Constructing the New Industrial Society (Social Science for Social Action: Toward Organizational Renewal)

Constructing the new industrial society

Series SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SOCIAL ACTION: TOWARD ORGANIZATION�L RENEWAL

EDITORIAL BOARD Members: Hans van Beinum, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm, chairman Oguz Babiiroglu, Bilk.ent University, Ankara Claude Faucheux, Fontainebleau, Erasmus University, Rotterdam Werner Fricke, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Bonn Davydd J. Greenwood, The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University Dennis Gregory, Ruskin College, University of Oxford Bjorn Gustavsen, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm, University of Oslo Friso den Hertog, MERIT, University of Limburg Anders L. Johansson, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm, Henk Leenen, Van Gorcum, Maastricht Frieder N aschold, Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin Robert Putnam, Action Design Associates, Natick, Ma. Annemieke Roobeek, University of Amsterdam Rene van der Vlist, University of Leiden

Constructing the new industrial society Frieder Naschold Robert E. Cole Bjorn Gustavsen Hans van Beinum

1993 Van Gorcum, Assen!Maastricht The Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm

� 1993,

Van Gorcum & Comp. B.V., P.O.box 43, 9400 AA Assen, Netherlands

All rights reserved . No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans­ mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. CIP-DATA KONINKLLJKE BffiLIOTHEEK, DEN

HAAG

Constructing

Constructing the new industrial society I Frieder Naschold ... [et al.].- Assen [etc.] : Van Gorcurn; Stockholm : The Swedisch Center for Working Life. -(Social science for social action, ISSN 0928-2068; 3) NUGI 652/653 Subject headings: organizational renewal. ISBN 90-232-2819-7

illustrations and Jay-out: Fabrice Hermans, Nuth, Netherlands Printed by Van Gorcum, Assen, Netherlands

·

Table of contents

Introduction

1

Chapter 1: Organization Development: National programmes in the context of international competition Frieder Naschold

3

Chapter 2: The Leadership, Organization and eo-determination Programme and its Evaluation: a Comparative Perspective Robert E. Cole

121

Chapter 3: Creating Productive Structures: The Role of Research and Development.

133

Bjorn Gustavsen Chapter 4: The Kaleidoscope of Workplace Reform Hans van Beinum

169

'

'

V

Introduction

In

1985,

a program called "Leadership, organization and eo-determina­

tion" (LOM for short) was launched by the Swedish Work Environment Fund. With a duration time until 1990 the program was an attempt to rein­ troduce, after a break of several years, research into the role of active partici­ pation in workplace development. The program came to encompass about 150 organisations, public and private, and close to 60 researchers. Its more specific background, goals, theoretical points of departure, and methodolo­ gies, were presented in the first volume of this series ( Gustavsen, B: Dialogue and Development 1992, Van Gorcum, Assen). At the time when this volume was concluded the possibilities for discussing results were still limited. Since then, a major evaluation of the program has been concluded, commissioned by the bipartite board of the program, in which the more spe­ cific impact of the program is mapped out and analysed, together with a dis­ cussion of its conceptual and strategic dimensions. The LOM program is located within a broad international context where strategies for change and development in working life in, respectively, Germany, Japan and the United States are brought in. This evaluation has triggered off a debate which does not only pertain to the LOM program, but rather to the whole Swedish scene and which is now moving rapidly into field of global productivity strategies. In this book - volume 3 of the series - the evaluation report is presented together with three commentaries. Although the evaluation of the LOM pro-· gram was organised by a researcher - professor Frieder Naschold from the Science Center in Berlin - it was an important aspect of the evaluation that it brought major representative from the labour market parties in Germany into the process, in the form of Dr. H.-W. Hirshbrunn from the board of directors of Daimler-Benz AG, and mr. Siegfried Bleicher of the managerial board of the secretariat of the German Metalworkers Union, both with their assistants. In this way, the LOM progr amme does not only express a research perspective but also the perspective of major European industrialists. The first of the commentaries is written by professor Robert E. Cole of the University of California, Berkeley, who is a maojor international expert on workplace in a comparative perspective, the second by professor Bjorn Gustavsen of the Swedish Center for Working Life, who in this context, represents the perspective of one of the architects of the LOM program, the third by professor Hans van Beinum, today with the Swedish Center for

1

Working Life, but with a long association with the work reform movement back to the pioneering developments in England and Holland in the 1950s. Whatever view the reader may hold on the issue of what constitutes good productivity strategies, it is the hope of the authors that the book may enrich these views and provide further perspectives to the ongoing global debates. It is certainly so that a number of traditional beliefs and assumptions are falling apart under the pressure from the Japanese productivity locomotive, but also under the pressure emerging when other countries today restructure their own resources to meet the new challenges. The book also deals with the role of the social sciences - disciplines which have, historically, been strongly linked to the task of identifying the problems of industrial society and to the discussion of such remedies as industrial democracy and improvement of the work environment. Is there a role for this type of research in the emerging new industrial society?

2

Chapter 1: Organization Development: National programmes in the context of international com-­ petition

Frieder Naschold Summary of the evaluation report

The Internationalisation of Production - New Standards for the Production of Goods and Services in the Global "Triad" Economy

I.

1. The Swedish "Leadership, Organisation and Codetermination" Programme (LOM) is a research and development programme for the sup­ port of local processes of change in both the private and public sectors. It is the most recent in a long cooperative tradition of corporate development ini­ tiatives in Sweden, a tradition characterised by close interaction between the "labour market parties" (the "social partners" or collective-bargaining orga­ nisations) and the relevant state agencies to provide a macropolitical support structure for the programmes. In the case of the LOM Programme this struc­ ture was oriented towards the initiation and implementation of develop­ ments considered likely to improve both productivity and the working envi­ ronment by the Swedish Work Environment Fund (AMFO) and collective labourmarket organisations from both the public and private sector. To quote one prominent observer commenting (in 1990) on the "Development Programme", a LOM predecessor begun in the early 1980s, such "joint" efforts by the Swedish social partners have assured Sweden and the Swedish economy a place "at the very top" of the international productivity and wel­ fare rankings over a long period (Oscarsson et al. 1990, p.7).

2. In accordance with the motto "to live well, a nation must produce well" (Dertouzos et al. 1989, p.1) Sweden (and Norway) have played a pioneering, indeed hegemonic role - compared to their European neighbours and the USA - in the field of work organisation and strategies to improve the wor­ king environment throughout the entire post-war period. There is now general agreement, however, that Sweden's avant-garde position in this area has come under threat. In its recent report, for instance, the "Advisory Panel on Productivity" (SOU 1991) conducted a reeval�tion of Sweden's position in the international productivity and (linked to this) welfare hierarchy on the basis of a revised methodology. The views and arguments presented there can be seen as representing the national consensus at the present juncture, and as reflecting a significant change of course and a profound re-thinking of 3

Frieder Naschold

Sweden's own view of its relative position. Whereas during the first half of this century Sweden had "the world's fastest growing productivity", since the 1970s it has fallen from the leading to an average position within the OECD countries with regard to the material living standards of its population. This was not primarily due to particularly severe "external shocks", but rather to the longer-term effects of a continuous deterioration of the conditions for economic growth. The adjustment pressure resulting from the internationali­ sation of production, and in particular the West-East shift in the economic centre of gravity towards the Pacific Basin, and especially to Japan, has not least affected the institutions and standards of labour processes and of wor­ king conditions in production. In Sweden, as in all Western countries, the debate can no longer centre around change processes based on small discrete steps, but rather must consider a fundamental transformation of traditional production models, with correspondingly far-reaching implications for the world of work. 3. The leading representatives of Japanese industry, of its trade unions and the state are in broad agreement in seeing two fundamental weaknesses in the design principles of the political economy of western systems:

- The "excesses" of the taylorist-fordist division of labour, in both its hori­ zontal and vertical dimensions, with their detrimental effects on productivity in failing adequately to mobilise potential resources, more specifically, the underutilisation of the most important factor of production: the workforce. - The inadequate, if not actually counterproductive, interaction between firms, between firms and the state, and between firms and their workforces and their representative institutions. At the same time, the last few years have seen a growing acceptance among leading West European industrialists and trade unionists about the competi­ tive advantages of the Japanese productivity model which have been decisive for its success: -A strategic shift of emphasis from wage-cost and hardware factors towards organisational and human-resource potential, and towards intra- and inter­ enterprise synergies, a change in orientation which has led to a fundamental restructuring of the traditional taylorist-fordist organisational model based on the division of labour. - A systematic strategic capacity for process control, subject to "continuous improvement", instead of a short-term, results orientation. - A productive cooperation between the central actor-systems; ovffiers and management, workers and unions, the various state institutions and the diverse tiers of the scientific-academic system - in other words, the develop­ ment and maintenance of a "national infrastructure" of innovation and cooperation.

4

Organization development

4. This constellation confronts western industrialised countries, and especial­ ly one like Sweden with its erstwhile - and now threatened - pioneering role, with the urgent need to consider the direction and pace of the adjustment strategies which must be adopted. After a period in which the new interna­ tional "bench-marks" in the production of goods and services were largely ignored, the pendulum has now begun to swing in the opposite direction, namely towards a comprehensive strategy of adjustment to the Japanese model, with western countries desperately seeking to catch up with Japan. In most cases, however, - and the exceptions which do exist serve to prove the rule - the experience of such adjustments strategies has been that such "change programmes don't produce change" (Beer et al. 1990, p.l58f). For this reason discussions in this area should no longer focus exclusively and so intensely on a radically new vision of innovative design standards in the pro­ duction of goods and services. This is certainly one area in which Japanese firms have set new international bench-marks, which western firms, trade unions and governments will have to confront in a process of creative lear­ ning. But it is the "realisation problem" that represents the central bottle­ neck in both the theory and practice of development at both local, enterprise and supra-enterprise level, and in the way such development interacts with macropolitical support structures. The most pressing question is therefore, how can innovative strategies for change constituting a self-sustaining deve­ lopment process be initiated and stabilised in an interactive process between the micro level and macro structures? It is the problem of attaining "process control" which, from the perspective of all western industrialised countries, including Sweden, plays a central role within the international competitive environment. For all these reasons, the specific national programmes for local innovati­ ve development in Sweden, their underlying conception, the effectiveness and efficiency of their process control and the conditions on which their suc­ cess depends, cannot be judged on the basis of a "Swedish exceptionalism". On the contrary, they must be seen in the context of the new production standards of an internationalised world economy, the relative decline of Sweden in the international hierarchies of productivity and welfare, and of the re-orientation - at the cognitive level at least - away from the former hegemonic power, the USA, and towards the Pacific Region. IL

The Strategic Location of the Swedish Development Programme LOM

5. There is general agreement among those involved in both the theory and praxis of the world of work and production that neither the macroecono­ mic framework at national level, nor the microeconomic rationalisatiO!f stra­ tegies of firms can alone be made responsible for the enormous productivity gaps between individual firms and countries. Wh)U; is important are "radical" innovation strategies at enterprise and firm level, a "stable" macroeconomic stabilisation policy, and the "coordination of these tWo lines of action" (SOU 1991:82 p.43).

5

Frieder Naschold

6. A comparison of the various national programmes involving local development strategies in Sweden, Japan, Germany and the USA, such as that represented schematically in the following figure, enables a number of conclusions to be drawn concerning the strategic location of the Swedish development programme. figure 1 International comparison of 'Local' Development Programmes

Strategic dimensions

National Development Programmes Sweden

FRG

Japan

USA

Developing communicative competence and communication strategies (indirect development approach)

Results-oriented development strategies with respect to technology, organisation, personnel (direct development approach)

Developing communicative competence and co=unication strategies (indirect development approach)

Results-oriented development strategies with respect to technology, organisation, personnel (direct development approach)

2 Trust of the progra=e

Process-oriented development with direct link to action strategies

Design-driven development progra=e

Simultaneous design and process orientation

Design-driven development progra=e

3 Inclusion/

Discourse between all those concerned; deepslice, broad-based approach ·

Bargaining between representatives

Hybrid approach: wide participation canalised by management

Elitist top-down progra=e

4Formation of horizontal networks/clusters

Cluster-networks within and between firms and the scientific community

Limited cluster formation towards the end of the programme

Broad and lasting, strategically conceived networks/clusters within and between the organisations in the form of 'production partnership'

Case-by-case approach

5 National infra-

Strong system of industrial relations with lateral relations of cooperation and strong state involvement in setting the framework

Tripartite, longterm cooperation involving the state and para-statal institutions and organisations

Networks consisting of firms, central professional bodies and the various tiers of the state apparatus

Micro economic bias both within and between firms and between firms and the state, weak collectivebargaining structures with little tradition of cooperation

Public support for research

Public support for research

In-firm potential

Private coun5eling support

I

Programme approaches

exclusion of the 'interested parties'

structure of collective actors

6 Involvement of the scientific

6

for creativity

Organization development

(1)

The most significant areas of common ground are to be found between

Sweden, Japan and Germany, particularly in the importance of horizontal cooperation and a vertical national infrastructure. However, along both these dimensions cooperative relations are clearer and more stable over time in Japan than in Sweden or Germany.

(2) Both Sweden and Germany make extensive use of publicly funded research, while Japan and Sweden share an orientation towards indirect­ communicative approaches as compared to direct results-oriented develop­ ment strategies. (3) There are clear differences between the three countries with regard to the "thrust" of their national programmes: design-orientation in Germany, process-orientation in Sweden, simultaneous process and design approach in Japan.

(4) Differences of a similar order of magnitude are to be found in the extent to which members of the organisations involved are included or excluded. The German development strategy is still largely based on negotiated solu­ tions between a limited number of delegates, whereas the LOM Programme aims for the broadest possible participation of all those affected. Japan, on the other hand, seeks to mobilise broad segments of the target population over the longer term, whereby this movement is simultaneously canalised by management, to some extent aided by the state.

(5) Of the four countries it is the USA which differs most profoundly from the other three. The USA is characterised by a direct, results-oriented design approach, lacking a significant national infrastructure and borne by manage­ ments and external consultants in the individual organisations. Given the lack of resource mobilisation and synergetic effects inherent in the system, a broad-based movement of development innovation has never come to frui­ tion in the USA, despite some very interesting enterprise case studies and research approaches. Ill.

The Basic Conception Underlying the LOM Programme

7. The Swedish debate on the conceptualisation and praxis of local deve­ lopment programmes within national framework structures must be seen in the context of international development dynamics and the activities of other, competitor countries. This evaluation of the LOM Programme, con­ ducted by the Science Center Berlin (WZB), accompanied and commented on by leading representatives of Germany's collective labour-market organi­ sations, has taken this international context as the central yardstick on which ' to base its appraisal. , The strategic profile of the LOM Progr amme can be very clearly located within this international constellation. It is radically process-oriented and embraces as many of those affected by development as possible. Its approach 7

Frieder Naschold

is indirect, based on improving communicative competence and potential. It links the enterprise-level with supra-enterprise networks and well-developed national structures of innovation, including the involvement of, and support from the scientific community.

8. This profile sketch reveals the basic conception of the LOM Programme as being in many respects functionally equivalent to the Japanese strategy of innovative development. In principle, the "Democratic Dialogue", the centr­ al generative mechanism in the Swedish concept, is nothing more or less than a strategy for the radical and egalitarian mobilisation of the resource poten­ tial of as many of those affected by organisational change as possible. It seeks to construct a "generative" infrastructure of continuous innovative development, in opposition to the taylorist-fordist production regime with its horizontal and vertical lines of segmentation. The radical process-orientation of the approach is an attack on the "structural conservatism" of staff and hierarchies, and aims to activate the potential thus liberated as swiftly as pos­ sible. 9. The vision underlying the LOM Programme is based on a single main strategic approach, consisting of three conceptual building blocks, and one central, guiding hypothesis. The dominant concept of change which conti­ nues to underpin the majority of national programmes and the autonomous strategies of individual firms lies in a direct design orientation. In this approach experts specify the desired structures in the technological, organi­ sational and personnel areas in accordance with the programme's objectives. This fully specified design is then implemented by managerial hierarchies in a top-down process, nowadays often modified by limited forms of "depen­ dent participation". Given complex constellations of problems the LOM Programme considers such a direct approach to be relatively ineffectual. Central to the LOM strategy of change is the process of change itself. The construction of a "communicative infrastructure" (Habermas) incorporating "as many of those affected as possible" (Gustavsen) is seen as the necessary condition for practical design work.

10. A schematic comparison (cf, figs. 10, 12 and 13 of the report) of the two concepts of development change provides an illustration of the process orientation and the communicative-infrastructure strategy of the LOM Programme. The underlying LOM conception posits a close interactive rela­ tionship between speech acts and operative action. As a consequence, an improvement in communicative competence enables the complexity of inter­ personal and operative actions to be increased, whereby this is seen as a necessary precondition of instrumental-rational and strategic action. Thus an improvement in communicative competence can, via the synergetic effects of cooperative action, induce a mobilisation of resource potential on the basis of the rational actions of individuals and not just on the basis of diffuse, tra­ ditional value orientations. An essential precondition for an increase in com­ municative competence to be able to mobilise potential in this way is that as

8

Organization development

many of those affected by change must be incorporated into the communica­ tive strategy as possible. At the same time this constitutes the democratic component of the LOM Programme, which can be seen as functionally equi­ valent to the egalitarian, long-term improvement strategies pursued by Japanese firms.

11. The third conceptual building block in LOM's underlying vision lies in the organisational support offered to communicative learning and develop­ ment processes. Here a clear distinction is to be made between traditional organisational structures (functional segmentation and "divisionalisation", with its steering committees and groups of external experts) and the view of organisational structure inherent in the LOM strategy, which amount to a "learning parallel organisation" (Bushe/Shani

1989)

complementary to the

formal organisation with its vertical and horizontal division of labour (cf. fig.

15

of the report). Against this background, the vision of the LOM

Programme with its three conceptual building blocks, the principal conten­ tion put forward by the LOM Programme can be formulated in a two-track fundamental hypothesis: -The dominant, traditional model of organisational development, based on an instrumental-rational orientation to action, is appropriate to solving pro­ blems of a low level of complexity (optimisation strategies) in a stable envi­ ronment. The LOM development model, in contrast, is designed to cope with complex problems, in particular self-reflexive transformation processes within organisations facing a "turbulent" environment. - In the present context of a turbulent global economy a linguistically c0m­

plex, communicative infrastructure is the necessary precondition for instru­ mental-rational action, in particular for radical processes of self-transforma­ tion.

12.

The German evaluation team as a whole considers the underlying

vision of the LOM Programme, as interpreted in the preceding paragraphs, to represent a bold and original basic conception for a development pro- . gramme in international terms, and one achieved on the basis of West European values (cf. the two commentaries by the representatives of the German employers and unions). Both the basic approach and the theoretical foundations of the Programme's conception constitute an important advance on alternative strategies in Europe and the United States, and may well make an important contribution to the search for a response to the Japanese challenge. IV.

Process Control and the LOM Programme

13.

Setting aside a number of problems within the underlying vision of the

LOM Programme

(cf.

section

V),

the central question surrounds the extent

to which the innovative basic concept of the Programme is reflected in effec­ tive process control (Lillrank/Kano

1989). A number of separate

9

Frieder Naschold

methodological approaches were taken by the evaluation team in order to test the effectiveness and efficiency of the Programme: -a quantitative analysis of all LOM projects based on a survey of the total population of the Programme (148 organisations in 72 projects); -nine intensive case studies; - 42 extended interviews, participation at numerous LOM conferences and the assessment of project reports by the author of the evaluation report; -analysis of relevant documents and other material; - the use of international competitive constellations to provide a frame of reference for the evaluation. Complementary to these instruments taken from the armoury of the clas­ sical approach to evaluation based on impact assessment, the evaluation team also employed a number of "instruments" from the interactive concept of evaluation oriented to "cooperative learning processes" (cf. section I): two researchers from the LOM "scientific community" took part in the evalu­ ation as "dialogue partners"; repeated discussions were held with leading representatives of the Programme wherever questions and uncertainties arose; the "interviews" took the form of a dialogue with the relevant experts rather than a "classic" interview, etc. In all these tasks the evaluation team benefited greatly from the broad knowledge and experience of the experts representing both sides of German industry. As will have become clear from the above description the evaluation concept can itself be considered to have an innovative overall profile as it brings together the use of international standards for evaluation, a blend of the two dominant approaches to evalu­ ation and the inclusion of representatives from both theory and praxis in the evaluation team itself. 14. In addition to measuring the direct impact of the Programme, the eva­ luation centred around the extent to which the Programme managed to gain "operative control" of development processes. This was in the belief - based on Japanese corporate philosophies- that this is of greater consequence than short-term, direct indicators of success. Given that the Programme had set itself two tasks - to promote local processes of change, and to support and conduct research on just these change processes - both must initially be con­ sidered separately, while allowing for possible interaction between the two. As far as actual development processes within organisations are concerned, some illustrative empirical results on the effectiveness of the Programme are presented in fig. 2: -Excluding the 30 non-starters and the 10 drop-outs, one third of the pro­ jects achieved innovative developments in communications, and about one in seven innovations in the TOP (technology, organisation, personnel) areas. Innovation in the TOP areas was concentrated in work organisation. Technological innovations remained very much the exception in the Programme.

10

Organization development

figure 2 The development Path of the Total LOM Population

1 Initial

original number

population

2 Enterprises participating

non-starters

3 Lom projects

drop cuts

10

4 Projects with participating substantively

(5/5)

(initiation effects)

.--'-----, 34 (20/14)

5 Initiation and support effects

6 Co=unicative innovation and development

?TOP­ innovations

7 (215)

(diffuse autonomous development without further link to LOM progra=e)

(numbers in brackets: first number private sector organisations, second number public sector organisations)

- Contrary to our ex ante hypotheses, the number of projects in which the Programme itself initiated genuinely new developments was greater than that in which LOM had the effect of supporting and reinforcing already exis­ ting initiatives . The difference was not all that great, however. These sup­ port and reinforcing effects were primarily felt within the central-state and provincial administrations and in public industries and services, whereas in the health and social services at local level, it was the initiation effects of the LOM Programme which were dominant. - Analysis of the relationship between project duration and communicative innovations (and/or those in the TOP areas for tire total LOM population, reveals a very clear result: the minimum project duration required for inno­ vative success within the LOM Programme amounted to 2.5 years. However, for a whole variety of reasons more than half the projects ran for less than this minimum period.

11

Frieder Naschold

15. How are these findings on the development of the total LOM popula­ tion over time to be evaluated; how effective was the Programme in reaching its development goals? This simple question can be answered in four diffe­ rent ways. (1) Taking as the point of departure the high expectations set by the LOM Programme itself, its own objectives, a success rate of around 33% in innova­ tive communicative development and of 15% for innovation in the TOP areas seems meagre. (2) The diametrically opposing interpretation of the same findings takes the Programme's successes, the 15% of projects exhibiting a high level of pro­ gramme-effectiveness, as its point of departure. If it were possible to generalise these conditions for the broad mass of projects, the LOM Programme would potentially be extremely effective. (3) A third interpretation of these findings transcends the boundaries of the Swedish and Scandinavian discussions, drawing on international comparisons as an additional yard-stick. A look at the international Action-Research movement, for example, shows the LOM Progr amme in a much better light than might be derived from the first interpretation. A similar conclusion is reached if LOM is compared to the first period of the German W&T Programme. On the other hand, the German Progr amme is now entering its 19th year, whereas LOM, like its two predecessors in Sweden, was limited from the outset to just five years. However, the LOM Programme is seen as lagging behind comparable efforts in Japan: Japanese projects are characteri­ sed by - comparatively - longer project durations, greater flexibility and more significant and broadly based innovative developments. (4) The Japanese experience also offers a fourth, very different interpreta­ tion, though. So far the evaluations of the effectiveness of the Programme have been based on the analysis of the impacts of the Programme. Yet Japan's best-practice firms take a very different perspective. What is conside­ red important is the degree of control obtained over the development pro­ cesses themselves; once process control has been achieved the desired results will materialise "by themselves" given time. 16. The German evaluation team as a whole would like to express its con­ siderable scepticism with regard to the overall degree of process control achieved by the LOM Programme (cf, sections IV and V of this summary). At the same time it wishes to draw attention to the important role and valu­ -e.ble pragmatic function of the dialogue conference in this context, in particu­ lar its function as an initiator for broad-based agreements on concrete action strategies (cf. the commentaries by the German union and employer repre­ sentatives in the appendix to the main report). 17. The evaluation team also considered the evidence on the second objective of the Programme, its research aspect. The first point to be made here is that, in contrast to the traditional research support carried out in uni­ versities, the role of researcher in the LOM Progr amme made a complex range of demands on research personnel, with regard to both standards of 12

Organization development

scholarship and practical functions (such as those of organiser, discussion partner and political broker), with a considerable inner dynamic involved in the field work. Our findings indicate that the most important tasks perfor­ med by the researchers in their support of development processes within organisations were: organising the discussion arenas for the "democratic dia­ logue"; chairing work groups; providing a discussion partners for those wor­ king in the projects; and, last but not least, documenting the course of deve­ lopment processes (for further details cf. section IV.6). In this "abridged version" we will concentrate on the research work direct­ ly linked to the Programme as conducted by the LOM scientific community in general, as it in this context that critical remarks pertaining to the Action Research tradition as a whole need to be made. In evaluating the research aspect of the LOM Programme, it is first neces­ sary to examine the scientific legitimacy of Action Research approaches. For doubts have been expressed by supporters of logical positivism, long the dominant theory of science, as to whether the AR approach can be conside­ red "scientific". At the same time this scientific paradigm has itself come to grief on its own inadequacies - a reduction of knowledge to empirical facts and logical statements -, a development which has opened the door for a plu­ ralism of scientific approaches (or "styles"). This trend is being reinforced by the increasing independence of the ("substantive") scientific disciplines from the ("formal") theories of science. Thus the sole legitimate and sensible question to be asked - as opposed to the spurious one as to the scientific legi­ timacy of the AR approach as such - is that regarding the quality of the stan­ dards· employed by each approach to research adopted and their respective practical consequences for actual research.

