, experiments are not possible in the soci al field. Secondly, if thi s is taken for granted, it follows that the type of theory which legitimates the use of experi ments as a research method can not be used to provide a foundation for research involvement in workplace change . Instead of continuing to modify the idea of doing experiments. but still relying on it as a legitimating methodology. there was a - long overdue - need to look more deeply into the theoretical bas is for research involvement in work life develop­ ment with a v i ew to establishing another basis. Thirdly, diffusion is not possible. Th is does not mean that broad change is not possible but such change may have to be seen as restructurings in paral lel rather than as diffusion. Fourthly, boundaries should not be drawn. An experiment does by necessity have to take place in a specific location in social space si nce clearly defined boundary conditions i s a necessary prerequisite. It may be, however, that such boundaries create problems when the change is to be broadened. What is an asset to an experiment can become a gulf across which it is impossible to move in the post-experimental period. A fifth radical interpretation of experience is that research can not dec ide what is good for other people. Research may not be the sole bearer of " truth and reason ' ' in a process of enlightenment and with a corresponding superior position in relation to the other actors - i nstead research may be one of a number of actors with roughly equal claims to truth and reason. At least, this may be what we have to accept as the point of departure. To dabble in " re­ searc h " does not automatical ly give any elevated posi tion in the discourses and action streams of society . Insofar as research aims at climbing up to such a pos ition - which it may be right and relevant to do under certain circ umstances - positive reasons may have to be establi shed for each and every occasion . 28

Thus fonn ulated the points can not prov ide the basis for pract ical efforts. They can , however. be seen as fonn i ng an end point on a scale where the experiment and its underlying assumptions form the other end and where practi­ cal strategies must be developed somewhere in-between. It can still be a sub­ stantial difference between depart ing from the experiment and mod ifying it versus departing from an ant iexperimental position and modifying this. It i s possible to imagine practical efforts with the fol lowing characteri stics: Instead of lim ited projects, the development i s organized in broad program­ mes. 2 A substantial number of workplaces and enterprises partic ipate . 3 Instead of sequential diffusion the effort is based on exchange of experience and learning from each other from the beginning. 4 The boundaries between those who are inside and those who are outside programme are made as fluid as possible, e.g. by allowing for many diffe­ rent forms of " programme membership " . or fonns of association. 5 Within each participating organization the aim is to launch processes of development within all major areas and on all major levels (broad-base and deep-sl ice development). 6 Star cases are to be avoided . 7 Those concerned must participate in the shaping of all the aspects of the programme, the ideas upon which it is built not excepted. 8 The relationship between on the one hand policies, legislation and agree­ ments and the actual processes of development on the other, are seen not as standing in a relationship of identity or opposition but in a relationship of dynamic and mutual ly enrichening interaction. What about theory? Is it possible to imagine a theory of science which can provide a foundation for a programme of this nature? Such a theory must, more specifically, meet three requirements: - It must legitimate research involvement in restructuring of practice . It must be oriented towards how solutions are generated, or created, rather than towards their content. Otherwise, the necessary participation from those concerned wi ll be blocked. - It m ust assign a major place to communication since a need to construct the effort as a broad network with many actors in communication with each other is a key point. The need to develop an "anti experimental " strategy and a corresponding theoretical foundation were the main in itial conditions when the opportunity for developing the LOM programme emerged, as an extension of the labour market parties ' efforts to make the agreement on workplace development come real, but also as an effort to reconsider the role of research in workplace develop­ ment. One may ask why this opportunity emerged - after all, it was not far back that the labour market parties general ly expressed scepticism agai nst research i nvolvement in workplace change. There are no " explanations " for this beyond the programme itself. When the first discussions about an effort to bring re­ search in on questions of " Leadership, organization and co-determination "

t�

29

were opened up within the context of the Work Env ironment Fund the i deas about what such a programme should aim for were different. An agreement on the pattern w hich the programme actual ly came to exhibit emerged stepwise as the programme was built up and it was seen that at least some of the major previous problems did not come to the surface .

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III Theory and practice

Introduction

The concept of " theory " can cover a number of different phenomena, n p t least i n the social sciences. Very common is to see theory as a conceptual-.c on­ struction which represents a syntethisation, formalization. consolidation, etc . , of data and experience . Most theories of organization, from bureaucracy and on­ wards, are of this nature. Given the type of development indicated in the pre­ v ious chapter, theory of this kind has become i ncreasingly difficult. The world of data and experience has in a sense exploded, calling for numerous conceptual constructions. In this chapter, the purpose is not to deal with " theory " on this level, but on a more fundamental one. When i.e. Kurt Lewin l aunched his first field experiments he did not only bring to the task a theory of organization and participation but also a theory about the role of research - the type of theory which is generally developed and discussed under the heading of ' ' theory of science " . G i ven the successive breakdown of the field experiment as a me­ thodology, there has emerged a corresponding breakdown in the theory of science on which the field experiment is built. To the extent that research becomes involved in concrete restructuring of human practice, there is conse­ quently a call for a new theory to provide a basi s for this type of activity. Otherwise it can not be defended as research.

The discourse on action research

S i nce its origins in the 1 940s. action research has been a controversial pheno­ menon. When this type of research appeared in Scandinavian working life in the 1 960s and e arly 70s ' , it drew much criticism. It was, for i nstance, argued that action research i s not " sc ientific " since it is unable to keep the distance and neutrality in rel ation to reality which forms an essential part of the concept of " science " . Others argued that it was " too scientific " in the sense that it was built on a naive belief in the abil i ty of " sc ience " to solve essentially pol itical problems, such as overcom ing worker al ienation. From management quarters action research was often seen as " radical " - characterized by resea!'chers running around in the workpl ace and undermin ing management authority. From other researchers action research was seen as "conservative " since its work­ place orientation did not make it sufficiently macro-oriented and revolutionary . The close contact between the researchers and the people in the worksites were

31

criti c ized on the grounds that they would di sturb " sc ientific objectiv ity " . Othe rs argued that these contacts were not close enough , e.g. because they were dist u rbed by an excess use of " systems theory " . Reports from action projects were often criticized by workers and managers for being " too scientific " while research colleagues often criticized the same reports for not being " sc ienti fic enough " . Finally, it can be ment ioned that action research was also criticized for ' not replying to the criticism ' ' . The last point was obv ious ly true enough since it would be quite difficult to answer such a heterogeneous stream of criti cism and at the same time perform some action research. The only possible approach w as to start at another end and take a closer look at the position of the critics. What validity claims could the critics put forth in support of the ir views? From this question this author found it natural first to tum to the " spec­ tator and participant" issue introduced in the now famous article by Skjervheim ( 1 95 7/ 1 97 1 ). •

Spectator and participant

The main product of soc ial research i s words (P1llshaugen, 1 988a). What de­ mands should such streams of words live up to? Let us take as a point of departure two simple requirements: - It shoul d be possible to understand the words: they should have mean ing. - The words should say something new; something which has not been said before . The se prerequisites are in need of some brief comments. This author shares the view that not everything generated by research should be meaningfu l to every ­ body. It i s perfectly legit imate for research t o conduct discourses o f i t s own. This is, however, not the point. I f research is to have a social function it must at some point come i nto grips with the thoughts and actions of other people . Let us, then, presume that the streams of words generated by research aim at something which it to be meaningful at the same time as it is to be new. Taking the arguments of Skjervheim as a point of departure - arguments which have been further elaborated by others, not least Habermas ( 1 984/ 1 987 ) - it turns out that it is not so easy to he original and meaningful at the same time: " Stream s of words " m ust occur in some language or other, consequently the researcher always exists "inside " the framework of a specific language. Thi s language, however, decides what i s " mean ingfu l " . U nless the streams of words are utili­ zing those rules for assigning meanings to signs and sounds which characterise the spec ific l anguage applied, the utterances of the researcher will not be under­ stood. To be understood it is necessary to utilize something which is already shared with those to whom the words are directed, namely the rules which co nstitute the meanings of a given language . How , then, to say something new? Let us say that a researcher tries to present " new facts " . Facts can only be expressed in some language or other which in a certain sense must exist not only prior to the presentation but general ly also prior to the gatheri ng of the

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facts - in particu lar is this the case in social research where facts are usual ly generated through communication with other people. A given lang uage w i l l " catc h " certain facts - facts for which there are concepts in t h e language while other facts w i l l be overlooked or missed: They fal l outside the net which any given l anguage constitutes. To dig up new facts by the help of any gi ven language the facts can not be so new that they are unrecognized i n this langua­ ge. Hence, " new facts " often tend to be " old facts " . Then one may imagine that the role o f research i s redefined - i t can be argued that the task is not to present " facts" but " interpretations " . One may tum from " empericism " to " hermeneutics " . Even the hermeneutic confronts. however, the same problem . An interpretation is also something which pertains to l anguage which is, as mentioned above, nothing but a se es of rules about when it is appropriate to use certain signs which i n thems e'{ves are arbitrary . Interpretation is nothing but the mapping of the rules which decide the ap­ plication of the concept which is being interpreted. A " new interpretation " can easily be mean i ngless , since it implies a break with existing language rules. Now, one should clearly not draw these arguments to the extreme. Any l anguage i s always in development and there is consequently always a margin a moving field - where new facts and interpretations can be generated and made meaningfu l . This margin can be broader or narrower. It will change over time and between l anguages and language games. It is, however, not obvious that a social science contribution automatically transcends the linguistically given limitations on what can be new and at the same time mean ingfu l , not to say that this may belong to the exceptions. In principle, descriptive/evaluative research confronts the problem that it can only describe what is descri bed before or produce meanings which have been meant before. How to get out of this problem? How to do research which is new and meaningful and avoids the l anguage trap? There is in principle only one answer to this problem and this is to merge the research process with a restructuring of language. It may be argued that this is what social research generally does when concepts are defined and redefined, positioned in new ways in re lation to each other, etc . . If such a process is done by research alone it can , however, be l ikened to a linguistic game of patience where research sets the rules of the game. The game will then be meaningless to anyone else. The chief purpose of a language, however, is to link people to each other through the creation of shared meanings. If research wants to communi­ cate outside the research community it is necessary to merge the research

�

process with a process of restructuring of language which encompasses those who ha1•e to understand the research if the research is to become socially significant. How can a restructuring of language take place? Clearly , there are different possibilities. Mostly . language is being continuously changed through its every­ day use, sometimes a centrally located body in society can exert influence over language development. Insofar as a restructuring of language is to take place as part of a speci fic process of know ledge development we need a procedure

33

which lends itself to some degree of "planned appl ication " wi thout, however, presum ing that generation of language is a type of process which lends itself to ordinary " steering mechanisms " . Such an instrument has in fact exi sted in Western thought for about 2 500 years in the form of the Socratic dialogue which was developed not least to deal with concepts: Their generation, defini­ tion, delimitation against each other, etc .. In dialogue . language i s developed and changed jointly between a group of people where all partici pants share an interest in creating "a good language " . In recent ·years this idea has been picked up and carried further by others : Habermas is of course one who comes easily to mind in this context. Consequently, a knowledge generation process must evolve together with a dialogue for the necessary restructuring of langua­ ge to take place. An essential feature of the LOM programme is that it did not only stay content with theoretically exploring the importance of dialogue, it also aimed at creating dialogues. This is one point whe re this programme dev iates from the majority of the research positions which have evolved along the trajectory staked out by Habermas. It i s the view of this a u thor that this continuation into real d ialogues is necessary. For Habermas to have an impact on peoples ' thoughts and actions his arguments must be understood. In principle. however, they can be understood only i n processes of free communication. If such pro­ cesses do not exist the closest we can come to the " ideal speech community " will be small groups of academics in discourse (it is commonly believed) and we are dangerously c lose to the elitism which was the undoing of the prev ious generation of critical theory . Nor should we ever again come into a situation where a superb discourse goes on within a small el ite while people with dark shirts are roaming the streets. A theory giving a core role to the ideal speech community can only florish and expand if it can manifest itself in the successi­ ve emergence of a growing number of discourses which represent at least some steps towards the attainment of this ideal. Otherwise the theory will lose the ground on which it has to stand .

Dialogues and practices

In research such as represented by the LOM programme one does, however, go even further in undertaking practical tasks, such as sharing responsibi lity for the generation of new forms of work- and enterprise organization. Why is this step taken? Why does research not stay content with efforts to restructure communi­ cation, which could be done through the use of conferences and similar action parameters? Why go into workplace practices as well? Here we need to tum to the language theory which was developed by Witt­ genstein in his " late " works , particu larly " Philosophical Investi gations " (Wittgenstein, 1 95 3 ; Johannessen, 1 986). Here Wittgenstein emphasizes not only the instrumental nature of language but also t hat this inst rument emerges as an integrated part of human practices - wh at people do when they relate to

34

the physical world and to each other. Wittgenstein actually takes examples from working life, e.g. housebu i l ding, and demonstrates how those words which are necessary to perform and co-ordinate the work needed to build a house evolve stepw i se i n connection with the actual process of building. Language does not float freely in relation to practice. From this it follows that language con , os o

point of departure , not he restructured witholll o parallel restructuring of prac­ tice. It is, in this context. of course also possible to mention the basic significan­ ce attached to practice by Marx . a point often forgotten by those of his inter­ preters who take M arx ism to be a positioning of words only. Words alone are , however, not enough. If people confront a n essent ial ly unchanged situation i n terms of their practice relationships they w i l l not b e able t o create any change of language and understanding, not to say that the dialogue w i l l come to a h!!!V in the first place. Thi s impact of practice on thought and ideas is actually the core element of materialism ( H orkheimer, 1 982). A strong l i nk between l anguage and practice can be constituted in various ways : One possibil ity is that practice is somethi ng which " ties people down " . Practice functions a s restrictions, o r restraints. The typical example i s the indus­ trial worker who operates a machine in an isolated part of the factory surroun­ ded by a barrier of noise. It is physical l y impossible to partake in any discus­ sion, at least not as an i ntegrated part of the job. Another way of percei v ing the link is to see language as something which is created along with practice. When we relate to each other and to the world we continuously make experiences and these experiences give rise to concepts in a process of interaction. A third way of percei v i ng the link is to see language as a tool in which we shape our practices. Language i s nothing but potential practices and can not be discoupled from practice. The quality of any conceptual construction hangs on its abil ity to help relate better and more successfully to other people or to the physical world. There i s no clear boundary between these three possi ble links between lan­ guage and practice. and there are other possible l inks. All of them imply that l anguage development and development of new forms of practices cannot be separated. While, above, it was argued that the pursuance of the c lassical task of research. the generation of new knowledge. demands a parallel change of language encompassing those for whom the know ledge is to have significance, a further element i s now added. namely the need to reconstruct practice as wel l . Th e core point i n the argument for action research such as presented here is the assumption of a link between the following four main elements :

35

Understanding

The construction of l anguage (dialogues )

language

practice

Understanding is seen as linked to l anguage, which in tum is li nked to practi­ ce. Language, and hence understanding, can be changed, but only - i n principle - by a mutually dependent development of language and practice where the dependence is mediated by dialogue. If thi s is taken for granted, the form of research argued i n this book i s the only one which takes a holi stic grip on the issue of the relationship between research and soc ial development in that all the elements are brought into the picture . The normal procedure for research is to work on language alone and even this is generally not done in a d ialogue fashion. A research which produces words only falls short, not only in the sense that words alone tend to have very l imited effect unless they are l inked to new forms of practices, but also short on doing something about those processes of communication which are necessary for a meaningful social science in the first place. Consequently. it can be argued that the perspective ought to be changed, and that research which shares the responsibi lity for developing solutions also to problems of practice should be seen as the normal type of research and other versions as specialized subgroups of activities within the broader fabric which research must create to have an impact. " Descriptions " , " analyses " , etc. , can play a role , but only within a broader framework where the other elements can also be fou nd . With some reformulation of a point made by Habermas, one can say that in a process of enlightenment there are no free-riders. Compared to the original Lewin position, there is a type of structural likeness between the one argued here and this position. Lewin does not merge theory and practice but he l inks them to each other through the experiment. The expe­ riment emerges as a mediator between theory and practice. In the position argued here theory and practice can equal l y well be seen as different phenome­ na but they are joined and the joining mechan i sm is everyday language. Any theory - however formalized - ultimately depends, for its mean ing, on every­ day language, while the tentacles of everyday language are at the same time inextricabl y in terwoven with practice. Theory can sometimes excert a pull on practice b ut the med iator i s everyday l anguage: practice can sometimes pull theory but the medi ator is the same. Since this i s the case, progress will be most rapid if the w hole chain is considered at the same time. S i nce theory can never

36

transcend the boundaries constituted by the meanings given by the everyday language on which the theory feeds, theoretical progress can never reach beyond the reservoir of meanings provided by everyday language . If theory does not want to consider practice it ties itself down to a slow boat position which ultimately affects its own progress. In this way act ion research - or whatever one would like to call it - becomes necessary for research to fulfil its traditional task of developing knowledge. Action research is not only one of a number of " branches " or competing ' ' schools of thought" but actually a main school. Furthermore, action research finds its legitimation not in adding something to the research establ ishment i.e. a little " good work " in addition to theory - but it seeks its I itimacy in an ability to deal with the traditional tasks of research in a way wh h is superior to other schools of thought. Thi s may be seen as an ambitious defi nition of action research and the critic may very well argue that it remains to be seen to what extent this type of research can real ly redeem validity c l aims of such an ambitious nature . This author will not disagree on this point. Clearly, there is a long way to go. I belive, however, that it is better to be a humble representative of a strong position than a strong representative of a shaky position.

tk le

Some rema rks on the criteria for democratic dialogue

Even if theory and practice are seen as poles in a terrain where the middle is occupied by everyday l anguage, the way language is constructed has been chosen as the main point of departure for efforts to create change in working l ife. Consequently, the idea of democratic dialogue is the point of origin . In Chapter I an operat ional isation of this concept is given, in terms of a set of criteria. From where do these criteria come - why these and not other ones? Thi s is a major question and only a few remarks w i l l be made on it here. It is, of course, possible to ask why a few remarks on ly on such a major question? The set of criteria as presented in Chapter I is only meant to be a prelimi nary operationalisation, not a " final list " . It is open to change and restructuring in the l ight of experience. Consequently, it becomes somewhat less important to have a carefully worked out defence of exactly this list. Furthermore, the criteria are derived in a way which differs somewhat form the approach appl ied by e.g. Haberrnas. Habermas develops his criteria of free communication on the basis of necessary - but generally implicit - stipul ations which can be seen as li nked to certain types of arguments or claims made in discussions. I f someone in a debate argues that " my view is the true one " this can be seen as the undertak ing of certain guarantees: To be able to argue the truth one must be fam i l iar with the issue under debate, one must know the arguments which can be put forth in support of the different contesting views and the evidence which can be mustered for or against these arguments. In particular, the one who claims to argue the truth must be a free agent who actually can pursue the truth and not a representat ive of a hidden i nterest who is 37

trying to manipul ate the discourse . Such implicit or pre sumed. stipulations can be used to derive c riteria. The criteria given in Chapter I are, as a point of departure, not deri ved in this way but seek their bas is in democratic theory , and theo ry of participatory demo­ cracy in particular (G ustavsen & Sorensen , 1 982) alth oug h there are, of course, a number of overlapping points. They represent wha t ca n be called a contextual interpretation of the di scou rse side of democracy ! Finla y , 1 985) with reference to a certain field within a certain type of society at a c e rtain point in time. The type of universalism claimed by Habermas is n01 arg ued. What is claimed is that the dialogue criteria represent a reasonable - altho ugh pre l i m i nary - inter­ pretation of the di scourse side of democracy as this can be legall y and cu lturally defined i n Scandinavia in the latter part of the 20th cen tury. How can one know that this is so? How is it possibl e to know that the list is not the product of the more or less arbitrary "cu ltural feeling " of one single person? In one sense the answer is of course that one can not " know " . Argu­ ments can be delivered, but no certainty, since the c riteria are based on an interpretation of a highly complex legal, cultural and soc i al web which does not allow for any mechanical deri vations.The question is consequently not " Can you be sure that the cri teria are the right ones " but rather: " I s there a way in which the criteria can be validated within a broade r ci rcle of people ' ' ? Again , w e return t o those elements o f the LOM p rog ramme which have t o do with setting up actual discourses and even penetrating practices so as to streng­ then peoples' abi l ity to partake in dialogue. In th is way the criteria are put into circulation : other people are exposed to them, brought to use them, and hence to experience them " from inside " as tools in their own work. But is there any guarantee that the way people pe rceive the criteri a is not dec ided by the criteria themsel ves - by being told th at these are ' ' criteria for a democratic d ialogue " they may be l ieve so simply on the strength of this stipu­ lation made from the side of research. Agai n, there is of course no ' ' guarantee ' ' against anything. Criteria for good di alogue have, ho wever, some special cha­ racteristics from a validation point of view: By be ing used i n discourse, criteria for good discourse can be transcended and through this they can be made subject to critical eval uation by the users. By e nte rin g into d ialogues which ful fi l some of the criteria to some extent, one w i l l gen erally, as the dia logue unfolds, successively reach a higher degree of fulfi l lment of the criteria. By reaching new levels of dial ogue it becomes poss ible to look back on the pre­ vious ones and to critically eval uate them . In this way a process can be created where new levels of dialogue are stepwise reac hed and those criteria which formed the point of departure for the LOM prog ram me can be made subject to critical evaluation by the users and perhaps even transcended, or at least sup­ plemented or changed in other ways. An appro ac h based on dialogue, and consequently on peoples ' abi li ty to jointly deve l op the tools with which they create their own understand ing as we ll as the ir o w n practices, is the onl y one which contains its own val idation.

38

IV Organization development

Introduction

Above, the reasons for, and points of departure of, a l i nguistically oriented approach to organi zation development have been outlined. What does this ap­ proach mean in practice? To this point we will now tum. In thi s, and the next, chapter the perspective will be that of the individual enterprise, 'Y hile in chapter VI the network aspects w i l l be placed into focus. \

Phases in the development

What " organi zation development" implies for the individual enterprise can vary between very broad limits - this was actually one of the recognitions underlying the type of approach represented by the LOM programme (Chapter I I ) . In spite of this, when moving in on this issue, the point of departure will be a series of steps, or stages , which a process of organization development can imply. It does not have to, the specificat ion of the steps is done to establish a frame of reference for the later presentations and discussions (G ustavsen, 1 990). 1 . Establishment of a cemra/, bipartite project group . A number of enter­ prises had such groups before they joined the programme or had started to use one of the existing bipartite bodies - of which there is often a number - for the purpose of dealing with joint development work. The argument is that this gives a reasonable expression of the intentions of this work as these are reflected in, for instance, the agreement on development. It has, in other words, been seen as insufficient to allocate the development work with the ordinary line only, nor has it been found adequate to have a local project organization only, that is: A project organ ization within a part of the enterprise where lim ited change is taking place. There is a need to anchor the development work in a group on a reason ably high level in the enterprise organization. The group itself must also reflect the bipartite aspect. 2 . Start- or project development conference. Given the basis of the LOM programme in the ru les about bipartite development work it was a key point to get the local part ies themse lves to play out thei r w ishes, intentions, frames of reference. A bipartite development effort does not only demand that both par­ ties participate but also that it is the particular dynamics which exists between the parties when they position themselves in relation to each other which is 39

" the motor" in the process. To this can be added a wish for these introductory clari fications of intentions to be done in a way which makes for an open, dialogue-oriented work form , the results of which can be accepted as reasona­ bly binding by both parties. 3 . Start of a ' ' limited' ' development project, or -process. The next step can be to start the actual deve lopment work, or process, somewhere in the organiza­ tion: in production, storing. customer relationsh ips, or whatever, depending on what has been dec ided in the project development conference . Development work should not be tied too strongly to the idea of doing " project s " in a formal sense . Any type of effort or process can be relevant provided that it aims at creat i ng development through defining problems as open and subject to action learn i ng where all concerned can participate . 4 . Broadly organi:ed development work. Even if it can b e reasonable t o gain experience through begi nning with a limited set of i ssues and/or within a lim i ­ ted part of the enterpri se it w a s a main po in t o f the L O M programme to create scope , or broadness, in the development work. It is, of course, fluid boundaries between " li mited " and " broad " efforts. For something to be characterized as " broad " it is not necessary for all members of the organization to actively participate. If such a demand was establ ished, there would probably not be any broad development work at all. The point is that processes get on their way in various parts of the enterprise and on a number of levels so that the different types of problems which have to be solved on the road towards a " new enter­ prise " can be solved in parallel and in such a way that all who want to partici ­ pate can find a relevant process to relate to in the near environment. 5. Constitution of results. Development work does, of course, give " results " from the moment it starts. The sett ing down of, for instance, a bipartite deve­ lopment group is not only a means to achieve resu lts, it is a result in itself as wel l , si nce a new body is establ i shed in the enterprise organ i zation, a new element has entered the communication structure, etc . . S imilarly pertains to all other steps taken underway. When " results " are sti l l defined as a step of its own, and some distance out i n the process, i t is because a broader mapping and assessment of " achievement s " shou ld not take place before the efforts have been going on for a while and have reached a reasonable scope, or magnitude. There are various reasons for this. A basic point is that " resu lts" are not something given by themselves so to say - l ike everything else results m ust be defi ned, and in a way constituted. The constitution of results can seldom be separated from their disc ussion and evaluation and it is a point not to release these processes before a broad range of people i n the organization have some experience from development work. 6. Evaluation . Development efforts must, from day one, l i ve up to certain criteria, e.g. of an econom ic nature. It is to state the obvious that the enterprise should not develop itself to the bankruptcy court. " Evaluation ' " in this context refers to something different, namely a deep and broad d i scussion throughout the enterpri se of future patterns of work and organ i zation based on experience from development work. Such an eval uation should not take place before at 40

least the majority of the members of the organization have some experience to draw on. If not. a number of people will have to develop opinions about some­ thing from which they have no experience. Patterns of organ ization are not only " instruments " , they are also a part of peoples ' l i fe worlds and the life world must be experienced. There are also other arguments behind the postponement of broad evaluations until the development process has advanced some steps. It is, for instance, quite common for shifts in goals to occur underway. Particular­ ly common is to start w ith the aim of solving a specific concrete problem and to end up w ith the recognition that the major payoff from the effort is the ability to organize and sustain development processes as such. The original " problem " has often receded into the background, irrespective of it being solved or not. 7. Consolidation. Even if it is a characteristic of the o ni zational world of today that it becomes subject to change at an accelerating rate, there i s sti l l a need for phases of consol idation, particularly after phases of intensive develop­ ment. Consol idation i s closely linked to eval uation but can nevertheless be identified as a step of its own. These steps can be called " a development cycle " . The LOM programme can be seen as an effort to pull a given number of enterprises and public institutions as far as possible through at least one such cycle with the help of certain methods and work forms descri bed briefly in Chapter I. What the methods etc of the LOM programme fully imply when brought to bear on a large num ber of organi zations with different initial conditions and developmental aims is a topic which goes beyond the framework of this book. G iven the complex ity of the programm e and the substantial amount of research­ ers who came to work within it, i t will take until the middle 1 990s - at the earliest - to get this picture in ful l . In this chapter and the next a main outl ine of " the methodology in action " will be given, in the fol lowing chapters some experiences and conclusions, as they have emerged up to the time of writing this, will be brought in and di scussed. To ill ustrate and exemplify , four topics w i l l be presented . After a description of the project development conference three themes in organ ization develop­ ment w i l l be taken up: The role of the first line supervisors; the issue of " product image " and linguistic resources and. thirdly , management i n general. These themes are only examples: Within the LOM programme a number of other themes have been worked on as we l l , i .e. vertical sl ice customer relations­ hips , design of factories, equali sation between men and and women and many more. After these examples of themes there follows a section on integrat ion.