18. Our findings - both from the total LOM population and our intensive case studies - can be summarised in the following three assessments, which sketch the profile of the strengths and weaknesses of the LOM Programme in its research dimension: - In international terms the quality of the documentation of development processes in LOM projects was below standard. This is reflected in the huge variation in the quality of reports produced by the projects themselves and the decidedly small number of genuine final project reports, the fact that the majority of LOM-related publications have been in relatively inaccessible "grey" literature (internal institute publications), and in the considerable time-ag before reports were formally published. This last factor clearly makes it very difficult for feedback processes between development reports and the university system to function effectively, with delays occurring at both ends. A number of exceptions to this overall con'clusion were found, but they merely serve to confirm the general rule. Overall the standard of pro­ gramm e and project documentation lagged behind the German W &T Programme and were very much inferior to Japanese efforts.

13

Frieder Naschold

- A major emphasis within the volume of publications generated by the LOM Programme has been on work of a programmatic nature. Indeed, in international terms this must be seen as LOM's central achievement in terms of scholarship. Two distinct lines of research can be distinguished here. On the one hand the conceptual and programmatic work by B. Gustavsen must be mentioned, including the intermediate studies written - together with scholars such as H. van Beinum, P. Engelstad, H. Hart and B. Hofmaier - up on the preliminary results of projects and the Programm e as a whole. A second prominent line of research is to be seen in the more empirical-analy­ tical studies conducted by C. v. Otter in support of a normative theory of the modem public sector. Against the background of the "regulation/deregula­ tion debate" this approach studies and elaborates constructively the inter­ play between the various modes of societal regulation (such as the market, hierarchies, bargaining systems). Without doubt, these two lines of research represent the scholarly "jewel" of the Programm-e. They are certainly without clear precedents within the Swedish tradition of R&D programmes, and each has attracted attention and gained recognition far beyond Scandinavia. It may well be that such, rather indirect effects of the Programme - its innovative conceptual developments - may well prove more significant than the direct impacts of the projects, at least in international terms. - A very significant empirical finding with regard to the conduct of research is the overall lack of empirical-analytical medium-range case studies, in which the direct experiences of development processes are conceptually mediated, analytically structured, and processed with respect to their theore­ tical and practical applications. In the view of the evaluation team this fin­ ding points to weaknesses in Sweden's scientific establishment which go above and beyond the LOM Programme itself. On this point, too, a number of important exceptions prove the rule. Our findings serve to refute the criticism commonly made of R&D pro­ grammes - and also of LOM - that they seldom publish very much. The volu­ me of publication arising out of the LOM Programme is very considerable, particularly bearing in mind that a number of dissertations are only now nearing completion. At the same time our findings also clearly reveal a num­ ber of serious weaknesses in the research profile of the Programme, which •can be traced back to a number of often structural, but strategically "malleable" factors. ·

V. Critical Conditions for the Success and Effectiveness ofthe Programme

20. The German evaluation team as a whole, although on this point with some variation in emphasis, wishes to draw attention to three structural limi­ tations and weaknesses of the LOM Programme, in the context of which both the successes of, and the limits to the Programme must be seen (see the commentaries by the German union and employer representatives and the detailed and comprehensive analysis in section V of the evaluation report). 14

Organization development

-The radical and egalitarian process orientation of the Programme, its centr­ al strength and an essential characteristic, also represents, in the concrete form it takes in the Programme, a significant weak point. In its present form,

the exclusive process orientation of the

LOM

Programme precludes any

efforts towards a design orientation. Unfortunately this is against the back­

ground of newly developing international standards of competition which

require a radicalisation of design concepts in Western Europe and which are dependent on the knowledge and experience of international experts.

- The Programme - in its present form at least - appears to be seriously

under-instrumentalised. Its armoury of instruments has proved effective in initiating development processes, but the lack of subsequent design and pro­

cess instruments is one of the main causes of the "energy-drop" in the course of project processes. - The limitations to programme effectiveness also lie in the lack or under­ utilisation of programme resources: the time-structure of both the projects

and the overall Programm e seems to have been too short, and the various development programmes too discontinuous (in terms of both substance and

time); a number of structural mechanisms operating within the Swedish aca­ demic system placed strict limits on the utilisation of the knowledge potential

of the researchers for processes of organisational development; the legitima­

tion potential and competence of the macropolitical steering structure (the

Board with its employee, employer and state representatives and the

AMFO) were not fully exploited to the benefit of the Programme.

The sum of these and other - both endogenous and exogenous - limitations

are reflected in the limited effectiveness of operational process control and

level of innovative development achieved by the

LOM Programme.

VI. Innovation and Development Options

21.

In view of the international competitive situation mentioned earlier,

Sweden now finds itself at the crossroads with regard to its research-suppor­ ted, local development strategies within the framework of national support structures. It faces a choice between three options: (a) It can concentrate solely on improving its macro-parameters, in the hope that reform at the micro level

will automatically ensue as a result of the wor­

kings of market forces; this would be increasingly to distance itself from the

success of the Japanese development model and its development dynamic, it

would, in other words, be to pursue a "non-learning" strategy. (b) It can maintain the present pattern of its development strategies, along with their historic pioneering role, their discontinuities, restrictions and pro­ blems of understeering: in a dynamic environment, however, "standing still" in this way is tantamount to a step backwards.

15

Frieder Naschold

(c) It can attempt to develop its own strengths both by building on its endo­ genous pool of experiences and taking account of those made in other coun­ tries. 22. The third strategy is in accordance with the views and recommenda­ tions of the "Panel on Productivity" (1991) in three main aspects: the need for an holistic strategy; the necessity of combining a "stable (Panel on Productivity 1991, p.7) macroeconomic stabilisation policy with efficient microeconomic innovative development; and the "parallelisation" of the various development processes. From the perspective of this evaluation, the Panel's report contains a sig­ nificant omission, however, one linked directly to the "process problem". Systematically absent from the Panel's Report is a discussion of the operati­ ve approaches by which such development processes are actually to be initia­ ted and how operative process control is to be achieved. But this is precisely the central thrust of the LOM Programme: to facilitate the initiation and constitution of development processes. The further development of commu­ nication-based national development programm es would do well to take on board some of the painful lessons learned by the LOM Programme with regard to inadequate process control. 23. Of these the evaluation team considers the following particularly rele­ vant. (1) The incorporation of design elements into the process structure of deve­ lopment programmes in order to "radicalise" the organisational vision in terms of a significant expansion of the "room for improvement". (2) The development of communicative instruments above and beyond the dialogue conference in creative imitation of Japanese instruments of conti­ nuous improvement. (3) The awareness of a minimum duration for both individual development projects and entire programmes in order to avoid discontinuities and to aid the accumulation of knowledge and research resources. Here too, the expe­ rience gained in Japanese (and to some degree also German) programmes and projects may provide the inner-Swedish discussion with at least an orien­ tation. (4) The relationship of innovative organisational developments to the formal organisational structure of the enterprise, and specifically to the various tiers of management, would appear to be of crucial importance. Strong support for organisational development processes on the part of management - and also by the trade unions at plant level - is just as vital as it is to protect the process of innovation from the incursions of the traditional hierarchy. The relationship between formal organisation and innovation, between manage­ rial hierarchies and the radical mobilisation of resource potential, constitute "interfaces" within processes of organisational development which are still largely shrouded in obscurity.

16

Organization development

(5) The necessity of underpinning local development processes with a "national innovative infrastructure". Here too the Japanese experience - in stark contrast to the problematic macro-institutional arrangement in the USA - offers encouragement to push ahead with the maintenance, stabilisa­ tion and creative further development of the complex interaction between microeconomic development processes and macropolitical structures. In their efforts to pursue the further development of macropolitical steering structures the Boards and the various project agencies involved in the Progr amme are called upon to promote a form of creative further develop­ ment which transcends the barren dichotomy between state interventionism and deregulation programmes. In this regard, too, it is evident that Sweden is more likely to learn about "transformational leadership" (Oshry 1977) from a study of developments in Japan rather than in the USA At the end of the twentieth century the classical model of the "division of labour" between the state and the private sector is simply no longer adequate to a globalised eco­ nomy with its sectoral and international strategies of competitiveness and production location. West European policy makers, faced with the relation­ ship between firms and the modern state, must aim to achieve a modern and innovative macro arrangement of their national institutional frameworks when seeking to link steering at the macro with innovative processes at the micro leveL 24. A radicalised development strategy along the lines sketched out in the preceding paragraphs represents a challenge to all the actors concerned, the scope of which can scarcely be overestimated. For, as the impressive deve­ lopment experiences of a leading European firm show: "It takes a huge effort to push the trend in the right direction". (Barnevik, in Catrina 1991, p.222) This is further brought home by the conclusions drawn from a debate on logistics conducted on a European scale and involving representatives of both theory and praxis: "Given that no-one has an ideal way of halving costs at one stroke, but we need such a leap in order to maintain employment in the FRG, this leap must be achieved in a series of small innovative steps. Such a large number of small steps can only be brought about by the employees. It is possible to organise continuous improvements, but not to force their implementation (...) this requires an intensification of communication" (Wildemann 1992, p.12 f.) For Sweden, and Europe as a whole, failure to move down the road towards innovative and cost-cutting developmeqt based on such a "huge effort" and involving a radicalised organisational design, raises the spectre that the visions of Japanese big-businessmen will come true: "We are going to win and the industrial West is going to lose out; there's nbt much you can do about it because the reasons for your failure are within 17

Frieder Naschold

yourself. Your firms are built on the Taylor-model...We are beyond the Taylor-model. Business, we know, is so complex and difficult, the survival of firms so hazardous, in an environment increasingly unpredictable and fraught with danger that their continued existence depends on day-to-day mobilisation

of

every

ounce

of

intelligence".

(The

late

Konosuke

Matsushita)

Introduction The decision to conduct an international evaluation of the LOM program­ me was taken at a meeting of the LOM board in the spring of

1990. The eva­

luation was charged with examining the two main aims of the progr amme, its research and its development strategy, with particular regard to the future scope of, and the limits to national support programmes for local develop­ ment processes in and between private and public-sector organisations. The evaluation was to be conducted in such a way as to meet a two-fold need on the part of the LOM board. The analytical framework of the evalu­ ation was to be extended beyond Scandinavia, taking in the West European and international dimension, in particular to those countries with established scientific-academic systems. At the same time, experts representing both sides of industry with experience in this field were to support and accompany the scientific-academic evaluation. At an opening symposium in the spring of 1991 agreement was reached on the conception of and the procedures for the evaluation between: Prof. Dr. Frieder Naschold, Director of the Social Science Centre (WZB), Berlin, as the leader of the academic evaluation team, Dr. Hans-Wolfgang Hirschbrunn and Ulf-Wilhelm Kuhlmann (Dipl.­ Ing.), respectively member of the board and representative of Daimler-Benz AG, and Siegfried Bleicher and Andreas Drinkuth (Dipl.-Ing.) officers of the German metal-workers' union, IG Metall. Based on the work of the eva­ luation team headed by Prof. Naschold, composed of four Swedish social scientists, the original evaluation report together with the commentaries by the experts from representing the two sides of industry was published in German in January

1992.

The present version is the English translation of

the summary, main report and commentaries. A Swedish translation of the abridged version is in preparation. The work of the evaluation team was based on: a quantitative analysis in the form of a written survey of all the LOM projects

(=100%); 9 intensive 42 extensive inter­

case studies of individual, cluster, and network projects;

views with experts involved in the Programme; participatory observation of LOM projects; a series of national and international conferences on the LOM Programme; and, finally, documentation and literature analyses. The author of the report derived great benefit from intensive discussions with the department "Automation/technology/humanisation of work" of the IG Metall, and with the two experts from Daimler-Benz, providing, as they

18

Organization development

did, both a critical feedback and constructive criticism, based on their long experience in the field.

Such an formidable volume of work could only be successfully accomplis­

hed due to the skill and dedication of all the colleagues involved, working as

a team and enjoying the cooperative atmosphere this generated.

The first mention must go to Dr. Claudius Riegler!Ystad, for many years a

research partner of the WZB, who worked full-time and over the entire eva­

luation period on the project. Dr. Riegler organised and carried out the sta­

tistical survey of all the LOM projects, conducted and presented seven of the

nine case studies, translating one from Swedish and providing assistance in

the formulation of the other, and has provided indispensable support to the

author in writing this report. During the second phase of the evaluation

Ulrika Akerlund/Stockholm School of Economics, Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology, processed the quantitative analysis of the

total population of the LOM Programme. Dr. Marianne Ekman Philips and Dr. Jan Ohrming of the Arbetslivcentrum/Stockholm worked on a part-time

basis on the project throughout its duration. Their role within the LOM

Programme itself made them invaluable discussion partners; in addition each was responsible for one of the case studies. Birgit Augustsson/AMFO was

responsible for the technical and organisational coordination of the whole

project. Christine Stolle translated a large number of Swedish documents,

which proved vital in deepening the author's understanding of the various projects. The team at the WZB, Berlin, was coordinated by Edith Narewsky. Anna Herr was responsible for processing this technically complex text,

aided in the final phase of the report by Andreas Borst. Constructive criti­ cism of the text as a whole was provided by Dr. Kurt Hiibner/Free

University Berlin.

Of great benefit to the evaluation was the cooperation between colleagues

from outside the Programme and those partially involved with it. It was only

this structure, together with additional interactive elements within the evalu- . ation, that enabled the team to gain a deeper understanding of such a com­

plex programm e and of its theoretical underpinning. At the same time, the

limited status of those actually involved in the Programme - that of dialogue

partners - ensured from the very start that this could in no way pose a threat to the impartiality of the evaluation.

The author would like to thank the many people whose willingness to

cooperate and discuss matters openly with him was a necessary condition for the evaluation in the way it was conducted. These individuals are all repre­ sentatives of Sweden's renowned labour-market institutions and of various

offices of the Swedish state; their support made this"41.temational evaluation,

the first of its kind in Sweden, possible. I would therefore like to thank all

those who have supported this evaluation through their institutions. Thanks go in particular to the AMFO, the SAP, LO and TCO, the Prime Minister's

19

Frieder Naschold

Office, and the Ministries of Labour, the Economy and Trade, Education and Science, the members of the LOM Board and its Secretariat, and col­ laegues from the scientific community too numerous to mention. Special thanks are due of course to the LOM scientific community, without which the survey of all the LOM projects would not have been possible. It goes without saying that sole responsibility for the evaluation report lies with the project leader.

I. The LOM Programme and its Evaluation

The LOM Programme, a Swedish acronym for "Leadership, Organisation, eo-determination", is a research and development programme for the sup­ port of local processes of change in both the private and public sectors. The LOM Programme was initiated by the Arbetsmiljofonden (AMFO) in the context of a development agreement reached between the employers' fede­ ration, SAF, the Congress of Swedish trade unions, LO, and the organisation representing white-collar workers in the private sector PTK. The backdrop to this agreement was provided by the legislation passed on eo-determina­ tion in 1977 and 1982. The AMFO assumed responsibility for the project and financial resources of about 50 million Swedish Crowns (SEK) were made available, on the basis of which 72 research and development projects were conducted by a total of 64 researchers in 148 organisations between 1985 and 1990. After the completion of the five-year main programme a number of projects - which started later - are still running in the public sector (LOM­ OFF), and an evaluation phase is still in progress (Post-LOM). For the time being at least, the LOM Programme, together with similar approaches in Norway, marks the last in a series of such research-assisted development programmes, in which the two Scandinavian countries are widely seen as having played a pioneering role. The LOM Programme has not only achieved recognition within Sweden itself, it has also attracted international attention, not least as a result of its underlying concept: organisational development as a national campaign to be achieved by a research-supported, broad-based, deep-slice discourse. A whole series of international conferences, publications and imitations bear witness to this. At the same time the LOM Programme has also been the subject of critical commentary. This has ranged from the simple question as to what - above and beyond conceptual developments - has actually been achieved by the Programme in terms of initiating development processes, to methodological queries regarding the Action Research approach, on which the research wing of the Programme was largely based. These theoretical and practical controversies, together with the question of how best to further develop research-assisted local development programmes led to the decision to commission an evaluation of the Programme , to spiff out the historical "tracks" of the Programme, subject it to critical analysis and to consider its implications for future developments.

20

Organization development

· From the very beginnings of project evaluation, the international discussion on the conception and methodology of evaluation work has been marked by at times bitter conflict between two approaches: the empirical-analytical, impact-assessment approach to research - the "rationalist" paradigm - on the one hand, versus the learning and process-oriented approach - the "natura­ list" paradigm - on the other (cf. among others Lay/Wengel 1989, Beywl 1989). The evaluation presented makes no attempt to enter into this battle of the paradigms. The evaluation team sought to identify and specify its own objec­ tives from the nature of the task at hand, rather than from the methodologi­ cal meta-level. This led the team to agree on three fundamental aims and expectations with regard to its work: - to identify and reconstruct what actually occurred within the LOM Programme, i.e. to specify the basic conceptions of the central actors, instru­ ments and processes of the Programme; - to analyse the "impacts", i.e. the efficiency and effectiveness of the Programme in the context of local organisational processes and their condi­ tioning constellations; this also, and indeed primarily, against the backdrop of the international competitive situation (cf. most recently "Advisory Panel on Productivity", Stockholm 1992); - to perform the function of a catalyst in the efforts being made to push ahead with research-assisted development processes. · The methodological consequences drawn from these fundamental princip­ les were, following the best-practice controlling strategies employed in well­ run firms, to construct the evaluation on a basis consisting of a combination of "impact assessment" and "cooperative learning processes" (Lurse 1990, p.377), in other words, to seek a pragmatic blend of impact research and pro­ cess analysis. The instruments used in the course of our evaluation, taken from both approaches, are presented schematically in fig. 3. The methods listed in fig. 3 reflect, in particular in the case of impact assessment, the standards and "best practices" of the discipline (cf. Lay/Wengel 1989; Rossi/Freeman 1 985). According to these standards, however, the instruments listed above should be complemented by control­ group studies and a before-and-after comparison. However, a direct compa­ rison over time on the basis of a longitudinal study conducted parallel to the Programme itself was not possible as the evaluation - in contravention of the above standards - was not initiated until after the Programme had been com­ pleted. The evaluation team did, however, attempt to make some - albeit rather rough - comparisons over time. On the other hand, the evaluation team opted against making a classic control-group comparison, i.e. compa21

Frieder Naschold

figure

3 Evaluation methods

Impact assessment

Cooperative learning processes

1 Ex-post survey of all projects, organisations and researchers as the basis for a quantitavee analysis of trends and patterns

1 Discussion of and decision-making on the evaluation in the LOM-board

2 9 intensive case studies of projects at different stages of their development

2 Joint formulation of the evaluation approach with the Post-LOM board

3 42 extensive interviews between the project

3 Presentation of the results of the LOM

leader and those involved in both the theory and practice of the LOMProgramme; additional discussions with representatives of the scientific community not directly involved with the LOM Programme

4 Participatory observation of other LOM development processes

Programme by its representatives and discussion of the evaluation approach at an initial sym­ posium in February 1991 in Stockholm

4 Particip ation by the LOM scientific co=unity in drawing up the questionnaire for the LOM project survey in March 1991 at a workshop in Stockholm

5 Participation at academic conferences on the LOM Programme in Sweden and abroad

5 Continuous feedback from those involved in the theory and practice of the LOM Programme concerning all three methodological procedures of the imp act assessment

6 The incorporation of the experiences gained in

6 A second symposium at which the evaluation

other countries, in p articular from Japan, the USA and Germany, providing an external frame of reference for the evaluation

report is to be presented in April 1992

7 Feedback conference on the evaluation report with the LOM 'co=unity' planned for the summer 1992

8 A 'strategic forum' with leading representatives from academic, economic and political life concerning the possibilities of further develop­ ment, plann ed for summer 1992

ring LOM projects'With Swedish firms not included in the Programm e. While this was certainly partly due to the methodological problems involved, two arguments were in fact decisive for the team's approach in this regard. - Developments within Sweden itself are increasingly irrelevant as a valid "yardstick" for comparison with the LOM Programm e: of far greater signifi­ cance here are the development dynamics in Sweden's international environ­ ment; the process of integration within the EC, on the one hand, and the glo­ bal "triad economy", on the other. As a result, the German team opted to take the analyses and experiences available to it from Germany (also repre­ sentative of processes within the EC) and from Japan and the USA (repre­ senting the triad economy) as a "control group". - The second argument against the use of a classic control group is to be seen in the fact that the 42 extensive interviews conducted by the author genera­ ted sufficient "control information" with respect to the LOM Programme. 22

Organization development

Moreover, the representatives of the German employers and unions within the evaluation team, with their long experience in the field, effectively provi­ ded a "control group" internalised within the evaluation process itself. Against the background of the preceding remarks, the methodological approach to the evaluation adopted by the team can be represented in the following analytical schema. figure 4 Analytical Structure of the Evaluation I International comparitive context

resources

Swedish development tradition -

Action research movement

Work and technology programme in Germany

lib Processes

lla Actors of

r--

Organisations involved

Programme steering -- structure

,.....

LOM research '--- groups

ill Develop­ ment aud impacts

IV Context aud constellations

-

r-

Development processes in projects: private and public sector

r-

Effectiveness and efficiency ofthe programme

r-

Positive and negative conditions influencing programme effectiveness

-

KAIZEN movement in Japan -

Thus the specific profile of this evaluation report can be seen in the com­ bination of three factors: - the pragmatic blend of the two fundamental approaches to evaluation; - the hybrid nature of the evaluation team itself, a mixture of non-Swedish representatives from the academic and socioeconomic spheres on the one hand, the interaction between foreign experts and Swedish discussion part­ ners from within the Programme on the other; '

'

- international experiences and standards as a distinct frame of reference for the evaluation. ·

23

Frieder Naschold

In accordance with the aims of the evaluation this report is divided into four main sections: - First, the comparative relevance of the underlying conception of the Programm e is analysed, by examining its strategic location in relation to functionally equivalent development process�s in Japan, the USA and Germany. - We then turn to the impacts and effectiveness of the Programme, by com­ paring the resources committed and the processes induced with their effects, the "final products". - This is followed by an analysis of the constellations and contexts in which the Programme and its projects were embedded. Our aim here is to identify the factors conditioning, both positively and negatively, the effectiveness of the Programme. - The report concludes with some pointers regarding the further develop­ ment of the Swedish tradition of national development programm es in view of the experiences gained with the LOM Programme. The report consciously attempts to concentrate on the central findings and evaluations in each instance. Further evidence is usually to be found in the appendix containing the quantitative survey results and the case studies. The publication of a book is planned in which the empirical findings will be pre­ sented in greater detail, and where greater space will also be given to the underlying theoretical concepts and to international comparative perspecti­ ves.

D. Vision and Concept: The Strategic Location of the Programme However effective a programme might be, the first question which must be asked of it is whether it is a good, an innovative, a useful, a relevant pro­ gramme. Far from employing abstract and "fundamentalist" evaluation crite­ ria to decide the "value" of a programme, our approach seeks to determine the strategic position of the vision and the fundamental concepts underlying the programme, this with respect to three very different contexts: - the Swedish/Scandanavian tradition of development programmes; - the international research approach known as Action Research (AR) or "Socio-technical System Design" (STSD); - functionally comparable development strategies in countries such as Japan, the USA and Germany. Examining the LOM Programme within these three very different, yet related, frames of reference enables conclusions to be drawn regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the Programme's strategic orientation.

24

Organization development

L The Swedish/Scandanavian Tradition of Development Programmes For a number of historical and structural reasons - including the specific Scandinavian system of political parties and labour-market organisations, corporatist relations between the state and these organisations, a distinct scientific tradition and international personal networks - Sweden and Norway have played a pioneering role, at least as far as the West is con­ cerned, in national, research-assisted development programmes at the local level. This began with the Norwegian "Industrial Democracy Programme " in the mid 1960s and the efforts made to reform the "working environment", also initiated in Norway in the early 1970s (Gustavsen!Hunnius 1981). The LOM Programme, together with similar programmes in Norway, is the most recent national programme in this historical tradition. Against such a back­ ground it is easy to see why Scandinavian developments in this field have attracted so much attention abroad. The first step in identifying the strategic location of the LOM Programme is thus to look for elements of continuity and of innovative and regressive change at the conceptional level within this tradition. To put it at its bluntest, the question is "whether or not the Democratic Dialogue ("DD" - the centr­ al maxim of the whole Programme, F.N.) actually encompasses a subsequent qualitative leap forward in the development of Socio-technical System Design or is just a further broadening, development and expansion of Participative Design" (van Eijnatten 1991, p.39). A comparison of the three most important development programmes in Sweden since the mid 1970s at the programmatic-conceptual level enables a provisional evaluation to be made. The schematic sketch of the three development programmes reveals a number of significant elements of continuity. in particular the following four aspects (Engelstad 1991): - the national or macroeconomic orientation of all the programmes, as oppo­ sed to sectoral or microeconomic approaches; - the support of the scientific community for the processes of change, as opposed to supervision by private consultants; - the participative components, with a continual increase in the breadth of participation; - the link to the local level, i.e. development processes are conceived as taking place at firm or local level, as opposed to ge:Qeralised, universalistic approaches; this accompanied by a continual expansion of the "organisation­ al unit" on which the programmes have concentrated ·from the individual job, to the work group to the firm as a whole.

25

Frieder Naschold

figure

5

Comparison of Three Swedish Development Programmes!

Main determinants

Development programmes

1 Participating organisations

URAF Programme 1969-1973 10 relatively large firms, mostly from the metal industry, largely exportorientated

Development programme 1982-1986 40 'exemplary' firms in terms of cooperative organisational and technological development, with a relative broad mix of organisations

LOM Programme 148 organisations with 72 projects; in the private sector mostly small and meduim-sized firms, broad mix from the public sector

2 Conceptual basis

Socio-technical and socio-psychological approach

Technology-driven, innovation-oriented approach to organisational development

Communication and democracy theory

3 Nature of effects

Innovation-oriented

Documentation, demonstration and diffusionoriented

Innovation and diffusion­ orieted

4 Generative mechanism

Experiment and transfer

'The power of the leading example'

Networks and clusters

5 Mode of organisations

Ad hoc national effect, relatively sholllw roots in the scientific community and collective organisations

A centralised national effort rooted in the central bodies of collective organisations and a number of research institutes

Result of longer-term strategic developments in the scientific community, more deeply rooted in the AMFO and collective organisations

6 Context

Rocked by the domestic social and political antagonism of the 1970s

First cooperative project between employers and unions after the conflicts of the 1970s

Initiated in a conceptual vacuum with regard to the collective organisa­ tions, only to come under subsequent pressure from SAF, LO and international develop­ ments

The comparison of Swedish progr ammes over time thus reveals a continui­ ty in the course taken by a number of central programme dimensions. However, if we now turn to the underlying vision and the basic concepts of the programmes, the comparison reveals clear signs of a paradigmatic change from the URAF/Development Programme on the one hand, to the LOM Programme on the other. The three conceptional dimensions - selected by way of example - point to a rather fundamental process of change in the paradigmatic structure of the LOM Programme as compared with its predecessors. - The constitution of new "language games", i.e. a new systematics of know­ ledge, and the organisation of communication, in other words, open and

26

Organization development

fig1.1re 6 Changing Development Paradigms in Swedish Programmes Paradigmatic dimensions

1

Programme types

Programmatic basis

· 2 Programmatic

URAF!Development programme

LOM Programme

Limited number of firms of a (quasi) experimental or demonstrative nature

The largest possible number of interactive communicative link-ages within and between diverse organisations

Direct design approach

Indirect process approach

Diffusion based on the demonstrative effects of a small number of 'star projects'

Diffusion via the creation of clusters and networks within and between as many organisations as possible

logic 3 Programmatic

Diffusion

lateral forms of exchange constituting a "communicative infrastructure" (Habermas

1982) for development processes, must be considered a necessary

condition for complex processes of organisational change under present con­ ditions. This claim is well illustrated by the highly complex communicative requirements of a socio-technological corporate innovation programme , such as that conducted in the Uddevalla plant (Ellegard et al.

1991),

(whereby

that Uddevalla represents a daring innovation is undisputed, while contro­ versy surrounds its productivity effects).

- A programme logic consisting of a highly specified design approach with its attempt directly to access technological, organisational and human potential is a defining characteristic of classical development strategies. And this deve­ lopment approach is indeed increasingly faced with the question "why chan­ ge programmes do not produce change" (Beer et al.

1990).

The

LOM

Programme, by contrast, pursues an indirect, process-oriented approach (as attempted, albeit rudimentarily, at Uddevalla). The creation of language games and communicative competence, and the establishment of diverse are­ nas of discourse incorporating as many of those affected by change as possi­ ble are seen in this approach as an indirect, yet indispensable strategy to bring about self-determined and stable change in the face of technological, organisational and personnel-related problems. - With regard to the diffusion concept, the

LOM

Programm e marks a clear

departure from the model based on the " demonstrative effect" of a small number of exemplary "star" cases. It is oriented towards generating cluster and network effects for as many participants as possible, both within and between organisations. For inter-company networks are located at the weak point of market systems: the meso level between local firms in both the pri­ vate and public sectors on the one hand, and central-State, and centralised collective organisations on the other (Williamson

1985).

27

Frieder Naschold

The preceding analysis of the basic conception of the LOM Programme , its underlying vision and central concepts, has clearly shown that, alongside the diverse lines of continuity, the LOM Programme actually reflects paradigma­ tic changes in the conception of development programmes compared with its predecessors. At the programmatic level the LOM Programme is based on a very daring, radical and innovative underlying conception, constituting a "qualitative break" in the history of Swedish-Scandanavian development programmes. 2. The struggle between two approaches in the European Action Research (AR) tradition

The LOM Programme plays a prominent role within the Swedish­ Scandanavian tradition of research-assisted development programmes. At the same time, of course, it also fulfills a representative function for the international AR community of social s�ientists. The AR approach seeks to establish a research praxis based on the following feedback loop: action/experiment -> experience -> analysis -> conceptualisation -> action -> .. (cf. Kolb 1989). Since the pioneering work of K. Lewin in the 1940s AR has largely seen itself as a research programme in opposition to both the empirical-analytical research paradigm (in both its empirical-induc­ tive and logical-deductive variants) and also a hermeneutics-based research programme. .

In numerous historical self-analyses by authors within the AR tradition, four phases of scientific development within the approach are usually distin­ guished (van Eijnatten 1991): The pioneering role of Tavistock - The classical Socio-Technical System Design (STSD) - The modem Socio-Technical System Design - The post-modem Socio-Technical System Design. This last phase is often seen - in a somewhat theatrical term for a dispute between different schools of thought - as a "Fourth phase milestone contest" between the Swedish Democratic Dialogue (DD) and the Dutch Integral Organisational Renewal (IOR) approach. The debate on these two ap­ proaches centres around the question as to the "definite winner" (van Eijnatten 1991, p.39). There can be no doubt but that the two approaches have very different 2 profiles, as can be clearly seen by comparing lists of relevant criteria • Such lists are presented in figure 7. A superficial comparison of the two list of criteria suffices to identify, in addition to theory-of-science and methodological causes, a fundamental reason, one linked to the paradigmatic differences mentioned above, for the

28

Organization development

figure 7 A comparison of the Profiles of the DD and IOR Approaches a DD Approach (Gustavsen1991)

Concentrated, new solutions Consolidation Evaluation Technologie Work organisation Organisation of development work Narrow vs broad development process Project development conference Central steering committe 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

- Requirements fulfill ed k/i!!ll' o\'3 Requirements to some extend fulfilled c:::::::=J Non-classifiable

b IOR Approach (based on Pasmore 1 988, taken from Eijnatten 1991)

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 Autonomous groups 2 Technical skill development 3 Action group 4 Change reward system 5 Self-inspection quality 6 ···················································· 7 Non-rating teams 8 Facilitative leadership 9 Operators perform leadership

10 ................................................. . 11 Minimal critical specification 12 Performance feedback 13 Interface with customers 1��orrnation sharing 15 Group selection of peers 16 Status equalization 17 Pay for knowledge 18 Peer review

29

Frieder Naschold

disparities between the two schools of thought within the European AR debate: we have, on the one hand, a design approach characterised by a high degree of specification of its substantive and procedural design criteria - the IOR approach -, on the other a deepening-and broadening of processes through enhanced communication - the DD approach. Given the limitations set by this report, I do not wish to enter into this on­ going controversy or its current phase in further detail (cf. among others Eijnatten 1991, p.64ff.). This is firstly because a degree of reconciliation between the two positions in the debate is currently under way, certainly in R&D practice, and more recently also on the conceptual level. Secondly, and this is the decisive argument, the agenda in the coming years will be domina­ ted by other matters than this "beauty contest". In the European context, Action Research, and thus also the LOM Programm e , will have to face up to at least three challenges of varying substance. These relate to questions rela­ ted to the theory of science; current research praxis and the frame of referen­ ce for this praxis. Only a few comments can be offered on each point within the framework of this evaluation. (1) Action Research, both in its guise as a research programme and as scien­ tific praxis, continues to come under fire from established university research. The most recent evaluation of Norwegian Action Research by uni­ versity-based social scientists, with their empirical-analytical orientation, came to the conclusion that Action Research as practiced in Norway, while it certainly performed valuable development work, did not constitute scientific research (Sorensen 1992). Such a proposition is rooted in logical positivism, a theory of science which "today (=1972 F.N.) has achieved a status as one of the dominant schools of philosophy" in countries such as " ...America, England and the Nordic coun­ tries" (Schulz 1972, p.19ff.). Its epistomological programme is based on the idea that the basic methodology of science has to be grounded in the philoso­ phy of science. There is now a relative consensus, however, that this research paradigm has itself come to grief on its internal contradiction between empi­ ricism and linguistic analysis. Logical positivism has failed to realise its pro­ gramme of establishing a "unitary science", nor has it provided a logical­ empirical basis for the "real sciences" (cf. the summarised discussion in Schulz 1972, Habermas 1982). It is now all but impossible to deny the inter­ action between theoretical and fundamental statements, and to claim that the classificatory procedure of subsumption under the covering-law model represents the only viable methodology. To conclude from this that the way forward must therefore lie in a nega­ tion of logical positivism, a phenomenon frequently observed in the AR movement, seems equally barren, however. At the present stage of the dis­ cussion it might well prove most fruitful simply to push aside many of the "illusory and obsolete problems" (Schulz 1972, p.36) of logical positivism. This would have the effect of providing scope for diverse scientific "language 30

Organization development

games", which would facilitate the creation not of arbitrary, but of methodo­ logically controllable research programmes (cf, for example Kaplan

1964;

Toulmin 1991). Within the framework of such a discourse an AR approach would have to submit its claim to validity.

(2) One of the consequences of the failure of logical positivism has been that the "real sciences" have turned away from philosophy and increasingly begun to "discuss their basic concepts in the context of the actual research process" (Schulz 1972, p.33). The "actual process of science", the "logic in use" as opposed to the "reconstructed logic" of the theory of science (Kaplan 1964), has progressively become the point of reference for scientific work. It is precisely against this background that the methodological debate within the AR movement threatens to turn attention from these develop­ ments in the theory of science, blinding social scientists to new and interes­ ting developments within the real sciences and in research, particularly in continental Europe and, increasingly, the Pacific Basin. The realisation is growing that the traditional scientific division of labour between basic and applied research is only sensibly applied to a very limited number of areas (e.g. physics). In the majority of other disciplines, from eco­ nomics and the social sciences to medicine, engineering and law, this catego­ risation - together with its corresponding institutional forms - simply does not relate to current practice: basic research, in the classic sense of the term, is not conducted in any of these disciplines. Moreover, practical questions of policy confront more or less all these disciplines, albeit to a varying extent, in the course of their research activities. In Berlin's Sociai Science Centre (WZB), for example, a form of scientific work known as "application-orien­ ted basic research" has been developed, which seeks on the one hand to meet the fundamental criteria laid down by an enlightened empirical-analyti­ cal approach, while at the same time accommodating diverse interactive and communicative elements as a constituent part of research practice. This results in a research programme which, by virtue of its "loose linkage" between the two approaches, is in many ways better able to meet the criteria set by both schools of thought than other, comparable approaches. Whatever view is taken of such new research developments and their aim of integrating science and practical interaction, it is these new trends and not the old battles within the AR movement which will determine the dynamics of the European scientific and research landscape in the coming years. In the face of these trends, the exaggerated self-reflection characterising the intra­ paradigmatical debates within the AR movement are leading to an encapsu­ lation of Action Research, thus preventing it from taking its rightful place within a pluralist context of the various scientific approaches. '

In sum, what is decisive in our present context is th'e quality of practical research. For this purpose we have at our disposal criteria which are specific to one approach, and those common to them all, or, at least, on which a broad consensus has been reached. It is not the "reconstructed logic" of

31

Frieder Naschold

scientific theory, but the "logic in use" of a self-reflecting research praxis which will serve as the yardstick for evaluating the LOM Programme as one element of the European AR tradition. And besides - this as a pragmatic aside - the theoretical foundations of a research practice is only ever one decision to be taken among many. It is a fundamental principle of the research-promotion institutions of the leading scientific countries - in theory at least - that decisions on applications for research grants are taken irrespec­ tive of applicants' basic theoretical approach, of course within the limits of certain fundamental and consensual scientific criteria.

(3) Besides the danger of "encapsulation" facing the AR movement, and hence also the LOM Programme, an additional critical development is at hand. The intellectual and practical reference point of the Action Research movement, in particular the Scandinavian approach, and subsequently the Dutch and corresponding American variants, has always been the taylorist­ fordist production model. Its intellectual, practical and also moral impetus has centred on overcoming this production regime (Naschold 1991). The theory and praxis of the "new production concepts" (cf. Kern/Schumann 1984; Piore/Sabel 1985 etc.) is perfectly compatible with, and indeed was pro­ foundly influenced by this tradition. Since the end of the 1980s at the latest, the rise of Japan and the Pacific Basin, and with it the inception of radically different competitive strategies and production models which have since pro­ ved superior to traditional taylorist-fordist concepts in terms of productivity, quality and innovation cycles has shifted the entire frame of reference for the debate on, and practice of research-supported development programmes (Jtirgens/Naschold 1992; Womack et al. 1991). If the AR movement and the (Post-) LOM discussion fail to take account of this profound change in the frame of reference, its internationalisation and paradigmatic shift, its specific approach to research and development will be threatened with marginalisa­ tion. This would in turn reduce the influence of the AR movement - and, by extension, of the vision and basic concepts of the LOM Programme - on these developments. 3. The LOM approach in comparison with other national systems

The hopes and expectations placed in research-assisted development pro­ grammes in Sweden by the actor-systems responsible for them are very high. To quote one example, the following claim was made for the "Development Programme ", the immediate predecessor to LOM: "The joint, intensive efforts made by the Swedish social partners are to be considered as an expression of the Swedish model, which has made an important contribution to placing Sweden and the Swedish economy among the top of the world rankings. This position must be maintained and, if possible, strengthened" (Oscarsson et al. 1990, p.7). Although the actors involved in the LOM Programme have not expressed such exalted and explicit aspirations, the central programme literature does lay claim - at least implicitly - to being a universalistic approach to development, of considerable prominence and a high standard in international terms. 32

Organization development

Against the background of this "Swedish exceptionalism" we have sought to place the vision and the basic concepts of the LOM Programme within the changing international frame of reference just mentioned by means of an international comparison between Sweden, Japan, Germany and the USA, the aim being to establish LOM's strategic location from a "triad perspecti­ ve". This form of "international benchmarking" represents the third metho­ dological tool in evaluating the strategic objectives of the Programme. Within the changed practical and theoretical frame of reference, such an approach enables us to identify LOM's main strengths and any possible weaknesses at the programmatic level. An approach of this type must take explicit account of two methodological problems. Firstly, given the substantial differences in social structure between the four countries, functionally comparable "units of analysis" must be determined in order to avoid the problem of "comparing apples and pears". Following on previous studies (e.g. Cole 1989) we therefore examine comparable collective efforts at local development programmes and "small­ group activities" within the context of the respective national development 3 infrastructures • Secondly, the analysis is targeted at ideal-types at the national level and their comparison; in other words it starts from the very plausible assumption that intra-national variation is very high, and may even be higher than international variation4•

Comparing the strategic dimensions of the LOM Programme with func­ tionally equivalent development programmes in the USA, Japan and Germany enables us to identify the following comparative profiles. The international comparison of development initiatives in the four coun­ tries generates a number of important results with regard to the strategic location of the Swedish development programme. The following merely summarises some of the more important aspects of the information presen­ ted in the figure.

(1) The phenomenon which first meets the eye is the highly country-specific nature of the overall profiles, with each national system exhibiting very diffe­ rent characteristics. Above and beyond the multiplicity of strategies pursued by individual organisations, however, areas of institutional and cultural homogeneity do exist. (2) Of the four countries it is the USA which differs most profoundly from the other three. The USA is characterised by a direct, results-oriented design approach, lacking a significant national infrastructure and borne by manage­ ments and external consultants in the individual organisations. Given the lack of resource mobilisation and synergetic effects in'b._erent in the system, a broad-based movement of development innovation has never come to frui­ tion in the USA, despite some very interesting enterprise case studies and research approaches. This is reflected in a whole series of indicators of com­ petitiveness, not least rates of productivity growth. 33

Frieder Naschold

figure 8 International comparison of 'Local' Development Programmes Strategic dimensions

National Development Programmes Sweden

FRG

Japan

USA

1 Programme approaches

Developing communicative competence and communication strategies (indirect development approach)

Results-oriented development strategies with respect to technology, organisation, personnel (direct development approach)

Developing communicative competence and communication strategies (indirect development approach)

Results-oriented development strategies with respect to technology, organisation, personnel (direct development approach)

2 Trust of the

Process-oriented development with direct link to action strategies

Design-driven development programme

Simultaneous design and process orientation

Design-driven development programme

Discourse between all those concerned; deepslice, broad-based approach

Bargaining between representatives

Hybrid approach: wide participation canalised by management

Elitist top-down programme

Cluster-networks within and between firms and the scientific community

Limited cluster formation towards the end of the programme

Broad and lasting, strategically conceived networks/clusters within and between the organisations in the form of 'production partnership'

Case-by-case approach

Strong system of industrial relations with lateral relations of cooperation and strong state involvement in setting the framework

Tripartite, longterm cooperation involving the state and para-statal institutions and organisations

Networks consisting of firms, central professional bodies and the various tiers of the state apparatus

Micro economic bias both within and between firms and between firms and the state, weak collectivebargaining structures with little tradition of cooperation

Public support for research

Public support for research

In-firm potential for creativity

Private counseling support

programme

3 Inclusion! exclusion of the 'interested parties'

4 Formation of horizontal networks/clusters

5 National infrastructure of collective actors

6 Involvement of the scientific

(3) Substantial areas of common ground can, on the other hand, be found between Sweden Japan and Germany, particularly the importance of hori­ zontal cooperation and a vertical national infrastructure, although along both these dimensions cooperative relations are clearer and more stable over time in Japan than in Sweden or Germany.

34

Organization development

(4) Both Sweden and Germany make extensive use of publicly funded research, . while Japan and Sweden share an orientation towards indirect­ communicative approaches as compared to direct results-oriented develop­ ment strategies. (5) There are clear differences between the three countries with regard to the "thrust" of their national programmes: design-orientation in Germany, process-orientation in Sweden, simultaneous process and design approach in Japan. (6) Differences of a similar order or magnitude are to be found in the extent to which members of the organisations involved are included or excluded. The German development strategy is still largely based on negotiated solu­ tions between a limited number of delegates, whereas the LOM Programme aims for the broadest possible participation of all those affected. Japan, on the other hand, seeks to mobilise broad segments of the target population, whereby this movement is simultaneously canalised by management, to some extent aided by the state. In international terms the Swedish development programme is thus seen to exhibit a very distinct profile, whereby the comparison simultaneously reveals the comparative strengths of its strategy at the programmatic level:

- The communicative competence and potential of as many participants as possible and on an egalitarian basis, in other words the creation of a linguis­ tic-communicative infrastructure, constituting the central generative mecha­ nism of the programme. - The grouping of organisations in clusters and regional networks at the meso level, together with collective, national development infrastructures providing legitimation at the national level. - The link between the constant research-accompaniment of the programme and the pragmatic orientation towards an immediate implementation of results. The decisive differences between the various ideal-typical develop­ ment programmes, those responsible for their success or failure, are revealed even more clearly if we turn to a comparison of the underlying "generative mechanisms". For reasons of space the following discussion is restricted to drawing a limited number of conclusions of an exemplary nature from the above ideal­ typical comparison of the similarities and differences between generative mechanisms. '

35

Frieder Naschold

figure 9 An Ideal-typical Comparison of Generative Mechanisms Development model

D evelopment dimeDSions

Dominant production model

Genarative mechanism

Main support mechanism

Strategic orientJition

1 Market model

Strict horizontal and vertical division of labour (tay-lorism! fordism)

Exogenous market development

Market

Processorientation

2 Management model

Strict horizontal and vertical division of labour (tay-lorismf fordism)

Enterprise hierarchies and top-down approach, possibly with 'dependant' participation by workforces

Management Result and designorientation

3 Export model

Strict horizontal and vertical division of labour (tay-lorismf fordism)

(External) expert knowledge based on top-down approach, possibly with 'dependant' participation by workforces

Experts and management

Design and resultorientation

4 Negociation!

Strict horizontal and vertical division of labour (tay-lorismf fordism)

Negotiations between representatives of management and workforces (unions and work councils)

Management and unions/works councils

Result and design· orientation

5 Participation model: Japan's KAIZEN movement

Limited horizontal and vertical division of labour with high levels of co=unication and cooperation

Workforce mobilisation ·(esp. blue-collar) with non-directive management support

Organisation in a network of cooperation between management and workforces

Process and design-orientation

6 Participation model: Sweden's LOM Progra=e

Strict horizontal and vertical division of labour (tay-lorism! fordism)

DD as a broadbased, deep-slice, large-scale process of discourse.

Organisation in the form of horizontally and vertically integrated groupings

Process· orientation

representation model

- If it assumed that functional and effective market mechanisms are at work, the strategic organisational problem with regard to their development-gene­ rating potential lies in the extent to which the endogenous innovation poten­ tial can be mobilised for processes of organisational change. The models are ranked in such a way as to reveal the gradual quantitative and - according to our hypotheses - associated qualitative extension of the innovative potential available from within the organisations, with the Japanese Kaizen movement and the Swedish DD model marking the current end points.

36

Organization development

- The figure also clearly indicates the positive relationship between the mobilisation of resource potential and process-orientation in the different programmes. This general statement must, however, be modified in two important ways. The process-orientation of the pure market model relies on an automatic transmission of market processes external to an organisation to development precesses within that organisation. Secondly, as has already been mentioned, Japanese programm es simultaneously pursue a process and design orientation. - Also evident is the tension between the extension of resource mobilisation and the dominant production model in each case. It is only in the Japanese development path that - on this structural comparison - a harmonious rela­ tionship is achieved between production, organisation, strategic orientation and the mobilisation of resource potential. In the first three variants the tay­ lorist/fordist production regime means that productive innovation potential is under-utilised. The German constellation is marked by a precarious balan­ ce between a limited mobilisation of the available potential and a rather tra­ ditional production regime. The development model on which the LOM Programme is based rests on a fundamental tension between broad-based mobilisation and a "structural conservatism" in the organisation of produc­ tion. - If the above structural typology is interpreted from a dynamic perspective according to Schumpeterian criteria - there is considerable evidence for the view that a tendency towards inertia is dominant in the first three develop­ ment models (which approximate to forms of regulation common in the English-speaking countries). Equally, there is much to support the view that Japanese organisations are characterised by a strong development dynamic, while a development programme such as LOM, as far as its generative mechanism, its programmatic form, is concerned, seems set to confront Sweden with diffi cult strategic policy choices and uncertain development processes in the coming years. The international comparison, particularly with Japan and to some extent with Germany, also points to a number of possible weaknesses in the Progr amme . The comparative analysis reveals four major problem areas at the programmatic level, i.e. with regard to the LOM vision and its basic con­ cepts. - The exclusive process-orientation of the LOM Programm e as compared with the simultaneous design/process approach in Japan. - By concentrating on mechanisms of democratic participation along the lines of classical, normative democracy theory, the programme runs the reductionist danger of underestimating the heterogeneit)z of modem structu­ res of regulation - such as the market, hierarchies, multi-lat�ral negotiations, political competition and participatory procedures - and the systemic need to

link them: this would be to pin all one's hopes on just one generative mecha­ nism which, while indispensable, is far from sufficient on its own.

37

Frieder Naschold

- Comparison with Japan in particular clearly reveals the tension between structurally conservative forms of organisation in the day-to-day running of enterprises and the innovative forms of organisation created for the develop­ ment processes. The relationship between formal organisation and tradition­ al management on the one hand, and broad-based development of available potential with its different organisational forms on the other poses questions of decisive importance for the success of the LOM Programme ; - Compared with Japan the strategical stability of the collective actors in the Swedish development process is limited, especially regarding the way in which the accompanying scientific support is designed and the extent to which innovative development enjoys political support. With the help of the three methodological techniques selected and employed above, the evaluation team has identified the distinctive profile of the Swedish LOM Programme, at least in contour form, and has undertaken a provisional specification of its strategic strengths and weaknesses at the programmatic level. However, the analysis so far has been primarily of the "surface" of the programme, and has been conducted from various, exoge­ nous comparative perspectives. This leaves the question of the internal struc­ ture of the underlying conception of the LOM Programme as yet unanswe­ red. The following sub-section seeks to sketch, in an extremely simplified and linearised form, the primary conceptual building blocks of the LOM Programme, in other words to analyse the. "communicative infrastructure" of development processes. In the subsequent section the concrete activities of the Programme will be examined at the level of individual projects with the aim of assessing the impact and effectiveness of the programme.

The "communicative infrastructure": An analysis of the internal structure of the LOM approach

4.