�

The project development conference

As mentioned in Chapter I, a certain type of conference has been broadly applied i n the programme for a number of di fferent purposes. The basic prin­ ciples behind the conference are presented in Chapter I and w i l l not be repeated here. B asical ly, the conference is a meeting ground between people, organized 41

and adm inistered by external resources such as research, but where it is the participants who constitute the main actors and resources (Gustavsen & Engel ­ stad, 1 986a). Ideally , the participants in a project development conference are made up of project groups from four enterpri ses. The groups are vertical sl ices of the enter­ prise organization encompassing five main functions: Line management, staff and experts, first line superv isors, employee representat ives and one or two " shop floor" workers without any representative role, generally 7 - 1 0 people. The conference lasts for one and a hal f day and generally takes place at a conference centre. The external staff should be four people. Most of the work takes place in groups and there will be four groups in each session. Although it is not common for the staff to sit in on group discussions - at least not permanently - there i s a need for shorter v i sits to see that the discussions are developing as they should and i t i s an advantage if one is able to cover all groups simultaneously. When words like " ideal l y " and " should " are applied it is because one is not always able to work under optimal conditions : It can happen that one member of a group of four enterprises j umps off before the conference but so late that replacement i s impossible. It may also be that there is a shortage of staff. In building up a programme l ike the LOM programme. which was imended to cover a not insubstantial slice of the labour market, it is necessary not to lose momentum. Although ideals should be stated, there must be a broad latitude for variations, improvisations and modifications. In creating broad change in wor­ king l i fe " methodological purism " is not in its place, although there are of course limits to how far one can go without bre aking too strongly with the basic ideas . Where these limits should be drawn must, however, be decided on a concrete basis. It is a principle to make the introduction very short and go to the first group task after a few minutes. Among the principles behind the conference model mentioned in Chapter I there are two about time as a scarce resource and the need to utilise it efficiently. Since the principles of the conferences are demon­ strated in practice and not made subject to lecturing and explanations there is no way in which to convey a sense of urgency better than to go straight to the tasks. The introductions will generally be limited to some words about the programme basis and whatever people need to know of a more adm inistrative nature. No " round the table " presentation of the participants is made : If there are about 40 people present one w i l l not remember who is who anyway. Thi s knowledge about each other will instead emerge stepwise as t h e conference unfolds . If the participating organ izations have been selected in such a way that they are not fam i l i ar with each other from before, it can, however. be a point to have each of the project groups make a short presentation of the enterprise from which they come . The first topic, or question, which is posed to the groups is what an enterprise should be like in five years ' time to be a good enterprise and work place. Th is is the basic version of the question, i t can be developed in various directi ons 42

depending on what type of enterprises partic ipate. Five years is chosen as the horizon because it is beyond the present without being so far into the future that discussions tend to lose contact with real ity. The issue is discussed in homogeneous groups: i.e. line managers. staff and experts, superv isors, union representatives and ordinary employees. The purpo­ se of this grouping i s to begin discussions by locat ing everybody in an environ­ ment of people with shared interests. It emphasizes that the question of what constitutes a good workplace must also be answered in the light of people ' s interests . The discussion lasts for about one hour. I n plenary session. each group summarizes the conc lusions which have emerged out of its discussion. The next topic is what problems w i l l be encountered in try i ng to make real the vision of the good workplace . Th is d i scussion is conducte in diagonal groups where employees from one enterprise meet with managers from another. In this way it is possible to create a fai rly open debate which can also incl ude some of the basic issues in management-worker relations. In the third round the participants are asked to develop ideas and suggestions for ways in which the problems can be overcome . Here there i s no fi xed group composition : This matter has to be settled on the bas is of the dynamics of each specific conference - the group composition should be made in a way which maximizes the likelihood of bringing forth ideas . In the fourth and last round the representat ives from each enterprise sit toge­ ther to discuss possible projects which can represent steps towards the realiza­ tion of the idea of the good enterprise and workplace. The point is not to develop a detailed proposal but to consider some major issues such as the main purpose and direction of a possible project as we l l as its steering and executive organization. The groups are asked to be as explicit as possible on one particu­ l ar topic , n amely how they want to deal with the i ssue of creating direct part ici­ pation by all concerned. Experience indicates that at this stage it is more im por­ tant to focus on how to organ ize the devel opment work than what content it should have (PAishaugen, 1 99 1 ) . All sessions are fol lowed b y plenary reports. These reports constitute the documentation of the conference . The plenary reports are points, or summaries, on overheads , or fl i povers. Each group gets about I 0 minutes in which to make its presentation. If there are disagreements or dissents it is up to the group to decide how this is to be expressed, w ithout going too far beyond the allotted time. Dissents are very rare at such an early stage of the development, or. if it ex ists. generally does not come to the surface during these encounters . The group reports from the plenaries constitute the bac kbone of a conference report which i s put together by the staff. A conference is of course no legally binding body but it is emphasi sed that the conc lusions from the discussions should be taken to be as binding as possible for the future acts of the partici­ pants . Then, however, there is a need to have in writing what points emerged . Such a report - or " protocol " - is needed for other functions as wel l , to some extent we w i l l return to this point later in the chapter.

d'

43

The themes or questions with which the participants are confronted have some characteristics: Firstly , they are commonsensical : If something is to be done it is reasonable to start by defining what i s wanted, go on to identify the problems, see what ideas are available and conclude with an action plan. S ince the questions build on a commonsensical logics they are easy to under­ stand and the underlying logics creates no problem for the participants. It is important to start processes in such a way that the logics is apparent and in need of l ittle explanation. Thirdly, they are, with some reservations for the second one, future oriented. This expresses the principle that development work must start with a projection ahead rather than with a dispute about the past in term s of what is wrong and who is responsible. Such discussions, however wel l founded they may be, tend to bring the parties into a stalemate position where the point becomes to argue and defend acts which are done rather than discuss what to do ahead. Insofar as history is pulled in, it must in principle be as a consequence of a projection ahead. As the development process gets underway, it may be possible to introduce issues and work forms which demand more complex forms of understanding. Here the project development conference is used as an example. Conferences are used for a number of other pu rposes as wel l , such as exchanging experience between enterprises, or to broaden the involvement within each enterpri se. Generally, the conferences have functioned very well (von Otter, 1 990). The­ re is still no thorough investigation and systematic evaluation of this methodo­ logy. Some experiences have, however, emerged reasonably clearly: One should expect the transition from one question to the next to constitute a problem. The questions are broad, there are different groups and they generall y give somewhat different answers . How t o move, for example, from t h e discus­ sion of v isions to the one of problems when perhaps the four different groups have painted four different sketches of " the good enterprise " ? U nder such circumstances it is difficult to appl y a strict logics in the transition from one theme to the next. This, however, does not seem to have constituted a problem . Generally, each discussion seems to a large extent to constitute its own " uni­ verse ' ' , starting out by picking elements from the previous discussions unti l a meaningfu l dialogue is underway. The most difficult session is clearly the third one, where ideas are to be produced. After the experiences with the fi rst conferences - when very l ittle came out of these sessions - the conference organi zers decided to make a break with the design at this point. One of the conference staff started to give a brief introduction to thi s session. no t in the form of a lecture but in the form of a summing up of what had emerged from the previous sessions and what poten­ tial perspectives they cou ld give to future discussion. The intention was to make some preparing of the ground fo r the discussion of ide as. While the third session has tended to be the problematic one the second, where employees from one ent erprise meet with managers from another, has 44

functioned e xceptional l y wel l . Th is session seems to be crucial for the union representatives, but it clearly acknow ledges that management too has specific interests. One obstacle to the idea of the four enterprise module can be competition, not least i f they are from the same branch. This has not turned out to be a major problem. Clearly, it enters the picture every now and then, but not as an impor­ tant factor. More important may actually be the fear of " going publ ic " - discussing problems i n the presence of people from other enterprises. To some extent we have had to organize conferences on a one-company basis to overcome this obstacle. The design of the conference is, however, made expl icitly to en­ courage an open debate about problems without of necessity l inking each pro­ blem to a specific enterpri se : discussions are after all enterprise-wise only in the last session and then the perspecti ve is on the future. ( It seems to be an advantage if those enterpri ses that are to * ork directly together i n a cluster have reached approximately the same level of develop­ ment. If one enterprise is c learly more pre-eminent when the collaboration begins, it seems to create imbalances and problems ( in l ine, by the way. with what happened in the early field experiments, Chapter I I ) . O n e conference is general ly far from enough t o create a lasting impact on patterns of communication and discourse in an enterprise. Reconstructing pat­ terns of communication requires a long term development process where a number of conferences are held and where dialogue princ iples are also a key feature of everyday project work. Generall y one conference is even a l imited arena for producing new analyses and ideas. On the whole it seems as if the discussions during the project deve­ lopment conferences revol ved around issues and l i nes of act ion which were already quite well known and discussed among the participants before they joined the LOM programme. What, then, do the project development conferen­ ces contribute? These contributions can be summarized as fol lows: First, the conferences constitute a new arena for worker-management discus­ sion. Even if the topics of discussion are in a sense " old ones " , the arena is different. I n a different arena it becomes possible to configurate words and debates in new ways. often resulting in an abi l i ty to move out of situations characterized by stalemate or blockages . - Secondly, they contribute in a major way to t h e generat ion of t h e mutual trust which i s necessary among the three main actors in a development project: workers. managers and people from outside. - Thi rdly. they i l l ustrate some of the criteria for a democratic dialogue. Even i f one conference i s rarel y enough to make people fol low the criteria. they are at least exposed to them . - Fourthl y . by concentrating the project development process to a one-and-a­ half-day event where all the main actors are present. the conferences are on the whole far superior i n term s of effic iency compared to an approach whe­ re, for example, a researcher tries to build a project by talking separate ly 45

with all the relevant people and bod ies in the enterprise. In this last approach m isunderstandings are hard to avoid: there w i l l practicall y always be some ­ body who shows up later complaining about not being asked, and the like. By designing conferences where management and the unions within each enterprise must take responsibi l ity for electing the participants, the executive committee of the LOM program me was not responsible for the specific composition of each group and consequently not answerable to those who may complain about not be ing asked. In no case has the project development conference brought forth a fu lly opera­ tional project definition. The product of the first conference is mainly a de­ claration of intent. Nonetheless, these declarations have been taken seriously in that the great majority of enterprises have continued the work towards a fu l l ­ blown project and, furthermore , not dev iated from the framework emerging out of the first conference without fol lowing the recommended procedure, namely that the project group together with representatives from the LOM programme work through the conc l usions from the conference and m ake only those chan­ ges on which agreement can be reached. The project development conference can be seen as the point of origin of the development process . What happens then, depends on circumstances: It is up to the participating enterprises themselves to decide on the direction of the deve­ lopment - w ithin the framework constituted by laws and agreements such as the Co-determination Act, the Work Env ironment Act and the agreement on deve­ lopment. The type of conference described above has a number of roots. The ap­ pl ication of conferences in organization development has a history covering several decades and there is a number of alternatives to be found. The most immediate predecessor is the search conference as devel oped by Emery ( 1 98 1 ). I n a search conference the idea is to move in on the i ssue of the creat ion of a joint course of action via discussions which reflect the fol lowing principles: From the external to the internal: from the future to the present and from the desired to the actual . This is the same basic type of logics as in the dialogue conference described above. One main difference i s that the environmental scanning which is the point of departure in the search conference process was generally omi tted in the conferences applied in the LOM programme. This was . partly, because a broad environmental scanning easily leads to add i t i ve discus­ sions - a l arge number of points emerge but they are extremely vaguel y re lated to each other - partly because an imbalance is eas ily created between the participating actors. In actual practice, high level management, marketing peop­ le etc . , will generally be better equipped in this type of debate than i.e. shop floor workers. Another difference is the emphasis on linguistic perspectives found i n the LOM programme and the e lement of training in democratic dialo­ gue inherent i n the LOM conference model . Clearly , however, the parallels are also obv ious and the dialogue conference is strongly infl uenced by the search conference idea.

46

Achieving scope and broad participation :

As indicated in the presentation of steps, or stages, above - see also Chapter I it is a major point to achieve scope in the process within each enterprise. Only with a broad development will it be possible to involve all. or at least a sub­ stantial number, of the people working i n the organization and approach the ideal of participative democracy. This does, however, not mean that it is neces­ sary to apply a broad approach from the beginning. It may be good reasons to start in a more narro wly defi ned way - i.e. within a department or other pan of the organization - and successively broaden the scope until a l l major functions and levels are included. The point is to do this sufficiently fast to avoid the \ problems associated with limited, experimental-like changes (ChaJ"((_l' I I ). A broad process implies deal ing w ith a substantial number of issues simulta­ neously, ranging from the shop floor to the top management and from the supply side to market relationships. It is better to apply the perspective of a number of processes in paral lel which are coordinated than the perspective of " one process " which encompasses the organization as a whole . The reason i s that e v e n though the various pan processes are t o constitute elements within a totality they will sti ll di ffer in a number of ways . Below, some examples of such part processes will be given and we w i l l start with a "classical topic " , the role of the first line superv isors. After this there follows a section on how to integrate the various part-processes. To some extent specific cases are used. It must be emphasized that this is to i l l ustrate approa­ ches and ideas and it is only those aspects of the cases which have a bearing on the issues under discussion which are incl uded.

Development of supervisory roles

When the issue of more autonomous forms of work organization on the shop floor emerged, the role of the supervisors c ame i nto focus. Their historical role was to tell the workers what to do and see to it that they did it. To c lear the way for more active roles on the shop floor changes had to be done in the role of supervisors . In principle, there were four alternatives: - Do away with the supervi sors - Move the superv isors upwards in the organi zation to fill managerial roles on a higher level - Give the supervi sors suppon functions such as recruitment and trai ning of personnel, or the various tasks generally referred to as " boundary control " such as co-ordination with other depanments - Move the superv isors downwards to become " senior operators " , " working foremen " or the like. Around these solutions conflicts emerged. In " the autonomous group period " ­ the l ate 1 960s and early 1 970s - this was the perhaps main con fl ict arena (Qvale, 1 976a ) . The researchers became known, panicularly in Sweden, as

47

' those who want to do away with the foremen ' ' . In actual practice this was an exaggeration. In many cases more autonomous forms of work organization were clearly an advantage for the supervisors. One case in point was the Huns­ fos pulp department (Engelstad, 1 970: Emery & Thorsrud. 1 976) where the traditional work organization had led to a very stressful role for the superv isors who had to run around performing trouble shooting while major tasks such as qual i ty control tended to be negl ected. With the development of autonomous work groups in the department the superv i sors could take on a more meaningful role. Such cases notwithstanding, the roles and tasks of the first line supervi sors were and are important issues. Beside questions l inked to wage systems it may still be the single most frequent issue in " organ ization development " in Scan­ dinavia. In the LOM programme the point has not been to argue spec ific solutions to the problem of the role of the supervisors . If the four general alternatives are worked out to a higher level of detai l they constitute a broad range of options among which one will usually find one which can be appl ied in any spec ific situation . The problem does not lie here but in finding a procedure which can be efficient and steer the process around conflicts and blockages. It is taken for granted that a general project development conference has taken place so that a frame of reference for the further development is esta­ blished. In a vertical slice project group of the type which meet in the project development conference there will usual ly be one representative of the fi rst line supervisors. One representative in one conference is, however, not enough to give anchoring to a development process. It must be brought " into " the enter­ prise and in a way which brings successively more people into it. The procedure worked out in the LOM programme is as follows: As a point of departure three conferences are organized within the enterpri se: In the first two, people, respectively, " abov e " and " below " the supervi sors meet : Higher level management on the one hand and shop floor operators on the other, preferably in separate events. Both these groups are posed the following questions: I . What should the role of the supervisors be i n five years time? 2. What problems must be solved to make this vision come real? 3 . What should be done today to start a process in the right direction w i th reference to such issues as : - Training? - Authority? - Resources? Support? - Work methods? - Etc . ? It is seen that these are special versions of t h e topics of the project development conference. The results of this conference are present in terms of the report. The main point is to play the role of the superv i sors i n . to become a part of the broader process of development which is under way. •

48

It is reasonable to run two different conferences for, respectively, higher level management and operators. Often, the expectations towards the superv i ­ sors from these t w o groups ar e different w h i l e such differences constitute a source of major problems for the supervisors ( " the man in the middle " ) . Such differences will appear more clearly and explicitly if the two main counterparts of the superv i sors discuss separately compared to jointly. I f there is a need to save time and resources one may, of course , run only one s ingle conference. These conferences generally need not take quite as much time as the first project development conference. One day is general ly enough. It is. fu rthermo­ re, not necessary to involve all the mangers above the superv isors nor all the operators below, samples will generally be sufficient. There is a need, however, to check that major groups are not left outside. The supervi sors themselves do not participate in these two conferences. Writ­ ten material must be produced and this is, as the next step, given to the superv i ­ sors. In th e third conference o n l y supervi sors are participating t o deal w i t h the following questions: I . Are the expectations, demands, etc. directed towards you from, respectively, higher level management and your subordinates: - reasonable in terms of the amount of work you have to do? reasonable in terms of consistency: Is it possible to live up to the expecta­ tions of both sides, or do you get i nto con flict with one if you pursue the demands of the other? reasonable in terms of constituting a mean ingful whole? 2 . Wh at i s needed for you to live up to your new role with reference to: - Training? - Authority? - Resources? - S upport? - Work methods? - Etc.? 3 . What can or should be done now to start processes of development in the right direction? In this way five points are underl i ned: Firstly, that it i s up to the superv isors themselves to develop their roles. Secondly, that this possibility i s of l ittle value un less they actually grasp it and start a process. Thirdly, that the development i s to be integrated with what happens in other parts of the enterprise. Fourthly, that this i ntegration is to take place through dialogues between the people who are involved i n the various processes. This in tum underlines a fifth point, name ly that the creation of "a better enterprise " i s the collective responsibi l ity of everybody and has to be carried out in a way which is constructive as well as loyal in relation to the l arger whole.

49

How to go from this point depends on circumstanc es which can vary . A few points : The frrst line superv isors will often have a tende ncy to person ify the pro­ blems they experience in their roles. They often have l i mited contacts with each other and will tend to subjecti fy problems and interpret t hem in terms of perso­ nal shortcomings, lack of training and educat ion , and t he like. Insofar as this is the case it is important to depersonify the prob lems a nd to institute a process of joint problem-solv ing. One way of doing this can be to ask the superv i s or s to m ake a recording of problematic experience over a certain period of time , s uch as situations where they did not know what to do, could not u nify e x p ectations from different quarters, etc .. The next step is for the superv i sors to come together in small groups to compare notes and discuss experien ce. It w i l l often emerge that the experiences are paral lel and that they may be owing to conditions rather than subject. At this stage it is important to identi fy a set of problems on which the superv isors can start to work immediately. Th e proble ms may consequently be divided into groups, such as: Problems which need to be placed before the gen eral steering comm i ttee since t hey may have to do with authority or other fo rmal aspects of the organi­ zation over which the superv isors have little control . Problems which demand a long term strate gy. su ch as recruitment and trai ­ ning. Problems which can be dealt with throu g h a bette r understanding of cond i­ tions and relat ionships in the workplace and w here a p ooli ng of experience can be a help. Can a set of problems of the third type be identified - and it usually can - it w i l l be possible to proceed immediately to the dev elopment of a structure for exchange of experience and mutual support between th e supervi sors. Examples of issues which may give ri se to this type of problem are the way information tasks are handled, the al location of people to work groups, local safety pro­ blems, the practicing of productivity norms. It seems quite clear that it is easier to generat e development among the supervisors when it is part of a broader process co mpared to when the effort is directed exclusively at the superv isors. I n the last c ase the supervisors will tend to experience development as something di rected aga inst them as responsible for the problems in the labour-management relation shi ps. Against such a back ­ ground there will not be much development. When all levels etc. are involved, there is no focussing on a spec ial group of people. while a climate of problem­ sol v i ng can be created in the enterprise as a w hole wh ich makes it successively more easy to bring problems on the agenda w ith ou t fear of being characteri sed as the i r cause . The first l ine s uperv isors general l y h ave a deep insight i nto many aspects of the workplace, for instance thre a ts ag ainst health and safety . Th is insight will often be kept back as long as t h e sup ervi sors fear that bringing up the problems w i l l release criticism agai nst th em for not hav in g done anything before. Within a broader context such constraints can disappe ar and it becomes 50

possible for the supervisors to apply their often formidable i nsight into concrete workplace conditions in a constructive way. When discussing the role of the fi rst l ine supervisors it is necessary to add one point, name ly that experience seems to indicate that one of the basic gaps in an ordinary enterprise organ ization is between the supervisors and m iddle ma­ nagement. The role of the superv isor is generally concrete - linked to the role of the operators and to a concrete context. Middle management, on the other hand, is often " concept driven " , that is: driven by plans. goal formu lations and other abstractions. Discoursively speaking these two levels are often far from each other. This point makes it even more necessary to apply a methodology of the type indicated above although it does not have to depart from the role of the superv isors. The same approach may equally well be applied through departing from the middle and using top management and the first line superv isors as the counterparts. This approach to the development of the role of the superv isors is a special version of a more general procedure based on the setting up of " across leve l " discussion structures. In principle, this should be done across a l l levels t o create a discourse formation which span all the level s . The same procedure can also be applied across functions: one example is to create a tripartite discussion structu­ re where production is located between on the one h and those who acquire the raw materials and on the other the sales people.