The philosophical and conceptual background to the paradigmatic "lin­ guistic turn" in national development programmes results from, on the one hand, a linkage between various traditions within the theory of science and, on the other, the interaction between these conceptualisations and real deve­ lopment processes in countries such as Sweden and Norway, within the fra­ mework of the prominent Scandinavian tradition briefly mentioned above. The LOM Programme has sought to develop an autonomous philosophi­ cal "claim to validity" in contra-distinction to two separate scientific tradi­ tions: - On the one hand as against the various leading variants of positivism. This has been done with reference to Wittgenstein's later works with their empha­ sis on the importance of the language in day-to-day use, its integral relation-

38

Organization development

ship with everyday actions - thus linking up with the pragmatism of C. Pierce - and the existence of a multitude of "language games" of equal value. Of particular relevance in this context are, of course, the works of K.O. Apel (1979) and J. Habermas (1982) with their elaboration of a formal pragmatics as the basis for a theory of "communicative rationality", "communicative competence" and "communicative action" (on these developments see the recent interpretations by White 1987 and especially McCarthy 1991). - On the other hand, the LOM philosophy also seeks to distance itself from its own "inheritance", the "field experiments" of the AR tradition. Here the incorporation of philosophical-pragmatic positions such as that put forward by Pierce has been of considerable importance, especially the view that the point of departure for any research can only be seen in the actual initial situ­ ation of the researcher him or herself (Kaplan 1964, p.86). Also relevant are Pierce's views on experiments in the social sciences, according to which experiments are "no more and no less" than "controlled observations"; there is not just one standard, but rather numerous legitimate forms of experimen­ tation. Yet the LOM Programme only finally "overcomes" the field-experi­ ment tradition by its recourse to formal pragmatics: by virtue of its under­ lying confrontation between subject and object, the logic of experiments stands in opposition to the logic of interactive communication between sub­ jects, at least at the level of the conceptual basis of the Programme. There is insufficient space here to go into the details of the strengths and philosophical weaknesses of this ambitious foundations of the LOM Programme with its complex claims to validity. My aim here is to provide a simplified and linearised reconstruction of the conceptual building blocks of the Programme and the central problem areas it seeks to address. The vision and basic conception of the LOM Programme is based on four conceptual building blocks and one central guiding hypothesis. They are pre­ sented below in a simplified and linearised form. (1) The dominant concept of change which continues to underpin the majori­ ty of national programmes and the autonomous strategies of individual firms lies in a direct design orientation. In this approach experts specify the desired structures in the technological, organisational and personnel areas in accor­ dance with the programme's objectives. This fully specified design is then implemented by managerial hierarchies in a top-down process, nowadays often modified by limited forms of "dependent participation". Given com­ plex constellations of problems the LOM Programme considers such a direct approach to be relatively ineffectual. Central to the LOM strategy of change is the process of change itself. The constructive of a "communicative infra­ structure" (Habermas) incorporating "as many of those a:efected as possible" (Gustavsen) is seen as the necessary condition for practical design work.

39

Frieder Naschold

figure 10 Basic Approaches to Development Strategies a Direct design-approach: fully specified design Management and Fully specified design Changes to technology work organisation and experts in a top-down in personell through process with lin:rited r,..._ hierarchies and and dependent bargaining participation

b Indirect process approach: communative infrastructure of all participants Management with equal participation of as many of those affected as possible

r-

Via the extension of communicative competence to the development of a communicative infrastructure

r-

Visions and vieuws on design take shape gradually

_

Process of selfdevelopment within organisations in techological and human-resource dimensions

Comparing the two - schematic - sides of the figure the orientation towards processes and the establishment of a communicative infrastructure within the LOM Programme are clear. (2.) Behind the building block "communicative infrastructure" lies a com­ .plex causal chain with a linguistic-philosophical grounding. figure 11 The Causal Chain of the Communicative Infrastructure Extension of commucative competence of all participants; transition from 'conversation' to 'operative language'

,..._

Complex communicative skills and the development of communicative networks within and parallel to the formal organisation

,..._

Broad communicative cooperation within and between organisations the basis of a rationally motivated mobilisation of resource potential

This causal chain, grounded in philosophical theories of language and theories of learning processes, posits a close interactive relationship between linguistic and operative actions. Consequently, by extending communicative competence, the complexity of communicative interactions, and thus of inter-personal and operative actions, can be increased: this is seen as a neces­ sary precondition for rational and strategic action. Through the synergetic effects of cooperative action such an extension of language competence can induce a mobilisation of resource potential which is based on rational deci­ sions made by individuals and not merely on diffuse and traditional value­ orientations.

(3) An essential precondition for this mobilisation of potential is the partici­ pation of as many of the actors concerned as possible. Herein lies the demo­ cratic component of the LOM Programme, which is functionally equivalent 40

Organization development

to the egalitarian, long-term, strategies of improvement pursued by Japanese firms (Shimada 1991). This conceptual building block is also best illustrated by international comparison.

figure 12 A Model of Resource Mobilisation in Processes of Organisational Development Degree of participation

Distribution of power Authoritarian

Democratic

Elitist

Adversarial bargaining systems, exclusion of many of those affected (USAJGB)

eo-determination model on the basis of a strict horizontal and vertical division of labour (Germany)

Egalitarian

Consensual broad-based mobilisation within the existing structures of authority on the basis of a limited horizontal and vertical division of labour (Japan)

Communicative coordination of action between all concerned (DD,LOM Programme)

Clearly such an ideal-typical characterisation of national models of resour­ ce mobilisation cannot reflect all the details of, and differentiation within the models. It does, however, point to the existence of a whole range of very dif­ ferent mobilisation strategies, and has a number of implications for national­ ly specific differences in the effectiveness and efficiency of such strategies.

(4) The fourth conceptual building block underlying the LOM Programme is to be seen in the organisational framework for communicative learning and development processes. The clear difference between traditional organisa­ tional forms (divisions along functional lines, or departmentalisation with its managerial groups and external experts) and the dominant views on organi­ sation within the LOM Programme is presented in fig. 13. figure 13 Models of Organisations in Development Processes a Dominant organisational form

b LOM Parallel organisations

( departmentalisation and groups of specialists)

Centralised group of specialist

(FB = functional area)

41

Frieder Naschold

figure 14 Organisational Developments, Learning Strategies, Patterns of Action and Language Function Patterns of development change

Organisational dimensions

2

3

4

5

Learning strategy ofthe organisation (based on Argyris/Schon

Models of action according to Habermas

Function and structure of language

Generative rationality

Error identificationerror correction: central parameters and norms of the system remain constant

Problem-solving strategyeffectiveness (single-loop learning)

Instrumentalrational and strategic model of action normguided action

Cognitiveinstrumental function (propositional sentences) dominant incl. normative function. Limited linquistic complexity

Thinking in terms of means and ends. Strategic exchange model generating innovations (integration model) (e.g. typical corporate organisation structure)

Error identi.fication-modi.fication of the system's parameters. Organisational learning through collectiveconflictual strategiesmodification of norms (double-loop learning)

Co=unicative action: coordination of action through speech acts. 'communicalive-linguistic infrastructure' at a high level of co=unicative-linguistic competence as a precondition for 'learning organisations'

Co=unicativelreflexive interactive functions, including cognitive-normative functions. Linguisticco=unicative competence potential is fully exploited

Linguisticco=unicative agreement on 'rational consensual action' as the central medium coordinating action to: generate new knowledge; - optimal mobilisation of resources; - strategic coordination of action

'Parallel organisation' as the formal organisational structure (separation model) e.g. LOM

Requirements of organisational learning are not oneshot, but continuinglearning organisation (second order learning)

Co=unicative action: coordination of action through speech acts. 'co=unicalive-linguistic infrastructure' at a high level of co=unicative-linguistic competence as a precondition for 'learning organisations'

Co=unicativelreflexive interactive functions, including cognitive-normative functions. Linguisticco=unicative competence potential is fully exploited

Linguisticco=unicative agreement on 'rational consensual action' as the central medium coordinating action to: generate new knowledge; - optimal mobilisation of resources; - strategic coordination of action

Hybrid organisation, partial overlapping of formal and innovative organisations (e.g. Japanese models of innovation)

Problem constellation facing the organisation

1978)

I Operative

problems (e.g. T50) programme

II Structural

problems (e.g. JIT), task integration

TII Change in competitive strategy and corresponding transformation of production processes and product

42

(1,1982)

Organization development

The parallel organisation within the basic conceptualisation of the LOM Programme - which, at least in formal terms is similar to the "learning paral­ lel organisation" (Bushe/Shani 1991) of the Organisational Development tra­ dition in the USA - is to be clearly distinguished from "task forces", task­ related teams, matrix and project management etc. From a LOM perspective all these instruments depend too heavily on hierarchical forms of organisa­ tion. Fig.

14

points

to

the

central underlying hypothesis

of the

LOM

Programme: it can be formulated in two propositions

1.

The dominant, traditional model of organisational development based

on an instrumental-rational action orientation, is appropriate to solving pro­ blems of a low level of complexity (optimisation strategies) in a stable envi­ ronment. The LOM development model, in contrast, first develops a com­ plex linguistic-communicative infrastructure as a precondition for solving complex organisational problems - in particular self-reflexive transformation processes - in a rational way and within a "turbulent" environment. 2. Faced with the turbulence of the current international economy, tradi­ tional (taylorist/fordist) organisations develop adjustment strategies which usually end up being "change strategies that don't produce change" (Beer et al. 1990). The LOM Programme, on the other hand, develops a linguistically complex, communicative infrastructure, designed to establish the necessary preconditions for instrumental-rational and strategic action, in particular for radical processes of self-transformation. From the perspective of the evaluation team an additional hypothesis in this context can be placed alongside and in correlation to these two program­ matic "validity

claims": "there is certainly the danger here that social action

is reduced to the interpretive actions of the participants in communication, that action like interaction is assimilated to conversation. In fact linguistic communication is only the mechanism by which actions are coordinated, that which brings the planned actions and the purposeful activities of the partici­ pants together as interaction" (translated from: Habermas 1, 1982, p.143).

m. The LOM Programme in Practice 1: Actors and Processes

The nature and course of national development programmes are determi­ ned by the diversity, strategic capabilities and resource potential of their lea­ ding actors. At the same time, a programme seeks out its actors and proces­ ses, exerting its own influence on them. Once the strategic location of the concept underlying the programme has been specified. the evaluation of a national research and development programm e must undertake to describe its most important actors, resources and programme/project processes, and present a preliminary analytical evaluation of these findings.

43

Frieder Naschold

1.

Participating organisations

In line with the overall concept from the very outset the LOM Programme had explicit views on the programme's target population. The aims of the programme in this regard were: - to incorporate as many participating organisations as possible ("critical mass" and "large-scale" approach); - to concentrate on "normal" organisations, rather than on "star cases" or "lame ducks"; - to achieve as broad a distribution across sectors as possible; - to obtain a balanced mixture of public and private-sector organisations; - to develop clusters of organisations in contrast to the single-case approach of traditional programmes. The nature of the target population sets the LOM Programme apart both from previous Scandinavian programmes, with their concentration on a rela­ tively small number of organisations and the bias towards large, export­ oriented firms in the metal-working sector, and from the German "Work and Technology Programme " which, at least until the mid 1980s, was clearly tar­ geted towards large and medium-sized engineering and metal-working firms. Fig. 15 reveals the extent to which the organisational population actually incorporated into the Programme (after diverse and often very spontaneous efforts) matched up to the original aims.

figure 15 Total Population of the LOM Programme Total population

Private/Public sector

Branches

Large organisations > 1000 emp's

Clusters

Losses from the initial popnlation

Participating organisations: 148 in 72 projects

57(38%)/

18 pu . admin. 14 healthleduc.

54 (75% of indivual projects)

non-starters:30

86(58%),

4(1 private/ 3 pub!ic)

3 (2%) cooperatives, 2 others

12 metal ind.

b

10 process ind. 2 each of

18 (25% cluster with from 2 to 17 organisations)

drop-outs: 7= 23%

{bank,

post, hotel, trade

This comparison between aims and results with regard to the target popu­ lation enables some initial conclusions to be drawn regarding the way the Programme operated in practice:

44

Organization development

(1) During its comparatively short duration of a little over five years the Programme managed to reach a target population considerably larger than that incorporated into the German "Work and Technology Programme" in its first round, but, of course, far smaller in scale than the Japanese KAIZEN Programme. In the light of this comparison, the total figure of 148 organisa­ tions can be seen as being in line with the Programme's "critical mass" and "large-scale" approach. Such an international comparison also puts the figu­ re of 37 (23%) non-starters and drop-outs, which at first sight may seem rat­ her high, into perspective. If, however, the total number of "enterprise pro­ jects" from all three Swedish development programmes are compared with the figures for the W&T Programme since its inception in 1974, the German Programme, with 1959 projects (up to the end of 1991; Projekttrager Arbeit und Technik, Projektstatusbericht 1990/91, Bonn 1 992), is seen to have a considerably larger volume than the comparable Swedish programmes with their 198 organisations, or, depending on how this is calculated 122 project{ (2) A striking phenomenon in both Swedish and international terms, and one which surprised even the initiators of the Programme, is the high rate of participation of the public compared with the private sector. Within the LOM Programme the public sector started later, represented a larger share of the total number of projects, and developed more rapidly than the private sector. In many cases its intra-organisational processes took a different turn from those in the private sector. (3) In the course of the Programme the target population's composition by branch became more representative, and did so much more quickly than the in German W&T Programme. Noteworthy is the low level of participation by the metal sector and leading export firms. (4) With regard to the size of participating organisations, LOM's emphasis was clearly on small and medium-sized enterprises, in contrast to the early years of the W&T Programme. Some efforts were made to encourage larger enterprises to participate, but these did not come to fruition, with the result that just 4 large enterprises (3 of them public) with over 1000 employees took part in the Programme. (5) The figures clearly point to the fact that from the start neither "star cases" nor "lame ducks" were incorporated into the Programme. Interesting - in comparison to Germany, for instance - is the high level of economic pres­ sure reportedly facing almost all public-sector enterprises. (6) One of the fundamental ideas of the Programme was to establish clus­ ters and networks between the participating organisations (and researchers). In practice, however, 54 cases (75% ) were run as individual projects, and just 18 (25%) in clusters with a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 17 organisa­ tions. In this regard the Programme has clearly failed to meet the objectives it had set itself. On the other hand, looking at programmes in other coun­ tries, e.g. the W&T Programme, it seems fair to argue that a 25%-share for cluster projects can be considered a good start. ,

45

Frieder N aschold

2. Research participation National research and development programmes place considerable, com­ plex and often contradictory demands on the research personnel involved. Moreover, such "sectoral" and applied programmes not infrequently come into conflict with the established research system with its traditional profes­ sional disciplines and standards. The early days of the W&T Programme, in particular, provide ample illustration of both these aspects. We first present empirical findings on the scientific research potential on which the LOM Programme was able to draw. ·

figure 16 Overall Research Participation Number and discipline

Role in the academic/ consultancy system

Regional networks

22 sociologists 16 management scientists 10 psychologists 5 engineers (techn. disciplines) 3 educational scientists 5 other disciplines (pol. sci. econ.) 3 practitionersa (mostly union officers from LO and TCO)

3 professors 5 senior researchers 11 doctors and assistants 33 writing dissertation (degree) 6 consultants (independent institutions) 3 practitioners

Karlstad ALC Halmstad

F. Naschold/WZB 1992

A number of conclusions - below a selection - can be drawn from the above data. (1) Of the 64 researchers participating in the Programme 35, i.e. more than 50% , were from a social-science background. Criticism of this "bias" in the representation of the various scientific disciplines has come from several quarters, and the social sciences are indeed - compared to the case in Germany - significantly overrepresented. It should be remembered, though, that the LOM Programme is explicitly oriented towards communicative and social problems in organisational development, and that it is problems of this nature which form significant constraints in terms of international competiti­ veness. To this extent the profile of disciplines revealed by the data could well be seen as being in line with the Programme's overall approach. Those opposed to such an interpretation claim that such disciplines lack both a suf­ ficient degree of professionalism and relevant practical experience. (2.) One way of judging the professionalism of the Programme's research potential is to examine the role of the researchers involved in the national academic system. What is striking here, again compared to the German W&T Programme, is the ratio of experienced researchers with an established position within the academic system (here professors and senior researchers) to younger scholars. This ratio is about 1:6 in the LOM Programme, compa­ red with a rough estimate of about 1:3 for the W&T Programme6• (3.) Just as for the organisations involved in the Programme, the develop­ ment of regional networks among researchers was an important aim of the

46

Organization development

LOM Programm e. Of the 4-5 regional research networks it was hoped to establish during the course of the Programme, only one new network system - in addition to the already established ALC in Stockholm - was in fact insti­ tutionalised around the regional college at Karlstad. It is interesting to note that neither of these regional networks are linked to Sweden's traditional universities, and, indeed, the same applies to those networks which it has ori­ ginally been hoped to initiate but which did not materialise,

3. The "national infrastructure" of development programmes In his comparison of enterprise learning strategies in the context of small­ group activities (Kaizen etc.), R. Cole (1989) pointed to the prime importan­ ce of the macroeconomic and macropolitical framework, which, he argues, goes a long way to explaining the greater innovativeness of Japanese as against Swedish, and Swedish compared with US firms. On this view, the microeconomic strategies of individual firms are canalised and, to some extent, homogenised, by the macropolitical network of institutions (see Fligstein 1 990). It is against this background that our analysis of the steering structures at the supra-enterprise level of the LOM Programme (seen as a national research and development program­ me) is to be seen. Fig. 17 provides an illustration of LOM's system of stee­ ring structures.

figure 17 Steering structures

I

Parliament

Ministry of labour

I

Pub lie sector - National Agency for Government Employers ;- - Association of �r- Provincial Governments - Association of Local Authorities

AMFO/Board 1-

LOM Board and Working party Secretariat

lr-

'-

Private sector r LO, PTK r-

�

SAF

elopment Council

LOM programme/ projects

___.

'

Branch committees

47

Frieder Naschold

The figure reveals the LOM Programme as resting on two independent, but interrelated, pillars: - the "sectoral" research of the Ministry of Labour (set out in Swedish law), carried out by the AMFO, an institution relatively independent of the Ministry, whose Board consists largely of the representatives of the central organisations of the parties to collective bargaining; - the central collective organisations of both the public and private sectors which, on the basis of central development agreements (reached in 1 982 in the private sector and 1978 in the public sector and against the background of the Codetermination Law of 1976) have founded 15 national branch com­ mittees. The LOM Programme can consequently be seen as "sectoral" research and development, borne by the AMFO and controlled in the main by the central collective organisations. The LOM Board, responsible in political terms for the Programme has 13 members and is composed of representati­ ves of collective and other organisations as follows: SAF 3; LO 1; Metal Workers' Union 1 ; Union of Public Sector Workers (at local level) 1; SIP 1; SACO/SR 1; KTK 1; National Agency for Government Employers 1; Association of Local Authorities 1 ; Association of Provincial Governments 1; General Director of AMFO. This responsibility is partly delegated to the Board's Working Party (5 representatives) and the Secretariat (consisting of the Programme Secretary, an additional representative of the AMFO, 3 representatives from the collective organisations (one each from the SAF, LO and TCO) and one researcher (from the ALC). The AMFO provides project funding and assumes overall responsibility for the Programme under the provisions of a Swedish law of 1 972. The leading programme actors intended this steering structure to perform three functions: to determine the political objectives of the Programme, to legitimate and control it, and to contact and survey firms and organisations. Of course this description of the form of the steering structure does not permit far-reaching statements regarding the degree to which the structure has enabled these aims to be realised. From a comparative perspective, however, it is possible to draw some provisional conclusions. - The most striking feature is the high level of institutionalisation and the centralised structure of the network responsible for running the Programme, not only in comparison to the USA, but also to Germany and even Japan. - While German programmes are heavily "statist", US developments heavily firm-based, and Japanese development programmes borne by branch asso­ ciations and large corporate networks, supported by the state, the Swedish steering structure is marked by a corporatist dominance of collective organi­ sations, and this at a very centralised level.

48

Organization development

- Also evident is that the national Programme in Sweden - similar to the W&T Programme in Germany, and in sharp contrast to developments in Japan - lacks direct institutional "roots" at enterprise-level. - An additional point which should be mentioned here is that in its 19-year history the AMFO has seen itself as an institution responsible for funding and supporting projects, and that it is breaking new ground in embarking on a programme of this type and complexity. 4.

Programme Instrumentation

The LOM Programme is based on a single central mechanism: broad­ based and - horizontally and vertically - open communication processes both within and between enterprises act as a central generative mechanism for development, in tandem with the formation of clusters and networks. In line with this programme logic, a whole range of communicative concepts and instruments were borrowed (from the AR tradition), and other programme­ specific methods developed, with the aim of mobilising - with the aid of the 64-strong research team - the development potential of the organisations involved (on this see Gustavsen 1991; RaftegArd 1990). Four such concepts and methods are described below.

(1). The "criteria for democratic dialogue" can be seen as an operationalisa­ tion of the fundamental concept of the Programme See Figure 18 Closely based on Habermas' concept of the "ideal speech situation", the 13 principles formulate the procedural conditions which are considered necessary for DD to function effectively as a generative mechanism for deve­ lopment processes within enterprises. Clearly these criteria do not represent detailed "instructions", but rather provide a normative orientation for inno­ vative and "true" communicative action, which must be continuously sanc­ tioned by a consensus among all participants in the form of rational agree­ ment (s. White 1987).

(2) These idealised, operational criteria provide the backdrop to the various communicative instruments of the LOM Programme. These "instruments" form the new communicative "dialogue arenas", which are contrasted with the traditional concepts of hierarchy with its top-down approach or bargai­ ning systems based on delegated negotiations '

49

Frieder Naschold

figure 18 Criteria for democratic dialogue 1 The dialogue is a process of exchange, ideas and arguments move to and fro

between the participants.

2 It must be genuinely possible for all concerned to participate.

3 The opportunity to participate is, however, not enough: all those concerned should also be active. Consequently each participant has an obligation not only to put forward his or her own point of vieuw, but also to help others to contribute their ideas. 4 All participants are equal.

5 Work experience is the basis for participation. This is only type of experience which, by definition, all participants have.

6 At least some of the experience which each participant has when entering the

dialogue must be considered legitimate. 7 It must be possible for everybody todevelop an understanding of the issues at

stake. 8 All arguments wich pertain to the issues under discussion are legitimate. No

argument should be rejected on the ground that it emerges from an illegitimate source. 9 The points, arguments, etc. which are to enter the dialogue must be made by a

participating actor. Nobody can participate 'on paper'.

10 Each participants must accept that other participants can have better arguments. 11 The work-role, authority etc. of all the participants can be subjected to

discussion -no participant is exempt in this respect. 12 The participants should be able to tolerate an increasing degree of difference of

opinion. 13 The dialogue must 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 strenght of a democratic system compared to all others 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 decisions which can gain the support of all participants. (taken from Gustavsen 1991)

The best known instrument developed by the LOM Programme is the so­ called dialogue-conference. It exists in two forms: an start conference and a conference enabling participants to assess the progress made to date ( expe­ rience conference) . The most recent instrument of communication develo­ ped within LOM is the "strategy forum", a coordinating body with a fluctu­ ating membership whose principal function lies somewhere between those of a pure discussion body and those of a classic steering body.

50

Orgaruzation development

figure 19 Co=unicative Instruments (dialogue arenas of the LOM Progra=e)

1 Dialogue conference (in various versions).

1.1

Start conference: a Meeting between management and union representatives of various

enterprises, administrative depts. etc. b Broad-based initial meeting within each organisation. 1.2 Experience conference: mutual exchange of ideas on the course of projects following the dialogue method.

2

Work-place meeting: complementary form of meeting at departmental or sectional level.

3

Project group(s): a forum, stable over time, for employees of various departments/production sections to solve complex organisational problems.

4 Large meeting: joint coordinating meetings for actors from different project groups (working together in small groups)

5

Study/research circles: a constant progra=e of workforce interaction with the aim of acquiring additional knowledge.

6

Dialogue-meeting for executive personnel: specific conference with the dealing with changes at management level.

aim

of

7 Support group (leadership group, coordination group); a permanent support­ structure for development work composed of decision-makers from management and the unions, with flexible composition; further development in 'strategy forum'.

(R!!fteg�c:l. 1990. 17ff.)

(3) In fig. 20 we describe - in ideal-typical and schematic form - the dialogue­ conference in somewhat greater detail as such project-development confe­ rences represent the most popular instrument developed within the LOM Programme, and because it represents a standard for the Programme as a whole. A distinction is to drawn between both the structure and the function of this type of conference and "group-dynamic meetings" and the classic "search-conferences" of the AR tradition. Viewed against the background of the criteria for democratic dialogue, rationale of such initial conferences is primarily pragmatic: to mobilise the knowledge and energies of as many actors as possible on the basis of lateral communication ("horizontalisation") between and within enterprises. The aim is to reach rapid agreement on con­ crete development steps.

(4) According to Gustavsen an ideal-typical LOM project proceeds in seven ' stages of development:

51

Frieder Naschold

figure 20 Ideal-typical Course of a Development from a LOM Project (participants from various organisations) 1

Personal and organisational framework

Number of participants: 4 organisations Participants from the organisations: project groups, consisting of vertical slices of the organisation, representing the 5 main functions (line management, staff and experts, first-line supervisors, employee representatives, one or two shop-floor workers without any representative role); in total 7-10 persons External participants: (performing organisational and arbitration functions, researchers and members of the LOM-secretatiat):4 Duration: one and a half days Location: conference centre 2

Process structure

2.1 Short presentation of the Programme (a few minutes), followed by 2.2 Group work (duration 1hr.) with the aim of 'developing a vision': What will the organisation have to be like in :five years' time, if it is to be considered a good firm/administrative department etc. 'Homogeneous' group composition, i.e. groups made up of participants with similar functions/experiences from the different organisations. 2.3 Presentation of the results of these work groups (10 min. each) at aplenum by the (elected) representatives of each group; discussion 2.4Group work (c. 1 hr.): 'Obstacles to the realisation of the vision of a good enterprise/organisation etc' 'Diagonal' group composition, i.e. groups consist of participants from different organisations and different levels of each organisation. 2.5 Group work (c. 1 hr.): ' How, and with the aid of which ideas can the problems mentioned be overcome?' Open group composition, depending on the dynamics of the specific conference. 2.6 Subsequently: report back to the plenum by the (elected) representatives of each group (10 min. each); discussion. 2.7 Group work (c. 1 hr.) with the aim of developing project proposals and agreements on concrete steps: 'What constitute realistic steps towards realising the vision of a good enterprise/admin. dept?' For this last round the participants from each of the organisations are grouped together. Subsequently: report back to the plenum by the (elected)representatives of each group. 3

Results:

The protocol of the group reports together with the reports of the participating researchers provide the basis for further development work within the organisations. A distinction is to drawn between both the structure and the function of this type conference and 'group-dynamic meetings' and the classic 'search-conferences' of the AR tradition. Viewed against the background of the criteria for democratic dialogue, rationale of such initial conferences is primarily pragmatic: to mobilise the knowledge and energies of as many actors as possible on the basis of lateral connunication ('horizontalisation') between and within enterprises. The aim is to reach rapid agreement on concrete development steps. 4 According to Gustavsen an ideal-typical LOM project proceeds in seven stages of development: F. Naschold/WZB 1992

Organization development

figure

21 Seven Phase of Organisational Development of an Ideal-typical LOM Project 1 Establishment of a central, bipartite steering group

2 Start or project-development conference 3 Start of a 'limited' development project or process 4 Broadly defined development work 5 Results

6 Evaluation 7 Consolidation (Source: Gustavsen 1991, manuscript p.SSff.)

Again the above schematic presentation is not to be considered as rigid standard procedure, but rather as a rough, non-binding, pragmatic orienta­ tion for the course of development processes. The research, the numerous development conferences and workshops were financed by the AMFO, the aim being both to support this direction of research and simultaneously to offer participating organisations something in the way of a financial incentive. The costs of the development work itself are borne by the organisations themselves, however. No support is foreseen for investment in fixed capital as in the case with the German "technology-dri­ ven" W&T Programme. A total of SEK 55 million was made available for the entire Programme (plus SEK 4 million for the Post-LOM Phase), including SEK 0.5 million for the concluding phase to LOM-OFF. The annual flow of funds amounted to around SEK 10 million in the initial and final years of the Programme, and about SEK 15 million in 1989 and 1989, the two years in which project activi­ ty was most intensive. Average expenditure per project was around SEK 500000, with the majority of projects receiving funding of between SEK 200000 and 750000. Projects in the public sector were eligible for mixed financing, with the "National Fund for Administrative Development and Training for Government Employees" bearing the larger share of the costs in most cases. The time-frame for the five-year Programme with its various phases is depicted in the following figure. '

53

Frieder Naschold

figure 22 Time-frames within the LOM Programme

2nd half 1984

Programme development phase ('small development project')

1st half 1985

Internal organisational development requiring few resources

1.7.85-30.6.90

Programme duration (5 years)

2nd half 1 990

Extended concluding phase for projects which started late, general

1st half 1991

LOM-Off concluding phase

From 2nd half 1990

Post-LOM phase

F. Naschold/WZB 1992

While the evaluation of the most important instruments of the LOM Programme will be reserved for the next section, at this point some compara­ tive data from other countries on the will be presented which shed some light on the financial framework and time-frame of the LOM Programme_ - Even allowing for the initiating and concluding phases, the LOM time­ frame sets strict and tight time limits for such a national development Programme. Functionally equivalent activities in Japan are part of a long­ term campaign by enterprise-clusters and central professional associations going back to the mid 1960s_ In Germany, to mention just one specific national development programme, the government-backed W&T Programme is now entering its 19th year: the German Programme has gone through a number of changes of emphasis during its history and has been sanctioned by the Federal Government and parliament every four years_ - The total budget for the W&T Programme (up to the end of 1991) amounts to over DM L5 billion, representing some DM 85 million per year (not coun­ ting the five years to get the Programme up and running). The enormous fmancial differences between the budgets of the two national programmes cannot be explained solely with reference to the considerable proportion of W&T funds going to subsidise corporate investment projects (the German Programme being primarily technology-driven). Even research projects within the German Programme are almost always considerably more expen­ sive - by a factor of about 47 - than comparable development projects conducted within the LOM Programme. 5. Typical project processes

In line with the analytical framework set out in section I, we now proceed from our examination of the most important programme actors and their resources - so to speak, the input-factors of the Programme - to analyse the processes induced at the level of the various projects. In order to structure the diverse range of these project processes the evaluation team has develo­ ped a process typology, oriented along two dimensions: "stages of develop-

54

Organization development

ment of the project within the enterprise" and "steering effects of the

LOM

Progr amme" (for further details cf. section IV and the Appendix). Based on the material derived from our case studies we present ten typical project pro­ cesses which, with respect to both dimensions, approximate to the variation 8 identified within the total LOM population • The first process type refers to projects in which enterprise representatives participated in preliminary discussions on involvement with the LOM Programme, but where negotiations were broken off without the organisa­ tion actually becoming involved with LOM processes themselves.

1. "Non-starters " One example of a firm which did not actuo.lly enter the LOM Programme despite the preliminary discussions which took place on suitable development activities is a medium-sized engineering firm with 550 employees (1987), (turn­ over unknown), producing fork-lift trucks, in an urban-industrial region in West Sweden. The rapid expansion of the firm since it was founded in 1 958 had led to adjustment difficulties in the areas of production technology, work organisa­ tion and personnel management. Attempts to overcome these problems by decentralising the enterprise, the experimental introduction of work groups, and changes in production structure towards more intensive use of assembly­ line production had proved unsuccessfuL Against this background the leaders of the largest trade union in the plant (through its regional office), together with a "cooperation board" in which representatives of a university-based action research team were, in cooperation with the unions, trying to identify development goals and plan measures to accomplish them, approached a researcher involved with the LOM Programme. He was already working with two other firms in the region on a LOM cluster-project. Subsequently, over a period of about 6 months, discussions took place with the regular (bipartite) steering group and its dominant member, the managing director (and founder of the firm). The discussions centred on the need for development work incorporating all sections of the enterprise. In this context several members of the steering group proposed initiating a dialogue-conferen­ ce along the lines of the LOM Programme. This was blocked, however, largely by the managing director who considered the proposal unsuited to the firm's needs and pointed to the results achieved by conventional organisational chan­ ges. The decision-making power of the other enterprise actors was not suffi­ cient to initiate a development project and the discussions came to an end. A second process type commences with a firm becoming interested in development projects - usually as a result of contacts within its branch - par­ ticipating in an "start conference", but subsequently - itnd for various rea­ sons - failing to pursue development work further, at least within the LOM context.

55

Frieder Naschold

"Drop-outs" This sort of project biography is well illustrated by a small metal-working firm, typical of Sweden's industrial structure, located in the centre of the count­ ry. Following a request by the LOM group in Karlstad - whose strategy at this point in time was still very much branch-oriented - the LOM Secretariat managed to interest the firm, a producer of steel doors (132 employees, 1988 turnover SEK 72 million) in a project-development conference with another metal-working firm. The contact was established with the aid of the SAP repre­ sentative on the Secretariat. These initial contacts, together with discussions between the various actors within the firm and the researchers involved, reve­ aled the need for development work arising out of a change in work organisa­ tion which had been implemented one year previously. The joint dialogue-conference took place in November 1988. The firm parti­ cipated with a "vertical-slice" group consisting of three management represen­ tatives and 8 representatives from three trade unions. Three project proposals were drawn up relating to wage issues, in-plant organisation and questions of work organisation and codetermination. One month after the conference the firm was sold. The conference group was not able to reach agreement with the new management on cooperation along the lines set out in the project proposals. 10 months after the conference the project came to an end. Despite the considerable efforts of the research group to establish a cluster of steel firms to undertake development projects and of the actors within the firm, the recruitment process in this case ended with the dissipation of the results of the development efforts that had been made. The firm did not conti­ nue its participation in the Programme beyond the conference and the creation of a provisional bipartite working group. 2.

A third process type consists of firms which participated in the develop­ ment process over an extended period, in the course of which they "took away" government support - in the form of both financial subsidies and the provision of research and scientific competence - in a legitimised arena, only subsequently to exit from the LOM Programme. 3 Take-away effects An example of the instrumental use of the LOM Programme to facilitate the implementation. of already planned development measures of a limited scope in other words of "take-away effects" of the Programme - is the one-year LOM project in a clinical laboratory within the Swedish public health service. The introduction of electronic data processing was accorded a high priority by the central body responsible for the health service in this region - part of the provincial government - in a plan published in 1987. The staff member respon­ sible for EDP within the central health administration was given the task of reorganising the analytical laboratory which served the entire health service in that region. More specifically, the laboratory serves the two main hospitals and the 11 polyclinics in the surrounding area (15 employees in the lab itself, a further 25, decentralised in the polyclinics).

56

Organization development

Two researchers from the engineering faculties of the local university were entrusted with implementing this - already decided - measure; they then applied for funds from the L OM Programme. LOM-typical methods were not employed: in accordance with the guidelines stipulated by the EDP depart­ ment of the hospital administration limited development measures were imple­ mented both within the laboratory and between it and the polyclinics. The pro­ ject was ended after just one year.

A fourth typical course taken by projects is one in which the stimulus to learning initiated by the LOM Programme is rapidly crushed under the weight of day-to-day routine within the enterprise, and consequently fails to have lasting results. 4. Absorption effects An example of an enterprise project from the metal-working industry in which, due to absorption effects, the impact of the LOM Programme on the organisation as a whole, and its technology, work-organisation and personnel areas were close, or equal to zero, is provided by a subsidiary of a large engi­ neering concern in Stockholm. The enterprise produces mining equipment (200 employees; turnover unknown). Researchers initiated a project aimed at overcoming the recruitment pro­ blems of the enterprise (at a time of very tight labour markets) and to improve the working conditions of women workers. However, in the final analysis the project had no concrete effects within the plant as it was "suffocated" by tradi­ tional managerial conceptions and the rigid communication structures of the engineering concern. The project began in May 1987. A joint conference with two other finns fail­ ed to lead to continued communicative exchanges between them. Two working parties were set up, initially dealing with broad development issues. In the course of its implementation, however, the project proposal was reduced to a short-term, instrumental recruitment measure. Within the very limited time­ frame of the projec� the strenuous efforts made by the researchers involved proved unable to turn this LOM project into a long-term, broad development project for issues of work organisation and personnel matters. As a result no firm link was established between the idea behind the project and concrete development work. In the end only minor and isolated learning effects were generated within the plant. These absorption effects within the plant were, however, partially offset by initiation effects at supra-plant level, with the project contributing to a supra­ regional discussion on women workers within development projects, helping to initiate a specific AMFO programme on this question.

A fifth process type which can be considered typical of the LOM Programme can be identified representing those dev�lopment projects in which LOM instituted development process within the enterprise, leading to significant and lasting innovation in communication structures in the areas of technology, work organisation and personnel relations.

57

Frieder Naschold

5. Initiation and innovation effects A highly developed level of communication and stable effects on the firm as a whole and on the areas of technology, work organisation and personnel were identified in the course of the development process in a chemical engineering firm in an urban-industrial region in West Sweden (170 employees, turnover SEK 1 billion; production offloor coverings). In the wake of regional trade-union initiatives, the firm's management ente­ red the LOM Programme at an early stage (1986), holding dialogue-conferen­ ces and carrying out subsequent in-plant development work involving the majority of the workforce. The broad-based approach to the intensification of communication, and the policies subsequently adopted with regard to the introduction of new technology (incorporation of operators in decision­ making; opting for a technology which promoted human-resource develop­ ment) and staged training plans were all highly innovative in character. From a longer-term perspective, the Programme has established a strong potential for autonomous development work within the firm, a potential which, it seems, has largely survived the recent phase marked by cuts in the firm 's workforce. Diffusion effects beyond the firm, on the other hand, were very low.

A sixth process type is characterised by a "reinforcing" or "support" effect of the LOM Programme on development activities already initiated within the enterprise; comprehensive use is made of the Programme, and significant innovative effects at both the communicative and TOP (technology, organi­ sation, personnel) levels are identified. 6 Support and innovation effects The typical way in which a project of this type developed can be seen from a project conducted by the LOM-Off group with four child day-care centres run by the local authority in a suburb of Stockholm (some 50 employees, with a further 20 active in the administration and a budget of SEK 8 million plus overheads). Beginning in 1987 comprehensive reorganisation measures were implemen­ ted by the local authority in the areas of administrative structure and personnel policies, to some extent financed by the AMFO. When the LOM Programme established contact with the local administration with the aim of furthering development work in child care, the administration selected four day-care centres, based on geographical and personnel criteria. Researchers from the LOM Programme held several dialogue-conferences with the staff of these four centres, administrative workers, union officers, local politicians and parental representatives. Subsequently the staff of the centres embarked on intensive development activity, coordinating the proces­ ses themselves with the considerable aid of the researchers involved. These efforts resulted in significant changes in communicative structures between the staff, and in their contacts with the central administration and with parents. Long-term changes in organisational form were also achieved. An "Idea Workshop " was set up within the local authority to which all child-care esta­ blishments can turn with requests for support in pedagogical matters. Staff training was improved as the decentralisation of decision-making enabled

58

Organization development

savings to be made, freeing additional financial resources. The concentrated involvement of the LOM researchers had significant supporting effects and led to innovation in the areas of work organisation and personnel

A seventh type characterised by both innovative development work within the enterprise - within the framework of a cluster of organisations - and a dif­ fusion of this innovation to other similar organisations. This was achieved in one LOM project carried out in 6 public-sector administrative organisations, three of which were regional police departments. 7 Cluster with innovation and diffusion effects Broad diffusion effects were identified in one of three regional police departments which conducted a LOM project within a framework provided by a cluster of 6 departments of the public administration at both central and regional /eve!. The initiative for the project came from the National Agency for Government Employers which, in agreement with the unions, had committed itself to a programme of organisational development within the public admini­ stration during the public-sector wage round 1986187 - the so-called "RALS" experiments. Under the auspices of the ALC these experiments, which repre­ sented an attempt to put flesh on the bones of the codetermination agreement for the public sector, were integrated into the development activities of the LOM Programme (LOM-Off). Participation by the police department (250 employees; budget SEK 17 mil­ lion, excL wages) had its basis in attempts to find cooperative solutions to questions of organisational development which had been under way since the 1970s. Vertical-slice groups with strong union representation took part in dia­ logue-conferences with other organisations. Comprehensive project proposals resulted in decisive changes in communication structures, and this was follo­ wed by: organisational changes (a pattern of departmental divisions which had become dysfunctional was altered, introduction of community policing); new technological solutions (equipment for patrol cars); and an integrated descrip­ tion of tasks for work groups which had previously been polarised. During the concluding phase of the LOM Programme a powerful development potential ­ which manifested itself in the existence of work groups meeting regularly and the intensive involvement ofpersonnel from all functional areas - was realised when, in 1990, the organisation conducted autonomous dialogue-conferences involving the entire workforce. The lessons learned during the development project as a whole are currently (1992) being diffused by means of training schemes and a programme to exchange ideas and experiences throughout the public administration (conferences, written study material drawn up by those involved etc.). The course taken by the project clearly reveals significant diffusion effects, consciously achieved by the specific way in which the development project was implemented. From the very start it was the express i'l'l{erest of the National Agency for Government Employers to make the broadest possible use of the experiences gained by the entire cluster. The contrastive - way in which the results were presented - the less successful individual projects were also dealt with at length in the study material subsequently published - was one factor

59

Frieder Naschold

enabling concrete innovations on the communicative, organisational and tech­ nical level in the one police department to achieve a considerable diffusion effect.

A process type which the LOM Programme was very keen to induce was one in which, within the framework of a cluster of firms, an organisation pur­ sues autonomous development work, using the Programme to reinforce its own development efforts. 8 Cluster with diffusion and support effects An interesting example for the use of limited and selected support from the LOM Programme in the context of a largely autonomous development project is the case of a number of central sorting offices of the postal service in the metropolitan area of Stockholm (at the start of cooperation, in 1987, 2700 employees; budget unknown). Here, under the guidance of researchers, selec­ ted procedures from the LOM Programme - in particular dialogue-conferen­ ces in a cluster with other comparable enterprises - were offered to assist the implementation of internal development measures. The sorting offices were among those organisations which were already active in the initial stages (1987-) of the LOM Programme. Experience gained with LOM's dialogue methods were then brought in to help implement the concepts for organisa­ tional change. These had been propagated by a dynamic and innovative management, and further developed in an interactive process with trade-union representatives which transcended traditional bargaining. This resulted in fun­ damental changes in communicative structures, which in turn provided a sta­ ble basis for development work in the - at times - over 100 projects, one of the most important innovations being the introduction of "dialogue time" for all employees during regular working hours. Work organisation was decentrali­ sed from five large units into smaller "production areas ". "Delegated group responsibility" makes each regular production group into a "quality improve­ ment group ", furthering development in a continuous process. Enterprise pers­ onnel policy is now more clearly oriented towards the quality of work in this "industrially " organised large enterprise, with the institutionalisation of a career and training advisory service. The utility ofthese efforts at development was shown in the external exchan­ ges with other sorting offices. Innovation within the organisation is based on the concept of dialogue-oriented group projects. These are planned in detail by management, and are under heavy pressure to produce results as the future of the organisation depends upon them.

Our ninth process type characterises organisations in which an autono­ mous process of further development occurs once the supporting measures contained in the LOM Programme have come to an end, i.e. where organisa­ tions have established an autonomous capacity to generate innovations on their own going beyond the LOM Programme, but based on its philosophy. This process type develops beyond participation in the Programme and is conducted with the organisation's own resources, but is due to the initiation effects of the LOM Programme. 60

Organization development

·9 Self-sustaining development following initiation effect An example of this type of enterprise is provided by a regional agricultural cooperative, one of our intensive case studies (about 910 employees; turnover SEK 2 billion). This enterprise - one of the original total offour organisations from the trade sector participating in the LOM Programme - was chosen explicitly for development using LOM methods as it represented a regionally defined unit with a relatively small workforce and direct customer contact. The sectoral trade organisation and the LOM Secretariat made considerable efforts to provide a stable basis for Programme activities, leading to strong initiation effects. Diffusion was strategically planned, whereby management initially sought to restrict diffusion to similar enterprises with similar problems. The greatest difficulties in introducing projects were encountered in the production location where management was based. It was not the original intention of the project to spread the model to other divisions of the company, but in the course of the Programme actors became convinced of the benefits of diffusion. This resulted in an extensive diffusion within the firm to geographically widely dispersed local production units. In the unit in which the pilot project was conducted all members of the workforce contributed to the reform efforts (warehouse, sales, field organisa­ tion etc.). Conferences and other communicative forms inspired by the proce­ dures and rules developed within the LOM Programme were held over a long period, leading to innovative forms of communication both within the unit and in exchanges with the management of the mother company. The local unit F was assigned the task - by central management - of evolving into a sort of "model plant" for this type of organisation and of maintaining this position by instituting a series of small, complementary projects. Since the initial project-development phase, development has been achieved through a mixture of LOM-type procedures and more conventional forms of consultan­ cy under the auspices of a firm of management consultants. Autonomous development projects which are eligible for funding continue to be conducted, enabling work in the silos and in the field service to be rationalised, and lea­ ding to the establishment of new sales outlets for broader consumer groups. In the technical sphere the LOM project supported the construction of a new, functional building. The decentralisation of the firm has been developed further during the Post-LOM phase, and is now largely complete. The strategy pursued by the firm indicates that management initially sought to make use of the LOM Programme to push through urgently required deve­ lopment activities, whose form was then modified by the Programme. Due to the tight time-frame of the research-supported experiments within the Programme, during the later stages management increasingly returned to more conventional forms of consultancy, although by then all actors had learned to place greater emphasis on processes of communication. The diffusion process which is now under way, spreading the lessons learned throughout the local branches of the division and beyond, seems genuine!)I- to indicate the establish­ ment of an alternative managerial perspective, more clearly dialogue-oriented and supportive of development activities which are now conceived in terms of a long-term approach to the solution of structural problems. The LOM project in this firm was initially a pilot scheme, providing a fra-

61

Frieder Naschold

mework for a series of experiments in project form. By improving internal forms of communication and intensifying the exchange of ideas, links were established between these efforts so that by the end of the LOM project the firm was in a position to build on the initiation effects of the Programme to generate autonomous development processes. Parallel to the grouping of enterprises in clusters, a major aim of the Programme was to establish regional research networks.

LOM

I 0 Research

network with diffusion effects An interesting example of network effects induced by the LOM Programme is provided by the regional college at Karlstad in central Sweden, where, star­ ting in 1985, a research network was gradually built up. (Initial steps have also been taken in the direction of similar, regional research units, with a clear emphasis on action research, in the regional colleges of Orebo and Halmstad. Begun in 1986, each of these network projects has a specific profile, and is capable offurther development in the medium term.) Sectoral analyses of work organisation, production and related issues were already under way - within the AR-tradition - when, in 1986, the LOM Programme commenced operations and was looking for cooperation partners. Closely linked to L OM, but at the same time taking an independent stance on a number of organisational and procedural issues, a group was came together at Karlstad consisting of up to 10 graduate researchers and trade union offi­ cers at any one time, its aim being to initiate a large number of heterogeneous organisational development projects. The research concept elaborated by the group is based on a three-phase model which assumes an extended impact­ timeframe (not less than 10 years) and which regarded the LOM Programme as offering the ideal initial conditions. From 1988 on increasing emphasis was placed on research at the regional /eve!. The research network has achieved a considerable diffusion effect through a number of individual cluster projects. These include development work in various establishments within a steel concern, in various offices of the public administration and other institutions in a small town, and in a regional muse­ um with development perspectives not just for the home region butfor the enti­ re Swedish museum sector. This approach must be considered to be very close­ ly in line with the original intentions of the L OM Programme. It seeks to esta­ blish a large number of development projects, thus promoting the generation of a "critical mass", and accords priority to stable cooperation within clusters of organisations as against isolated single projects. Fig. 23 provides a schematic summary of the ten process types characteris­ tic of projects within the LOM Programme, indicating both the different levels of development and the effects of the projects achieved in each case. Although the figure provides an indication of the diversity of process types within the LOM Programme, it says nothing about their distribution. But even before embarking on a more detailed assessment of the impacts of the Programme , it is possible to identify the following central issues thrown up

62

Organization development

figure 23 Characteristic Process Types

Process types 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Organisational development Level of development 'Non-starter' 'Drop-out' 'Small-scale/narrow base' 'Narrow base/deep slice' 'Broad base/deep slice' 'Broad base/deep slice' 'Cluster' & 'Broad base/deep slice' 'Broad base/deep slice' 'Broad base/deep slice' Cluster and research network

Effects

Take-away effects Absorption effects Initiation and innovation effects Support and innovation effect Cluster with innovation and diffusion effects Cluster with diffusion and support effect Self-sustaining development beyond project-end and initiation effect Network and diffusion effect

by the LOM Programme with regard to the processes induced in the course of its projects. - Take-away effects played a very minor role in the Programme, as LOM did not seek to support the funding of corporate investment in real capital. - The number of "non-starters" and "drop-outs" in the LOM Programme is no higher than would be expected by looking at similar programmes in other countries, although their significance within the Programme is different. - The main problem in evaluating the Programme will thus be to establish whether the Programme induced innovative effects at all, or whether its impulses were all but completely absorbed by the complexity of day-to-day routine within the enterprise, by the "structural conservatism" of the existing horizontal and vertical division of labour. - To the extent that the Programme has indeed induced innovative activity, the level of development of such innovations with regard to both the com­ municative infrastructure and to the individual areas of technology, work organisation and personnel must be identified. The extent to which the effects induced by the Programme subsequently evolved into processes of self-sustaining development must also be determined. - A further question of considerable importance is whether the Programme primarily had an initiation effect within the participating organisations, or whether LOM's impact was largely to reinforce processes of change which were already under way within the organisations. It will be the task of the next section to examine these questions of the impact of the LOM Programme. IV. The LOM Programme in Practice 11: Developments and Impacts

Clearly an analysis of the "mode of functioning" �:( the LOM Programme must consider not only the development of its "input factors" (actors, resour­ ces) and the course taken by the various projects, but also, and centrally, its results. It is the task of this section to examine the effectiveness and efficien­ cy of the LOM Programme. It is at this point, the most difficult stage in any 63

Frieder Naschold

evaluation, that the various methodological strands employed in the study quantitative evaluation of the survey of the total LOM population, intensive case studies, expert interviews and documentary analysis - will be brought together and the results compared within a variety of both national and international frames of reference. Particularly in the use of a scale to "meas­ ure" intra- and inter-organisational development processes, and determine the level of innovation achieved in the communicative infrastructure and in the TOP areas (technology, organisation and personnel), the survey and eva­ luation instruments used are oriented towards the standards tools used in the STDS approach (cf for example Pasmore 1988; Kaplan 1964: additiona infor­ mation on instruments used can be found at the end of the appendix in the Germen version of the evaualtion report)nsible bodies. Six areas of the Programme are examined: communicative development within the projects; the formation of clusters; the stability of these organisa­ tional developments over time; the generation of solutions in the TOP areas; and the organisations and researchers involved in the projects as the primary actor-groups. 1. The creation of communicative development structures

The fundamental idea behind the LOM Programme is the development of communicative skills and structures in terms of a broad-based, deep-slice, large-scale development strategy within and between organisations involved. Thus the degree to which these "communicative goals" were reached must lie at the centre of any evaluation of the Programme's effectiveness. In the pre-LOM phase just under 75% of project-organisations had been characterised by a traditional, hierarchical, i.e. horizontally and vertically segmented, communication structure, and by, in communicative terms, tradi­ tional bargaining patterns. Interesting developments in communicative structures were observed in the course of the LOM Programme and these are presented in some detail below. An analysis of the communicative instruments used by the total LOM population reveals the following picture.