Product image and linguistic resources

In taking an example from the shop floor a "classic " is chosen, in the sense that i t i s a topic which has to do with the division between on the one hand the development of the idea of what is to be tp ade and the actual making of it on the other which, according to Marx , is the �sic dimension of division of work. In a shipbuilding enterprise a joint worker-management development project was launched to achieve improved integration between, respectively, construc­ tion/design of products, production planning and production. In spite of having reached a relati vely advanced stage of CAD/CAM development, the problems of integrating these three elements seemed to be growing rather than decl ining. A closer analysis brought to light the fol l owing main reason for this problem: While the emergence of CAD technology has implied a powerful tool for dea­ ling with tasks of design and construction, the emergence of this tool has also affected competition in the sense that more rapid responses from the yards are demanded by the customers, as well as better possibilities for getting changes done in products after the contract i s made and even after the production has started.The enterprise has become involved in a more and more fast rotat ing system of change which affect products, materials and production. There is, on the other hand, no perfect CAD/CAM system which allows production to be fully planned as part of the design process. Design and production planning is to a large extent performed without direct access to the knowledge accumu lated

51

in the production system. When, for instance, the sequence of work operations and their allocation on machines is decided by the central design- and produc­ tion planning department it can easily l ead to m istakes: Change i n the shape of a product can lead to a need to make it out of other materials than originally planned: then, however. there is a need to know how the different machines behave when working on different quality steel. Likewise, to be able to perform an optimal workflow planning the planners must know such things as the time it takes to rig a specific machine to perfonn a certain operation.This time, howe­ ver, is hard to estimate since it depends not only upon a number of characteris­ tics of each machine, but also upon which production worker i s allocated to the machine when the rigging is to take place . Among the actors within the enterprises there is a tendency to define pro­ ble ms of this type as " information problems " . A schematic perspective on one aspect o f this type of problem was introdu ­ ced by Abell ( 1 97 8 ) when h e defined the traditional pattern o f enterprise orga­ nization in terms of an effort to minimize complexity by minimizing the num­ ber of l inks between the e lements that make up the organization, l ike illustrated in Figure I. The number of links in such a system is equal to the number of e lements minus 1 . In a 1 00-element organi zation the number of l i nks is 99. Of course, it has hardly ever been possible in actual practice to perform this mini­ mizing fully. The tendency in the traditional enterprise organi zation has, howe­ ver, been to move in this direction - to gain simplicity and easy control labi l ity from the top.

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Fil(lll't 1: Schematical i l l u s trat ion of a traditional enterprise organ i sation based on m i n i m i sing the number of l inks between organi zational u n i t s .

Source: A b e l l ( 1 978).

52

The opposite to this type of pattern is a pattern where the aim is to maximize the number of l i nks. In a 1 00-element system the number of l i nks becomes (n- 1 ) squared, this gi ves 980 I l inks. A fonnal exerci se like this is of course of limited practical sign ificance . It can , however, i l l ustrate the enonnous difference between an organ ization based on minimizing the number of l i nks versus an organization based on maximizing this number. So far, the problem indicated in the case can be seen as one of opening up more infonnation channels; approaching the perfect matri x . However, it is not only a question of selecting the right infonnation. Consequently, the problem can be fonnulated somewhat broader as defining what information is relevant -

or functionally needed - for each unit in the organization. What, however, decides what is " functionally needed " ? Obv iously, there are several different answers to such a question: A core reference point, howev � is what can be called the image, or picture, of the product: In the shipbuilding enterprise one may, at a certain point in time, have a picture of something which i s to be made, e.g. a propel ler. The propel ler exists as a picture in the m inds of (at least some) people and as geometries on the CAD system. Then a demand emerges for change in this propel ler. When this happens, the existing picture has to be restructured - i f the demand for change is major it may be that the whole picture must be discarded and replaced by a wholly new one. That the image of what is to be made changes, is a common-place occurren­ ce. If such changes are : • n umerous • difficult to predict • referring to products of high complexity • where a n umber of external relat ionships, such as to materials suppliers, are involved, to mention the extreme, then the situation becomes highly problematic. Although in a simpl i fied way. the problem can now be stated as fol lows: To

define what information is functionally needed for each unit in the or�:anization to be able to contribute to the development of an image of what is to be made or done - to understand this image. and to operationally use it in its own work. In Marx ' analysis of the evolution of capitalist soc iety, what has here been called " the image of the product" played a key rol e in the sense that a split between the development of this im age and the actual making of the product was seen as a key feature of the emergent division of work. Experts and ma­ nagement developed the ideas and specifications for the product, the workers made it. sometimes even without being able to u nderstand what it was that they made. In the classical factory somebody could develop an image of a product and more or less force other people to make it. In the shipbui lding enterprise there is no one who can develop a picture of the product at all - at least not a picture which is sufficiently clear and stable to ensure economically efficient production. The boundaries between the enterpri se and its environment have

53

been shifting in a w ay which makes the development of the idea of the product into a much more complex process involving a substantial number of people both outside and i n s ide the enterprise. Th is type of situation is of course most clearly seen in relati on to unit-producing enterprises. Also within batch-, series and mass-producing industries there is. however, a movement towards increa­ sed individualization of products, customer-oriented production, indiv idual des­ ign, and the lik e , w h ich w i l l s uccessively pu l l an increasing number of enter­ prises into the type o f situation in which the shipbui lding enterpri se finds itself. To define what in formation is needed to be able to construct and stabi l i ze a picture of what is to be made, is the problem . What type of problem is this? Basically, it is a p roblem of generat ing a linguistic construction. The image of what is to be m ade is not the product itself but something which precedes and represents it. The representation i s done in everyday language , or in signs and symbols wh ich derive their meaning from ordinary language. Even i f h igh­ ly technical l anguag es are used, the mean ing of even these languages have to be brought back to everyday language. By saying that the problem is to generate " an image " or · · a picture " of what is to be made. there is no i ntention of subscribing to a " picturing " - theory of language. The ' pictures ' ' which have to be created are not created for their own sake but fo r the purpose of organizing human activ ities. They are means to an end, for instance the efficient generation of products which can be sold at a profit. This is general l y the case for " pictures" in l anguage. When reading or listening to words there is a succession of images passing before " our i nner eye ' ' . Hearing the word chair, for instance , we ' ' see a chair' ' . This is, however, a very vague im age . Thi s has to do with the point that this is what is needed for us to be able to act - when we hear the word " chair" it is generally in contexts of the type "Get a c hair so I can sit " and we w i l l grasp the nearest chair. Only if the talk i s abo ut a specific and very rare chair - " I saw Tutankhamen ' s chair at the m useum the other day " - may the vision of a spec ific chair with more details enter ou r m ind. The theory of sc ience position upon which the LOM strategy i s buil t (Chapter III ) is based not on tak ing language as a number of pictures of real ity b ut on taking language a a tool which enables us to act - a view on langu age i n l i ne w ith the one argued by " the later" Wittgenste in ( 1 953), see also Johannessen ( 1 986). S ince language is essential ly a toolkit. it also means that it can be improved on. A toolkit is never complete, never " perfect " - it can always be made better and this impro vement is inherently possible in all situations where language is used, for instan ce in an enterprise or a workplace. This brings the language resources of the enterprise into focus: What con­ cepts have bee n bro ught i nto play and what rules are developed for playing with them? Can new con cepts be brought in, new configurat ions worked out, which makes i t possib le to deal better with the " image building process ' "? The problem , then, is converted into a problem of language development. And how is language developed? The generation of the " l i nguistic resources " of an enterprise can take place •

54

in different ways. Work ing life is still " contested terrain " in the sense that it sti l l seems quite common for management to try to perform this process of construction alone, or at least to make it into a process control led from the top. The employees in general are often denied the status of subject in the language formation process. Such a top-down approach confronts, however, several problems. Language is not only something which is in a certain sense local ly constructed, it must also be constructed jointly by those who are to use it. Language is a social phenomenon : It ' s role is to l ink people to each other. To do this, however. the rules which decide the meani ng of words must be understandable and binding for all who constitute the membership of an enterprise. To understand, and to be bound by, implies, in principle, pa11icipation in the creation of language. In this way we are brought back to the main dimension of the strategy outli ned in Chapter I with dialogue as the main element. The main purpose of dialogue is just the development of language : Concepts and re lationships be­ tween concepts. Language is self-generating in the sense that language in use demands dialogues, while dialogues can , at the same time, restructure those l anguage games which are put into play i n a given dialogue. Improved perfor­ mance on the part of the shipbu ilding company depends upon its ability to create dialogues which can perform the following functions: Improved utilisation of the knowledge which actual ly exists within the en­ terprise. Some of the problems are owing to a lack of information from outside and this can not always be remedied by a strategy " within " the enterprise. Often, however, there are people within the enterprise who know about coming changes but who do not circulate this information, because they do not want to, because they are not al lowed to. or because they fi nd no easy channels. - Improved utilisation of the insights among the product ion people. A main dimension of the problem is a confl ict between insights which can be stored and manipulated within the computer based system on the one hand and the knowledge of the production workers - which is often linked to ski lls deve­ loped in practice - on the other. Here it is fairly important to create open dialogues which allow for direct and constructive confrontat ions. - Reconsideration of the boundaries between information carried by, respecti­ vely. h um an beings and computer based systems. An overestimation of the potentials of the computer based systems to generate premisses for work is a main aspect of the problem. The example is chosen on the basis of its abil ity to highl ight a certain type of problem i n a sharp form ; the case is actually not from the LOM programme but from an effort to generate a development program me in the engineering indus­ try in Norway which emerged as a part of the implementation of the agreement on development between the Norwegian labour market parties. The name of the enterprise is not given. At the time when the project started it was so far gone along the road towards computer generated chaos that it was uncertain to what extent it could be brought onto a more construct ive course, an 55

uncertainty which sti ll prevails at the time when this is written. The type of problem i llustrated by thi s case can be found in a number of other shapes and forms. In the case to follow, which deals with management development in a computer firm , some of the same elements emerge, in the form of problems of integration between different parts of the enterprise. In service and maintenance functions the same type of problem i s rapidly growing in importance as more and more fault-finding becomes a highly complex search process. A fault to be found and corrected is also a " product " and the product needs to be establ i shed linguistically, at least to some extent, before the service and repair work can actually be carried through. One of the common slogans of our times is that we live in ' ' the age of comm unication technology " . If this is to be more than a slogan it must imply that the contributions of people to processes of production are changing, away from physical ones and towards contributions which have to do w ith informa­ tion handling, decisions and process control. This, however, puts new demands on the linguistic resources upon which people have to rely since the tasks of " information society " are to be executed in s igns and sounds, that i s : In lan­ guage. As far as we are aware of, the LOM programme i s one of the first systematic development efforts where this dimension is placed on the agenda. In v i sions of information society the general tendency i s to focus on the advances of the computers . These advances do, however, not take the form of a successive take-over of human functions - such as imagined by some of the early automa­ tion theorists like Amber & Amber ( 1 962) but rather of a dialectical process where technol ogical advances pose qualitatively new c h allenges to the human part of the system. -

Management by dialogue

Also the next example will be taken from outside the LOM programme, namely a small programme which has been going on in parallel in Norway, with a basis at the University of Oslo. The same basic procedures have been followed. This programme incl udes, however, also enterprises which do not have ordinary employer-union relationships and the point about taking a case from this pro­ gramme is that it is possible to purify the issue of management development by taking a case where management development is the driving force of the chan­ ge effort. Due to its bipartite nature there are no such cases in the LOM pro­ gramme. The case in point is a computer firm by the name of Norsk Data. Like what is generally the case in the computer industry, even in Scan dinavia there are no ordinary unions and consequently no basis for a form ally defined bipartite development programme. (Quite recently thi s h as started to change; a point which does, however, not interfere with the case to be presented here . ) Lacking this framework, management development is the line which offers itself. One of

56

the points of this case is to indicate how a management development process can go in such a direction that it turns into subjects also those who are managed and consequently moves towards a type of development where all concerned participate . The point of departure in Norsk Data was a management development pro­ gramme which aimed at managers fairly high up in the organization and on a broad front. Initial ly, it was designed as a series of conferences with project work in between and encompassing a successively broader circle of people until the whole community of higher level managers could be incl uded - somewhere between 1 00 and 200 people spread over a number of different countries. We will not pursue the details of this programme since it was only partly carri ed through, due to the economic crisis situation which emerged for Norsk Data at about the time when the programme started and which led to several trans­ formations. Two conferences were organized and they were to a large extent run along the same lines as the project development conferences described above . There were, however, three main differences : Firstly, Norsk Data worked alone and not in collaboration with other enterprises. Secondly, and as a result of this, there were more participants than one single vertical slice project group: 25 35 people from different parts of the enterpri se. Thirdly, the conferences were of a longer duration and included other elements as wel l . One may ask how this squares with the general principles for development outlined in Chapter I and argued in Chapters II and III, where, for instance, collaboration between enterprises is a key feature? Three points enter the pictu­ re here : One is that no methodological purism is possible in this type of work a point mentioned before . This is a borderline case but also within the LOM programme there have been cases where we had to start with single enterprises but from the perspective of eventually integrating them with others. The second point is that in deal ing with larger enterpri ses - " groups " or " concerns " - an " i nternal " network approach is possible, where different parts of the enterprise constitute the network elements . With about 4 500 employees - at the time of the start of the effort - Norsk Data was not large according to international standards, but it was distributed over a large number of places and countries · and generally operated on the basis of small scale organization units which meant that the enterprise had a " network character" from before. Finally. one aim of the programme where this case belongs i s to eventual ly create a four enterprise cl uster where Norsk Data will be one of the participants. In the di alogue oriented part of the conference the participants were given the fol lowing three main questions: I . Make a vision of the enterpri se five years ahead. Points of departure can be taken in existing v isions if such can be identified or you can make your own . If you prefer to relate to vi sions developed by i . e . top management, do a critical analysis. 2. What development tasks must be undertaken to make the vision come real? 3. What ideas should steer the development processes( es)?

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4. Create proposals for projects or other efforts which can be undertaken in the near future and which can represent steps towards the realisation of the vision. The pattern i ndicated previously, in connection with the project development conference is, as can be seen , repeated. As far as possible the group compositions fol l owed the same pattern, with people in the same type of position joining each other in the first session irrespective of where in the enterprise they worked, while in the last session those who would have to coordinate their efforts if something practical was to be done were sitting together. Lacking any major difference in the level of the organ ization from which the participants came, the second session was instead used to mix people with different cultural backgrounds. Norsk Data employes people from a number of different countries. When answering the first question the time perspective was generally shorte­ ned to three years on the basis of the argument that in this type of industry the development is so rapid that it is hard to move beyond such a horizon . Norsk Data, which went through a long period of steady growth since its founding in the 1 960s, from the beginning was known for its non-hierarchical organ ization. I t ' s " v ision of itself" was as a group of highly qual i fied profes­ sionals working together on the leading edge of information technology where steering and integration was achieved through a commitment to common goals in combination with the structuring power of the tasks themselves. There emer­ ged no wish to break w i th this pattern. On the other hand, there had emerged problems of integration which needed to be considered . Over the years the enterprise had come to move into areas - such as complete systems for the productions of newspapers - where the product takes on a network character with a number of different elements included . It was experienced that although each element in such a package could be adequate enough, there emerged problems with the totality - the mutual adaptation of each element to fit the l arger whole. Th is can be seen as the same type of problem as the one discussed in the previous section: The problem of " the bl urred product image " . In this case the v arious elements which make up the system could be clearly imagi ned and planned by the v arious groups who were involved in fulfilling a contract. but there was no fully adeq uate image of the total ity. There were also other cross-cutting functions which could be improved on, such as logistics. A sub­ stantial strean1 of components pass through the enterprise each year and there was a recognized need to see to what extent this flow was organized in an optimal way. Individually and in groups the participants came up with various project proposals which rotated around these poi nts. There was, for instance, a project focussing on logistics, another one on the development of " business areas " within the enterprise as a possible integrative organizat ional concept , etc . . Com­ mon to all the projects was that the dialogue was to be a chief dimension . The idea was to depart from the dialogue criteria stated in Chapter I (pages 3-4) to which the participants had been exposed and develop on them until a set of 58

criteria could emerge which would represent a mix between the general criteria and cri teria developed to fit the particular si tuation and aims of Norsk Data. From such a point of departure the actual project work has to take the form of changes in the role played by each manager. One type of effort emerging in this context was a more systematic design for-, and use of, meet ings. Instead of taking meetings " as they come " some of the participants started to reflect on meetings and to see to what extent they could be redesigned to become more fruitfu l . A common experience was that the most fru itful meetings were those where some of the participants knew each other from before while there were also some new ones. A simple recogn ition l ike this can have a profound effect on the way the organization operates : If there is a need to have some new participants each time. it becomes necessary to make the meetings into some­ thing " moveable " - into arenas which continuously move " around " in the organizat ion to pick up new people, otherwise the participants w i l l soon beco­ me " old " in this particular context. Meetings become " moving discourse s " crisscrossing t h e organi zation. In this period Norsk Data moved into a critical situation and had to fight for its survival . Some of the projects which were proposed in the conferences were accelerated to meet new and urgent demands, such as projects on logistics, "j ust in time " , etc .. Others fel l apart, because people were moved around, some left the enterprise, much reorgani zation occurred. Some experience exchange conferences could, in spite of th is, be held, ma­ king it possible to do comparisons and to make experience more collective. While some of the projects had to be abandoned, and the learn i ng period originally imagined in relation to those that were maintained was shortened, the project work still seem s to have been qu ite important. I n the various reorga­ nizations which have come to take place, the people who played a key role in the programme have moved upwards and now occupy the majority of the key managerial positions, at least in the Norwegian part of the company. Stepwise, the initiatives were transformed and moved in new directions. Instead of placing a main foc us on the training programme and the conferences there was a shift towards seeing to what extent the ideas original ly developed during the first conferences could be given another form and another context. When Norsk Data moved into a critical situation in the latter 1 980s it was due to various reasons of which two were particularly important. One was the problems assoc i ated with the Norwegian market after the coll apse of the high oil prices in 1 986. The other was a more general problem which i n principle confronts the whole computer industry and which very briefly can be sketched as follows: In the beginning this industry made its money from boxes, or the technical abi l ity to perform computations. Stepwise, however, the industry en­ tered a second phase when the programmes took over and became the main product. This phase is now by way of being replaced by a third. This third phase has to do with transformations among the customers : While, traditional ly. customers have bought "computer based systems " they w i l l i n the future more and more buy " constructive development " . Less and Jess customers are inte-

59

rested in boxes and programmes as such. They are i nterested in what these perform relative to the aims and development demands of the customer enter­ prise. This change may seem li m ited at first glance but it is probabl y going to exert a major impact on this ty pe of industry in the years to come. A key element in the emerg ing new situation is the abi l ity of the computer firms to relate to the customer a s an e nterpri se with a specific type of develop­ ment - actual and wanted. Informatio n technology must enter the development processes of the customer enterprise to actively imd positively contribute to these processes. For the computer firms to be able to deliver this type of con­ tribution they must: - Relate to the customers as organi zations, - involved in processes of dev elop ment - which the computer firms m ust to some extent understand - to be able to give the custom er the right support. " The right product ' ' is a syste m which can make a substantial contri bution to the development of the custom er and not on l y as a one-time contribution but through entering the developm ent process and becoming a dynamic part of it. During the critical period the nee d to move i n this d irection emerged in Norsk Data. One of the effon s to grow out of this is a project cal led " the development logics of the cu stomers " which aims at creating the language resources needed for Norsk Data to relate to the customers as organizations in development. The market prob lems of the information technology firms may more and more come to resem ble such problems of " diffusion " as have faced organization development effo rts. By calling something a diffu sion problem it indicates that each computer fi rm m ust develop a specific profile and an asso­ ciated set of competences and prod ucts and spread this through " knowledge networks " , or " strategic networks " . At least, this w i l l be the case in the more advanced parts of the market : There w i l l of course also exist " mass markets " where the point is to fi nd a su itab le comer to sell PC ' s to passers-by . For enterprises like Norsk Data t h is is, however, not where the main profits w i l l be found. " The development logics o f the customers " is not a management develop­ ment programme but an effo n which cuts across all levels in the various areas or departments of the enterpr ise since most of the employees are involved i n customer rel ationships. At t h e same time the emphasis shifts towards the mar­ ket and the development becomes market driven but in a fairly soph isticate d way where the driv ing force is not " hard salesmanship" in a classical sense but complex project- and develo pmen t relationships where new tasks of un der­ standing and development must be handled by the computer firm .

Scope and integration

Above , some examples of themes. or topics, in organization development have been given . Other ones could have been mentioned : To restructure an enterprise 60

there is a need to deal with a broad range of issues from the input to the output side and from the shop floor to the top floor. There is, however, also a need for integration : The various part processes must contribute to a coherent whole. As emerges from the presentation above, the need for integration and a total per­ spective is built into the way in which the part processes are constituted. The total process is so far noth ing but an adequate number of part-processes shaped in the ways indicated above. This notwithstanding, mov i ng from parts to the whole also raises i ssues of its own which will be taken up in the form of overviews of two cases; An agricultural cooperative by the name of Vastsvens­ ka Lantmiin (VL for short) and the Stockholm Tomteboda mail center.

The agricultural co-operative

S weden is a country with very strong co-operative movements. The agricultural sector is one where such movements and associated organizations are a predo­ minant characteristic . VL is one enterprise with i n this system . Covering the southern part of Western Sweden it is a general cooperative in the sense that it deals w i th many different products and serv ices : VL sel l s all the products a farmer needs, from fert i l i zers to oil, and recei ves from the farmers one of the ir main products: grain. Spec ialized co-operatives take care of meat, eggs, milk etc . VL runs, furthermore , a number of retail shops which to some extent resemble hardware stores but which have a somewhat special profi le. While, in the beginning. the agricultural co-operatives had a monopoly-type situation this is long gone and there is competition with private firms on all points. Government subsidizing of agriculture has been built dow n in Sweden i n recent years, leading to a shrinking market among the farmers. To compensa­ te for this the co-operatives make efforts to increase their share of other mar­ kets, i.e. hobby gardeners . VL employs about I 000 people. It has a head office - located in the sma l l c i t y o f Lidkoping o n the eastern bank o f l ake Viinern - and a number of regional offices. Under each regional office there have traditionally been seve­ ral sub-offices, the number of these has, however, gone down in recent years. Each regional office typical l y consists of a shop, storing fac i l ities for various products, a field sales function and an adm ini strative function. When VL first came into contact with the LOM programme - as one of the first to join the programme, in 1 986 it was in the m iddle of a major process of restructuring. Traditiona l l y . the role of this type of enterprise can be seen as linked to transport and storing. The various goods and products which the farmers need were distributed, and grains were moving the other way to be put into storage silos and to be moved from there to the various producers of grain-based products. During the 1 980s, however, the various barriers aga inst competition had been successively deconstructed and the management of VL had deci ded that there was a need to become more m arket oriented . Initially, this had led to a restructuring of the head office with a strengthening .

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of the marketing function. In the effort to become more market oriented, pro­ duct managers were appointed at head office, more campaigns were run and a set of ru les about marketing practices introduced, w ith the field sales people as the main target. In parallel with this there emerged a process of ' de-tech­ nologization " . While, previously, VL had owned a fleet of trucks which were l argel y operated by the regional offices, al l transport functions were brought together under the head office and the actu al transport tasks contracted away to transport firms. The grain storing silos were more and more taken out of use and the grains transported directly from the farmers to the processing plants. The organization was expected to become less preoccupied with the technologi­ cal tools and more with customer relationships and other soc ial dimensions. As this strategy was put into effect i t was di scovered that the people in the regions did not respond in an unequivocally positive way. There was criticism of the new " rule book " for salespeople, and the drive and momentum needed to ful l y succeed in the market was lacking. There was c learly a need to take a further step. After a project development conference, where three other enterprises partici­ pated - and a vision of VL as a decentered, active, market oriented enterprise was drawn up - it was decided to start the process in one of the regions: Falkoping. It was limited to this region for about two years before the transition to the enterprise as a whole was embarked on. The Falkoping region employs about 25 people. In starting the work, focus was placed on the work organization in the regio­ nal office. This was i n the beginning of the LOM programme and we still had a tendency to move more or less automatically in on this topic, expecting the problems to be found in wrongly defined boundaries between work roles, lack of adequate work relationship structures, l ack of flexibility between workroles, and the l ike. An analysis of the work organization did, however, not give a picture where problematic aspects could be easil y seen. The i ntegration between the office, the shop, the storing system, field sales etc. was in fact quite good with a lot of flexibi lity. People were helping each other across functional boundaries accor­ ding to need, there was a strongly participatively oriented loc al management, and everything flowed quite smoothly. To this the communication system con­ tributed : One of the office workers was located in the shop. Operat ing the switchboard, answering calls etc . the woman fil l ing this job functioned almost perfectly as a center, coordinating activ ities, knowing where everybody was at each time, etc . . I t was not until focus w a s placed o n customer rel ationships that a process got under way. As part of the development work regular general meetings - where all employees participated - were held and in one such meeting the topic put on the agenda was " do we do things right in the market or can we launch new ideas , new efforts? " This re leased a very l i vely debate. The outcome was a long l i st of ideas. Among these could be found such things as developing a complete product package ( fert i l i zers, pest icides, soil testing equ ipment, etc . ) •

62

for hobby gardeners; hav ing stands on the various " m arket days" in the region (which had not be done before since the relationsh ips to the farmers had been given priority). organ izing new contact arenas in relation to the farmers. etc . . These ideas were ordered in groups and i t was agreed t o develop on them and put them to the test. Each group of ideas was assigned - on a voluntary basis to a group of two or three people who would be responsible for developing the ideas and doing the tests. This process was carri e d through. Some of the ideas were found worth while to pursue. others had to be abandoned . However, even if about half of the ideas turned out not to be very fruitfu l , people still fe lt that they had learnt someth ing also from work ing on them and felt that they were standing on a surer footing in their future work with customer relationships, product development and the l ike. A major side effect of the communicatively oriented project strategy was improved integration between the various aspects of the operations, such as between sales and customer credits. In 1 989 this office showed an econom ic result amounting to 15 % return on working capital , which was the highest fi gure i n VL and one of the highest in the Swedish agricultural co-operative movement altogether. The main reason clearly was a much more finely tuned i ntegration between the v arious aspects of the operations. What had happened within this region was a third transformation on the way from a bulk handling enterprise and to a market oriented one. While the pre­ vious one had been from bulk handling to a centrally initiated and somewhat mechanistic effort to become more market oriented, this one had led to a decen­ teri ng of the market relationships and a much higher degree of local structuring of these rel ationships. A major asset of VL i s in fact its regional organization and an anchoring in the local communities within the region . The V L em­ ployees are parts of numerous local networks which can be used for the purpose of finding new markets, developing new relationships, etc .. The transition to the enterprise as a whole was slow and cautious. The start was a general management conference within the group where some of the experiences from Falkliping were presented to the other regional managers by the Falkliping head manager. The next step was a selection of three new regions which were offered support to local development if they wanted to do something l i ke Falkliping but on their own premisses. No effort was done to bri ng in experience from Falkli­ ping. In particular one of the regions took up this opportunity and launched a project. The third step was a conference where all the regional offices were present. in terms of small project groups. Here the discussions followed the lines of the project development conference, start ing with v i sions and moving on to pro­ blems, etc . . Th e experience from Falkliping was played in a s the third step and a s " possi ­ ble experience ' ' to be drawn upon by the others if they wanted to. In thi s way the Falkliping experience was accepted as legitimate and the transition was

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actually made. After this conference each of the regions started their own deve­ lopmental work, along roughly the same lines as Falkoping. The next stage of this process w i l l be a restructuring of head office to beco­ me less of a steering body and more of a provider of an infrastructure for local development, of course within a framework gi ven by " an enterprise mission " which must be m ade for the enterpri se as a whole and with head office in a leading role but also draw ing upon al l the other elements in the organization . What this implies is sti l l not clear since this pan of the process is only in its beginning.

The Stockholm Tomteboda mail center

The LOM programme came to incl ude two of the l arge mail centers in Sweden , the Gothenburg main terminal and the Stockholm Tomteboda termi nal (A broa­ der tre atment of the developments in these term inals, including an e arl ier pro­ ject in the Oslo main term i nal can be found in Gustavsen, Han & Hofmaier. 1 99 1 ) . Here, only a brief outline of the dynamics of the Stockholm Tomteboda development will be given : This terminal went into operation in 1 982 and in 1 983 a project was develo­ ped to try to come to grips with some of the work organ ization problems generated by this type of workplace . The chief task is sorting of mail. an opera­ tion which can be done in different ways depending upon type of mail and level of automation. There has been a strong automation movement in this field, centering around optical readers and electronic sorting mach ines. Still, only about 50 % of the mail can be dealt with automatical ly, the rest demand more or less in terms of manual sorting procedures. Essentially, the sorting of a letter is a very simple process consisting of picking it up, looking at the address and placing it in a rack, the workcycle may be around two seconds or even less. Human contributions to partly automated processes, such as punching of postal codes, is a task with approximately the same work cycle. So far, the terminals emerge as almost extremely " Taylorist " in terms of the type of tasks they offer people with corresponding high figures for t urnover and absenteeism. The first effort took the form of an experiment with autonomous groups in a pan of the letter sorting department. Designed by the late professor Berti! Gardell the effort evolved along the lines of experimental methodology. It was well prepared, not least in terms of in-advance discussions among the people who were to enter the groups. At a point in time the groups were establ ished and the new system put i nto operat ion. It lasted for a while and was then reversed after an agreement between management and the unions. Behind this reversal there was a number of reasons. Two were, however, particularly im­ portant : The groups w h i c h could b e developed among people w h o were a l l sorting letters became relatively weak. A l l tasks were a l i ke and there was no task-given 64

need for co-ordination which could support the development of social links and ties. The abil i ty of a weak social structure to survive depends upon the external pressure under which it is put. For these groups the pressure turned out to be quite high, due to numerous and unpredictable variations in the incoming mail flows. technological breakdowns. etc .. There was a cont inuous need to respond to changing external conditions with correspond ing difficul ties for the groups in planning thei r work . The abandonment of the experiment did, however, not mean that the interest i n finding new solutions to the problem of work organ ization had evaporated. Rather the opposite. The criticism against the experiment which had been per­ formed was quite mild: Management as well as the unions agreed that some­ thing had to be done and that the idea of group work was essentially right but that it was in need of another contex t. On this basis it was decided to start anew. Thi s time the development was geared to the strategy of the LOM pro­ gramme. In this programme work had started with another mail center - the Gothenburg main term inal - and with this as the basis a system for exchange of experi ence had already been establ i shed in re l ation to Tomteboda to make it poss ible to feed experience from Tomteboda into the process in Gothenburg. When it was decided to start again in Tomteboda this system functioned also the other way, feeding ideas about strategy from Gothenburg to Tomteboda. I n launching a n e w effort, the fol lowing came t o b e some of the steps and pan processes involved: A series of seminars were organized, where management could successively meet all the 2 700 employees of the term inal to discuss how to approach the question of change. Out of these discussions - which have a strong e lement of management by di alogue on a broad front - a new strategy emerged. The following elements are incl uded: - Heavy investments in equipment and bu i ldings - The establishment of self-managing departments, or " fi rms w ithin the frrm " . to function as a new framework for integration and as mediator between the work groups and the mai l centre as a whole . - A modernisation programme was launched on management level encompas­ sing such issues as goal -oriented control systems. the use of performance premium wages, new principles of accounting, new and richer systems for feed-back, reponing, monitoring, quality control. etc . . - C areer development interv iews and training programmes for spec ialists and middle managers were introduced. - M anagement by objectives was introduced on the level of the self-managing departments m aking each one into a result unit. - Personnel meetings. where all employees partici pate occur within a four week interval. At the beginning of each shift the shift group and the superv i­ sor meet to discuss and plan the activ ities. These meetings have the authority and the resources to stan certain types of development projects or i nvestiga­ tions - during 1 98 8/89 more than 1 50 spec i fic projects emerged in this way. 65

Employees are encouraged to come forth with ideas and suggestions for improvements and the groups and departments are geared to taking them up and dealing with them so that they do not have to pass through a long bureaucratic channel. In working out ideas, one day sem inars and similar work methods can be applied. - Competence development programmes are formulated on the indiv idual le­ vel. The idea of group work is carried on but much emphasis is pl aced on broadening the task basis for such groups, by linking different types of tasks so that they can become accessible to work groups and shared between their members . - If there i s n o t sufficient work for a group o n a s h i ft , the residual t i m e c a n be spent on training, group development or discussions rather than maintaining the old system of homegoing. - In addition to the various arenas for discussions, information i s distri buted via internal newspapers and the l ike : currently an internal video i s discussed. - Physical work environment improvements are continuously going on. Without going into detail this list indicates what issues and areas eventually became involved i n the development. These extensions are, furthermore, not only additions to an effort within a part of a department, but necessary prere­ quisites for such a development as wel l . As long as the i ssue of " new forms of work organization ' ' is lim ited to a restructuring of people into groups where everybody perform the same type of task and with l ittle need for co-ordination, the effect will be limited and unstable. The emergence of new forms of work organization in a letter sorting department will not occur before it is possible to al locate new tasks to the people who are to carry forth this new organization. The whole task system generated by a mail center must be reconsidered and new ways of task allocation developed . Scope is consequently not only some­ thing which needs to be aimed at for reasons of broad participation and totality but also for reasons which have to do with the possibility of developing solu­ tions to each specific part-task . Only when a more radical approach to task distribution is taken - such as letting mail sorters deal with customer rel ations­ hips and maintenance work on machines - will the basi s for really new forms of organization be present.

Concluding remarks

These two cases i l l ustrate two somewhat different relationships between part processes and the whole. In the agricultural co-operative the issue is in principle " to do the same " throughout the organization, using one part of it as a spear­ head while at the same time avoiding this spearhead becom ing isolated, while in the mail center the point is to change a number of elements simul tane ously so that they can all contribute to a new overall pattern , i.e. as task allocation is concerned. This difference has to do with such issues as a mail center being 66

structured around what in pri nicple i s one production process. while a sales organization generally has looser coupli ngs between the v arious elements. Dif­ ferences of this nature will influence part-whole relationships and determine what more specific l ine must be pursued in seeking to involve the organization as a whole. There are , of course, m any other configurations than those i ndicated above, a point which w i l l , however, not be pursued here .

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V The constitution of results

Introduction

In the previous chapter, a series of steps - or stages - in the process of develop­ ment was identified, and a presentation of the content of each of these steps was gi ven, up to the one which was called " achieving scope " . These are the steps in relation to which the LOM programme - at least during its official duration time - can be said to have given experience of a certain richness. Due to the shortness of this time the experiences as the later steps are concerned are more meagre, although some of the participating organizations, as w i l l emerge from the next chapter, entered these later steps during the duration time of the pro­ gramme . S i nce experience, this notwithstanding, is limited, these steps will be only briefly discussed.

Constitution of results It can look odd to have " results " as a step of its own in the process, since results emerge from the point when the first step is taken . The reasons for hav ing constitution of results as a category of its own are found in the fol lo­ wing: While results flow in all the time there is also a need for a more systematic stock-taking to be done every now and then . When, for i nstance, management and unions at the Tomteboda mail center decided to cancel the experiment with autonomous groups and go back to a more conventional organization it was as a consequence of such a stock-taking. In the type of process now unfolding in the Tomteboda mail center stock-taking of results will, by the way, be a much more complex task in the sense that a number of processes have been l aunched and results will have to be assessed within a number of areas. It will also be increa­ singly difficult to perform reversals of the type which cou ld be done w i th experimentally oriented, limited changes. This notwithstanding, there is a need to stand back now and then to l ook at what has been achieved, how it is to be evaluated and what it is to mean for future efforts. The first step in this process is the identification of results. " Results " do not appear by themse lves. Real ity is made up of exceedingly complex streams of events. Before any discussion and eval uation can be performed it i s necessary to single out some of these events and structures, and put l abels on them in the form of concepts. This is an active, constructive, task. Results are , i n a sense. something which are constituted and not given. Th is point emerges very clearly

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if we look at the endless productivity debates to which the i ssue of new forms of work organization has given rise. Are, for instance, autonomous work groups more productive than indiv idual ly organized workers? Efforts to prov ide ans­ wers to such questions soon demon strated that there are no absolute answers. This i s partly linked to the poi nt that productitivity is a highly complex and ambiguous concept, which needs to be given specific definitions before it can be appl ied to concrete situations, partly linked to the point that the reality which i s to be assessed is exceedingly complex and manysided. G i ven this, the ulti ma­ te choice of productivity concepts and of what aspects of reality to single out in this context must rest with those concerned. External bodies can give views on this but can not take over the decisions. The recognition of this point has brought research away from trying to measure productivity in a simple, me­ chan i stic, way to try to live up to a demand - general ly expressed by sources external to those enterprises which have been involved i n the changes - for getting simple, unequivocal ev idence concerning how organizational changes function. Those enterprises which are themselves involved generally fi nd ways of dealing with these issues which are satisfactory from their point of view. Since constitution of results is an active step, it follows that it should not be taken until the stage is reached in the process of development when most areas and levels of the organ ization have become involved. Otherwise, many people will have to take a stand on issues where they lack personal experience, which often lead to fruitless discussions and blind alleys. Even i f it is up to the parties involved to define along what dimensions results are to be constituted, i t is still possi ble to indicate in a more general way what dimensions flow natural ly from the approach inherent in the LOM pro­ gramme : The L O M strategy implies t o see changes in patterns o f communication as the spearhead in the change process. In looking for results, it is reasonable to start by asking questions like: Have we experienced changes in the way we communicate in the organ ization? Such a question can be broken into a number of sub-issues, such as what new arenas have been establi shed, who has access to them; what rules prevail when the arenas are used, etc . ? New patterns o f comm unication are, in tum, meant t o lead t o changes in the way the development work is conducted as well as in the amount of develop­ mentall y oriented work which is performed. New linguistic tools to emerge out of the workshops called dialogues w i l l transform existing processes from being c losed and repetitive to being open and i nnovative and to the emergence of more project oriented patterns of organization. The second set of questions, then, w i l l have to do with this: Are new i ssues defined as open and subject to processes of development; have the various types of project organization beco­ me more important tools in everyday work throughout the enterpri se. etc . ? S uccessively, the processes are t o lead t o n e w structures. S u c h structures can be defined within two main areas: Work organization and technology. In the LOM strategy the changes in work organ ization can be expected to be ahead of the changes in technology si nce it is reasonable to believe that a communicati69

vely oriented strategy w i l l penetrate work organ ization before it penetrates the selection and con figuration of technological elements. This leads to a process with the fol lowing four main e lements: Changes in pancms of commun ication

r

--------1·�

Changes in what issues are defined as subject to development and in the way in which the deve lop­ · ment work is performed

Ch anges in the se lection

Changes in work

and configuration of

organization

technological elements

Again, it mu st be repeated that in actual practice these aspects w i l l become intermingled ; they are mainly analytical . The steps indicated in the fi gure w i l l generall y refer o n l y t o t h e early part o f t h e process. before everything becomes a continuou s circle. They can. however, be a help in singling out some main dimensions along which it can be reasonable to establ ish and discuss results (cfr. the next chapter). I n identifying a "chain " consisting of patterns of communication, the orga­ nization of development work, work organization, and technology, one touches upon the famous debate about the relationship between work and interaction. Originally i ntroduced by Hege l , this distinction - where interaction can be equalled to the first two elements i n the chain, while work can be equalled to the two last - has given rise to a lengthy debate ( for an introduction to this debate, see McCarthy ( 1 978, pp. 1 6 - 40)). On the background of this debate several ques tions can be raised : One quest ion is to what extent working life can be seen as a scene of inter­ action at all . S ince working l i fe is par excellence the place where work is conducted, one may imagine that interaction is something which occurs only in non-work sit uations. S uch an i nterpretation is possible, but not very reasonable . It seems most reasonable to see work and interaction as categories of human experience and not as defi nitions of localities where they occur. A further question is to what extent work can be dealt with in interaction: the whole purpose of the LOM strategy is to make work experience subject to an interactive strategy centering on development of linguistic tools. If the point about the di stinction i s to identify basic and non-interchangeable dimensions of human expe rience, one possi ble interpretation is that although work as well as interaction c an occur in the workplace, work can not be made subject to i.e. democratic dialo gue. Again , this is a possible interpretat ion. but not a very fru itful one. It would imply that " work " - in the long ru n the by far most powerful too) for transform ing the social as well as the material world - should be exempt from any influence from the type of force inherent in free communi 70

cation. If the point behind a philosophic posit ion is to indicate a way to di saster, this interpretation is of course a good one, otherw ise it is clearly not. Conse­ quently, most interpreters seem reluctant to draw such a concl usion and rather prefer to see work as something which can be dealt with i n interaction ( G id­ dens, 1 982: Habermas, 1 982). Thi s does, of course, not imply a fall -back to a marx i st-inspired view according to which no change can take place at all unless it orginates with work and workroles. This is to go too far in the direction of giving one of the dimensions of human experience precedence over the others, nor does it correspond very well to the realities of social development. Changes can, c learly, emerge from many different quarters, sometimes in, or close to, work, sometimes from other spheres of human l i fe, such as the family. Finally, in this context, there emerges the issue of free versus strategic com­ munication. Much of what goes on in working l i fe is communication . One may, however, imagine that the type of communication going on in the context of work is of a strategic nature : Has to do with getting other people to do what one wishes; with being smart at their expense, etc .. Habermas uses, for i nstance, the distinction between strategic and open communication as one of the comer­ stones of his analysis. Clearly, there are strong reasons for this distinction . Again, however, it would be unreasonable to see working life as subject to strategic communication only. To take one example : The agreement systems which have emerged in a number of countries to ensure a reasonable degree of peace and co-operation - and hence the possibil ities for being productive - are prime examples of those forms of mutual understandings which can be found in practice: linguistical ly, legally and morally. If we exclude such settlements from examples of mutual understanding we have left the field of human reali­ ties to such an extent that the di scourse becomes uni nteresting. Actually, it seems most reasonable to see all communication as having, as a point of depar­ ture, strategic elements as well as elements which have to do with increas ing the level of mutual understanding. Strategic communication presupposes, for instance, a linguistic apparatus in which this communication can take place and this apparatus can not be developed unless a mutual understanding is esta­ blished concerning the meaning of concepts . Consequently it seems resonable to proceed from the point of view that work gives rise to free as well as to strategic communication. This conclusion is in line w ith the way McCarthy ( 1 978. pp. 1 6 - 40) argues that the distinction between work and i nteraction should be interpreted. As will emerge from the next chapter, a substantial number of participating enterprises could be seen as having achieved results with reference i n particular to three of the dimensions identified above: Patterns of communication, deve­ lopment work, and patterns of organization. This, however, is according to an external evaluation. To what extent the enterprises themselves had embarked on a result-ident ifying process, with a view, for example, to conducting a broad di scussion within the enterprise is another matter, the number of enterprises which had done this was moderate by the time the programme termi nated. Insofar as it was done it was not in the form of an easily distingui shable step but as an integral part of the development process itself. 71

Evaluation

Const itution of res u lts can only be analytically separated from their evaluation. In the way dimensions are selected and concepts chosen when results are con­ sti tuted there i s also general ly a strong element of evaluation : Certain things are picked out as suffic iently important to be considered, while other issues are al lowed to escape the conceptual net which is thrown out. In chosing concepts to represent those e lements of reality which are singled out, there is also often an element of eval uation present. In arguing that the establ ishment of results and their evaluation constitutes an active, constructive, task to be performed when the development work has been going on for a while it is, at the same time, argued that evaluation i s not a mechanical process consisting of establishing a set of criteria before the deve­ l opment starts, the fu lfi l ment of which are measured " before " and " ' after" ; the difference constituting " the development effect " . Does not this mean a break with what is commonly assumed when discussing evaluation? The ans­ wer is no. In general analyses of policy evaluation, contributors l ike Weiss ( 1 986) and Naschold ( 1 987) have argued that the carry i ng through of a policy can not be seen as a mechanical implementation of a given programme radia­ ting out from a center, be i t a center on the level of society or on the level of the enterprise, such as a bipartite steeri ng committee for developmental work. In­ stead, policy and associated developments must be seen as a circular process with pol icy emerging from a number of "centers " while it is, at the same time, continuously reshaped through the experiences developed in implementing it pol icy making is in itse l f a learning process (Thorsrud, 1 98 1 ). ' ' The implemen­ tation of a policy " can consequently lead to a major restructuring of the policy itself - not to say that this i s the common experience. In organ ization develop­ ment it is common to start with a spec ific problem but to end up by saying that what we really got out of it was an improved abi l ity to deal with change as such. Unless evaluations consider such shifts in aims they w i l l to a large extent miss the point. " Development " is undertaken just because it is not possible to ful l y speci fy in advance where one wants to get and how to get there . When this is possible, there i s no need for development. A di sagreement on evaluation of results which depends on language differen­ ces can not be used to force things on the m inority on the basis of the argument that " the majority has a different view " . The point here is that " the majority speaks a different language " . Conferences is consequently a good method with which to approach the i ssue of eval uation. In such a conference one may go back to the original v ision behind the development efforts, i .e. such as they emerged at the project development conference ( Pages 4 1 -6 1 above) and see to what extent this vision is to be maintai ned or restructured. If it is restructured it may be worth going into why this is done since this is generally due to expe­ rience from the development work itself. When these experiences have been identified they can form a basis for continuous discussions about a framework

72

for eval uation until a set of dimensions and (if necessary ) measurement me­ thods have been agreed on.

Consolidation

In the l iterature on organ ization , it has sometimes been argued that an organiza­ tion should construct its patterns around one basic idea ( i .e . Selznick. 1 957). G iven the type of development strategy upon which the LOM programme is bu ilt this would be difficu lt. By arguing for broad processes which cover all main levels and functional areas of the enterprise the door is opened for much pluralism and variation in what i s done and how i t should be conceptual ised. Such broad and complex processes, which can hardly be made subject to single­ concept reductionism, do, however, also contain some problems . It has, for instance, turned out to be difficulties attached to holding such broad processes together (Chapter VI). Mult iplex and multiconceptual change can move to­ wards di sorder and disintegration if the concepts to which people relate their experiences become too many, and too vague ly linked. Any approach must be made subject to some limitations, otherwise it becomes its own enemy. There is, consequently, a need for an e lement of " s trategic concentration " also in this type of process - for now and then to insert a mechanism which can pul l thi ngs together so as to prevent a continuously exploding universe of experience and conceptual isations. Such a concentration w i l l in actual practice be an integral part of processes where results are constituted and eval uated. The process of evaluation will lead to something being discarded while other things are main­ tained and strengthened. Th is last step can be called consolidation and can be seen as the establishment of concepts which are intended to hold things together and achieve a focussing on certain alternat ives at the expense of others. An example can be the idea of " lengthening the work cycle" i n mass pro­ duction. A large number of enterprises have, during the last two decades, laun­ ched efforts to do something about division of work. Th i s has generally meant stepwise efforts, associated with a broad range of experiences. If an enterprise. on the basis of such e xperience , makes explicit that " we commit ourselves to a continuous lengthening of the work cyc le " (of course within some l imits) it consolidates an idea, to use it as a reference point for further efforts. As pointed out by Selznick ( 1 957) no definition of, and commitment to, an organizational idea is free of ri sks. It is not so that to lengthen the work cycle al ways leads to positive results. While it generally has a long term positive effect on worker competence and motivation, and on product quality, there may be short term difficulties and there may even be some long term negative effects, such as reduced possibilities for automatization of the process. No commitment to a principle automatically implies a guarantee of success. And just since this is the case, c lear commitments to specific ideas are not common in the world of organization. Insofar as comm itment to ideas occ ur it tends to be in terms of very bland ones - such as "a more profit oriented culture " - which 73

tells very little about what the enterpri se is actually going to do. The consolidation of elements i s an act with clear political dimensions in the sen se that it must be done with due consideration also of broader views and debates in society about such issues as the role of work and what type of social structures an enterprise should exhibit. In a country like Sweden there are on-going discourses of these issues on the level of society, often quite intense ones and any effort to settle workplace issues without considering thi s frame­ work will easily create problems and tensions. It seems resonable to see this part of the process in the light of such problems and issues as are by Habermas ( 1 976) and Offe ( 1 976) called problems of legitimacy (see also chapter II, pages 2 1 -26 ) . Basically, any enterprise organi­ zation, however " flat " , is a steering system . It can be much else, but it is always more or less of a steering system . It consequently always raises the problem of how to unify a steering system with human motivation : How to com bine a system which, at least in certain respects, " tells people what to do " with a high motivation to do it? Thi s is an eternal di lemma. One line of reasoning which seems fruitful in this context is to introduce the con cept of legitimacy as a type of " asset " , or " capital " . If an enterprise has a suffic ient amount of legitimacy in relation to its employees it can perform steering and ensure motivation at the same time. Throughout the earlier parts of the process of industrialisation - when the great majority of managers never bothered much about legitimacy - the necessary basis was provided by pre­ industrial forms of organi zation such as the church and the state which had introduced vertical steering systems and conditioned people to loyalty at the same time. The legitimating force of these pre-industrial institutions does, ho­ wever, wear off and there is a need to fmd new sources of legitimacy. One reason why this is an urgent issue in a number of societies today is that the legitimacy inherent in a liberalist-democratic society does not legitimate organi­ zational steering systems. In pure liberalism the only steering mechanism is the market and according to this, management should negotiate with each employee each day about what to do and for how much. Democracy has an ability to " li ve " with steering systems but can not positively legitimate them, since the core of democracy is the ' " influence of the people " . One of the tendencies i s that as historically given generali sed forms of legiti­ acy wither away , the re-establishment of a legitimacy capital must to a certain m extent be done on the enterprise level. Team organization, new corporate cultu­ res, etc . , can often be seen as much in the light of the need to boost legitimacy as a direct answer to specific problems of work organization (S andberg, 1 987). At the same time it illustrates the point that patterns of organization more and more become action parameters within the context of developing and maintai­ ning a sufficient legitimacy. Thi s is, furthermore, the context in which we must see the issue of consolidation since this has to do with making clear and explicit what type of organizational ideas ' ' we commit ourselves to ' ' . A dialogue based de velopment strategy can be seen as a way of creating a new basis for legitima­ cy - through participation. This is not legitimacy in quite the same way as in 74

the traditional sense since it is based on letting people in on processes and dec isions. It is no longer a pure " steering legitimacy " . On the other hand, a dialogue oriented approach can be brought quite far without disturbing the efficiency of the decision making apparatus of the enterprise. Nobody has - on the basis of such an approach - argued that the enterprise must be turned into a continuous general meeting. Rather the opposite : By arguing a broad-base and deep-slice type of step-wise development process the idea is to successively work the new pattern into the enterprise with as little di sturbing effects as possible. Nor has it been argued that management should be done away with just to mention another tri viality from the democracy debates. Clearly, ma­ nagement must exist and with a very important role. The point is to create a basis for legitimacy besides the one flowing out of the company legislation and where the mandate is ownership-based, to also incl ude a mandate from the people in the enterprise. This point can , in tum, be seen in the l i ght of the broader debate about the relationship between a Habermas-type position and, respectively. rational choi­ ce theory as well as contextual ism (i .e. White, 1 988). In seeing man as, respec­ tively, a " free strategist" or a " puppet on a norm " some basic perspectives are overlooked. Rational choice theory tends to neglect the issue of how collective structures are developed as well as from where the legitimacy to carry the choices through is to come . Man as controlled by norms does not explain very well from where the norms come and, in particular, why they change. If we look at theory of organization and of management, contextualism and, in parti­ cular, rational choice theories abound. The type of approach described in this book c an be seen as an alternative which modifies rational choice thinking relati ve to the collective best as well as to the problem of legitimation and makes, at the same time, normative systems on enterprise level subject to ratio­ nal discourse and local construction It has been mentioned above that the LOM programme has given lim ited experience which can be subsumed under the heading of constitution of results . The same of course applies to the l ater steps. Looking at the mail center and the agricultural co-operative there are, however, elements of this kind to be found, in terms of a consolidation of certain ideas and a commitment to "a line " although not a clearly defined one. In the case of the agricultural co-operative it is possible to use an expression like "a co-determination oriented approach to market- and customer rel ations­ hips ' ' . This implies, at the same time, a commitment to a decentered pattern of organ ization since the market penetrates the organization through its lower levels rather than through the top. Inherent in this is a certain degree of pl ura­ l i sm between regions in the way the market- and customer relationships are handled, not least since the various regions in which VL operates show a number of differences. The mail center is in transition from being a traditional "post office " - although a big one - and towards becoming a process plant, with customer rel ations added . G iven the way in which the transition is hand­ led, its key thrust can perhaps be called · ' modernisation through dialogue " . 75

VI An o verview of p atterns and ex p eriences

Introduction

Maimaining the same perspective as in the previous chapters - the individual enterprise - the next steps is to gain an overview of the processes generated by the program me. It is mentioned before that anything resembling a fu ll clarifica­ tion and analy sis of such a broad programme involving about 60 researchers wi ll take sev eral more years. In particular is this the case if we want to go to a high level of detail. Some broader outlines can, however, be seen at the time when this is written and these outlines wi ll be presented below.