In terms of their quantitative distribution four groups of communicative instruments can be identified. Ignoring the "drop-out" organisations, a dialo­ gue-conference was held at least once by all the projects; 45 projects set up a project steering group. Considerably less frequently employed were project groups and workplace meetings, which clocked up 28 and 22 cases respecti­ vely. The remaining communicative instruments played an almost negligible role. It is not yet clear how important the "strategic forum" will prove to be. In one case it was possible to ascertain the frequency with which an instru­ ment was used. 64

Organization development

figure 24 Co=unicative instruments

Leader dialogues Study circles Large meetings Workplace meetings Project groups Steering committees Dialogue conferences 0

25

50

75

figure 25 Frequency of Dialogue-conferences during the Projects (n =72) 25

20

15

10

5

0 Number of conferences

In most cases (n=49) the dialogue-conference was held no more than twice; but still, in 23 cases at least three were held. According to indicators such as the number and frequency of the new communicative instruments employed, the extent to which new arenas for discussion were developed and the introduction of new... actor-groups, of the total population 24 projects (i.e. 33% ) reached the development stage 3 or 4 with regard to communicative innovation (for details of this development scale cf. the appendix). In 13 cases the LOM Programme performed a sup­ porting and in 10 an initiation function. An analysis of the less innovative 65

Frieder Naschold

projects - besides the drop-outs, those projects which reached development levels 1 or 2 - reveals a sharp drop in "energy" following the start conference - which was usually felt to have been a success - reflected in a low number of additional dialogue-conferences, the infrequent usage of other communicati­ ve instruments, and, in the final analysis, in an almost complete absorption of the new patters of communication by the traditional communicative regime. A detailed examination of our intensive case studies tends to confirm the statistical evidence, while allowing a better understanding of the processes at work within LOM. Two methods of presentation have been selected to illu­ strate these results, the first referring to a single project, the second to the respective LOM instruments.

figure 26 Use of LOM Methods/Arenas by Instrument (intensive case studies) Dialogue-conference

Private sector

Pnblic sector

a Start conference with 1-3 additional organisations b Internal start conference c Experience conference

3 3 2

1 3 3

Workplace meeting Project groups Large meeting Study circle Leader dialogue Steering/coordination group

5 5 2

2 3

2 4

1 1 4

Of the sample of 9 organisations analysed in our intensive case studies, all participated in one or more dialogue-conferences. 7 of the 9 projects (3 from the private and 4 from the public sector) reached steps 3 or 4 on our development scale (see the appendix). The remaining two remained on the

9

first or second rungs. These findings confirm two results. First, in overcoming the traditional pattern of communicative structures, the more innovative enterprises are, characterised by deeply rooted - horizontal and vertical communication processes, reflected in conferences and workplace meetings, mutually reinforcing parallel project-development and coordination groups, and, especially, the continual use of dialogue-conferences. Secondly, our ana­ lysis reveals that in these 7 cases of innovative development the LOM Programme performed an initiation function in four cases and a support function in three. Thus our case studies also clearly point to a polarisation in the use of LOM instruments: large meetings, study circles and special dialogue mee­ tings for executive staff were barely used. At the same time, our case studies show that in the innovative projects, and where the necessary framework conditions were available, significant quantitative changes in communicative processes were achieved. Indeed, in the light of evidence from both the case studies and the expert interviews, it is justified to interpret these results as indicating that the successful innovative projects managed to bring about a qualitative change in the communication regime.

66

figure 27 Use of LOM Communicative Instruments in 9 Selected ProjectsiU

1

Balances combination of conferences and workplace meetings Intense use of LOM instruments; only case in which start conference of type A (more than one enterprise) was supplemented with that of type B (internal) Intense use of project groups deeply rooted in the production process Few project groups set up leading to isolation of individual projects Combination of workplace meeting and project groups leads to organisational changes

Dialogue conferences

lllll!il! l l lll l ill l

2 Workplace meeting

10. Type A, B see figure 19, page 41

4 Large

meetings

5 Study circles

6 Dialogue meetings for executives

7 Support group

•

•

•

•

•

•

•�•ll !l l l!l!i f!il ! ! i ! l l!l! ml li!

•

•

•

-i-iiiiim::mmmHiiiFimmmm:m

•

•

•

-��-!!mm;m!H!:lli!i!!!�!i!mmm

•

•

•

•

•

�

�

group(s)

•

Lack of comprehejl€ive project group formation to ack up the use of conferences Intense use of LOM instruments without lasting success, as external factor (change of ownership) caused project

3 Project

•

•

•

•

•

0 .;a

�-

g. 1:1 "" ,. <

5-

""

8 ,. �

Frieder Naschold

Even at this stage of the analysis our data point to two decisive conditions for the success of innovative development processes. (1.) With regard to the time-frame, our statistical analysis of the total LOM population reveals a variation in project duration of between 0.5 and 5.5 years, with 21 projects (29% ) lasting three or more years. At the same time, our intensive case studies show that innovative developments require a mini­ mum project duration of 2.5 years. This means that 65% of the projects fell short of the minimum project duration required for innovation (this point is dealt with further in IV 3). (2.) Of equal importance would seem to be the degree of integration of the new communicative development organisations with the traditional organisa­ tion. In all seven innovative organisational developments, the new communi­ cative forms remained linked to the traditional structures of organisation in such a way that the existing horizontal and vertical lines of segmentation were gradually overdetermined. In the two other projects there was no evi­ dence of such interpenetration. 2. The fonnation of communicative clusters and networks

The formation of a communicative meso-level in the form of organisation­ al clusters and research networks represents a second strategic objective of the Programme. At an earlier stage of the evaluation, the analysis of the ini­ tial population of the LOM Programme identified 18 (25%) cluster projects (based on definitions by the researchers). A second methodical approach, based on the criterion of "contacts between organisations", reveals the follo­ wing distribution among the LOM population: 24 single-enterprise projects over their entire duration; 8 unequivocal cluster projects; and 30 projects occupying the middle ground, i.e. with some degree of inter-enterprise cooperation for at least some of the project's duration. The intensity and duration of such contacts within this "cluster potential" were examined and the findings are presented below. figure 28 Intensity of Contacts

in Clusters

20

15

10

5

0 Number of meetings

68

Organization development

These following comments on these findings were made within the framew­ ork of the quantitative evaluation of the total-population survey (cf. appen­ dix) During the course of the projects most clusters met between 1 and 5 times, with just one exception reporting more than 5 meetings. The figure groups the 30 clusters according to the intensity of contacts within the cluster. The most common results were just one or two meetings, indicating a low intensi­ ty of cluster contacts, an interpretation supported by the large number of "no-answers" in the survey). A more complete picture emerges from our findings on the stability of cluster contacts once projects were completed.

figure 29 Stability of Cluster Contacts after Project-End

� No - Do not know/unclear c::::::J Yes

"The picture is discouraging. Half, 15 out of 30, of the clusters do not have post-project contacts. Only 8 are still in contact (27% ) and 4 of these belong to the same group of business, the same municipality etc. The conclusion is that it is hard to establish networks based on organisational development experience between organisations" (cf. Appendix to the German Evaluation Report, p. 200) The large proportion of the total population failing to respond (no ans­ wer) is striking. This points to imprecision on the part of researchers and uncertainty in reality, but in general tends to confirm the interpretation pre­ sented above. In view of this we decided to examine our intensive case studies with a view to cluster formation. Our case-study material supports the thrust of the quantitative analysis: the level of development in the case-study clusters is far below the original aims of the Programme. Even in this sample - repre­ senting "successful" projects - only four organisations, three of them from the public sector, reach the development level of 3 or 4-on the inter-organisa­ tional scale, i.e. have achieved relatively continuous and quasi-institutionali­ sed exchanges and a developed a learning context. The overall conclusion must be that the inter-organisational development level is - in both quantita­ tive and qualitative terms - considerably below that of intra-organisational development.

69

Frieder Naschold

3. The "time factor" as a condition for the success of the LOM Programme

One lesson learned from almost all international development program­ mes has been that a programme's time-frame of is of great significance for its success or failure. The time factor is usually linked to social and real dimen­ sions, but can be considered in strategic terms as independent. Within the German W&T Programme four main time-relevant aspects have been the subject of discussion; we will now examine them with reference to LOM. (1) Attention has already been drawn to the importance of minimum project durations in generating innovative developments. Less than 30% of LOM's projects were conducted over three or more years, while the minimum dura­ tion of a successful project was found to be 2.5 years. A sample of compara­ ble projects from the W&T Programme between 1988 and 1990 revealed an average project duration of 3.3 years, with a much higher input of financial and research resource{ figure 30 Project Duration (all projectsn 72) Duration (in years)

1

1-2

2-2.5

2.5-3

3

Number of projects a Private sector b Public sector c Total

2 9 11

9 3 12

9 7 16

7 5 12

8 13 21

Closer analysis of the duration of the total LOM project population shows that 39 projects (54% ) lasted less than 2.5 years, 12 projects (17%) had a duration of between 2.5 and 3 years, while 21 projects (29% ) were maintai­ ned for longer than three years. Even allowing for the fact that a small num­ ber of projects are still running, raising the number of long-duration projects, the distribution of projects across the duration-scale, particularly the large proportion below the 2.5 and 3-year cut-off points is very significant. In other words, of the total LOM population only 33 projects (46% ) reached the minimum project duration considered necessary for programme effective­ ness. (2) Also significant is the way in the which programme and project time is formally structured. While most projects did present formal project propo­ sals, applications and intermediate reports, the nature, extent and quality of such material varies greatly between projects. To judge from experience in other development programmes, this can usually be taken as a good indica­ tor of diffuse project structuring with respect to time.

Of the 72 projects 24 have presented a final report. Even though this figu­ re is set to increase slightly in the coming months it does indicate that in only one third of cases was the end of a project marked with a formal concluding

70

Organization development

report. In most of the 24 projects a considerable time lag existed between the end of the project and the presentation of the final report. On the other hand, of the 6 "star cases" in our sample, 5 were simply being pushing ahead with development work without having published a formal final report. Of course, applications and intermediate and final reports can also be seen as a means of bureaucratic steering and control: But if they are suitably designed and handled they can serve as a useful instrument of conscious time-manage­ ment, as has been shown by the renowned, international best-practice firms.

(3) Within the German debate on state development support an important criterion of the success of state intervention is usually considered to be whether, once the project itself has been concluded, the enterprise is able to continue with autonomous development processes under its own steam. This "sustainability" of development processes within the enterprise beyond the duration of the project must be seen as an additional condition - besides the formation of networks - for the successful diffusion of the results of the pro­ ject and programme. Quantitative analysis of the total LOM population yields the following interesting findings. - Of the total of 72 projects 23 - i.e. more than 30% - have pursued develop­ ment processes of one kind of another beyond the duration of their LOM project: these processes are now autonomous and no longer rely on the LOM Programme. - 8 of these self-sustaining projects are from the private, 15 from the public sector. One project from each sector consists of a large cluster. On the strict methodological definitions employed by the LOM Programme, the two clus­ ters are: - hotels and catering establishments in northern Sweden (an independent project receiving no financial support from LOM) - a cluster of 17 departments of the public administration in Ostersund (a project initiated and financed by the "National Fund for Administrative Development and Training for Government Employees"). - The 23 self-sustaining projects all represent innovative projects in the area of "communicative infrastructure", reaching development stage 3 or 4. To put it another way: of the 24 innovative projects only 1 did "not survive".· The levels of development achieved in the areas of technology, work organi­ sation and personnel, on the other hand, were lower (see below). - In 4 of the 8 private-sector firms in the sample management made substan­ tial reductions in workforce levels; this occurred without recourse to DO­ principles, but rather to traditional forms of bargaining. At the current stage of the evaluation it is not yet possible to determine with any degree of cer­ tainty the extent to which in such cases further development has been accompanied by a "roll-back" of communicative development processes. It remains to be seen whether the "communicative infrastructure" developed by the projects will be able to withstand severer t�sts and cope with a higher ' level of conflict within the enterprise.

71

Frieder Naschold

The LOM Programme and developments in the areas of technology. work organisation and personnel (TOP)

4.

The LOM Programme differs from design-oriented programmes with their direct approach to problems of technology. work organisation and personnel in its orientation towards processes and the indirect attempt to find solutions to the so-called TOP problems. Nonetheless, it is clearly an aim, indeed it is a central premise of the Programme, that changes in communication structures have beneficial effects on innovative developments in the TOP areas. We have investigated this central hypothesis of the Programme at both a subjective level - the type of problems raised - and an objective level - inno­ vative development in the TOP areas. The statistical analysis of the total LOM population reveals that during the pre-LOM phase 61% of the problems mentioned by the enterprises centred around personnel and organisational questions, compared to just 23% rela­ ted to products, productivity and markets. In contrast to the 1970s, the question of working conditions was mentioned in only 8% of cases. These data would seem to provide a good indicator of the "crisis" of the taylorist­ fordist production regime. During the project phase, the problem focus shifts ever more clearly to human-resource and organisational problems: in 72% of cases this problem area is seen as central. Only 15% mention working conditions, and just 13% report issues of products and productivity. In the course of the projects, and particularly in our case studies, a trend was observed which was not without its inner tensions: the problems conside­ red most urgent by the LOM population were formulated in an increasingly informal way; at the same time the demand for "whole-system improve­ ment" (Weisbrod 1989) grew. Of equal importance to the evaluation team were those questions which were not (or scarcely) mentioned during the course of the Programme. Two significant "blanks" can be found throughout the three groups of data: questions to do with the management of the enterprise, and those arising out of the international context. We shall return to these strategic "blanks" and their significance in the next section. Our evaluation of the difficult question regarding the innovative effects of improved communicative structures in the areas of technology, work organi­ sation, and personnel necessarily relies largely on the material provided by our intensive case studies. The following picture of innovation in the TOP 10 areas emerges from analysis of our nine intensive case studies • The quantitative distribution of the various levels of innovation are pre­ sented in the following figure. 72

Organization development

figure 31 Innovation in the TOP Areas Tec:hnology

Organisation

Personnel

None

Strong - intern: reorganisation (own budgets) - extern: institutionalisation of customer contacts

Low - new forms of recruitment for management - anchoring of training measures

Meduim - new maintenance dept. - influence on investment

Medium - rotation - new work descriptions

None

3

Strong - investment in process tech. - new cleaning technology

Medium - new organisation for maintenance - re-division of work

Medium - training instead of redundancies (1991 redundancies)

4

None

Low - trials with group work

Low - recruitment of female workers (1992: subcontracting)

5

Low - equipement for patrol cars

Strong - re-division of precincts - use of specialist

Medium - more rational and needoriented human-resource planning

6

None

Low - cooperation station - care groups

None - more stable workforceness labour turnover

7

None

Low - some use of first-line supervisors

None

8

Medium - new building

Strong - new forms in field service - decentralisation of the concern

Medium - new activity areas

9

Medium - new transport technology

Medium - group work

Low

2

F. NascholdJWZB

- (1991: redundancies at concern level)

- (1991: redundancies)

1992

figure 32 Quantitave Distribution of the Innovation in TOP Areas, overall (private/public)

None Low Medium Strong Very strong

Teclmology

Organisation

Personnel

4(2/2) 1 (0/1 ) 3 (2/1)

0 2(2/0) 4(2/2) 3 ( 112) 0

2(210)

1 (1/0) 0

3(112) 4(2/2) 0 0 '

These qualitative and quantitative findings suggest the following interpre­ tations of the three areas involved. 73

Frieder Naschold

(1.) The strongest effects were registered in work organisation. These were especially pronounced in the two public-sector enterprises (1 and 5), not least because they enjoyed the support of an autonomously created frame­ work for development activities initiated prior to LOM (the LINUS local­ authority development programme in the case of the child day-care centres; the RALS development programme initiated by the National Agency for Government Employers in the case of the police departments. The common denominator linking all innovations at the organisational level was greater decentralisation, leading to the creation of more effective operational units and a more even distribution of resources. This is particularly true of the only private-sector enterprise in which strong organisational innovations were identified (8 - agricultural cooperative), where the LOM-project activi­ ties were expressly oriented towards decentralising the concern as a whole. At a lower organisational level, efforts were made to introduce and institu­ tionalise work rotation and forms of group work. In the public sector a pro­ minent feature was the support offered by concentrated LOM-project work for the introduction of new forms of care.

(2.)

In the personnel sphere the changes achieved ranged from low to medi­

um. In the initial phase the predominant aim in the projects supported by

LOM - a reflection of the then state of the labour market - was to establish and institutionalise training and other measures in order to stabilise employ­ ment levels. New forms of recruitment involving new (and extended) work descriptions were frequent. During and after 1991, however, i.e. after the LOM Programme had officially come to an end, four of the nine enterprises made substantial workforce reductions. These had the effect of restoring more conventional forms of personnel management to prominence.

(3.) The extent of technical innovation within our case-study sample was very limited. In those enterprises in which large-scale technical innovations were introduced during the course of the LOM Programme, the investment decision itself would have been taken in any case. At the same time, the work carrie d out in the projects did exert an influence on all these innova­ tions. The LOM project groups in cases 2 and 3 - steel works and chemical engineering industry - for instance had an effect on the choice of new equip­ ment for entire production departments. In case 8 the LOM Programme pro­ vided qualified support structures during the planning phase of the construc­ tion, and in case 5 the sectoral LOM project resulted in a technical solution (equipment for patrol cars) whose level of diffusion was very high. Turning, finally, to the organisations in the top third of our communicative development scale (degree of communicative development within the enterprise) four of these seven organisations (minus one drop-out, and one project which reached a lower level of development) achieved high values ("strong") for innovation in the TOP areas, especially in work organisation. This would seem to point to a strong link between far-reaching communicati­ ve reconstruction and innovative organisational developments, certainly con­ siderably stronger than in the technological and personnel spheres. At the

74

Organization development

same time, it appears equally true that developments at the communicative level, while a necessary, are by no means a sufficient condition for innova­ tion in the areas of technology, work organisation and personnel.

5. LOM-Programme actors at the enterprise and supra-enterprise level As was pointed out when we examined the institutions behind the LOM Programme, LOM is based on a highly differentiated steering structure. By combining our three data sources - statistical survey of the LOM population, intensive case studies and expert interviews - we are now in a position to pre­ sent a rough picture of the varying levels of activity of the different actor­ groups within the overall steering structure. Of particular interest in our context are two relationships. Firstly, the interfaces between the enterprise and its environment as revealed by the way the link-up to the LOM Programm e came about: secondly, the relations between enterprise and supra-enterprise actors and between management and the trade unions. Regarding the problem - often an extremely critical one for national deve­ lopment programmes - of linking up organisations to the programme, our

analysis has yielded the following results. See figure 33. The

majority

of

enterprises

in

the

LOM

Programme

joined

the

Programme in reaction to initial attempts at contact made by various supra­ enterprise bodies (interest groups, collective organisations etc.).

In

some­

what less than one third of cases the initiative for programme link-up came from the organisation itself. It is impossible to determine the mode of con­ tact in the remaining

10

cases due to the lack of clarity with which this pro­

cess is documented. Several surprising results were obtained with regard to the level of activity of the different actor-groups in the actual conduct of the LOM projects. See figure

34.

The evidence from our case studies indicates an activity pattern of the sup­ porting institutions which contrasts rather strongly with some of the expecta­ tions of the Programme. - The initiative for project development within the LOM framework was fairly well distributed among the various actor-groups. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that two initiatives came from the only two branch com­ mittees actively involved, and two from researchers themselves, while only one project commenced on trade-union initiative. - With the exception of the two committees just mentioned, the branch com­ mittees played a decidedly passive role, Surprisingly, �n two of the nine pro­ jects the unions, too, were represented only passively. ' - Of course the trade unions play the leading role when it comes to providing support for the projects. At the same time this is the area in which the LOM Secretariat concentrated (and intended to concentrate) its activities.

75

Frieder Naschold

figure 33 Means of Establishing Contact Leading to Link-up with LOM Programme A Contact sought actively by the organisation (n22) In those cases in which a link-up was sought by the enterprise, indirect forms of contact predominated: Al Management and/or unions approach the LOM Secretariat through intermediaries, such as the employers' association SAF, regional trade bodies composed of enterprise' representatives and local politicians central or regional union bodies bipartite 'branch committees' A2 Managenent (particularly in the public sector) directly approaches renowned

research institute with which links already exist (lectures, courses projects etc.). The most important of thes are the ALC, the research network at Karlstad and, less frequently, at Halmstad and Obrero, and the Swedish Council for Mangement and Work Life Issues.These institutions thenmediate contact to the LOM Programme.

A3 Management approaches individual social scientists who then mediate contact

to the LOM Programme (applications for financial support, contacts to other scientists etc.).

A4 Management directly approaches the LOM Programme B

Link-up sought by the LOM Programme and its agents. Such contacts were established in a variety of ways, with the initiative usually coming from members of the LOM Secretariat.

Bl Branch committee (e.g. for the following branches trade, catering wood processing, paper and cellulose industry) approaches a number of enterprises considered suitable and enquires whether the enterprise would be interested in partaking in research-supported development work within the framework of the LOM Programme. B2 Similar activity by the Development Council. B3 Similar activity by the Research Committee for the Engineering Industry. B4 Similar activity by the National Fund for Administrative Development and TraiDing for Government Employees. BS Similar activity by the National Agency for Government Employers B6 An organisation responsible for research promotion (e.g. the AMFO), together with a cooperating research institute (e.g. the Swedish Council for Management and Work Life Issues) approach potential enterprises. B7 Individual researchers approach enterprises throught the employers' federation SAF, or BB Directly contact organisations suited to their particular research project. These are usually situated in relatively proximity, whereby this may be due either to pragmatic reasons or to the strategic aim of establishing regional research networks (as in Karlstad, Halmstad, Kalmar and Orebro).

76

Organization development

figure 34 Actors and their Level of Activity (case studies) Imtiating Employers Trade unions Branch committee(or compar. body) LOM Secretariat External consultants - Researchers - in some case more than one answer given

Passive

Supportive

Steering

3 7 1 6 2

5

2 6 1 1

2

1 2 2 2>

> in some case more than one answer given

- The employers clearly played the leading role in the actual steering of the projects. Extremely surprising here is the lack of union involvement in steering functions, while the restraint exercised by the Secretariat in this sphere is in accordance with its self-defined role. In conclusion, while all actor-groups played an approximately equal role in project initiation, subsequent phases are marked by a clear "division of labour": management steers project development; the unions and the LOM Secretariat play a supporting role, while the branch committees remain lar­ gely passive. Thus, while the Secretariat acted in a way largely conforming to its own aims, the other actors performed rather different roles than had been originally expected. The way in which both management and the trade unions perceived their own role in this process was one of the question raised - albeit using different categories - in our statistical survey. The survey evidence serves both to con­ firm and modify the picture just painted. figure 35 Management and Union Perceptions of Own Role in LOM Projects

Disinterested/against Legitimating/supporting Driving actor Controlling/evaluating Positive but passive 30

_ l.nion

'

c::::::=J Management

77

Frieder Nascbold

The following commentary on these findings is taken from the quantitative analysis (cf. appendix to the German Evaluation report, Trends and Patterns - quantitative analysis of the LOM programme, p. 171-203). The union was generally less important than management and also less active. A plausible conclusion is that union participation is a positive but not a necessary condi­ tion. Where they were involved their role was positive and supportive, dri­ ving and legitimating. A future assignment for the unions is how they can relate to changes in work in a fruitful way. In our expert interviews management was usually depicted as fulfilling a steering, legitimating and evaluating function, while the trade unions were usually seen in a supporting - and often merely acquiescent - role. The findings presented in the previous sub-section indicated a lack of attention paid towards leadership problems within LOM projects. Our results on the activity levels of the various actors shed an additional light on this picture: management played a more significant role in the projects than had initially been expected; at the same time its activities were not on their own sufficient to ensure the effectiveness of the Programme. This seemingly paradox hypothesis will be dealt with in greater detail in the next section. 6. The role of research actors in the LOM Programme

Given that the LOM Programme was explicitly designated as a research and development programme, it is not surprising that the role played by researchers proved complex and complicated. In principle each project should pay full and equal attention to both functions - research and develop­ ment. Within the AR tradition (and specifically according to Kolb 1989) the relationship between the two should be that of an iterative feedback process. figure 36 The Relationship between Research and Development in the AR Tradition (Kolb 1 989)

Experience

It was not possible to establish the relative importance of the two aspects of the LOM Programme with any degree of certainty. Support systems for the researchers only began to be developed once the projects were under way; the recruitment process had to be started more or less from scratch, lacking a firm basis of researchers with experience in development projects. Such structural inadequacies, strategic dilemmas and operational difficulties

78

Organization development

with research-supported R&D processes related to the role played by research will be dealt with in detail in the next section. At this point we will merely take an empirical look at the effectiveness of the role played by researchers within the LOM Programme with the help of three (partially overlapping cross-sections of the data.

(1.) As far as the development function is concerned, the role of the resear­ chers was to provide "research-supported project assistance". The empirical, conceptual and theoretical reconstruction of development processes repre­ sents the cornerstone of the researcher's task in providing such development support. Clearly, this description is such as to permit a broad range of actual activities. An evaluation of our case-study material reveals the following quantitative distribution of actual activities. figure 37 Role Played by Researcher within Project Processes

Facilitator Discussion partner Salesman Advocate Consultant 2 0 Number of researchers

3

4

5

6

The distribution within this typology (which is due to Docherty

7

1976)

reveals two focal points of researcher activity within the projects and indica­ tes some of the problems they entail. - In the vast majority of cases researchers involved in LOM projects saw themselves as organisers of the necessary pre-conditions for the projects) and as guides in discourse processes ("facilitators"), and, at the same time, as discussion-partners in the numerous rounds of discussions taking place in the various intra-enterprise arenas. Clearly, in view of the scientific-academic background of the majority of researchers. this self-definition of their roles begs the question whether the professional qualifications of the researchers matched the requirements of the project - In a number of cases the "development function" of the researcher was seen (in some cases in addition to the functions mentioned above) in the role of "salesman" for a particular conference method, � even as an advocate of , certain interests within the enterprise. It is difficult to reconcile such a defini­ tion of the researcher's role with the underlying · philosophy of the Programme.