The

LOM population

As mentioned above, the LOM programme had, as a point of departure , about 1 50 partic ipatin g enterprises and public institutions which worked with their own problem s at somewhat different speed. " Participation " in the programme could mean di fferent things - an effort was actually made to have different forms of part ici pation so as not to make a c learly defined population of " in­ siders " and " o utsiders " . The programm e was, furthermore, divided i nto two major branch es , one pertaining to the private sector, the other to the public. The material on wh ich the following analysis is built comes from 50 enterprises with some e xc eptions those who constitute the private sector part of the pro­ gramm e . The analysis is based on interim project reports made by the participa­ ting researchers . Table 2 co n tains an overview of the 50 enterprises with reference to bran­ ches, or type of activity. It will be seen that a few public institutions are included - no absolutely unequivocal boundary was maintained between the different sectors . No effort ha s been made to tabulate size. " S ize " is, in this context, a high l y di ffi cult issue , for a n umber of reasons: It is, for instance, of limited interest to give the size o f the formal organization - e.g. an industrial concern - if only a part of it parti c ipates. In today ' s world of concerns. groups, financial links and the l ike it is also highly difficult to define " the formal organization " . The enterprise s inc luded cover a broad range as far as size is concerned, from less than I 00 emplo yees and up to some of the bigger S wedish groups. Lacking are , as u s ual, the s mallest ones.

76

Table 2: The enterprises according to branch/type or activity

S tate insti t utions

14 7 5 5 4 3 2 I I I I 4 2

Total

50

Engineering Chemical Hotel- and restaurant Trade Pulp and paper Printing Banking Food Steel Woodprocessing Bui lding components Municipal/regional public authorities

Stages and achievements

In the previous chapter a somewhat schematical division was made between various steps, or stages, in a development process. Let it be repeated that this identification of steps is not meant to reflect a logically necessary sequence. It is only meant to function as a frame of reference. This means, furthermore, that the steps, or stages, do not always appear clear-cut and well separated from each other. Rather the opposite; there will generally be diffuse boundaries and a lot of overlap : Each new stage emerges out of the previous ones. One may even go further and expect that there will be cases where a number of steps coexist so that the problem is to identify them rather than order them in time. In the scoring of the material which forms the basis for the following presentation the application of a lot of j udgement has been unavoidable. Judgment is of course also heavily involved when deciding to what extent a step, or a stage, is reached or not. Generally, issues of doubt, of how to weigh evidence , etc . , are solved in the same way with reference to all the variables, making the picture of the relationship between them reasonably valid. The absol ute values are in this sense more open to discussion. The development patterns of the LOM pro­ gramme will be reassessed - on the basis of independent evidence also from the field sites - by a group headed by Frieder Naschold which does an ev aluation of the program at the time when this is written; many of the cases will also be reported at length and analysed in depth in various works from the researchers involved. Even when these modifications are taken for granted there are still a number of issues on which the present material m akes reflection possible. One should, furthermore, not quite neglect the potential validity which lies in a material which is ' ' fresh ' ' - that is: which refers to events and processes which are ongoing, or even in critical phases, when the material is gathered - and in interpretations which are done " on the spot " rather than (long) after the event.

77

B • [J D D

50

40

Requirements fu l l fi l led Req u i rements to some extent ful l fi l l ed L i m i ted in the beg inning. latser broadened L i m i ted throughout N on-classi fi able

30

20

10

0

..§ � . >l c "

E E

0 u

Figure /1: The distribution of the enterprises on the steps of the development process.

Figure II gives a presentati on of the LOM population with reference to these steps . As ' ' the pillars ' ' are concerned the sy stem i s that the part m arked w i t h horizontal l i nes refers to those enterpri ses which have reached or passed the step in case; the black part refers to those who part l y ful fi l the requ i rements of the step but not fu l l y . There can be several reasons for thi s , for in stance that the enterpri se at the time when the material was gathered was in the middle of the

78

relevant part of the process, e.g. evaluation and consolidation . Another type of reason can be that the enterpri se has worked itself through such steps as evalua­ tion and consolidation but that the development work which i s evaluated and consolidated deviates to such a lim ited extent from ordinary conventional pat­ terns that it has not put the policy making capacity of the enterprise under much of a strain. The blank parts reflect the non-classifiable cases. One pi llar - the pattern of the development work - has one special segment . It i s constructed as follow s : Here , the part marked with horizontal lines depicts the enterprises which have started a broad development process and done this from the begin­ ning, that is: without passing via a more limited effort from which to gain experience. The black part refers to the enterprises which have started with a limited effort but later expanded it, while the grey part refers to those who have started on a narrow basis and not been able to break out of this basis.

Comments to the figure

It can be seen that step one - the establishment of a central , bipartite steering committee, or development group - was taken by almost all enterprises. This is not very remarkable since it was expected from the side of the programme. In some cases the groups were established only after the development process had started; in some cases the groups were very rudimentary - consisted of, for instance, only two persons - meaning that they could in all probability not quite fulfil the functions of such a group. These are the reasons why not all partici­ pants have a full positive score on this point . Roughly the same pertains t o the project development - o r start-up - con­ ferences. Here, however, another factor enters the picture too : The LOM pro­ gramme did, to some extent, establish co-operation with researchers who had already started their projects before they came into contact with the LOM programme and to some extent applied different procedures. Not all projects consequently started with a conference. In some cases modified conferences were arranged. The third piiJar refers to the shape of the development process, in terms of the issue of " limited" versus " broad " efforts. In the definition of phases presented above, it is presupposed that the process goes via a stage of limited work, that is: efforts within, for instance, a part of the enterprise. One of the most interesting features of the LOM programme is that the majority of those who started processes of development went directly into a phase of broadly defined efforts and did not pass via a narrow one . A number 6 started in a limited way but stepwise gave the work more scope, while 5 started in a limited way and were unable to give the process more scope . 10 did not start any development work at all , which means that the process came to a halt after the first initiative. Why did so many move directly into a broadly defined effort, that is: Depart from the point of view that " the whole organi zation " needs to be changed, in -

-

79

principle in one broad process? The most obvious explanation is of course that the programme encouraged efforts of this nature with its emphasis on broad participation , on leaving nobody outside , and so on. On the other hand: Thi s was never held forth a s a requirement. W e found it perfectly reasonable t o start in a more limited way , provided that a broader process was establi shed in time . It seems that also other explanations need to be sought. One possibility is that time pressure has increased in recent years, also in this kind of work - it is not only necessary to " do something " , it must also be done rapidly. Out of the material itself, however. another main point emerges, namely that many enter­ prises do not link their development efforts to single concepts but to clusters , or groups. of concepts. The enterprise may, for instance, want to " upgrade quality throughout the organization " , " decentralize responsibility " , " reduce through­ put time " , introduce a "just in time " -system and do it all in one and the same process. If clusters of such broadly defined aims are to be pursued i t i s difficult to start the development process in a delimited area or with a narrow set of problem s. Even if the concepts are taken separately, it is often difficult to generate a narrow development process. If the aim is, for instance , to introduce a just in time system it means that at least those elements w hich make up the same production chain must be part of the process from the beginning. l 0 enterprises did not start any development work at all . There were several reasons for this. The one which is most v isible in the material so far, is change in ownership and management. The same pertains to cases where enterprises jumped off at a later stage of the process. Compared to efforts of this nature in general , the number of enterprises which "j umped off" is fairly moderate and does not warrant any major analysis of reasons. Participation was, by the way, fully voluntary and any enterprise could withdraw at any stage without having to give any reasons for it. The next part of the figure pertains to results. As far as possible the material is scored with reference to the four dimensions mentioned in the previous chapter: patterns of communication, organization and scope of development work , work organization and technology. Since a previous discussion (chapter V pages 68-7 1 ) touches upon the distinction between results as constituted by the enterprise itself versus results as defined ' ' from outside ' ' it must be repea­ ted that this scoring of results is external - reflects what the enterprise has achieved according to the view of research. It emerges from the figure that the pattern is as expected in the sense that the part of the population which c an be said to have passed the various steps i s highest with reference t o communication and shrinking v i a the organization and scope of the development efforts, work organization, and to technology where l imited change could be seen by the time the material behind this anal ysis was gathered. Here, however, it must be emphasized that we deal with relatively early phases of the development processes . This is l inked to, among other things, the time in which relevant processes had been going on in the participa­ ting enterprises . The average LOM-member had a development period of two to three years behind it, which is generally not enough to pass through all the

80

steps of a full cycle. Although there is no question of an absol ute " lower limit" , it seems as if we have to calculate with time spans in the range of three to five years as a practical minimum " under present historical conditions " . Figure I I actually gives a " snapshot " at a certain point i n time: The picture would have been different half a year later. On the other hand, it can also be seen that about half of the total population of enterprises had, after this relative­ ly short period, developed changes in pattern s of work organization - not al­ ways as clearly as in the VL and Tomteboda cases described in the previous chapter, but at least changes of a reasonably substantial nature. Thi s demon­ strates that the strategy is able to penetrate these areas - through mov ing dialogically into the field of organization development the effort does not stay contained within the discourse itself but successively takes a grip on the other aspects as well. As eval uation and consolidation are concerned there are relatively few who have passed this stage, or, in other words, quite a lot of change had " accumula­ ted " within the participating organizations which had not, at the time, been made subject to discussion and evaluation by the enterpri ses themselves. The black part of the p illars indicate that the enterprise was in this part of the process at the time when the material behind this analysis was gathered and/or that it had been through it but that the development efforts were structured in a way so closely resembling ordinary conventional enterprise efforts that the eval uation and consolidation did not expose the enterpri se to any great need for a radical re-eval uation of itself.

Experiences and concl usions

On the basis of experience so far, it is possible to draw some conclusions and point out some perspectives: It seems reasonable to argue that the LOM programme reached well out in S wedish working life. About 1 50 enterprises - public and priv ate - were offi­ cial participants and a not insubstantial number participated in an indirect way. Given avail able resources and time constraints one could hardly have reached a substantially larger number of enterprises. The dialogue-based work forms of the programme were " soft " in the sense that practically no conflicts or deadlocks emerged. The strongly participati vely oriented modes of work, combined with the scope of the programme, provided for much redundancy and alternative ways of mov ing if there was any danger of conflict. If anything, it can be argued that a somewhat higher level of confl ict could have made the issues of the programme clearer and more pregnant. The idea of (democratic ) dialogue as the leading element. expressed in con­ ferences, broad-base and deep-sl ice projects. and the formation of clusters . networks. and ecologies of enterprises, seems to have stood its test, although to a variable degree. The conferences have been given very positive marks by almost everybody and is probably the action parameter which has most clearly 81

" represente d " the programme (von Otter, 1 990) . The other parameters are , however, also by now well -founded in practice although much more work and analyses are called for before these perspectives and assoc iated methods emer­ ge in as c le ar and poi nted a way as the conferences. This is not so remarkable, since the complexity invol ved in the other parameters far exceeds that of the conferences. The methods and approaches turned out to be flexible enough to bring into the programme a substantial number of enterpri ses which wanted to work with indiv idually shaped problems and from variable points of depart ure . It was also poss ible to " step into " existing development processes and contribute to the i r effic iency and quality. A num ber of projects did, for instance, emerge as a succession of already established work in study- and research circles, a wide­ spread phenomenon i n Swedish working life. A number of the contacts between researchers and working life from which the programme benefi ted, exi sted before the programme because of circ le acti v ity . On its side the programme often helped build the bridge between activities in the c ircles on the one hand and direct impact on the workplaces on the other. This flexibility was achieved without relinquishing the demand for some general ideas underpining the ef­ forts and making it possible to organi ze experience . A programme should not only be an administrative umbrella over experiences which may as well be done individually, but also a superstructure in terms of ideas. A reasonable balance seems to have been struck between the general and the variable. The programme has, furthermore, demonstrated the possibility of developing and su staining a fairly large scale effort in working l i fe with small admini­ strative and co-ordinative resources. It i s in fact often easier to adm inister a large popul ation of enterprises than a small one since in a large population " statistical laws " have a somewhat higher validity than in a small one . In a given population of some size one can, for instance, estimate roughly the num­ ber of enterprises to reach the v arious stages of development at the v arious points in time even if one i s not able to predict exactly which ones it will be. The size of the population made it possible to generally avoid what Frieder Naschold (verbal communication) calls " the absorption effect " , where re­ search, or other public resources , are poured into enterprises which " refuse to move " . Certainly, many of the participants in the LOM programme will not go down in the hi story of organ ization development as cases to be remembered but they have not absorbed major resources either. The redundancy in the pro ­ gramme made it possible to al ways focus on those participants where it was possible to create movement and let those be that preferred to lay sti ll, perhaps to return to them at a l ater stage. Often, it changes over time who moves and who does not. Nor can we find much of another effect identi fied by N aschol d : The dragon effect: The dragon is a big phenomenon, it often displays many colours, a lot of movement and i t spro uts fire . In reality it does not exist. In other words: Pro­ grammes and other development efforts can be used to create a lot of noise and seem ingly significant events which in reality mean very little. The LOM pro82

gramme has not offered solutions to major enterprise problems beyond those that can grow forth naturally in the processes created by the programme. The role of research has been low-keyed and it has been a point to avoid putting much emphasis on a few workplaces. No effort has been made to create " star cases " . One of the main achievements o f the programme was the development of new re lationships between research and the labour market parties. From a situa­ tion characterised by distance and a certain amount of m utual criticism a situa­ tion characterized by joint problem solving and project- and programme part­ nerships is by way of emerging. In general , it seems reasonable to say that the approaches of the LOM pro­ gramme were able to come to grips with important issues in development work and to do it on a reasonable scale. The approaches can clearly be further develo­ ped in v arious directions, but they can hardly be by-passed. G iven the three reference points for the development of these approaches : H istorical experien­ ce, developments in theory of science and, thirdly , " what works " in actual practice, the methodological battery of the programme has strong arguments in its favour. This however, does not mean that there are no weaknesses. One characteristic of the programme is its high complexity and manysideness. As pointed out by van Beinum ( 1 990) it is a programme pertaining more to ' ' the ecology " of working life than to workplace development in a traditional sense. The price one has to pay for this complexity i s that the possibilities for pene­ trating and adequately dealing with each of the elements can be limited. As concerns the LOM programme this seem s to have been the case in particular within two - rather important - fields . First, as concerns the transition from the project development conferences and to practical project work. Some enterprises did not make this transition at all. More important is, however, that a number used a lot of time at this stage and to a fairly large extent also created projects which were not particularly fruitful and had to start all over again after a while. W ithout being able to go very far in reflecting on why this came to be the case , the fol l owing points can be made : The strong side of the dialogue is its abil i ty to engage many people, utilize their experience, bring in all relevant concerns, and create commitment to the efforts. It is, on the other hand, not equally strong when turning to the task of setting up specific projects . Here, there is often a need to take a number of practically oriented steps such as converting broad and vaguely defined pro­ blems into operational issues , creating specific activity plans, etc .. It can even be argued that when broad dialogues are used to create the basis for the project work, this work becomes especially difficult s ince the basis is broad and com­ plex . The LOM researchers were, at the same time, able to supply " project competence " to a very limited extent only. Partly, the LOM programme emer­ ged after a break of several years in the use of research in " action situation s " o n a reasonably broad front, resulting in few experienced researchers being available when the programme was to start . Furthermore , ' ' project develop83

ment " is a step which emerges at an early stage. i mplying that not much experience had been built up on the research side through the programme activ ity itself.

Creating and sustaining broad development

The other clearly featured field of problems pertains to difficulties emerging in broad developments. As mentioned initially in this c hapter, the LOM strategy emerged out of experiences with limited efforts, s uch as efforts to develop autonomous work groups on the shop fl oor w ithout i n cl uding superv isors and higher managerial levels from the beginning. While suc h efforts could in them­ selves be fairly successful, the problems emerged when these changes were to be broadened and given support through changes in, for instance, managerial roles. By bringing in all major areas and levels of the organization from the beginning, as has been the case for the majority of participants in the LOM programme, thi s type of problem has been avoided. Other problems do, howe­ ver, come to the surface: Even though major conflicts and deadlocks are generally avoided in a broad development, a broad development must by definition deal with many pro­ blems. The problems w i l l often be fairly small. or tri v i a l , but the sheer amount of them can create difficulties, particularly for the steering system and for the external support. Even though the application of research in this type of change is as "a disc ussion partner" it w i l l sti l l be difficult for research to help deal with a large number of problems when they emerge more or less simultaneous­ ly, cfr. for instance the overview given in a prev ious chapter of the issues invol ved in the current organi zational restructuring of the Tomteboda mail cen­ ter (pages 64-66). Furthermore, even though the broad approach also me ans that there are more resources avai lable within the enterprises to deal with the problems, there emer­ ges issues of integration and co-ordination. Experience from the LOM pro­ gramme indicates that each level or group w ithin the organization is generally better able to push forward change within its own part of the system than to integrate with what happens in other parts of the organi zation. The problem of integration leads on to another problem, namely the meaning and appl ication of various development concepts when they are to be appl ied together and not separately. Most deve lopment efforts are linked to "a con­ cept " i.e. " improved quality " , "just in time " , " improved customer re lations­ hips " , etc .. S uch concepts can be difficult eno ugh when applied separate ly. When, however, they are to be appl ied sim ultan eously to create an integrate d overall process of development towards " a better enterprise " the proble m s increase . Then , for instance, the point is no lo nger to have " the best" idea about the whys and hows of a j u st in ti m e sy s te m , but to have it in such a way that the development of a just in time system ac t ivel y supports the development of higher quality, better cu stomer re l ationshi ps. e tc .. The conc epts must be 84

brought together to make new and meaningful wholes. Even if a broad development is created, one may not always be able to keep it up. In a number of LOM cases where a broad effort was launched there emerged problems which came to constitute a pressure towards contraction or disintegration. B y contraction is, in th is context, meant that the process has to be narrowed down - parts of the development abandoned, aspiration level reduced, etc . . Disintegration means that what w a s initially a movement across a broad front towards a common vision falls apart and becomes movements which are going i n different directions in an uncoordinated way. The reasons for contraction and disintegration are generall y the same as those which may prevent a broad development in the first place: actual ly there are diffuse boundaries between these two phenomena. As far as experience can be overseen at the time when this is written it seems as if the best approach to this problem in terms of action parameters is an early and strong development of management by dialogue. One way of looking at this type of problem is to see it as an i mbalance between on the one hand the need for integrative mecha­ nisms and the actual avai labi l ity of such mechanisms on the other. In the long run much of the integration i s to be performed dialogical ly between those concerned. The new patterns are, however. to emerge out of a system which has more or less of the traditional pattern s of communication . The point is to m ake the transition, and dialogue-oriented management can generate this bridge. It is possible, then , to identify a cluster of issues which have to do with achieving and maintaining scope in the development process and where the fol lowing elements are generally invol ved : - The kinds and number of horizontal l i nks in the organization. - Communicative competence. - Language resources . - Degree of dialogue orientation in management. - The ability to create and maintain unifying vi sions behind the changes.

Dialogues

Integration of part processes

Language resources

/

____

Maintainance of unifying v ision

Dialogue-orien­ ted management

85

The LOM experience indicates that the various problems associated with broad development are now by way of becoming major ones as more enterprises - be it within programmes l ike LOM or by their own - have passed the stage of "early development" and are entering a phase where complexity and the coor­ dination of a number of processes are becom ing the major issues. The LOM programme has helped bring this problem to the surface and indicated some ways in which to deal with it. It is beyond doubt that problems of this nature will reinforce the role of dialogues but much work remains to be done in this field (Gustavsen, 1 990) . In Sweden, a governmental l y appointed committee to look into the issue of productivity has delivered its report (Produktivitetsdelegationen, 1 99 1 ) On the basi s of field studies the report concludes that the most succesful enterprises are those who can master change through processes of development which are total, by which is meant that they encompass all major levels and functional areas of the enterprise. It is of interest to note that a major element in the developmental dynamics of the LOM programme corresponds to the definition of " the productive enterprise " . .

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VII Change and context

Introduction

In the previous chapters , the point has been made several times that organiza­ tion development is an issue which needs to be related not only to the indi v i ­ dual enterprise b u t t o c lusters o f enterprises, networks, and national program­ mes. The LOM programme, for instance, came to encompass approximately 1 50 enterprises and public institutions and within the programme efforts were made to organize the participants in clusters and networks. In the historical and theoretical overview given in chapter II the reasons for this moving beyond the level of the indiv idual enterpri se were given. The purpose of this chapter is to pursue this network- or context aspect of development in working life. As a point of departure it i s possi ble to speci fy several levels with reference to which problems can be posed and action taken : The h ighest level which needs to be identified is the national one. Certain things belong to th is level, i.e. legis lation and general agreements . To this can be added the policies of such actors as the government and the labour m arket parties central ly. Moving " downwards" we come to the level of programmes, such as the LOM programme. S uch a programme can be seen as mediating between natio­ nal policies on the one hand and concrete pl'ocesses of development on the other. Then there is a level which can be called network le vel, by which is meant enterprises which are collaborating directly with each other in a process of development. Moving further downwards we come to the cluster of enterprises, i .e . four, where the collaboration is relatively i ntense and where the ability to master interorganizational processes is an important topic in itself. There are fluid boundaries between c lusters and networks. Finally, there i s the level of the individual enterprise. It is, of course, possible to cont inue " inwards" in each enterprise talking about change which encompasses the enterpri se as a whole, versus more limited change, etc .. These issues have, however, been dealt with before and will not be taken up again here. Turning back to the experiences and reflections recounted in chapter I I , what emerged was a movement from single case field experi ments and to broader programmes with more open defini tions of problems and actions. Experience so far indicates that to achieve and consolidate change in Yo 'orking life it is neces87

to operate on all levels. This, in tum, gives ri se to three major questions: Firstly, what does it mean to operate on any of these levels? Secondly. what should, more specifically, be done with reference to issues, problems and action parameters on each of the levels? Thirdly, what role can and should research play with reference to develop­ ment on the various levels? Let it agai n be recal led that the idea of research involvement in " organiza­ tion developmen t ' · originally evolved in constellations which c an be characteri ­ sed as " micro " . Generally it was one or a few researchers who confronted one enterprise or a part of it. It is stil l not common to envisage research in roles smy

which go beyond this level - at least not when " going beyond " means to partake in action and not only to write about " what should be done " . Below, some comments will be made on tasks emerging on the various levels and with a main emphasis on the role of research. Generally, however, it must be em­ phasised that even though network- and collaboration aspects have been main ones in organi zation development in Scandinavia for some years, we are still far from being able to identify all issues and even less able to provide solid expe­ rience to indicate what should be done with those issues which we are able to identify .