79

Frieder Naschold

(2.) We have also attempted to identify the research activities accompanying the projects and the Programme as a whole along the "interlace" between the development and the research function within the total population. A quantitative analysis of the various publications on LOM projects and the Programme as a whole must make allowances for the fact that a substan­ tial number of researchers (about 10) have yet to present the results of their projects in the form of a dissertation. In these cases we generally have to make do with intermediate reports. An additional point is that it is not possible to reconstruct the total num­ ber of project applications, as a number of projects were already under way when the LOM Programme began, the projects were financed from more than one source, and due to the differences in the way (formal, informal) applications were made. In spite of this fig. 38 is based on the premise that a project application was made for all 72 projects in one form or the other, eit­ her to the AMFO or another financing institution.

figure 38 Research Publications from the LOM Programme (total population n 72)

Intermediate reports Concluding reports Articles, grey literature Articles, LOM Articles, national Articles, international Publications by AMFO Degree-level diss Doctoral theses (planned) 0

25

50

75

- Union c:::=:J Management

As can be seen from the figure intermediate reports were produced by almost all the projects (with the exception of the "drop-outs"). Final reports were available for precisely one third of projects, with several more due to be completed by the end of 1991.

80

Organization development

'Of the scholarly articles dealing with individual projects, the most important were those published by the AMFO (14), most of them in three anthologies. In purely quantitative terms they are followed by the articles published in international journals, split between those dealing with individual projects and those at Programme-level. This is followed by five articles in Swedish journals and eight in the so-called "grey literature" (internal institute publi­ cations etc.). The AMFO has published four books on the LOM Programme: 2 antholo­ gies, a book dealing with the postal sorting office and a brochure (published in both Swedish and English) about the Volvo plant at Uddevalla. In addi­ tion, one sociological dissertation (degree-level) was published in an institu­ te's publication series. Nine doctoral dissertation projects were identified, most of them nearing completion: five in business studies, two in psychology, one in sociology and one in political science. Our findings for the LOM Programme refute the claim commonly made that R&D programmes seldom publish very much. The volume of publica­ tion arising out of the LOM Programme is very considerable, particularly bearing in mind that a number of dissertations are nearing completion. At the same time our findings point more specifically to a number of strengths and weaknesses of the national programme-support structure along the interface between research and development. - Attention has already been drawn to the huge variation in the quality of reports produced by the projects themselves and the decidedly small number of genuine final project reports. - As has been the case in recent years with the German W&T Programme, a considerable number of LOM-relevant monographs have only appeared in internal institute discussion papers and the like (in the case of LOM, largely in AMFO publications). - Compared with the W&T Programme, the Swedish experience is marked by a considerable time lag between project-end and the completion of disser� tations. According to the author's discussion partners within Swedish univer­ sities, this is primarily due to factors specific to Sweden's university system. Of course this has the effect of blocking the feedback effects between work experience and research activity for both the academic and practical discus­ sion. - Of all the publications generated by the LOM Programme the greatest stress has been laid on work of a programmatic nature. Indeed, in interna­ tional terms this must be seen as LOM's central achievement in terms of scholarship. Two distinct lines of research can be distinguished here. On the one hand the conceptual and "advocatory" work by B. Gustavsen must be mentioned, including the intermediate reports dritwn up on the preliminary results of projects and the Programme as a whole (together with H. van Beinum, P. Engelstad, H. Hart and B. Hofmaier) . A" second prominent line of research is to be seen in the more empirical-analytical studies conducted by C. v. Otter in support of a normative theory of the modern public sector.

81

Frieder Naschold

Against the background of the "regulation/deregulation debate" this ap­ proach studies and elaborates constructively the interplay between the various modes of social regulation (such as the market, hierarchies, bargai­ ning systems). Without doubt, these two lines of research represent the scho­ larly "show-piece" of the Programme. They are certainly without clear precedents within the Swedish tradition of R&D programm es, and each has attracted attention and gained recognition far beyond Scandinavia. It may well be that such, rather indirect effects of the Programme - its innovative conceptual developments - may well prove more significant than the direct impacts of the projects, at least in international terms. (3.) Our case-study material enables us to present a third dimension to the empirical analysis of the role played by scientists in LOM's research function by differentiating between different types of research process and results according to the following categories: documentation of the process (A), additional data generation (through interviews, group discussions etc.) (B), the study of specific units of analysis (C), complex and analytically grounded case studies (D), linking the specific case with theoretical considerations of communication and development (E), and finally conceptualisation and theoretical development (F) (see the appendix). figure 39 Distribution of Research Activities (case studies)

A B c D E F 0 2 Number of cases

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

In all nine cases the researchers involved provided comprehensive docu­ mentation of the development process and generated additional data (A and B). Important intermediate-level activities - analysing individual problems and conducting case studies (C and D) - were performed in 6 and 3 of the enterprise projects respectively. In seven cases partial analyses were combi­ ned with theoretical considerations on development, constituting a form of feedback to both the enterprise-level actors and the LOM scientific commu­ nity. In two cases the experiences gained in the course of projects led to sig­ nificant attempts at theorisation and conceptualisation (F). 82

Orgaruzation development

From this material we would like to draw special attention to three findings of considerable relevance for development-oriented research policies. - Our case studies include - against the overall trend - a number of very tho­ rough and comprehensive documentations by individual projects. A large proportion of this sample was able to link its experience with development­ theoretical questions, a statement which is not nearly to the same extent true of the total LOM population . - A degree of "taylorism" in conceptual work also emerges from the fin­ dings: Contrary to the LOM philosophy the scholarly labour process is char­ acterised by a relatively sharp polarisation between the conception and exe­ cution of research activities. - The most significant empirical finding in this context, however, is the over­ all lack empirical-analytical case studies, as a medium-level form by which to evaluate on a scientific basis the development processes experienced by the researcher. Here too, a number of important exceptions serve to prove the general rule. 7. Programme effectiveness: Four answers to one question In order to assess the overall effectiveness of the LOM Programme we now bring together our empirical findings on the various analytical aspects pre­ sented above, thus providing an overview of the way in which the total LOM population developed over time. 1 ) Initial population Before turning to our provisional conclusions, it is important to recall some of the methodological problems inherent in such analyses. Of these the most important are: the practical limitation on the scope of the evaluation under the given real-world conditions; data constraints; and the more general problem of establishing causality. At the same time, our three-track metho­ dological approach enables us to control and compensate for such problems to a large extent. Far more intractable than these, the traditional problems facing evaluation studies, is the fact that no universal standard exists against which the Programme in all its aspects can be evaluated. The evaluation of the "inno­ vativeness" of projects and programmes, in particular, is clearly dependent on the normative frame of reference chosen. Our point of departure for the evaluation has been more or less to adopt the standards employed in the German W&T Programme (cf. Kaplan 1964, p.171), rather than the - signifi­ cantly higher - standards of innovation prevailing in Japanese industry. Against this methodological background, and based on the course of deve­ lopment in all the projects conducted within the Programme we arrive at six key results regarding the effectiveness of the LOM Programme. '

- Excluding the 30 non-starters and the 10 drop-outs, 113 of the projects achieved innovative developments in communications and about 117 innova­ tions in the TOP areas, particularly in work organisation.

83

Frieder Naschold

figure 40 The development Path of the Total LOM Population

1 Initial population

178

original number

2 Enterprises

non-starters

3 Lom projects

drop outs

participating

4 Projects with

participating substantively

5 Initiation and support effects

6 Communicative innovation and development

7 TOP­ innovations

(diffuse autonomous development without further link to LOM programme)

(numbers in brackets: first number private sector organisations, second number public sector organisations)

- Contrary to our ex ante hypotheses, the number of projects in which the Progr amme itself initiated genuinely new developments was greater than that in which LOM had the effect of supporting and reinforcing already exis­ ting initiatives . The difference was not all that great, however. - As far as the time factor and the sustainability of innovations is concerned, our analysis reveals that all self-sustaining and innovative projects in the pri­ vate sector had a minimum project duration of three years; in the public sec­ tor this was true of 60% of projects of this type. - Considerable differences were recorded between innovation in the private and public sectors (following a broad, legally-oriented definition of the public sector). The most effective area for LOM activities was that of sup­ port effects in public-sector projects lasting at least 2.5 years. - The explanation for the predominance of such support effects in the public sector lies not only in the self-selection mechanisms at work within the LOM population (the absence of large, export-oriented enterprises from the metal­ working/engineering sector), but more importantly the tradition of intensive

84

Organization development

development efforts within the Swedish public administration, particularly since the beginning of the 1980s. Worthy of special mention in this context are the "RALS"-Programm e ("effective provincial administration") and the initiatives of the "National Fund for Administrative Development and Training for Government Employees". The fact that existing development programmes in the public sector had already established the deepest roots meant that it was here that - after a late start - the LOM Programme achie­ ved its most significant innovative developments. Here the time factor (>2.5 years) also played its part, as a number of the projects had already begun before LOM officially commenced operations. These support effects were primarily felt within the central-state and provincial administrations and in public industries and services, whereas in the health and social services at local level, it was the initiation effects of the LOM Programme which were dominant. ..,. The projects which brought about initiation effects, on the other hand, were concentrated within the framework provided by two research networks. As far as research policy is concerned, the ALC in Stockholm and the research network at Karlstad represent the two "centres of gravity" for ini­ tiation effects in both the private and public sectors. Most of the projects supported by the Karlstad group pursued a "green-field" approach, a finding which substantiates an important hypothesis of the LOM Programme, viz. the importance of regional research networks for local development proces­ ses. Finally, analysis of the relationship - examined above for our case studies ­ between project duration and communicative innovations and those in the TOP areas for the total LOM population provides confirmation of the hypo­ thesis developed earlier on the importance of the time factor. As can be seen from fig. 41 this is true of both communicative and TOP innovations. figure 41 Project Duration and Co=unicative and TOP Innovations (all projects n 72)

Number of projects 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

>1

>1 · <2

<2 · <2,5

>2,5 - 3

>3

The left half of each column indicates the number of projects that induced communicative innovations (black), the right half the TOP innovations (unfilled) P = projects in the private sector 0 = projects in the public sector

Frieder Naschold

The above illustration of this complex relationship tends to confirm the fin­ dings presented earlier, viz. - the dependence of both types of innovation on the time factor - the stable positive correlation between the two forms of innovation - the greater (and perhaps even excessive) amount of project time devoted to the "communicative infrastructure" relative to innovations in the TOP areas. How are these findings on the changes induced in the total LOM popula­ tion during the course of the Programme to be evaluated; how effective was the Programme in reaching its development goals? This simple question can be answered in four different ways.

(1) Taking as the point of departure the high expectations set by the LOM Programme itself, i.e. its own objectives, a success rate of around 33% in innovative communicative development and of 15% for innovation in the TOP areas seems meagre. It is this perspective which has led to a degree of disappointment regarding the effectiveness of the LOM Programme in the inner-Swedish discussion. However, it is important to remember when employing such a "success-rate model" that when an organisation sets pro­ gramme goals it always has other functions than merely goal attainment in mind: these include mobilising, dramaturgical and comparative functions. Equally, project developments are not guided solely by the intended goals of a programm e , but rather by a whole range of factors. Hence, the success-rate model is not an adequate frame of reference by which to evaluate the effecti­ veness of the LOM Programme. (2.) The diametrically opposing interpretation of the same findings takes the Programme's successes, the 15% of projects exhibiting a high level of pro­ gramme-effectiveness as its point of departure. As the forgoing analysis has shown, our evaluation of these projects has localised a number of issues and factors necessary for project success: support and initiation projects, project duration, the interpenetration of formal and parallel organisation etc. etc. If it were possible to generalise these conditions for the broad mass of projects, the LOM Programme would potentially be extremely effective. (3.) A third interpretation of these findings transcends the boundaries of the Swedish and Scandinavian discussions, drawing on international comparisons as an additional yard-stick. In methodological terms a somewhat unreliable approach, perhaps, but nonetheless valid. A study by Pasmore (1988), to quote one example, came to the conclusion that overall the international Action Research Movement had achieved relatively little in support of tech­ nical innovation, and that, in contradiction to the STSD approach, in the final analysis technology was often merely accepted as an invariable system. Moreover, his findings showed that the "(partially) autonomous groups" were employed as a "patent recipe" for organisational innovation. In other words, compared with the success rate of the more design-oriented STSD

86

Organization development

strategies, the degree of goal attainment reached by the LOM Programme appears satisfactory. A similar conclusion is reached if LOM is compared to the first period of the German W&T Programme (then known as the "Humanisation of Work Programme (HdA): see the intermediate report covering the period to 1980, HdA 1982). The LOM Programme, in its comparatively short life led more rapidly to a larger number of innovative project developments and "produ­ ced" more work of a conceptual nature than in the initial phase of the W&T Programme. On the other hand, the German Programme is now entering its 19th year, whereas LOM, like its two predecessors in Sweden, was limited from the outset to just five years. Functionally equivalent Japanese developments provide a third interna­ tional yard-stick (cf. Cole 1989, Naschold 1991). In line with the considerably longer project durations, a high degree of flexibility, and a very different overall approach of the Japanese "national programmes", innovative effects are more broadly based and the intensity of innovative development is higher. It is these developments which provide the backdrop to the producti­ vity and product-quality gap between different firms and national econo­ mies.

(4) The international comparison, and in particular the Japanese experience, also offer a fourth, very different interpretation, though. So far the evalu­ ations of the effectiveness of the Programme were based on the analysis of the impacts of the Programme (or its projects). The · output of the Programm e is then placed in relation to its "input factors", thereby providing a yard-stick for efficiency. Yet, Japan's best-practice firms take a very diffe­ rent perspective. Development processes are guided not by impact assessment but by the degree of control obtained over production processes. What is important is the level and precision of control over the input factors and the development processes themselves, which will then bring about the desired results "automatically" given time. On such a perspective measures of effectiveness are by no means adequate to the task of evaluating the suc­ cess of a programme. For it is impossible to determine the efficiency of the LOM Programme - a unit of development within an organisation with respect to a unit of resource input - given the heterogeneity of the various programme strategies. What can be stated is that the LOM strategy repre­ sents a low-cost approach, compared with, say, the German W&T Programme, so that it is assured at least a relatively high level of efficiency. Of course it is important to remember that the LOM Programme made no provision for subsidising technical investment. The W&T Programme has spent a considerable proportion of its resources on the development of new technologies, in accordance with the technology-drives approach on which the Programme is largely based. Thus a satisfactory answer cannot be given ­ under present conditions at least - to the question of the efficiency of the LOM Programme.

87

Frieder Naschold

At the very least analysis of a programme's impacts must be embedded in an analysis of the conditions and processes which constitute the programme and its projects. Such an analysis of the conditions exerting favourable and unfa­ vourable effects on the programme, in other words an attempt to provide an answer to the "why" behind the results of the pure impact assessment, has now become an established part of the methodology of more recent research into evaluation (see Rossi!Freeman 1985). Accordingly, we now turn in a concluding section to a brief analysis of the constitutive conditions and the overall processes of the LOM Programme. V. Contexts and Constellations: The Conditions for Process Control and the Effectiveness of the Programme

The degrees of process control and goal attainment achieved by a pro­ gramme clearly depend on a large number of diverse factors, constellations and contexts. To give an example; changes in ownership or of top manage­ ment were strikingly frequent occurrences within the LOM population during the course of the Programme. In each case these "critical incidents" led to the termination of on-going development processes. Such incidents even occurred in the concluding phase of the Programme: a number of firms were hard hit by a significant worsening of the economic climate, a constella­ tion which frequently led to not inconsiderable workforce cuts. This in turn often meant that the newly developed patterns of communication receded in favour of more traditional bargaining strategies. Such "external shocks" are excluded in the following analysis of the conditions for programme effective­ ness. Instead we concentrate our attention on a limited number of constella­ tions and contexts, both internal and external to the Programme, which in our view play a strategic role in determining the degrees of process control and of goal attainment of the Programme. We again take up the discussion of the strategic location of the LOM Programme which was dealt with in sec­ tion 11, together with the explicit comparison to developments in Germany and Japan, the aim being, via an analysis of the contingent factors to gain a deeper insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the Programme and of its "home environment" (Porter 1990, p.86f.). The fundamental idea underlying the LOM Programme: Strategic innova­ tions and contradictions

I.

The basic ideas behind the LOM Programme - developing communicative competence, mobilising the communicative and creative potential of as many process-participants as possible on the basis of equal rights for all, drawing on networks and a national infrastructure in establishing a close link between research and development - constitute the central mechanism of the Programme for generating innovative processes of change within organisa­ tions. This innovative conceptual development, centering around the concept of "democratic dialogue", the development of a "communicative infrastruc­ ture" for interactive and rational strategic action, is often seen - as numerous

88

Organization development

inter"Views in Sweden and abroad have witnessed - as possibly the most signi­ ficant and broadly relevant contribution, albeit a sort of "spin-off effect", of the whole Programme. This underlying conceptualisation contains elements which go well beyond that of the W&T Programme. For at the conceptual level, the German Programme has a central weakness. Its strategy for mobilising resource potential remains conservative, relying all too frequently on traditional con­ cepts: an orientation towards design by experts and specialists and a bargai­ ning system dominated by "power politics". It underutilises the available cre­ ative potential, requires relatively long start-up periods and did not discover the importance of networks until very late, and then employed them only half-heartedly. The basic concepts of the LOM Programme, on the other hand, can be seen, at least at the programmatic level, as functionally equiva­ lent to the innovation strategies of Japanese firms, while maintaining an orientation to Western values. At their respective strategic cores, the aim of both movements is to achieve a continuous, broad-based and relatively egali­ tarian utilisation of human potential. In Japan this has occurred against the background of a rather authoritarian, value-centred social context, in Sweden under more democratic conditions and on the basis of actors' calcu­ lations of their own individualistic rationality. And it is precisely at this point in the fundamental conceptualisation of the LOM Programme - the "DD" - that we identify a number of systemic con­ ceptual problems with far-reaching implications. A number of weak links in the conceptualisation of the LOM Programme - at its currei:J.t stage of deve­ lopment are dealt with in the following paragraphs. - The linguistic-philosophical foundations on which "DD" is based are close­ ly oriented to the concept of the formal or universal pragmatic functions of language (J. Habermas and others). But precisely "this notion of a formal pragmatics contains a formidable number of highly controversial claims and categorical distinctions" (White 1987, p.50). For the purposes of this evalu­ ation it will be sufficient to have pointed out this "chink" in the DD armour, without entering into it in further detail. - A second pillar of the "DD" concept is to be found in the classical theory of democracy (see, for instance Finley 1987). One of the basic premises of classical, normative democracy theory has always been the idea of a demo­ cratic dialogue with the participation of as many of those involved, and on as equal terms as possible. Clearly such normative basic premises are always to be seen in their historical and social context. In the LOM Programme these normative premises are set in the context of current transformation proces­ ses within Swedish enterprises, while at the same time they are accorded the status of the central generative mechanism for inducing development proces­ ses of a far-reaching nature. Yet at this point fundam�ntal theoretical pro­ blems arise between classical-normative democracy theory - with their orien­ tation to the historical context of the classic democratic state - and modem empirical-analytical democracy and regulation theory (e.g. the "governance approach", cf. Kitschelt 1992) in complex, highly internationalised societies. 89

Frieder Naschold

For modem democracy theory - in the wake of this "governance approach" ­ insists on the plurality of steering mechanism at both micro and macro levels, with no a priori justification for affording any one mechanism a privileged status. Seen from this perspective, it is the mediation between the plurality of modes of regulation and not the prioritisation of one approach, which is the fundamental issue of social steering processes. It is possible to illustrate this theoretical point by looking at empirical fin­ dings on processes of change and innovation within enterprises. The recent literature (see, for example, Briinnecke et al. 1991 ; Beer et al. 1990) has increasingly been concentrating on two indispensable "generative mecha­ nisms" of innovative organisational development in the present context: top and higher management as (at least) a vital "initiating centre"; and the necessity of new in-plant actor-constellations to replace the traditional hege­ monic alliance between top management, middle management and specialist groups of experts. These findings point to quite different steering mecha­ nisms than discursive processes. Hence, at the programmatic level the LOM Programme faces the challenge of providing a conceptual mediation between a plurality of very different generative mechanisms. - The fundamental programmatic idea of "democratic dialogue" contains another basic premise with far-reaching implications. Engelstad has provided a succinct and accurate formulation of this premise: "As a matter of fact, all the information required is usually directly available from the people in the workplaces, if only they can trust each other enough to share and further develop together the pieces of knowledge they already have" (Engelstad 1990, p.8). This premise implies that, as a rule, local knowledge and local theoretical development represent an adequate potential for innovative pro­ cesses of change. This may have once been the case in segmented economies and peripheral countries. Indeed, even within an international economy, one, moreover, in which the hegemonic production paradigm is in the course of a fundamental geographical shift, local knowledge and theorisation of course remain vital for all the necessary adjustment processes: here LOM's claim to validity is indisputable. Yet equally indispensable are "supra-local" resources of knowledge to enable actors to learn about - and from - these international developments. Faced with this "modem" problem, the LOM Programme has yet to provide a systematic, generative mechanism to tap such sources of information. - According to the DD concept it is networks - voluntary supra-enterprise associations for organisational discourse - that represent the central mecha­ nism for learning and differentiation processes above the level of the indivi­ dual enterprise. This basic idea has its functional equivalent in the learning and diffusion strategies of Japanese firms. Here too, networks between enterprises or within large concerns, either as strategic alliances or global networks, constitute the dynamic centres for processes of learning and diffu­ sion. Yet, the two network concepts differ fundamentally. Two aspects will suffice to illustrate this. In Japanese firms the individual members of a net­ work generally constitute an integral part of strategically coordinated pro­ duction chains. Participation in such networks is not simply a voluntaristic act of free association, but rather a constituent part of long-term relations of reciprocity. The way in which enterprise networks are constituted in Western 90

Organization development

Europe is not so very different. In both historical and systematic terms such networks are almost always built upon a specific function of the production process which represents a point of departure for the "process of exchange" (cf. Semlinger 1990). Seen in this light, networks are highly demanding and, initially at least, decidedly unstable configurations, which only arise in a com­ plex environment. 2. The status of the instruments and practices established by the LOM Programme

Above and beyond its basic conception, the effectiveness of a develop­ ment programme clearly depends essentially on the effectiveness of its ope­ rational concepts, its instruments and of the methods it has established. The German W&T Programme, for instance, in line with its unequivocal design-orientation, can build on the highly elaborated design standards of German engineering and social sciences: one of the Programmes major achievements has been to bring social-scientific aspects of design to the ori­ ginal design criteria which were dominated by engineering considerations, and to further extend the former by bringing the contextual conditions into the analysis. Despite all the efforts to the contrary, the realisation and diffu­ sion model on which the German Programme is based remains clearly orien­ ted towards a - slightly modified - top-down and expert-based approach within the framework of the legal stipulations governing codetermination in the workplace. The model guiding the diffusion phase is that of the "power of the leading example". By inference the central weaknesses of the W&T Programme lie in the conscious use of resource potential and the underlying realisation model. The Japanese quality-improvement movement, by contrast, is based on a broad range of both operational design and process standards, covering a whole series of diverse requirements. These include: management methods, the Plan, Do, Check, Action cycle, a blend of a methodology based on veri­ fying ·experimental hypotheses and systemic theoretical concepts, the Seven Tools of quality improvement, a popularised version of heuristic and algo­ rithmic engineering methods, the "QC story", a presentation format for public conferences, and a series of substantive orientation criteria, the stan­ dards of "continual improvement". Thus in the course of the Japanese quali­ ty movement a new "language game" and new communicative forms have been developed parallel to the traditional language of production: this can be seen as confirming one of LOM's basic premises. The point has been reached where this language game has been largely standardised at the national level, although innovative adjustments to local conditions remain necessary. In stark contrast to the LOM Programme, this language is C'OJ;lsciously "objecti­ ve", i.e. data-oriented. The language game is forced to strike a difficult balance between standardisation and the continual renewal and improve­ ment of these standards. The aim of this arsenal of instruments and its lin­ guistic embodiment is to maximise "operational effectiveness". If process 91

Frieder Naschold

control is achieved by the various actions of the workforce, then - according to the Japanese philosophy - positive results will follow "automatically". Comparison with both these national development programmes throws the strengths an weaknesses of the LOM Programme into clear relief. The strengths of the Swedish Programme , particularly compared with that in Germany, undoubtedly lie in its process-orientation founded on communica­ tive innovation and its broad-based mobilisation of the collective knowledge and energies of all participants, facilitating rapid agreement on action strate­ gies. The comparison with Japan, however, reveals the following operational inadequacies: - LOM's existing range of concepts and instruments - in particular the speci­ fic form of the start conference - are well tailored for the initial phase of pro­ grammes and projects: what is generally lacking, however, are medium-term concepts, methods and instruments for the subsequent course of projects and programmes. - There are few signs of an equivalent dialectic of national standardisation and local innovation (instrumental improvement) in the LOM Programme, although the Karlstad network represents a step in this direction. - The Programme is exclusively process-oriented and has as yet proved un­ able to develop explicit substantive design criteria which could support a tar­ geted course of process dynamics. At the same time, our empirical studies of the LOM projects has shown that the driving momentum for enterprise development processes only arises from a simultaneous design and process­ orientation.