The cl uster

The movement from a single workplace or enterprise and to a cl uster of enter­ prises actually began with the Industrial Democracy programme in the 1 960s (Emery & Thorsrud, 1 976: chapter II ). Here , a series of experiments was run . In principle, each one was a unique event but they were also linked to each other and were meant to form a " thread " or " pattern " . With the emergence of the job design workshop in the 1 970s this drift towards coll aborati ve relationships was strengthened (chapter II; Engelstad & O degaard, 1 979; Engel stad, 1 98 I ). In taking a closer look at how clusters can be formed and brought to operate an example will be taken from the LOM programme : The example is from a region by the name of SmAland which is known for its entreprene urial spirit. While, up until about the tum of the l ast century, Sma­ land was an exceptionally poor area it is today the most heav ily industrial ised part of S weden . With more than 60 % of total employment being in industry . the relative weight o f industry is extraordinary even in a broader perspective. Most industries are small to middle size. The very high degree of industrial activity did, throughout the I 980s, create a chronic shortage of workers. This led four of the municipalities in the region Gnosjo, Gislaved, Varnamo and Vaggeryd - to develop a joint labour market project with two aims: - Firstly, to see to what extent it would be possible to i mprove on working conditions in the enterprises within the area to make the workplaces more attractive. 88

- Secondly, to look into the various aspects of public serv ices and housing conditions to see if improvements could be made which could increase the attractiveness of the region. Thi s project came into contact with tho LOM programme and it was decided to start a collaboration. The point of •leparture was a project development con­ ference with four enterprises participating : Granstrand is a furniture producer, originally one of the main suppliers to the IKEA system , presently allied with Kinnarps i n a combination within furniture for public spaces, this combination is one of the biggest in Scandinavia within its field. At the time when the conference was held Granstrand was building a new factory and the vision developed at the conference was one of " the factory of the future " which could incorporate a number of such ideas as product workshops, green areas, etc . . Hillerstorp Meta/works produces a broad range o f metals products such as nuts and bolts, hinges, etc . Here, physical work environment problems were the point of departure - the surface treatment of metal products often imply the utilization of a broad range of chemicals - but it was recognized that the way work is organized plays a major role for the exposure patterns and the interest focussed on proceeding towards a better work environment through pursuing change along both lines. Nordflex' product is foamed rubber. Departing from the problems inherent in a high personnel turnover the interest focussed on developing new forms of work organization to see to what extent this could lead to a stabilization of the workforce. Initially it was thought that the scope inherent in alternative ways of executing the roles of the first line supervisors would provide sufficient levera­ ge to start a process. Consequently, the supervisors came to be given a critical role in the early phase . Viirnamo Rubber produces rubber and plastics products for technical uses. Even here the interest focussed on new forms of work organization to deal with problems of recruitment, turnover, and absenteeism. When the furniture company was to make the transition from the project development conference to concrete development work it had to face two pro­ blems simultaneously. One was the move to the new factory building, the other was a rapid increase in the demands for its products, making the need for producti vity increases v ery sharp. Some of the ideas touched upon during the conference, such as product workshops. became difficult to implement in the short run since much of the infrastructure for such workshops was not built into the factory, i.e. in terms of a number of different entrances to the factory, water pipes etc .. The enterpri se has , however, pursued another line in the develop­ ment towards the factory of the future, namely the location of new types of activities within the factory, in this case an educational programme which is part of the ordinary high school system which in Sweden encompasses theoreti­ cal as well as practical lines. The case in point here is a practically oriented line to train the pupils to become skilled workers in the furniture industry . I n the metal works a health and safety oriented effort w a s launched as the

89

first step. One major ingred ient was to identify and label all the chem ical su bstances which were in use in the factory and give the l abels S wedish texts. From here the effort moved on to issues of work organi zation as a main action parameter to expand on improvements in health and safety. More flexible work roles are developed which make it possible to avoid people being located in highly exposed areas throughout the whole workday . In the foamed rubber plant the effort to develop more flexible workroles. mainly through engaging the first line supervisors. was launched. Due to the size and inertia of the product in its pre-cut form these efforts encountered various types of difficulties: The concept of product workshop m ust probably be given a special interpretation to fi t a production system of this k i nd - the idea of a matrix type organization may possibly be a better path to pursue. In the rubber factory a work team development programme was launched and the whole work organization of the factory was restructured i nto small work teams with a positive impact on various dimensions, ranging from absenteeism to product quality. These examples are typical for deve lopment work on an everyday basis. The problems are fairly well known, the solutions likewise, at least in their genera l conceptual form . Still it takes time and all ideas need to be given a concrete expression. S i nce issues and sol utions tend - at least in the early part of the process - to move within a well known uni verse the question of new i deas emerges . What about " lifting the level " : What about bringing in more ambitious definitions of problems and solutions? This is an important issue. In this context it was pursued by posing the following two questions: - I s it possible to identify a common theme in these efforts? - Is it possible to find further enterprises in the region who have experience which can be said to link to this common theme but which at the same time goes beyond the experiences made within the project enterprises? The point behind this is to uti l i se local resources as far as possible. If there exists, on the local level, interesting experiences which can represent progre ss this should be utilised. The network will be strengthened, the local perspect ive reinforced and - not least - the " new ideas " become much more accessible. s ince they are not only " concepts " but associated experience as wel l . Above, " a theme" is mentioned. I t can very well b e several . One may imagine a cluster of enterprises generat ing a series of different " frontl ine " issues which can call for contri butions from several different new discussion partners. When, i n this context, it was decided to bring in only one new enter­ prise and associate it with " one theme " it was because such a theme could be identified while the cl uster had. at the time, probably not developed sufficiently far to really make it able to bring in a number of new partners and hence m ake the transition into a network (below ) . The common theme was ident ified a s t h e issue o f work organi zation o n the shop floor as associ ated with concepts like team work , autonomous groups and 90

product workshops . These indicate somewhat different approaches but they also have a lot i n common. In answer to the second question it turned out to be possi ble to find an enterprise - a producer of technical rubber products by the name of Forsheda ­ which had tried out a concept which in English may probably be cal led facto­ ry entrepreneur' ' . The main point is the introduction of a unified factory ma­ nagement based on areas of. let us say. about 50 people where one single person takes care of all managerial functions, ranging from recruitment to pro­ duction. Originally developed by Volvo, this has become a way of creat ing a management structure which can fit a product workshop and autonomous group type work organi zation . On the other hand: A work organization which leaves most of the everyday dec isions to the operators is a necessary prerequisite for a factory entrepreneur, otherwise this single person will be overburdened. The concept stresses the innovative, change oriented aspect of factory ma­ nagement, rather than the more traditional emphasis on the carrying out of plans, d irectives and the like. By combining all functions into one role it makes integrated solutions poss ible and makes it possible to perform innovations by l inking previously unlinked elements. Thi s type of solution rai ses. of course, a number of problems. Is it. for instance, possible to really bring together " entrepreneurial elements " and a more traditional factory manager role? The point was, however, not to argue this as a solution to the problems of the project enterprises but to introduce new dimensions to relate to and discuss. When the idea of " factory entrepreneur" was presented by people from Forsheda at a joint conference it provoked a major discussion where the point soon became to explore the various issues and problems associated with factory management rather than to decide for or against this particular solution. The strength of doing it in this way is that the idea is presented by an enterprise which can also contribute with a broad range of concrete experience associ ated with the idea, which makes it possible to conduct a discussion which can proceed along rich and v aried lines. In this way the idea of learning to utilise each other in the development process becomes manifest in a sol id way. All the enterprises have continued their efforts beyond the LOM programme. The furniture producer, for instance, has developed a programme for a fu l l working through of t h e factory a s well a s t h e creating o f a n e w h igh technology workshop to deal with some of the tasks which are particularly difficult in furn iture production . In addition to the industrial enterprises the project has impl ied work with municipal authori ties, housing companies. etc .. The tasks of research i n relation to such a group, or cluster, of enterprises can consist of the following three : Firstly, to organize " the discourse formation " across enterprise boundaries as well as within each enterpri se. Secondly, to prov ide i nput in terms of content-oriented knowledge pertai ning to speci fic topics which are under disc ussion, such as the characteristics and • •

91

functions of product workshops . Thirdly. to do studies which can be directed at process. or content. or both . There are differences between the research groups which participated in the LOM programme in this respect. A group located at the university col lege of Karlstad mainly l imits its efforts to the first and third of these functions while contributions to content are on the whole avoided ( RiiftegArd. 1 990) while a similar group at Halmstad has been more prone to go into discussions on content (Eriksson, 1 990) . Also in the last case, however, a precondition for research to move into discussions on content is that a dialogue has been esta­ blished and achieved a certain robustness so that it can deal with contributions from research in the same way as contributions from anyone else. It w i l l depend on a number of circumstances what vol ume of work the generation and running of such a cluster demands from the point of view of research. If we take the gross figures from the LOM programme, about 1 50 enterprises and public institutions were served by about 60 researchers. 60 researchers is, however, not identical to 60 research years since a number of people worked part time on the programme. On the average, each partic ipating enterprise has, statistically speaking. demanded somewhat less than half a re­ search year. A cluster should, as a point of departure. demand between one and a half and two research years . This, however. is only a ru le of thumb and mentioned to give some indication of the need. It may in many cases be lower. in other cases it may be higher. General ly. it is an advantage if the research group as such has, as a minimum, five members. Th is means that in many cases a research group w i l l serve more than one cluster, in other cases that the support to a cl uster of enterprises is part-time work . The point about having at least five people i s that it gives the group a certain abi l ity to withstand the ordinary personnel problems, such as leave of absence. In giving support to deve lopment processes in enterprises it is of major importance that the support is prov ided according to need among the enterprises and not according to more or less arbitrary fl uctuations in the research community. A group of fi ve has a certain robustness in this respect. In such a group one can profitably develop a matri x type organization with some people taking a " frontline" responsibility for one c luster while they have a" support role " in re lation to colleagues who a re frontline against another cluster, and so on ( Engel stad & Gustavsen, 1 992 l .

T h e network

Network is a very common concept in organ izat ional thinking today and it can refer to a number of di fferent constel lations. ranging from a few organizations to several hundreds. Networks can be generated for a number of different pur­ poses, such as making a number of sm all enterprises able to compete jointly for large orders (Piore & Sabel, 1 984: Hatch, 1 987). Several contri butors to the discussion on networks consider them to constitute a un ique type and level of social organization ( i .e. Teubner, 1 990) Within such a context as the LOM 92

programme, networks are created for the purpose of generati ng and supporti ng organizational change. This does not mean that the part icipants can not have other relationships as we l l , i.e. being members of a production chai n. I n most cases this is an advantage since it is generally easier to develop and sustain collaboration between enterprises if there are reason s for col laboration which span across more than one dimension . A network is a set of horizontal links. or rel ationships. between units which are in principle autonomous. Although the concept of network is assigned ma­ jor importance today , our abi l ity to generate perspectives on networks from a development point of view is sti l l fai rly lim ited. When the LOM programme was launched, one aim was to contribute to one fairly broad network : it was foreseen that all the organ izations which joined the programme would even ­ tually constitute one network which could, in turn. recru it a continuous stream of new members. This did not happen. The networks created w ithin the LOM programme can generally be said to be extensions of the idea of clustering as described above. The l argest network in terms of number of institutions created in association with this programme - but not as a direct part of it - is a network in the Jiimtland region which encompasses 1 8 state institutions ( below ) . It seems as if networks which are to function in support of organ ization develop­ ment can not be all that much larger, at least not for the time being, and on the basis of experience and work forms which have emerged so far. In the short presentation to be given here of a network the above mentioned Jamtl and one w i l l be used. The network can be said to have been developed by two people: Anita Westerberg who is the local project leader and Kerstin Rehnstrom who has taken care of the research support. The issue of equal opportunities for women in working l i fe has been a main one i n many industrial i sed countries for a number of years. S weden may be the most successfu l country in this field, in the sense that the employment rate for women in the relevant age categories is almost the same as that for men and the residual difference is expected to disappear in another decade or so. (Unless S weden joining The European Comm unity may reverse this deve lopment . ) In spite of some recent rise in unemployment S weden has. furthermore. a very high general employment rate . On the whole. Swedish women today work outside the home. The problem remains. however, of what type of work and under what conditions. Certain tendencies are very clear: Women are. for in­ stance, grossly overrepresented in the more lowly pa id pans of trades, serv ices and office work . In organi sations where there is a more balanced relationship between men and women in terms of numbers. the women tend to cluster on the lower levels and. final l y , i nsofar as both sexes are located in organ izational hierarchies it tends to be two different ones (Ressner, 1 98 1 ) : The women star­ ting on the shop floor and fi l l ing roles a few levels upwards while the men take over on the m iddle and cont inue towards the top. Thi s has created a major problem which can be cal led equal opportunities in the work organ isation. Several efforts have been launched to deal with it. in the form of campaigns, training and educational programs etc .. None have been 93

overwhelmingly successful. particu larly not in the short and m iddle run. Within the LOM programme an opportunity emerged to appl y the methodo­ log ies of the programme to the issue of equal opportunities through projects in th ree en terprises: SCA (a pulp and pape r company ), Atlas Copco (an enginee­ ri n g firm) and the Savings Banks ' Service organ isation (a set of bodies which perform support functions in relation to the sav ing banks ). These projects where the methodologies were specially adapted to deal with the problem of equal opportunities. such as using vertical sl ice project groups where the addi ­ tional requ irement w a s introduced that they were t o consist o f equal proportions of men and women - could be evaluated as fairly successful (Rehnstrom & D rej hamm ar, 1 990) . When the opportunity arose for developing a network programm e encompassing state institut ions it was acted upon. Formally spea­ ki n g this is not a part of the LOM programme since it was - and is - financed by the state renewal funds - a specific support system for innovation and change in the state sector - but the approaches are those applied in the LOM programme. When it was thought that the LOM approach could be particularly sui table to dealing w i th the issue of equal opportunities it was first and foremost because of its l i ng uistic orientation. The issue of " what are the differences - if any " between m en and women can be answered in many different ways - and has been answered in many different ways. Fairly popular are , for i nstance, psy­ choanalytic perspectives. To introduce i.e. psychoanalytic theory does, howe­ ver, mean to move rather far from what is empirically observable. What can actually be seen empirically speaking - or rather: listening - i s that men and women ha ve a tendency to speak di fferently: They use different words and configurate the words they apply di fferently. Women use, for i nstance , more of a " language of caring" while men use more of a " language of techn ical in­ strumen tality " , at least as broad tendencies. What emerges on the empirical lev el is, in other words, different language games. If such differences are taken as the point of departure the question of equal opportunities becomes one of equal opportunities within the workplace for the different language games. This does not mean to bring them to merge but to carv e out a field where the language games of women can be brought more effic iently into play as a moving force behind workplace restructuring. Essen­ tially, this is democratisation of the issue: In a democratic system the main po int is just that people have different thoughts, different ideas, which fi nd expression in different language games, but that these games are given an equal status in th e discourses. The Jiimtland network is made up of most of the state institutions within this re gion. which is a thinly populated one in Northern S weden. There is one administrative center, the city of O stersund, which is also the only c i ty in the region and the place where all the state institutions are to be found. The net­ wo rk encompasses the fol lowing ones:

94

The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The

city court regional appeal court city tax office regional tax commission, an appeal body regional state admini stration land survey office agricultural commission police telecommunications mail regional uni versity col lege public prosecutor employment comm ission m i litary conscription office school board road authority labour market training center claims enforcement office

In creating the network. conferences were organised with c lusters of institu­ tions. The cl ustering turned, however, our to be of limited importance, compa­ red to the collaboration which emerged within the network as a whole, helped forth by the fact that all institutions are located in the same c ity and that many of them are , furthermore, fairly smal l in terms of number of employees. In developing the network three main parameters are applied: Firstly. there is a network bui lding group led by the local program organiser. The program organiser is a regional union official with a background in the region and a well developed network of contacts local ly. Secondly, there has been a series of conferences and other joint events. In addition to the project development conferences there have been fol low-up conferences, conferences with select groups of participants - such as all the female participants in the project development conferences or all the institutio­ nal heads (which are, incidental ly, all men) - and other shared activities. Thirdly, there is, within each participating authority, a local project organ isa­ tion. The elements which make up the local project organisat ions vary between i nstitutions: common is, however, an equal opportunities project group. As part of some of the conferences the participants were asked to give some reactions to the question of the relative significance of these three main action parameters. Table 3 shows the distribution of answers from two groups of people: The female members of the vertical s l ices of the project development conferences - generally office workers - and the heads of the institutions generally men with an academic background, particularly in law.

95

Table 3: Eval uation of the action parameters appl ied in the development of the Jiimtland equal opportunit ies network What i s your esti mate o f t h e significance. o r impact. o f the fol lowing three action parameters for the development in your organization: The conferences and the

The efforts of the

The project organization

associ ated concept of

coordinator

within each institution. in part icular the equal

democratic dialogue

opport unities project groups Women Very small Small Medium Great Very great

N:

Men

Women

Men

15

0

12

0

3

21

0 8

17

0 5

5

4 6

8

17

9

51

25

Women

22 2 17

Men

I 7 12

5 5

4

2

15 7

51

27

51

26

2

Impressions of the kind emerging from the table must be interpreted carefully since they are subject to a substantial number of influencing factors. Some points worth noting do, however emerge : It is generally the work of the programme co-ordinator which is considered to be the most significant element so far. Thi s is not very surprising - at the time when these impressions were gathered the network was still in a phase of early evolution and in this phase the person - or persons - who perform the linking functions will generally emerge as the most influential factor. It is worth noting that the role of the program co-ordinator is the most purely network­ related of the three factors : Project organi sation and dialogues are both possible as internal structures within each organization. This indicates that the network construction as such is seen as highly important. As we will return to at the end of the section, the construction of networks has proceeded within, and as a consequence of, the LOM programme but not at the rate of progress expected from the beginning. The Jamtland equal opportunities network emerges in this context as, relatively speaking, a fairly rapid and smooth development. When an action parameter is considered to be of l imited significance there are two possible reasons: One is that the other parameters are more important, the other is that nothing very much has happened so that there are n o significant parameters . If we look at the answers in the light of this point it seems as if the male respondents - who are , it must be remembered, al so heads in their organi­ sations - consider the impact of the programme as such to be greater than what the women find since they generally assess the impact of each of the action parameters higher than what does the female respondents. S ince the significan­ ce of " de mocratic dialogue " was, in the question, lumped together with the 96

significance of the project development conferences, there are no unequivocal data on each of these parameters . One may, however, interpret the data to indicate that the institutional heads have a, relatively speaking, more positive evaluation of the democratic dialogue . In discussions about the type of me­ thodology applied in the LOM programme it is not uncommon to argue that ' ' people on the top will not enter into di alogues since they can rely on power instead " (cfr. for i nstance, some of the disc ussions recounted in the last c hap­ ter) . These answers indicate a more complex picture . One possible explanation is that the, relatively speaking, higher degree of l inguistic competence of the institutional heads have made them better able to benefit from dialogical modes of working. The developments within each of the participating institutions have some common characteristics : They are on the whole office workplaces with associa­ ted problems, such as a lot of routine work, problems with work planning for the clerical staff, lack of advancement possibil ities for a number of personnel categories, etc . . A number of institutions - an example is the road authority are in a process of transition from a traditional authority and towards a service organization. There is also, at each and every time, a number of centrally initiated programmes going on, aiming at upgrading the performance level of the institutions, their cost efficiency or whatever; for instance is the public prosecutor ' s office involved in a national program for computerization of the information systems. Much of the development takes place within a set of field forces constituted by a need to upgrade office work, improve on the opport­ unities for women , improve on cost effic iency and on service orientation. What efforts fall natural within such a context will, however, vary between institu­ tions. One of the interesting cases in this network is the regional appeal court which has moved quite far in creating a development organization . The core unit i s a project group consisting of a j udge. an assistant j udge and office personnel. This group is leading an internal process which implies a major transformation of the work roles of the office employees. They have, for instance, become involved in the gatheri ng of information pertaining to cases which are to come up before the court, information from outside included. Administrative person­ nel also make proposals for legal deci sions such as about court procedures. In thi s way a substantial expansion of the learning potential inherent in the clerical work roles is achieved. Due to its competence-promoting work organization this court has also proceeded quite far in the application of new technology, and personnel from the court take part as resource persons in training programs in other institutions. The criteria for a democratic dialogue are systematically ap­ plied in the personnel meetings which are regularly held as part of the carrying through of these changes. The rate and scope of the changes are not quite up to thi s level in all in­ stitutions but something is going on everywhere . There is a more general drift towards the institutions becoming less hierarchical and more characterised by a model of overlapping teams where each team incl udes people from all levels

97

and functions and where the teams plan and distribute the work between the members. There are, of course , some l i mitations to how far it is possible ro go along this road. It is worth noting, however, that in what is perhaps the most highly regulated type of institution of all - a legal court - a fairly radical redistribution of tasks has been possible without breaking any formal rules. In terms of content the strength of a network is the broadness of the experien­ ce available. One of the experiences to emerge out of the LOM programme is that networks generally function towards " explosion " in the sense that they prov ide each participant with a broad range of new elements, new experiences, new options. The network generally does not, however, supply the type of competence necessary to go, for instance, from a project development conferen­ ce and to concrete project work. This often demands a process of " implosion " where elements are simplified to be able to reach the stage of practical action. In particular is this the case in the early steps of a process when the abil ity to deal with complexity is generally not too well developed . S ince a network functions towards increasing the number of elements in play there is a need for a strong mechanism within each enterpri se for the con­ stitution of meaning. Otherwise it will be impossible for each participating enterprise to utilize an exploding universe of elements to promote its own work. The application of a specific methodology i s meant to constitute this framework for the formation of meanings, while the point that this methodology is shared throughout the network is meant to ensure a reasonable degree of parallel in the way network members constitute meaning. In this way the abil ity of the members of a network to share experience is primarily linked to methodology, not to content . Ideally, a network should work on as broad a range of topics as possible, to maximise the scope and v ariety of the experience available within the network. S ince it is also a characteristic of the type of development described here that the whole organization is involved, differences in orientation between participa­ ting organ izations are questions of emphasis. One organi zation may be in the position of being able to move forwards in relation to one set of issues while another organization can do it with reference to other ones. Those who take the lead within one area must, however, also work with the other issues to have the necessary apparatus to actually benefit from e xperience developed in other organizations. Here, the ideal is sketched, in actual practice one will have to work with various types of approximations. The boundaries between clusters and networks are fluid. The tasks of re­ search in relation to a network can in many ways be seen as extensions of the tasks emerging in relation to c lusters. S ince a network is larger in terms of participating enterprises, the resource demands tend to be correspondingly grea­ ter. There is a need to deal with more variety etc . There are, however, also some new dimensions entering the picture : While research support t o clusters can b e organized from outside. the net­ work should in principle have the support functions as a part of itself. This 98

means that a network should not only consist of enterprises but also of other elements, for instance a regional uni versity college . This is the approach ap­ plied in the LOM programme. It demands, in tum, that there is - at least for a period - a support system for the uni versity col leges as these are often lacking in research resources and relevant experiences. The research groups must, fur­ thermore , form a network between themselves. Otherwise, research will be organized in units which are too small to master the tasks assoc i ated with development of theory and methods. The network is, as a point of departure, the first level in organization deve­ lopment which in principle can be self-contained in terms of resources. Whi le the development of such a regional support system has gone very well in relation to some of the other LOM-networks - particularly in Karlstad and Halmstad and is by way of emerging in some other places - it is l agging behind in Jiimtland. The hope is, however, to create an adequate local support structure in the future. As network development in general is concerned , the original idea of crea­ ting a network where all the participating organizations could be seen as " members " turned out to be unrealistic . The time frame of the programme made it impractical to construct such a matrix of relationships. In terms of number of participating organizations, the equal opportunities network with about 20 members is the most sizeable to appear so far. Three other networks were by way of taking shape when the programme was drawing towards an end, one in the Karlstad region - with the Karlstad university colle­ ge in charge of research support (Engelstad & Gustavsen, 1 992) - one in the Halmstad region with the university college in Halmstad in a similar position (Eriksson, 1 990) and one in hotel- and restaurant firms in Northern Sweden with UmeA University responsible for the research support (Nilsson & Ni lsson, 1 990) . Other structures which can defend the characteristic of network may exist or be in an emergent phase but to what extent this is the case is not known to this author at the time when thi s is written. Experience so far seems to indicate that if " network " is taken to mean the next level above the c luster, 20 - 25 participating organizations constitute the upper limit of what we are able to master today . Here, it must be remembered that these networks are created for the purpose of mutual support in organiza­ tion deve lopment, a purpose which is different from , let us say, the sharing of production tasks or marketing efforts. Compared to the v i sion of network-type links which can encompass large sectors of working l i fe and prov ide a more general infrastructure for change we are still quite far from making this vision into reality. It may be that thi s issue must be seen as a part of the more general tendencies towards regionalization of Europe. One of the now emerging v isions of the Europe of the future is as a number of regions where the region form the unit for industrial and other m ain dimensions of econom ic development. In the next five years or so, however, it is l ikely that focus must be placed on establishing a number of 20 - 50 enter­ pri se networks which may, in tum, form platforms from which broader net-

99

works can grow. When entering the 1 990s it is, particularly in Norway, several efforts which have been launched to create networks of this type, partly initia­ ted by the Norwegian Work Life Center, partly by the main labour market parties through the activ ities emanating out of the agreement on workplace development. What these initiatives w i l l lead to can, however, not be guessed at at this stage.

The programme

As a point of departure a programme can be seen as a machinery created to generate networks. How a programme should, more spec ifically, be formed depends on the context where the programme is i ntended to operate. Below, an overview will be given of the issues which emerged and had to be dealt with in creating the LOM programme. It is reasonable to bel ieve, h owever, that they reflect more general considerations which need to be taken when developing a programme: I. Identification and interpretation of legitimating symbols. 2 . Identification and interpretation of historical experience. 3. Development of a frame of reference for the programme. 4. Development of a methodology. 5. Creation of a specific action plan. 6. Carrying the plan through up to the point where other forces - such as networks - have been created to a degree sufficient to allow the develop­ ment to go on without active field work from the programme bodies. There are fluid boundaries between these points. Starting with number I it was. in chapter II, mentioned that one of the major problems to emerge out of the field experiment phase cou ld be defined as a problem of legitimacy . A change could function positi vely in terms of producti ­ vity and worker involvement, and sti l l be questioned since it was created in an a-typical way - on the basis of theory - and/or represented an uncommon type of solution. In pursing a LOM type strategy, with a more lowly profiled re­ search role as content is concerned, the legitimation problem does not appear in exactly the same way . It does, however, emerge in other versions. In develo­ ping a broad programme there is, for instance, a need to recruit a substantial number of enterprises to the programme: What type of argument can perform this function? Here, the problem of legitimacy reappears. but on another leve l . I n creating the LOM programme i t was seen a s necessary t o l i nk the pro­ gramme to elements in the existing system of laws and agreements . The pro­ gramme had to be an expression of socially and legally sanctioned elements to be able to attract the sufficient number of participants . Among the elements picked out to serve this purpose the agreement between the labour market parties on workplace development played a major role. Being fairly vaguely formulated, the agreement can be seen as an effort to create bipartite local processes where considerations of productiv ity, co-determ ination and work en1 00

vironment are brought together and where sol utions are found which can be defended along all three dimensions. Here we do, of course, touch upon something which can be seen as peculiar to Sweden, or Scandinavia. Sweden and Norway are, for instance, the only two countries - at least as far as this author knows - where explicit agreements on workplace development can be found on the general level (Gustavsen, 1 985d). S i nce this is the case, there is a need to add that to create programmes of the LOM type in a non Scandinav i an context it i s no reason to be lieve that this type of agreement is an absolutely necessary prerequisite. The point does not lie here but in the need to l i nk a programme to a symbol which can fulfi l two functions : Attract enterprises and provide legitimacy t o the development process and its outcomes. While the symbol does not by necessity have to be founded in laws or agreements it should probably not be too trivial - the one who wants to launch a programme around " the need to master new technology " would pro­ bably find a somewhat tired audience today . A symbol must, however, not only be established, it must also be interpreted. In free floating form any symbol will be unlikely to be very operational. The agreement on development was, as a point of departure for the LOM pro­ gramme, made subject to the fol lowing interpretation (Gustav sen , 1 985d): - In developing co-determination there is a need for new forms of work- and enterprise organi zation. These forms should, however, in themselves be developed in a form which allows for co-determination. Otherwise, a basic dilemma is created between on the one hand the aim (co-determination) and on the other the means (expert solutions to questions of organizational design which do not allow for co-determination ) . Consequently, there is a need for a developmentally oriented approach which can allow for a stepwise working out of new solutions together with a stepwise increase in worker co-determination. - New forms of work and enterprise organization m ust, however, not only be consistent with the needs emanating out of the idea of co-determination and work environment, they must also be consistent with the demands for pro­ ductiv ity, innovation etc. emanating out of the economic functi ons of the enterpri se. Consequentl y , there is a need for an approach which can explore the possibi­ lities for improving on productiv ity, work environment, co-determination, etc . simultaneously and to take action within the field where these considera­ tion are found to overlap. - It is legitimate , also w i thin a system which has legal points of departure, to generate experience inductively from " down below " and not only deducti­ vely from " the top " (cfr. the idea of " reflexi ve law " as developed by Teubner, 1 982; see also chapter II, pages 2 1 -26) In this way the agreement on development could be given an interpretation which in tum came to function as a basis for the LOM programme. In developing an effort to change patterns in working l i fe, one does not enter

101

virgin terrain. As indicated in chapter II there is a lot of historical experience. A major point. then, becomes to gain on overview of these experiences and to make a synthethisation with reference to the specific context within which the new effort is to be made; in the LOM case S weden in the m iddle 1 980s. For the i nterpretation as such the reader is referred to chapter II. The point here is only to underline that in establishing a programme there is a need for such an interpretation. Unless it is reasonable to believe that one may be able to trans­ cend at least some of the important limitations left after previous efforts, why launch a programme? Then, however, there is a need for a definition of what problems previous strategies did not succeed in dealing with. There is another side to the same issue: Unless one has a sense of history there will be a tendency to do the same things over and over again . It is, for instance, still quite common to find that whenever the i ssue of change and development in working life is discussed it is an almost automatic reflex to argue for the generation of " good examples " . My colleague Hans van Beinum has estimated that the number of " good examples " , or at least " examples from which someth i ng c an be learnt " , to which research has contributed has to be written with four digits, if a broad international perspective is applied. In addition we have all the other " good example s " created without the help of research. If this approach was sufficient we would hardly still be discussing strategies for development in working life . I n linking the symbol, the context and the historical experience , t h e frame of reference for the programme will emerge. Insofar as research is to play a role, this frame of reference must include elements of theory and the outline of a role for research. This outline must, on the one hand, be sufficiently interesting to be able to attract researchers while on the other leave sufficient scope for the development of a range of more specific roles for research. Otherwise the programme will place too heavy constraints on an activity which must be allo­ wed a high degree of freedom. For a presentation of the frame of reference for the LOM programme the reader must be referred to previous chapters. Just a few remarks on research: While much of the criticism against " action research " has been uninformed, unfair, or built on premisses which are at least as questionable as those of action research, it is still right to say that " action researc h " has generally not made the case for itself very clear either. In presenting arguments for action research there is, for instance a tendency to mix together a lot of points to make the case as strong as possible without considering internal contradictions and tensions ( i . e . S usman & Evered, 1 978). For action research to proceed it is not necessary to have a " watertight " theory - which is not possible anyway - but to open itself to theoretical discussion. Otherw ise it is hard to m ake headway . Within the LOM programme an effort was made to make some points of departure as c lear as possible and special efforts were launched to make them subject to critical analysis and discussions (Chapter VIII ) . S ince a programme is a generati ve mechanism it must, from the beginning, have a methodology. The methodology must be sufficient to make it possi ble to

1 02

start recrultlng enterpri ses and researchers . Thi s is an extremely important point . The programme must take responsibi l ity for setting the wheels in motion and to do this there must be a commitment to action along some definable lines. Point 5 mentioned an action plan : When the various elements in the frame of reference are in place and a sufficient methodological battery to start the pro­ cess is decided on, the time has come to launch the programme in the field. Fac ing the working life of a country , decisions must be made concerning where to go, what relationships to establish, etc . . The first path which was tried out when launching the LOM programme was to establish contacts w ith the engi­ neering industry and the hotel - and restaurant branch. These were selected because the engineering industry in S weden has traditions within the field of workplace development; the hotel- and restaurant branch because at the time an effort was made to develop a project in this branch in Norway and it was thought that benefits could follow from working across the border. None of these initiatives were very successfu l . The Norwegian hotel - and restaurant project collapsed; a S wedish group of enterpri ses from this branch kept it going for a while after a project development conference but then the momentum died out. The engineering industry turned out to be difficult to approach central ly since there are traditionally some tensions between this - major - branch and the central federations. The LOM programme was seen as associated with the central federations while the employers and unions within the engi neering in­ dustry generally prefer to develop their own policies. Stepwise, a number of engineering enterprises came to join the LOM programme, but thi s was through regional mechani sms. In the next round approaches were made towards the employer-union committees for issues of collaboration which generally exist on branch level. Most of these contacts led to little s ince few branch committees at the time felt up to the task of attacking joint development efforts within the field of work- and enterprise organization. Generally, they dealt with training programmes and other " less difficult " topics. Some committees were, howe­ ver, willing and some branch oriented projects started to emerge. In the same period contacts were taken with a number of regional university colleges. This did, in many ways, tum out to be the most profitable move. Not all led to anything but the colleges turned out to have good contacts to enterprises, labour m arket parties locally, etc . ; they had often organized training- and discussion projects, i.e. in the form of study circles and research circles , a very widespread phenomenon in S weden. There was an interest in taking these structures further and tum them into development projects. The LOM programme could offer money, discussion partners, contacts to the labour market parties centrally, some theoretical and methodological points of departure and concrete help to get started, i.e. through organizing conferences. While the programme started in 1 985 it was not until well into 1 986 that there reall y was a population of enterprises working within the framework of the programme. The recruitment peak ocurred in 1 987. Thi s means that for many of the enterprises and public institutions which came to join the pro­ gramme " the running time " became two to three years . There is little doubt 1 03

60

!50

40

l

30

!I

6

-

0

I

20

z

10

0 1 985

1 986

1 987

1 989

1 988

Year Figure Ill : Recruitment to the LOM programme : Number of enterprises per year, added . Population as in Chapter VI, see page 146

that this is too short; insofar as the LOM programme has a basic weakness in its design it is clearly to be found here.

·

The last point (6) is already commented on : The secretariat of the pro­ gramme undertook a heavy travel burden in the early years of the programme. A major asset of the programme was that the labour market parties and research

could fonn a coalition and act together in relation to the enterprises. Within the LOM programme all the tasks indicated by points 1

-

6 were dealt

with by the secretariat as a group. The group consisted of three representatives from the labour market parties, two from the Work Environment Fund and one from research. It was a general opinion in the secretariat that research re­ presentation was too limited. When Casten von Otter came into the programme to take care of the public sector efforts, there were two researchers on this level. Here we see another main task for action research: To be a partner in the establishment of the necessary elements of a national programme . This is in itself a task which must be solved in dialogue with the people who represent the other establishments and interest groups.

1 04

The national level

There is a level beyond the programme, which may be cal led the national level . What sort o f tasks confront research on this level? One example is given in chapter II in the overview of the work env ironment reform . Much of the basic conceptual izations and action parameters of this reform were worked out by research. In this way research was able to give the iss ue of new forms of work organization legitimacy through being explicitly incl uded in an act which deals with important topics i n working life and which emerged after a major involvement from the unions. This type of infl uence is probably not so easily achieved. It is, on the other hand, not impossible, prov i ­ ded that research works w i t h development efforts i n a continuous interaction with the labour market parties, public authorities etc . Within the on-going stream of activ ity there will now and then surface issues which can be seen as " n ational " and in demand of symbolic treatment on the highest level , i .e . in laws and general agreements. By being present and one of the recognized actors research is on the arena and there are some possibilities for excerting infl uence al so over processes on the national leve l .

The multi-level perspective

Above, a number of levels have been identified and discussed. Taken together and linked to previous discussions about development processes within the framework of each enterprise, they constitute a highly complex picture ranging from the establ ishment of national symbols and to speci fic action within a factory or workshop. It is of major importance to get the processes on the various levels to work together, to strengthen and reinforce each other (Gardel l & Gustavsen, 1 980). As a point of departure it i s probably better t o be modera­ tely successfu l on all levels than to be highly successful on some but with no impact on the other ones. The LOM programme emerges as an example of such a " long chain " . It was able to cover all the levels and to make progress on them all. This is where the major contri bution of this programme lies, rather than in what was more specifically achieved on each of the level s . In this respect, the LOM programme can be said to have been the fi rst one with this type of multi-level impact. All prev ious efforts from the ID programme and onwards were strong in certain respects but lacked some of the elements in the long chain or were at least highly unbalanced in this respect. In trying to make an impact on all the elements in " the long chain " the programme also exposed i tself to problems in the sense that a large number of pieces have to be structured in a certain way for such an effort to function. When the programme umbrella was removed and what had been started under the programme was to be carried on under different umbre l las and i n different forms - although with a certain amount of reconstruction - there emerged a host of problems which can only be partly overseen at the time when thi s is 105

written. While the programme in many ways succeeded - even beyond expecta­ tions - in rel ation to the labour market parties, i.e. in launching and consol ida­ ting new modes of co-operation between research and enterpri ses, it did not in the same way develop new relationships to government agencies, to bodies dealing with research policy, etc . . Th is is the quarter form where most of the post LOM problems have emerged. They will not be pursed here; they demand an analysis of their own. Even with these modifications and uncertainties there is little doubt that the LOM programme came to play a crossroads function in bringing research back i nto action situations in working life and with a number of lasting effects.

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VITI Critical discussions

Introduction

The LOM programme - and rel ated activities - such as it has been presented in this book does not constitute a " closed universe " . Rather, it has been an event i n a long series of events which rotate around the question presented in chapter ll: Is it possible, with the help of knowledge, to create a better working l i fe and can research play a role within such a process? One may even argue that the LOM programme should primari ly be seen as a transitional programme . : It was able to provide a platform for a synthethisation of historical experience and to recirculate this syntheth isation into new change efforts, new practices. I t was able to bring research back into workplace development on some scale. The programme helped restructure some of the basic elements in the relationship between research and the labour market parties, etc . . It leaves, of course. many lose ends and more or less open questions and problems on several levels: Firstly , as concerns what was the core area of the programme: methods and approaches in workplace development. Experiences from the programme will lead to rethinking on several points and. in particular, to differentiation. To take one example of the last : The methods of the programme were thought to be self-evident and to be put into operation by " doing it" rather than " talking about it " . This worked fairly well i n the private sector settings but not equal ly well in a number of public institutions where the need for explication, structure and " rules " seem to be greater ( Ekl und & Bjerlov, 1 99 1 ). One possible expla­ nation is that in an ordinary industrial workplace the degree of structure is generally very high and the local linguistic resources relatively meagre , while in the public sector there will often be " much discourse " around the work situation but often with great difficulties attached to l i nking the discourse to reality. People in an industri al enterprise may experience the broadening of perspective inherent in the methodology as quite adequate while in the public sector there may already have occurred an ' 'explosion of meaning ' ' , creating a demand for a structuring force. A number of other examples of simi lar issues could be mentioned. The time is not, however, yet ripe for raising these ques­ tions on a broad front: Much of the experience developed under the programme is still not worked through and avai lable. When this i s said it can also be added that the basic elements of the approach seem to have stood their test fairly well (Chapter V ) . Another level where the programme can g i v e rise to experience i s t h e level of research pol icy and research organi zat ion. An essential feature of this pro1 07

gramme was to bring researchers to work together within a shared framework and to link the participating enterprises to each other. In thi s emphasis on horizontal integration, the LOM programme came into conflict with established traditions in Research and Development in S weden . Although the programme was possible, it was also an exception to the dom inam pattern based on indivi­ dual researchers working with indiv idual enterprises or, at best, small groups on each side. In the evaluation of the programme which is done by a German group this confl ict is held forth as the perhaps major problem highl ighted by the LOM programme; in this context the group performs a broad comparison be­ tween R&D policies in, respectively, Sweden, the US, Germany and Japan. (The group consists of Dr. F. Naschold, professor, Science Center, Berlin; Dr. H.-W. Hirschbrunn, member of the managerial board, Daimler-Benz AG; Dipl . Ing. U . -W. Kuh lmann, Daimler-Benz AG; S . B leicher, executive board mem­ ber, the German Metal Workers ' Union and Dipl. lng. A. Drinkuth, the German Metal Workers ' Union, plus assistants . The idea is to use the report from this group as the basis for a special volume in the same series as the present book) . A third level is constituted by the questions emerging o u t o f the basic theory upon which the programme was built. As mentioned several times before it has been a main purpose of the LOM programme to place a theoretical focus on action research. Partly, this has been done by trying to m ake as explicit as possible a set of points of departure which can lend themselves to discussion, partly it has been done by inviting people from philosophy/theory of science as well as from the work research community to engage in discussions about this theoretical foundation. Several sem inars have been organized around these is­ sues and, in Novem ber 1 990. after the closure of the programme, a two day conference was organ ized with about 50 participants, nine representing theory of science and philosophy (the Aske conference). In this final chapter it is these basic theoretical issues which will be taken up and the conference is the poim of departure. An effort will be made to indicate what issues and problems were identified by this - highly qualified - audience and some of the arguments that the issues can give rise to. The point is to indicate along what paths a theoreti­ cal discussion around the points of departure for the LOM programme may proceed. The presentation below is based on notes m ade by the author. This makes of course, for a problem: Being associated with the programme it is difficult to avoid defending it and it is difficult to give a balanced account of the points that were made. S ince the views to be presemed here are fi ltered trough the subjecti­ ve eyes - and pen - of one of the participants no effort will be made to ascri be views to specific participants. A list of the people who participated in the conference is given in Appendix. Insofar as a point is made also in a written text, reference is made . The participants in the conference represented a number of different per­ spectives, from the one of a recent recruit to research w ith a very remote relationship to theory of science debates to, on the other hand, some of the leading participants in the theory of science di scuss ions - who, by the way , 1 08

sometimes have a di stant relationship to everyday research, in particular in the social field. This author finds himself somewhere in the middle. This m iddle position is reflected in the following discussion . It does, consequently, neither depart form the perspective of the struggling action researcher who wants to understand what sort of venture he or she has undertaken, nor the perspective of the philosopher. Some will call this the perspective of the bridgebui lder, while others may see it as the somewhat precarious position of the one who tries to sit on two chairs simultaneously but with a grave danger of falling off both of them .

Democracy and power

The concept of democratic dialogue has in many ways been the identifying mark of the programme. One question is to what extent this may be an over­ ambitious concept. Is it really possible to establish something which can be called " democratic dialogue" in working life? Questions like this can give rise to various reflections and l ines of arguments: On the one hand there is clearly no need to be able to make real the most ambitious versions of such a concept as democratic dialogue. It can function as a regulatory principle without having to be fully materialised in the real world. It can be argued that Habermas uses the idea of free communication as something which can be found inherent in actual discussions but hardly ever in " pure " form. A main point for Habermas, however, is to find a new foundation for critical theory , while one of the main purposes of the LOM programme was practical and the programme unfolded in a workplace setting. Given this type of location it can be argued that there is a need to be particularly careful not to mix the actual with the potential; current practices with visions, since the border between " what is possible " and " what is real ' ' can easily become blurred. Against this it is possible to argue that just since the LOM programme entered the field of everyday discussions it had to take the everyday versions of the concepts as its point of departure - and " dialogue " as well as " democratic " are quite freely applied in settings which may be quite far from the requ irements of the " purist " . To make oneself felt in real discourses the initial conceptualization can not be too modest. Another - related - question is to what extent it is reasonable to di scouple the dialogue aspect of democracy from the other aspects and apply even the dialo­ gue aspect in what seems to be a " soft " way with, for instance, little emphasis on the various " rule of law " mechanisms in a democratic system . A counterar­ gument to this is that the relationship to the rule of law aspects of democracy are not quite as remote as they may look at first glance. The programme is linked to an agreement which in tum is founded in a law and a number of other agreements. If this background system is pulled in in its entirety , it will be seen that quite a number of solid, formal democratic parameters can be applied. This discussi on can be continued into the realm of power and its role in relation to such an effort as the LOM programme. If the enterprise is seen as an 1 09

arena where power is exercised while efforts are made to introduce democratic forms of communication one may easily imagine conflicts. Is it real ly possible to establish democratic dialogue in the face of power? Initial ly, it may be worth while to make some rem arks on the way in which the problem emerges. Starting with Max Weber' s definition of power as the possibility of forcing one ' s will on other people in spite of resistance, one may imagine that power operates non-discoursively by stating what it wants and using brute force if people do not comply. This is a very crude perception of power which does not accord very well with the ways in which power i s constituted and applied i n a n advanced industrial society. I n actual practice, power is not silent. If anything, power is manifesting itself just in the way discussions are structured, agendas set, concepts selected, arguments develo­ ped, etc . , a point which is actually the theme running through practically all the writings of Michel Foucault (i.e. 1 980). The potential of " non di scourse " c an play itself out only against a background of discourse. Consequently, power is found first and foremost in the discourses , not as a force operating outside them and making them subject to constraints. That leads to another problem, namely how to find out what role power plays and in what ways it interferes. Since power manifests itself in the discourse, the problem of power becomes - as a point of departure - one of differences between discourses - between those which are infested by power and those which are not. There is no way in which to map the characteristics of a discour­ se except by discoursively rel ating to it and - as far as possible - becoming a part of it. The method with which power can be c larified m ust consequently in itself take on a dialogue form. The problem of ' finding out about power' ' then becomes one of: - establishing discourses - while at the same time sensitizing the di scourses to i nterference form power - which can only be done by having some ideas about, or standards for, what a di scourse free of power should be like. Or, in other words, the possibilities for democratic dialogue in the face of power can be investigated only by trying to develop di alogues and seeing what happens. Even if power should happen to be an overwhelmingly important factor effectively blocking any democratic change in working life it would still not invalidate the methodologies of the programme. On the other hand, there is clearly a need to put more emphas i s on the power issues within this type of approach than what has yet been the case. A further topic within this area pertains to the demand for agreement, or consensus, which plays an important role w ithin the approach applied in the LOM programme. A demand for consensus contains various problematic as­ pects: Firstly, it is often di ffi cult to achieve, thereby often making for slow progress. Secondly, it can, in combination with power, lead to co-optation of the weaker part in the relationship, or to other forms of increased dependence. During the Aske conference it was argued that agreement should be used rather than consensus since agreement carries more of a formal and at the same •

1 10

time practical connotation while consensus implies more of a deeper merger of interests . This is an uncontroversial point - it is easy to agree (literally spea­ king) that agreement is the better word. Consensus has not been much applied in Scandinavian work reform anyway. The demand for agreement pertains, furthermore, to two points: Firstly, to the conceptual resources available to the local parties. To deal with workplace realities there is a need for a language and the meaning of words have to be based on agreement . This is in many ways a triv ial point - when it is stressed several times in thi s book it is because it may be less common to see l anguage resources as subject to local development and hence local agreement. The second field to which the demand for agreement pertains i s practical action - what to do to deal with the various issues which emerge as part of a development effort and which are actually nothing but the issues which need to be dealt with to run an enterprise. According to the Co-determination Act as well as to the agreement on development these dec i­ sions should. as far as possible, be made subject to employee influence. The LOM programme can be seen as an effort to make this requirement come real in the face of the fact that enterprise decisions are, today, often complex, diffi ­ cult and pertaining to a changing world. B eyond this there is no demand for agreement. Within the LOM programme there were, for instance, no demands for agreements on goals beyond those which follow from the existing system of rules. It can also be recalled that one of the dialogue criteria states that a good dialogue implies ability to deal with an increasing degree of difference of opinion since the strong point of dialogues in the way they are used in the LOM programme is the abi lity to unify a demand for practical decisions with the existence of a broad range of different views. A further point within this group of topics has to do with the relationship between the local and the general from a democracy point of view. The LOM strategy leaves it to the local parties to develop their structures and processes on the basis of their own preferences and experiences. Let us say that this is done in a nuclear power plant which poses major threats to its surroundings - is there not a risk that the solutions will benefit the local parties at the expense of the environment? Another variant of the same problem is the reasonableness of having work experience as one of the criteria of a democratic dialogue; will not this give a preference for a certain type of experience while experience as " an ordinary citizen " will be kept outside? (Both points are m ade in B achmaier, 1 988.) Again, there are counterarguments, for instance: In the LOM programme the point has been to deal with " i nternal " issues within the enterprise and not those which are strongly tied up with the needs and demands of society. Secondly, it can be argued that even the needs and demands of society are not particularly well taken care of unless there are active local partners. It seems, for instance, that both the Three Mile Island and the Tchernobyl acci ­ dents had a strong work organization ingredient. Thirdly, one may argue that for the environmental movement to really beco­ me a major social force it must be able to mobilise people in general and such a

111

mobi l isation must start with local issues : unless people can start to get a hold on these issues in their own near environment they will have difficulties in relating to an environmental debate on the level of society. This will, in particu­ lar, be the case for industrial workers who will often feel that environmental considerations put their jobs at risk. Again, there is a need to consider the role of local action. Such counterarguments notw ithstanding, there is clearly a need to look again at the balance between the central and the local : The ideas behind the LOM programme depart from a limited bel ief in the ability of centralised strategies to make further advances within the field of workplace restructuring. It may. however, be that these issues need a further reconsideration. Perhaps it i s possi­ ble to take experience of the type deve loped in the programme and go back again to see to what extent more rational central approaches can be developed. Another type of criticism takes as a point of departure that the methodology of the LOM programme is too highly structured. To take one set of dialogue criteria and try to use them as guide-lines across a hundred enterprises - and even more, since they are i ntended to function in relation to workplace reform in general - means to operate on too high a level of generalization . The operati ­ ve level o f language i s the local language game and the generative mechanisms behind these games - be it on the descriptive of normative level - can not or should not lend themselves to a higher degree of general i sation than the langua­ ge games themselves. (A criticism of the position of Habermas on this basis can be found in, e.g. Janik, 1 989. ) An extension of this criticism is that non-explicit (tacit) forms of knowledge will be underplayed in dialogue-based approaches since this demands explication of the e lements which are to enter i nto the dialogue. The counterargument here is that these perspectives are, to some extent, built into the programme: The dialogue criteria are for i nstance, not claimed to be general but rather a contextual interpretation of democratic traditions as these lend themselves to an interpretation in Scandinav ia towards the end of the twentieth century . They are, furthermore, seen as a point of departure, open to change and restructuring in the light of experience. It is, on the other hand, maintained that i n any reform work there is a need for criteria which go beyond what already " i s " within the framework of each and every local context, otherw i se no effort at change would be possible. ,

As tacit knowledge is concerned we do, as with power, confront what is primarily a methodological point. Clearly, tacit knowledge constitute a difficul­ ty in a dialogue-based strategy. Here, however, another element of such an effort as the LOM programme enters the picture, namely the action dimension. Insofar as knowledge can not be made expl icit with reference to being played into a dialogue it must be represented in another way, and the only way in which it can be represented is by the bearer of the knowledge. The LOM strategy is based on everyone representing him- or herself in the development process. Tacit knowledge can, so to say. be worked into the process rather than

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talked into it. Even if dialogue is a major e lement of the strategy it is not the only element and other aspects of the strategy allow for playing in the way work is done. Actual ly, what is demanded from the bearer of tacit know ledge even in a dialogue is not the abi l ity to make explicit everything pertaining to the way he or she does the work but rather what type of workrole and work relationship structure is needed to be able to do one ' s work, i.e. use one ' s tacit knowledge . As far as this author can see, a strategy based on research concept­ ualising other peoples ' tacit knowledge is an approach which is fraught with m uc h more dangers than a dialogue -oriented action approach based on active use of the insights existing among those concerned where, however, research does not have to " take over" this insight. These counterarguments notwithstanding, the criticism against overgenerali­ sation and to some extent mechanisation of the process clearly contai ns a point which needs to be considered. A problem which was sometimes touched upon during the conference wi­ thout. however, being assigned any major role, is the controversy on the nature of language which forms much of the core of the debate between a Habermas type position and a deconstructivist one - i.e. Derrida (McCarthy, 1 99 1 ). It can be argued that a Habermas type position presupposes the possibil ity of moul­ ding language to play a consciously planned role i n a process of enl ightenment which is not necessarily founded in the real nature of language. While Haber­ mas sees m an as the u ser of language one may equall y well tum the perspective around and see language as the user of man . When people learn a language this l anguage takes a grip on the thoughts and actions of people, irrespective of how " irrational " this language is. Its rationality can i n fact never be investigated since such an investigation m ust be performed with the help of the language itself and it would be equal to pull ing onesel f up by the hair to make such an investigation. Man is in the grip of his own linguistic tools the rational ity of which can never be tested. When posed in terms of princ iples, this type of disagreement is very dramatic and constituting a seemingly unsolvable problem. When doing as in the LOM programme, namely entering the field via everyday discourses and practices. the problem tends to evaporate. On an everyday level there is little doubt that people act as if improvement is possible, rationality attainable , democracy achievable. If this was not a part of everyday social life this l i fe would die. To what extent improvement, rational ity and democracy can be achieved in any ultimate and absolute sense is seldom on the agenda. What we have to deal with are the struggles of everyday l i fe and within this framework a Habermas type position seems, to this author, more well founded than a deconstructivist one. This, however, presupposes that a Habermas type position is " scaled down " so that it actually can seek legiti macy in how people act in everyday l i fe . Insofar as universal principles and criteri a of absolute validity are argued, it seems as i f t h e deconstructivists easily win the day .

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What type of research?

While " action research " throughout its history has been made subject to much di scussion, particularly around its claim to be " researc h " , this was not a major issue in the Aske conference . There was. on the other hand, quite a Jot of discussion around what paral lels, or analogies. can be found to the type of research represented by the LOM programme. The point of departure is that the research carried out within the LOM programme is closely related to practice. It can not easily defend itself i n terms of an abi l ity to generate a highly structura­ ble body of knowledge - expressible in syllogistic. mathematical, etc . , forms but this does not make it unique within research. Rather the opposite: In loo­ king at what characterises the main bulk of research - in medicine, technology etc . - it is general ly closely linked to practice . Nor are the types of logics wich are actually applied in the various branches of science by necessity of the highly generalized, formalised and sem i-mathematical kind usual ly preferred in theoretical discussions on logics (Toulmin, 1 964 ) . Among the more direct pos­ sible parallel the following were suggested: - Clinical medicine - Psycho-analysis - Education Research in these - and a number of other - fields l argel y take the form of reflections on practice. Research within the LOM programme follows the same general pattern. There are , clearly. points of l ikeness with such branches of research. There are, however, also some differences, at least if we talk about general tendencies : Firstly, i n the way those concerned are dealt with. In the position underlying the LOM programme it is a point to make those concerned into what can be called " strong subjects " - they are in all respects equal to the researcher. Th i s is generally n o t t h e case in clinical medicine and education - in psycho-analysis the picture may be more v aried but general ly those concerned are seen as patients not fully on par w ith the analyst. In education, psycho-analysis as well as in clinical medicine one can say that the aim of the effort is to make " strong subjects " , but when the effort begins there is something lacking: The one who is subject to education knows too little: the one who is made subject to psy­ choanalysi s has a neurosis, while the one who happens to be among the medical people generall y has an i l l ness. In the strategy pursued i n the LOM programme a fairly radical idea of the " medium is the message " is applied: If we want to generate democracy we have to treat people as ful l democratic participants from the beginning. A second element is the " oppositional " character of action research. While practice-oriented research l ike clinical medicine seems to have emerged reaso­ nably smoothly and in an uncontroversial way v i s-a- vis those who want to do " theoretical medicine " , the same can not be said about action research . To a large extent this research has establi shed itself not as a complement to other types of research but as an alternative. Eve n when action researc h has not itself

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wanted to be seen as an alternative it has often been defined as such by its mainstream colleagues. This somewhat oppositional character can , however, be found i n at least one of the fields mentioned above, psycho-analysis, and to some extent also in education. In spite of the tremendous importance of psycho­ analysis and assoc iated insights for the shaping of our whole culture, it ' s claims to science are nevertheless constantly disputed by adherents of other branc hes of " science " such as questionnaire-based atti tude surveys. Within pedagogics it is sufficient to ment ion Paolo Freiere as an example of an oppositional way of thinking. Although there has, in recent years, been some s igns of a less con­ flictual relationship between action research and other types of social research. the relationship is still unstable. Initiatives have been taken to develop a · ' tripo­ lar" soc i al science centering around three concepts : Description, evaluation and construction, where all are seen as necessary to constitute a ful l fledged social science (Kalleberg, in prep: see also Galtung, 1 977). Clearl y , this is the way to go. There is, however, not only a need to establish these poles, there is also a need to clarify the relationships between them. One of the major i ssues emer­ ging here is the possibility of a descriptive social research: Some arguments agai nst the poss ibil ity of a descriptive social research have been indicated before (Chapter I I I ) . There is a broad tendency to take the possibili ty for making descriptions of soci al phenomena more or less for gran­ ted. The possibil ity clearly also exists, namely when there is a language ( game) avail able on which all concerned can agree and i n which the description can be performed. One may very well descri be " the institutional manifestation of par­ ticipatory democracy in the Norwegian constitution " prov ided that there are agreed-on defi nitions of " institutional " . " manifestation " . " participatory " . " democracy" and " constitution " among all those who will consider themsel­ ves concerned by this issue. The problem is that this agreed-on set of defini­ tions i s practically never present: i . e . Connolly ( 1 98 3 ) makes, for instance, a major point of what is called " the essentially contested" nature of such con­ cepts. They play a role in soc ial and pol itical contexts where interests confront each other and opinions differ. Consequently, there will never be agreed upon definitions. Research can, of course, decide to side with one of the parties in the discourse but then the role is critical-evaluative and hardly descriptive. Alterna­ tively. research can develop its own conceptual system but still it is hard to see how thi s can become more of a descri ption than the application of the l i ngui stic tools of one of the contesting parties. The point that a language game is ex­ clusive to research does not by necessity make i t " more true " than other language games. It can constitute "a third perspective " and so far be neutral in relation to the contest ing part ies but this does not m ake it more "descriptive " . Furthermore, b y operating with its own conceptual system i n fields where there are intense di scourses going on there are other risks. One of the Norwegian newspapers has for decades run an insert where some exceptionally ridiculous text or other is presented (Norsk Dusteforbund). There is l ittle doubt that social science efforts to give concepts from broad social discourses a " scientific mea­ ning " , far outnumbers all other types of contributions to this insert. Without

1 15

pursuing the i ssue it is clearly so that descriptions constitute a problem. The approach applied in the LOM programme does of course not remove the pro­ blem in the sense that agreement is created on all controversial defin i t ions. Th is neither can nor should be done. Certain things are, however, done: - First ly, it i s recongized that language does not constitute a set of " fi xed points " from which a (changing) world can be described. Instead, language is changing as well. If language is seen as subject to change it fol lows, however, that an element of " pl anned improvemen t " can be introduced in the language form ing pro­ cesses. Given thi s, a knowledge generating process must also i mply the development of new l inguistic tools. - By consciously focussing on the l inguistic tools avail able to the parties on the local level it becomes possible to open up stalemate situations and make them more dynamic . Here it must be remembered that words like " producti­ vity " , " fair wages" and " good leadership" are at l east as diffuse and controversial as " power" and " democracy" and with equally good opport­ unities for creating stalemate debates and unsolvable dilemmas. By opening up the conceptual grid with which the phenomena are confronted one w i l l at least ach ieve a more moving discourse - although agreement may not be reached one can at least shift it over to other parts of the terrain which in itse l f is often a type of progress. Generally, the LOM programme can first and foremost be seen as a methodolo­ gical programme - a programme which aimed at taking account of at least some of the major points emerging out of the linguistic tum in theory of science, although the programme is, of course, only one effort and a l imited one at that. Th is is, however, where the major problems of social research are to be found today . Grand projects " to throw light upon -" or " contribute to our under­ standing of - " such issues as " good leadershi p " , " innovation " , " creat i v i ty " , " corporate culture " , " soc ial cl imate " . " busi ness ideas " , etc are continuously launched, but how is thi s to be done? One of the main consequences of the l inguistic tum in theory of science is the recognition that there i s no direct cognitive access to reality; there are only competing d iscourses with different constructions of reality (i.e. Teubner, 1 989, p. 743 ) . Research constitutes one or more such di scourses while those to whom research wants to rel ate constitute other discourses. For research to understand soc ial structures and processes outside itself it has to be able to create (at least some) l i nks to other discourses : There is a gap which needs to be closed. The magnitude of this problem depends on what view one has on the rela­ tionship between different discourse formations, that is: What characterises the gap and how big is it? Here, views differ. Discourses can, on the one hand, be seen as moderatel y different ways of using one and the same l anguage and. on the other, as a p lural ity of autonomous formations ( the last view is argued by . for instance, Luhmann ( 1 984)) . Whatever view one may subscribe to, there remains a need to consciously recogn ize and deal with the gap . If it was possi­ ble to automatically translate between di fferent discourses with the he lp of ..

1 16

mechanical procedures the whole linguistic tum would be a tum into noth ing. What approach to more spec ifically apply in bridging the gap may in itself be open to discussion. The particular m i x of organized dialogues and restructu­ rings of practice which is argued i n this book may be only one of several ways. The point is that in doing soc ial research today there is a need to indicate at least one such way and to build it into the research procedure itself. The days should be gone when it i s thought that anything which claims to be a " des­ cription " automatical ly meets all the validity c laims one may pose towards research, while everything else - ranging from critical theory to action research - continuously is asked to defend itself. Finally, one may ask if it is worth while to continue a debate about " what is sc ience " ( at least in the German sense of the term : Wissenschaft ) and what is not? Is it not as we l l to put this debate to rest? Activities l ike those recounted in this book can, for instance, be called professional practices - a type of activity which is, today , in the social field, at least as highly valued by the broad public as the somewhat haggard social sciences. When the debate is worth maintaining it is for the following reasons: When " sc ience " made its appearance in the history of man it was not prima­ rily in the form of measurement methods but in the form of reflection, and in particular reflection about knowledge : What does it mean to have knowledge : how i s knowledge to be val idated? The core element in a scientific position is its ability to define its act iv ities w i thin the framework of th is discourse and meet v alidity claims emanating out of it. This does not mean that there i s one best set of claims which need to be redeemed by everybody . Rather the op­ posite: The discussion about science has , as one of its consequences. led to a continuous differentiation between different possible positions and correspon­ ding alternative sets of val idity criteria. Action research can , for instance, discuss itsel f within the framework of ethnomethodology, of deep goi ng an­ thropology , of experimental methodology, of linguistically oriented pragmatism ( as in this book ) and others. No position is by necessity superior to the other ones. The point is the w i l l i ngness to try to meet the validity criteria associ ated with at least one of these positions. Even here , I bel ieve the important dimen­ sion i s the discussion as such rather than the status. The discu ssion acts as an engine which continuously forces research to try to meet new and/or higher claims. This " force of being under way " would disappear if it one day became possible to say that now we meet all criteria emanating out of at least one ( respectable) position in theory of science. Science is, i n the op in ion of this author, characterised just by the continuous pressure towards improvement be­ c ause there is always criteria which can be ful fi lled better. Gi ven this, there is no need to have firm conc lusions in relation to such points as those indicated above. For this reason it is important for research to make expl icit claims within this area because it is only through explicitly claiming to be able to fu llfil criteria emanati ng out of positions in theory of science that research places itself under the obligation - and pressure - to redeem these c l aims.

1 17

I n the light of the l i nguistic tum in theory of science it becomes increasingly d i fficult to defend simple descriptionism. Whatever consequences one may draw from this tum they have in common that the relationships between words and reality have become problematic. This reinforces the need for research to dec lare a position with respect to these issues. One sti ll, however, sometimes confronts the paradox that those researchers who are recognizing these pro­ blems and make effort to grapple with them are critisized for not bei ng " sc ien­ tific " while those who tum the deaf ear to these debates and "descri be " as i f nothing has happened are seen a s the true bearers o f scientific val ues.

Organization and democracy

Several contributors touched, during the conference, upon the relationship be­ tween the LOM programme and broader development in work and society . Is there anyth ing happening in working life or society in general which may function as supportive conditions for this type of research and development? From a less friendly and constructive perspective one may of course also tum the question around and ask if there are tendencies or developments which work contrary to the LOM programme and will make it into an anachronism or a hi storical parenthesis? The first perspective was, however, the one which was chosen. Among the contextual factors the development towards an increased recogni­ tion of understanding as a construction and the role of language in this context has been mentioned a number of times. As a point of departure this is a school of thought - or actual ly several - in theory of science. There is, however, l i ttle doubt that a certain spi l lover to broader discussions i n society is taking place. Along with this, the deconstruction of rigid, formalised and highly generalised ideas of science and a corresponding emphasis on the plural ist, contextual and di fferentiated also in the history of science ( i .e. Toulmin, 1 990) is by way of gain i ng more general acceptance. Is it, however, possible to point at other factors, i .e. factors which have to do with general tendenc ies in the world of work and organization or in society in general? Two interdependent topics emerged in this context. Firstly, what w i l l charac­ terise " the organization of the future " and, consequently, the processes of transition i n which one may now be involved and i n which the LOM pro­ gramme and related efforts can be seen as one type of contri bution? Secondly, the issue of democracy. The recent advances of neo l i beralism and the corres­ ponding setbacks for social democratic and other " reform oriented " move­ ments have, together with increased intemationalisation of markets and compe­ tition. placed the concept of " industrial democracy " as i t used to be discussed some years ago, on the shelf ( i .e. employee representation on the board of directors , extended bargaining, new formal ised bipartite bodies, new types of grievance procedures). Are there. however, other im portant aspects of demo­ cracy which are likely to gain increased importance in the near future? Will a

1 18

transformed democracy debate again become an important part of the world of work? Starting with the fi rst question, the concept which was brought up in at least one discussion was the idea of " knowledge driven organ i zation " . That " know­ ledge " is imponant for an organization is, of course, an old point. Insofar as knowledge i s a topic which is gaining in general imponance it is because the demands for know ledge are growing both qualitati vely and quantitatively. Let it be taken for granted that there i s a development in this direction, what does it mean for research? Although the issue of knowledge can not be separated from other issues emergin g i n an organ i sational context, such as power or motivation, it never­ theless emphasises certain aspects: The first is the need to see every member of the organization as a subject. An emphasi s on knowledge is consequently also an emphasis on the non-objective, non-regular aspects of the organization. The organ ization becomes less of a " g i ven structure " describable and classifiable according to concepts like " de­ gree of centralisation " . " degree of line control of activities" and the l i ke, and more of a fluid association of people with more lowly defined and more conti­ nuously shifting structures. The second is the emphasis on language. Knowledge is inseparably linked to l anguage. Knowledge development is consequently at the same time also deve­ lopment of language . A knowledge driven organization . then, becomes identical to an organization which can continuously develop and transform its l i nguistic resources . Dialogue becomes a key element. How can and should research relate to such an organization? If the organization becomes a language community subject to continuous change and evolution it is not likel y that research can relate to such a phenome­ non on the assumption that there exists a wel l structured research l anguage in which an external description of the organi zation can be made. From where shoul d such a language come? Instead, research may more fruitfully relate to the language generati ng mechanism of the organ ization, panly to help improve on it, but partly to bu ild some bridges to it which can enable research to extract some asp ects and perspectil•es out of what happens in the organi zation and deal with them within the language games of research. Insofar as the idea of " know­ ledge driven organization ' · indicates a role for research. such a role may be the one developed in the LOM programme, or at least a type of role which goes in this general d i rection. In the LOM programme the idea of democracy was consciously used - i n the context of " democratic dialogue " . Generally. it is fai rly quiet on " the indus­ trial democracy front " today . The concept is not overwhelmingly popular among managers i n general , and the unions tend to deal with it in a very cautious way . Is it wise, then, to highl ight it in a research strategy? Although m any of the panicipants in the conference pointed at the possible lim itations of the idea of democracy when confronted with the everyday world of work, the tendency was still fairly clearly in favour of applying it. Panty. democracy is a 1 19

value worth emphasising, partly, however, it is worth while to continue to point out the broad range of gains which can be harvested from the application of democratic strategies. The c lassical example is, of course, the smal l city state where the idea originally emerged. It is little reason to believe that the Athe­ nians had neither bigger muscles nor larger brains than the people of the other city states which at the time surrounded the Mediterranean. They had, however, one thing which nobody else had; a communicative system which made it possible to bring up to 40 000 people - according to estimate the number of free men in Athenian society at its peak (Finlay, 1 985) - into one and the same discourse, and consequently to pool their insights, ensure support for decisions and a high motivation to carry them through from everybody as well as a high abil ity to co-ordinate activities at a time when other societies may have struggled to co-ordinate more than a handful of people. In terms of competitive abil ity this society moved so far ahead of everybody else in all possible fields of human activity that no historical parallel has emerged ever since. If we want to mobilise all concerned, to pool their insights, synchronize their actions and ensure loyalty and support towards decisions, there i s no other social organiza­ tion comparable to participative democracy. One may, for tactical or other reasons, call it something else - such as high performance organization - but at the core we always find some of the basic elements of participative democracy. Then, however, one may as well recognise the point.

1 20

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App endix : p artici p ants at the Aske conference

Ardeberg Margareta Beinum van Hans Bjerlov Monika Ekl und Lars Engelstad Per Forsl in Jan Greenwood Davydd Goranzon Bo Hansson Agneta Hofmaier Bernd Janik Allan Johannessen Kje l l Kalleberg Ragnvald Levin Morten Lundin Michael Midley Gerald Nilsson Kerstin Olsson Berti! PAishaugen Oyvind Rehnstrom Kerstin S andberg Ake Schwarz B art Skjervheim Hans Wehlander Hans

Bachmaier Peter Bertil sson Margaretha Drejhammar lnga- Britt Ekman Phi l i ps Marianne Eriksson Kje l l Fricke Werner G ustavsen Bjorn Hanssen-Bauer Jon Hart Horst Honneth Axel Jegers lvars Johansson-H iden B i rgitta Kauppinen Timo Lindhult Erik McCarthy Thomas Naschold Frieder Nordenstam Tore Otter von Casten Putnam Robert RaftegArd Curt Sandkull Bengt Seth Anna Tou lmin Stephen O hrming Jan

1 27

Va n G o rc u m P u b l i s h e rs i n c o l l a b o r a t i o n

•

w i t h t h e S w e d i s h C e n t e r fo r Wo r k i n g

based st u d i es as we l l a s c ross cul tural

L i f e a n n o u nces a new s e r i e s : Soc i a l

a n d h i sto r i ca l a n alys i s . Case st u d i es must

The se r i es w i l l i n cl u d e emp i r i ca l l y

S c i e n c e f o r S o c i a l A c t i o n : To w a rd

be the o r eti cal l y an d method o l og i c a l l y

Orga n i zatio n a l Renewa l .

i n f o rmed . The o ret i ca l works must b e

To d a y s wor l d i s ve ry much a h i gh d e n s i ty

d i r e ct experience.

emp i r i ca l l y grounded i n t h e autho r ' s The ed i to rs w i l l seek m anusc ripts that

e n v i r o n m e n t . E c o n om i c, soc i al,

•

te c h n o l og i ca l and pol i t i ca l s phe res a n d

advan ce theo r e t i ca l and method o l og i ca l

str u ctures a r e becom i ng more a n d more

d i scuss i on o f i ssues rel ated to

i nterco n n e c t ed and mak e h i gh dema n ds

organ i zation al des i gn a n d part i c i pation .

on the a b i l i ty of o rgan i zation s with regard to a c t i v e adap tatio n a n d

The editor i al boa rd for th i s se r i e s is an

f l e x i b i l i ty. The re i s a re n ewed sense of

i nte rnat i onal g roup of scho l a rs who are

u rge n cy b eh i nd the l ong recogn i zed

actively invol ved i n social research for

n e e d fo r n ew forms of work o rgan i zatio n . Se l f-man agement i s

socia l change and who meet at regu l a r ' i nte rva l s . The board i s conce rned , n ot

b e c oming a nec essary co n d it ion fo r

merel y to ac q u i re manusc ripts but to

real i z i n g organizational o bjectives.

c o l laborate with autho rs or groups of

L ead i n g p roduct i vity concepts l ike " just

authors in the develo pme n t of

i n time " and " total q uality " init i ate

innovat i ve manus c ri p t s . Therefore the

g l o bal movements wh i l e they also

board is wi l l i ng to r e v i ew and comme n t

l i be rate local resou r ces since a l l

o n p roposal s for wo rk i n p rog ress, as

part i c i pa n ts i n such movements must be

we l l as to exam i ne finished m anusc ripts .

a u t o n omous and co m pet e nt actors. In th i s connect ion there is a growing

For fu rthe r info rmat i on contact:

emphas i s on the necessity to focus social

P rof. Hans van B e i num

research on the d evelopment of

Swed i sh Center fo r Working Life

5606 8 6 Stockhol m

ap p rop r i ate soc i al act i on which w i l l

B ox

accomodat e the rel ationship between

S- 1 1 4

econom i c p erfo r m ance a n d social

Swe den

p ract i c e .

Tel . : Fax . :

(46) (8) 7 9 0 9 5 2 8 (46) (8) 10 68 5 1

Van Gorcum Pub l i shers is pleased to anno u n ce a new series wh i ch is b e ing

or

d eve l oped jo i n t l y w i th the Swed i sh C e n t e r for Wo rk i ng L i fe a n d is entitl ed :

M r. Henk Leenen

" So c i a l Science for Socia l A c t i on : Towa rd

Van Go r cu m - Zuid

Organ i zat i o na l Renewal " .

Al exander B attalaan

•

The se r i es has a socia l change

6 2 2 1 C C M aast r i cht

ori e n tat i on . It emphas i zes the urgent

N ethe rl ands

n e ed for a better understand i ng of the

Tel . :

m utu a l i ty of the econo m ic and soc i al

Fax . :

fact o rs on both the mic ro and the mac ro l ev e l . It stresses the necessi ty for part i c i patory processes i n organ i zat i onal change as wel l as i n resear ch . •

I t focuses on the r elat ionsh i p between

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