3. Time management in the LOM Programme The experience of national and local development projects in recent years has led to a growing realisation of the critical importance of the time· structu­ re of development processes for the success of projects. During the foregoing analysis several references have already been made to such time factors. This sub-section brings together and summarises these findings with the aim of deriving some fundamental comparative perspectives on the profile of Swedish development programmes. Here a distinction must be drawn between the time structure and time management of projects within a pro­ gramme , the programme itself, and the relationship between different deve­ lopment programmes. We will be concentrating on the two initial questions pertaining to time management. The comparative figures given for project and programme durations in the above table must be considered as rough estimates based on the author's evaluation of the relevant literature or his own estimates. The differences between national programmes in this regard speak for themselves and an interpretation has been provided at an earlier stage of this evaluation.

In the present context our attention will concentrate on a comparison between the overall duration of the national programmes and their continui92

Organization development

figt.ire 42 The Time Structure of Development Programmes and Projects Countries

Tune DimeusioD Total duration

Degree of continuity

Project duration

Japan

since approximate 1960

continuous within national space and over time

3-7 years

FRG

since 1 973

continuous within national space and over time

2.5-6 years

STSD

since approximate 1960

discontinuous within space and over time

3-5 years

URAF Development Programme LOM

1 969-1973 1 982-1986

limited but continuous

average 2.5 years

1984-1990

ty over time and space. Fig. 42 provides a clear illustration of the long-term orientation and continuity of both the Japanese and German development programmes, and the stark contrast to the relatively short duration of the LOM Programme. At the same time the figure is also a warning against making a cursory comparison between the LOM Programme and the German and Japanese programmes. As was argued in section 11, it is not until the LOM Programme is seen as one developmental element in a Swedish historical tradition, that the overall profile, and consequently the specific status of the LOM Programme comes clearly into focus. - For many years the Swedish position in the field of research-supported organisational development was dominated by single projects (especially those with an ergonomic orientation). - During the 1970s some attempts to develop a coordinated programme were made (e.g. the URAF Programme, which placed an additional emphasis on questions of work organisation). - Against the background of the law on codetermination and the ensuing development agreements, the AMFO, supported by the collective organisa­ tions of workers and employers took the initiative to start up 5-year national programmes, which materialised in thee form of the "Development Programme" and, most recently, the LOM Programme. From the outset these programmes were strictly limited to a duration of about 5 years and a resource volume of around SEK 55 million. The financial and time-frame limits placed on Swedish development pro­ grammes and projects may well have its advantages in terms of political and administrative control and the economic use of resources, and these are clearly important arguments for Sweden's collective'qrganisations in their research strategies. Such a programmatic pattern does have certain grave implications, however, in particular the serious discontim.iities between pro­ grammes compared with national programmes in Sweden's most important competitor countries. 93

Frieder Naschold

figure 43 The Project Intensity of the LOM Programme (no . of projects started, ended and on-going)

Number of projects 60

50 __

.. .. ... o. . . . .

O......o··

. . . . o ..

·o

40

30

b. . ·

20

o

·

.

10

0

s -86

s -87 a -86

s -88 a -87

s -89 a -88

a -89

s -90

s -91 a -90

- Start 0 Ongoing - End

In the quantitative analysis of the total population of the LOM Programme (cf. appendix) the following comments are made on the project intensity of the LOM Programme: It is possible to trace the intensity of the Programme, defined as the num­ ber of on-going projects. There was a slow increase in the number of projects during 1987 and 1988, reaching a peak in 1989 and then declining rather rapidly in 1990. The duration of projects varies from half a year to 5 112 years. 21 (29% ) of the 72 projects lasted 3 years or more, the remainder were of shorter duration. A plausible conclusion would be that it takes a great deal of energy to get the Programme going, that the peak with a high intensity is very short and comes just before the Programme's end. Finally, large amount of work is required to finish the Programme. This represents a waste of resources, and a question-mark must be placed against the networks, among other goals of the Programme.

·

The following metaphor might provide the most apt description of the situation in which the LOM Programme finds itself: a triple-jumper takes a very long run-up; expending considerable amounts of his own energy and helped by a following wind he leaps up but is forced to end his jump after the first "hop" stage. 94

Organization development

this programm e-dynamic with Japanese and German 11 experiences one is all but forced to draw a number of far-reaching conclu­ sions with regard to the Swedish development programmes. -In the context of the current world economy, development programmes with a time frame such as those in Sweden enable resources to be mobilised Comparing

but prevent the full exploitation of the resource potential. - Such limited development programmes with their discontinuities over time make it more difficult to achieve organisational development based on pro­ cess control, and thus lack, at least measured against Japanese standards, a central conditional factor for development success. The continuing uncer­ tainties in the research sector, and specifically in the occupational biograp­ hies of researchers in the fields of organisational development and AR, is a pointed example of inadequate process control. - Development programmes on the Swedish financial and time-frame pat­ tern are without doubt low-cost programmes, particularly compared with the German W&T Programm e , in which, in addition to a significant investment component, considerable resources have been made available to develop research capacities. But the Japanese "development programm es" are also relatively inexpensive. International comparison strongly suggests that the success of development programm es which are very limited with respect to their time-frame and financial resources can itself be only limited, certainly with regard to their effectiveness, but probably also in terms of their efficien­ cy: low-cost programm es are not necessarily high-efficiency programmes. It is likely that the time dimension frequently serves merely as an indicator for problems which actually lie elsewhere. This section concludes with a brief discussion of three such constellations. 4.

The use of research as a programme-resource

The previous analyses of "research" as a resource within the LOM Programme have provided a sketch of its strengths and weaknesses as meas­ ured by indicators such as the professional origins, experience and institu­ tional background of the research personnel involved, and by means of a study of the effectiveness of the "products" of this research activity and the inherent dilemmas of the role of researcher in development processes. The time structure of Swedish development programmes just discussed raises a number of fundamental questions regarding "sectoral research" in Sweden and the established academic system - this again on the basis of an interna­ tional comparison. The limitations and discontinuities of national development programmes in Sweden over the last 20 years have had the consequence that scientific­ academic resources have been mobilised and then applied for a limited period, to deal with new problems as they arose. :Each time, as the initiated processes come to an end, an equally short-lived prqcess of de-investment begins. In terms of individual researchers' occupational biographies this means that they must either accept living off ad-hoc project support in the longer term, must resort to offering private advisory services or must move

95

Frieder Naschold

into a completely different occupational sphere.

A policy

based on relatively

short project cycles leading to a discontinuous overall development makes it difficult, or even impossible to build up an experienced scientific personnel­ potential of the required size and quality for work with development pro­ grammes. Even when a medium-term programme-cycle is actually in operation research neither receives adequate support, nor is its potential fully exploi­

A programme such as LOM which works primarily with young scientists AMFO indeed took some steps in this direction - for the first time - within the framework of the LOM

ted.

is requires suitable supporting measures. The

Programme, in the form of joint workshops, research networks, programmes for those writing doctoral theses, summ er schools etc. However, the majority of these measures did not commence until the final third of the Programm e, i.e. after the most intensive phase of project work. Given that the dominant theoretical-methodological tradition within the Swedish university system is at best sceptical about this sort of research, institutional support for research in the development programme was not forthcoming from this source. The implications of this cyclical programme-policy for scientific personnel have knock-on effects for the collation of knowledge itself. Even long-term, continuous programmes such as the German W&T Programme face conside­ rable difficulties in accumulating the theoretical and practical knowledge gai­ ned in the course of programme activities. Clearly, the discontinuity of deve­ lopment activity further exacerbates the socially desirable accumulation of knowledge in the field of organisational development. From the· point of view of the scientific-academic system itself, a research policy based on short cycles of development projects and programmes must be seen as taking a decidedly instrumental view of science, according to which science can be employed at

will and without limits to solve problems

defined and continually redefined by day-to-day political requirements. The available literature on this topic and the interviews conducted by the author seem to indicate that this reflects a long tradition within the Swedish acade­ mic system, which has left its mark on both basic and sectoral research. From an international comparative perspective the challenge facing . national development processes in Sweden, i.e. for sectoral research (and by implication also for the established academic system), is to mobilise and sta­ bilise its central resource - namely scientific research - in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Such a stabilisation within research policy must be considered an essential element in the battle to gain control over develop­ ment processes and an indispensable element in the accumulation of know­ ledge. Comparison with other countries reveals very diverse forms by which the "resource scientific research" can be stabilised. Swedish policy makers should make a considered choice between a combination of flexible and con­ tinuous research structures: the alternative to short-term programm e cycles is certainly not to be found in the bureaucratic ossification of national research efforts.

96

Organization development

5. ·The interface between the traditional organisation/management and the innovative development organisation At both the conceptual and practical levels the LOM Programme expe­ riences a tension between the communicative development strategy of DD and traditional forms of organisation, and in particular with middle and upper management. The findings presented above have already indicated a "gap" in the Programme at this point, despite the fact the "leadership" was supposed to be one of LOM's three central themes. The view of the "deve­ lopment organisation" as a "parallel organisation" to the classical hierarchy is contained only implicitly in the LOM Programm e . With regard to management activities, we have already developed the hypothesis that management was more heavily involved in the Programm e than had originally been anticipated, but that these efforts alone were inade­ quate to ensure the success of projects. We see this weakness as symptomatic of the systematic "understeering" of the LOM projects (see below). A similar gap can also be detected in the German W&T Programme. W&T lacks - in both quantitative and qualitative terms - adequate projects oriented towards management, nor have the conceptual, organisation-theo­ retical process and design criteria, nor the instruments needed for manage­ ments to become more active within the context of the Programme been developed. In contrast to the LOM Programme , however, W &T is implicitly based on an "integrative" model of the traditional and. the development organisation. Of course such a model is also more easily reconciled to the classic top-down approach. At this point a look at the Japanese experience can again help to provide an orientation. Empirical work on the mode of operation of the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement at shop-floor level have convincing­ ly shown that only where management continuously performed three func­ tions were TQM developments both successful and sustainable: - continuous non-directive support for these developments by providing resources and legitimation; - continuous and active evaluation of these developments with immediate feedback to the quality groups, both tasks also involving upper management - day-to-day promotion and counselling by lower management. It has been shown, furthermore, that such development processes require specific organisational linkages, corresponding neither to the "integrative" nor to the "parallel-organisation" models. The aim of Japanese organisation­ al policies is to develop hybrid forms of organisation. These provide a frame of action for quality improvement which is loosely linked to the management of the traditional organisation, and which is neither cbmpletely voluntaristic and arbitrary, nor strictly hierarchical (Lillrank/Kano 198�). Thus the Japanese experience points to significant weaknesses in program­ matic conception; with the W&T Programme this lies in "oversteering" and

97

Frieder Naschold

in the

LOM

Programme in "understeering". An important challenge still

awaits management in the conceptual development and the experimentation with management-participation models in continuous development proces­ ses, with the aim of increasing the level of process control and thus the "ope­ rational effectiveness" of such programmes.

6. The national infrastructure: Its contribution to process control within the LO M Programme In section Ill of this report we drew attention to the eminent importance, in line with

R.

Cole's analysis

ture - in the case of the

LOM,

(1989),

of a macropolitical national infrastruc­

consisting of Sweden's collective organisations,

LOM Board and thee Working Party of the Secretariat on the one hand, AMFO on the other. Earlier - in section II - the wide diversity of

and the

such national infrastructures had been mentioned and illustrated by means of a three-country comparison. Our conclusion was that in this regard the

LOM

Programm e was characterised on the one hand by a high degree of

corporatist penetration and structuring, and, on the other, by the lack of a systematic, direct link to the enterprise. We decided to pursue two hypotheses in the course of our expert inter­ views in order to analyse the mode of operation of this infrastructure (con­ centrating for the moment on the B oard, its working party and Secretariat): The two hypotheses were: - the (over-)bureaucratisation of this steering structure - the selectivity of the steering structure It was possible to check these hypotheses during our expert interviews as our discussions with

LOM

specialists enabled us to reconstruct a number of

decision-making processes typical of the

LOM

Programme.

If bureaucratisa­

tion is conceived as the excessive horizontal and vertical segmentation of steering structures, and the problems to which this gives rise, then the first hypothesis can be refuted: by and large the most important decision-making processes seem to have been processed by the Secretariat, and rapidly and conclusively dealt with by the various responsible bodies. The selectivity hypothesis could only be validated to a limited extent. The private sector, and in particular its central organisations, were unquestiona­ bly overrepresented on the B oard and the (more important) working party. However, the strategic decision taken by the B oard in

1 986

consciously to

incorporate both the public sector and small and medium-sized firms meant that the practical effects of this personnel-structural selectivity were of little import. Thus our evaluation of the role played by the national infrastructure in the

LOM Programme increasingly ses:

98

came to be dominated by two other hypothe­

Organization development

-·the under-utilisation of the support-potential of this infrastructure, and - the restriction of the "space for improvement" by the infrastructure itself. The LOM Board was constituted as a high-level committee bringing together almost all of the relevant groups in Sweden. Its task was to formula­ te, legitimise and exert a controlling influence over the strategic objectives of the Programme , to obtain required information, to survey participating orga­ nisations and provide other services for the Programme, and to "proselytise" enterprises into participation in the Programme. Our expert interviews re­ vealed, however, that the Board as a whole delegated the tasks of political programming, evaluation and control - with the exception of the sole strate­ gic decision mentioned above - to its working party and Secretariat, so that its three to six-monthly meetings were of a somewhat ritual nature. Those decisions that were made by the Board were thus reached by implication and through the traditional mode of bargaining rather than in open discourse. This led the Board as a whole to become increasingly passive, so that its potential was very much underutilised, being restricted more or less to those members who were also active in the working party. The internal dynamic which occurred within the macropolitical steering structure of the LOM Progr amme led to a not inconsiderable shift of empha­ sis within the Programme. In his study of the 1970s and early 1980s,

R.

Cole

in the course of a comparison between the Japanese QC movement and simi­ lar trends in Sweden pointed to the restrictions on the "space of improve­ ment" (Lillrank!Kano 1989) and its negative consequences for competitive­ ness and innovation on the Swedish side: "By evolving into circles, formerly elitist quality-control ideas could be adopted by a whole sector of the labor­ force that had hitherto been excluded from involvement. By way of contrast, I have suggested how in Sweden managers saw the democratic ideas of the Tavistock researchers as threatening, and thus sought to purge them of their radical implications. While this facilitated initial acceptance by managers, thereby ensuring some significant diffusion, it also drained the movement of long-term spontaneous support on the part of workers and the unions" (Cole 1989,p. 1 18). Thus as early as the 1 970s and early 1 980s it was clear how changes within the macropolitical constellation could lead to a change of emphasis within national development programmes. The picture is similar in Germany, where the programme on the humanisation of work, which had originally been essentially a demand-side programme , was converted to an emphasis on sup­ ply-side aspects in the course of the political sea-change of the early 1980s. On the positive side, this meant that the German Programme became more open for questions of enterprise innovation, and its consensual basis was broadened. The price for such an opening was a "
99

Frieder Naschold

An analogous reorientation could be observed during the course of the LOM Programme. The initially "radical" basic idea of DD - the horizontally and vertically open discourse between all those involved as a generative mechanism for innovative development within and between organisations was transformed in the course of a number of discussions in 1986 into the pragmatic instrument of the "start conference" at which the various hierar­ chical levels of the enterprise could participate.

It is still unclear what price has been paid by the participants in this trade­ off between macropolitical consensus and radical innovation at the micro level.

The second "supporting pillar" is of course the AMFO as the most impor­ tant and experienced Swedish promoter of projects in the area of the "wor­ king environment". As has already been shown - in section Ill - after its experience as a purely financial promoter for the URAF Programme in the early 1970s and the Development Programme of 1982, with the LOM Programme it for the first time entered the complex and complicated arena of supporting and steering a national development programme. As has been shown, the LOM Programme represented a new order of magnitude in terms of the com­ plexity of the programm e's objectives and in the large number and diversity of the organisations involved. This challenge led the AMFO to expand the range of its supportive measures during the course of the Programme. A start-up and a post-LOM phase were initiated (the latter under a special post-LOM Board); programmes were set up for those writing doctoral the­ ses, with quasi-institutional support provided in some regional centres. Provision was made for an international evaluation of the Programme, and at the same time other development programmes rather different in nature were initiated. However effective or ineffective these additional efforts by the AMFO have been, the preceding analysis clearly points to two central new challen­ ges for Swedish development programm es if they are to build on their long and successful history. - to push ahead with broad-based, radical, field development programmes; - to develop forms of institutionalisation of a "critical mass" of high-quality research establishments and development innovations which are both stable over time and at the same time flexible. Given the radical nature of Japanese development strategies, both these challenges must be seen as very much on the day-to-day agenda of Swedish development strategies. The macropolitical steering structure - the collective organisations of both workers and employers and the relevant ministries are once again approaching a crossroads in their development. For the AMFO, too, important changes in programme management are at hand. For the conscious step towards long-term, complex and continuous development strategies necessitates, among other things, the further development of some 100

Organization development

of its working hypotheses and premises.

A

clear move must be made away

from the administrative steering of programmes towards a "management by policy". An organisational infrastructure for complex field programmes must

be developed, and time-management oriented towards the longer term. The

main task of Sweden's collective organisations lies in developing - both quali­ tatively and quantitatively - and protecting its most important programme

resources: a highly qualified and motivated R&D potential both within

enterprises and as part of the scientific community as a necessary condition

for process control within development programme s, and thus of their effectiveness.

VI. Do We Need National Programmes to Promote Local Innovative Development?

A

controversial and prolonged debate is currently in progress in the

Federal Republic of Germany on whether (and

if so how) national program­

mes in support of local development initiatives should be further developed.

This is one of the main themes in the discussion surrounding the "refocu­ sing" of the responsibilities of government.

The lines of battle used to be drawn between those favouring targeted,

direct state intervention based on comprehensive government development

programme s, even where this runs counter to long-term market trends, and those in favour of a strategy of deregulation. The latter group pointed to the

allocative inefficiency of government subsidies, the substantial take-away

effects involved in subsidisation, the creation of ossified bureaucratic structu­ res and the competitive distortions compared with the given "comparative advantages" of a nation, region or sector

1991).

(cf.

Deregulierungskommission

The supporters of direct government intervention based their argu­

ments on the need for macroeconomic stabilisation and the externalities and other forms of market failure in a competitive economy.

It has increasingly become accepted in the course of the debate that the

controversy cannot in the final analysis be decided at the theoretical level.

For this reason we would like to draw attention to some empirical findings concerning organisational innovation in the context of the global competitive

situation which attempt to throw a rather more pragmatic light on this deba­

te within economic and social theory.

The late "discovery" - after a time-lag of a good

15

years - of the new

Japanese competitive strategies based on its innovative enterprise model illu­

strates not only the "organisational conservatism in management consultan­

cy" (W. Staehle

1991) but also the extraordinarily limited nature of the "ana­ 1991) made by Western firms. The Japanese

lyses of competition" (Jiirgens

strategy revealed that the effectiveness of market adjustment mechanisms at least in the strategic high-tech sectors - is only limited, and that at best

they function only with considerable time lags. Given the dynamics of corn-

101

Frieder Naschold

petitive processes in today's world, such lags could have decisive, possibly irreversible consequences. In other words, systematic and endogenous elements of market failure cam exist in the strategic core areas of modem economies, in particular those high-tech sectors of an "infrastructural nature", according to the criteria of "dynamic" or "Schumpeterian" efficiency (Johnson et al. 1989; Borrus 1988). The growth of the Japanese economy, particularly since the Second World War and compared with that of the US economy, is seen as offering a clear illustration of this argument. According to the classical theory of (static) comparative advantage Japan should have taken "its" place in the interna­ tional division of labour with a labour-intensive, low production-cost compe­ titive strategy. The opposite was in fact the case. Taking a long-term, dyna­ mic perspective of efficiency - which does not necessarily imply a conscious, long-term strategy - "comparative advantages" for Japanese goods and servi­ ces were "created", as the product of a sometimes consensual, sometimes conflictual, but always communications-intensive interaction between the state and the business sector, under the participation of a number of select social groupings (Abbeglen 1986). The competitive advantages of today's Japanese economy, the subject of world-wide astonishment, is thus not the "automatic" result of given, static comparative advantages, but the Eroduct of coordinated strategies pursued by a diverse range of actor-systems . In addition to the Japanese example the lessons learned from interventio­ nist strategies in Western countries are also worthy of consideration. German strategies of this type bear witness to the fact that programmes cen­ tred around financial incentives largely generate take-away effects, and serve at best to support or accelerate, but not to initiate innovation. On the other hand, empirical evaluation studies have shown that intricately structured "enabling programmes", consisting of a mixture of consultancy and informa­ tion, aid in establishing and mediating contacts, operating with very limited financial incentives (aid with initial financing, seed money) are able to gene­ rate innovative effects. In the area of production technology, for instance, nationally supported enterprises have brought in an autonomous planning stage in designing their investment programmes, in which they have received professional expertise - linked to cooperation with the works council - which has led to considerably more innovative forms of organisation than those developed in control groups (on this subject see the numerous evaluations conducted by the ISA, for example in F. Meyer-Kramer 1991). In contrast to the American model based on individual firms and private consultancy services, but without accompanying research and support struc­ tures at the macropolitical level, two generative mechanisms are especially striking which may well constitute necessary preconditions for furthering and diffusing innovation: - public research providing a critical evaluation of processes of change within organisations and their position vis a vis the competitive environment; 102

Organization development

·

- social discourse as an essential determinant of rational and consensual action in terms of a broad-based mobilisation of resource potential. It is difficult to see how privately organised, single-case programmes can generate these two "public goods" that are so important for innovative deve­ lopment of a far-reaching and long-term nature. In view of the international competitive situation mentioned at the begin­ ning of this report Sweden very much stands at the crossroads with regard to its research-supported, local development strategies within the framework of national support structures: - it can concentrate solely on improving its macro-parameters, in the hope that reform on the micro level will automatically ensue as a result of the wor­ kings of market forces; this would be increasingly to distance itself from the success of the Japanese development model and its development dynamic, it would, in other words, be to pursue a "non-learning" strategy. - It can maintain the present pattern of its development strategies, along with their historic pioneering role, their discontinuities, restrictions and pro­ blems of understeering: given the dynamic environment in which Sweden finds itself, however, "standing still" in this way is tantamount to a step back­ wards. - It can attempt to improve on its own strengths both by building on its own experiences and taking account of those made in other countries. The third strategy is in accordance with the views and recommendations of the "Panel on Productivity" (1991) in three main aspects; the need for a holistic strategy, the necessity of combining a "stable" (SOU 1991 :82, p.30) macro-economic stabilisation policy with efficient microeconomic innovative development; and the "parallelisation" of the various development proces­ ses. From the perspective of this evaluation the Panel's report contains a signi­ ficant omission, however, one linked directly to the "process problem". Systematically absent from the Panel Report is a discussion of the operative approaches by which such development processes are actually to be initiated and how operative process control is to be achieved. But this is precisely the central thrust of the LOM Programme: to facilitate the initiation and consti­ tution of development processes. The further development of communica­ tion-based national development programmes would do well to take on board some of the lessons learned by the LOM Programme. Of these the evaluation team considers the following particularly relevant. - The incorporation of design elements into the process structure of develop­ ment programmes in order to "radicalise" the organisational vision in terms of a significant expansion of the "room for improvement". - The development of communicative instruments above and beyond the dialogue conference and in creative imitation Qf Japanese instruments of ' improvement. - The awareness of a minimum project-duration for both individual develop­ ment projects and entire programmes in order to avoid discontinuities and to aid the accumulation of knowledge and research resources. Here too, the 103

Frieder Naschold

experience gained in Japanese (and to some degree also German) program­ mes and projects may provide the inner-Swedish discussion with at least an orientation. - The relationship of the innovative organisational development to the for­ mal organisational structure of the enterprise, and specifically to the various tiers of management, would appear to be of crucial importance. Strong sup­ port for organisational development processes on the part of management and also by the enterprise-section of the trade union - is just as vital as it is to protect the innovation process from the incursion of the traditional hierar­ chy. The relationship between formal organisation and innovation, between managerial hierarchies and the radical mobilisation of resource potential constitute "interfaces" within processes of organisational development which are still largely shrouded in obscurity. - The necessity of underpinning local development process with a "national innovative infrastructure". Here too Japanese experience - in stark contrast to the American tradition of adversarial practices and non-cooperation between the central actors of the system, with its implications for productivi­ ty growth - offers encouragement to push ahead with the maintenance, stabi­ lisation and creative further development of the complex interaction between microeconomic development processes and macropolitical structu­ res. In their efforts to pursue the further development of macropolitical stee­ ring structures the Boards and the various support organisations involved in the Programme are called upon to promote a form of creative further deve­ lopment which transcends the barren dichotomy of state interventionism and deregulation programmes. In this regard, too. it is evident that Sweden is more likely to learn about "transformational leadership" (Oshry 1977) from a study of developments in Japan than the USA. At the end of the twentieth century the classical model of the "division of labour" between the state and the private sector is simply no longer adequate to a globalised economy with its sectoral and international strategies of competitiveness and production location. West European policy makers, faced with the relationship between firms and the modem state, must aim to achieve a modem and innovative macro arrangement of national institutional framework when seeking to link steering at the macro, with innovation processes at the micro level.

104

· Notes

Further information on the

URAF Programme can be found in

the appendix,

cf. also Sandberg

1982; Oscarsson et al. 1990). For the sake of clarity and comparability, this point is illustrated by comparing STSD criteria (based on van Eijnatten) with a list of criteria given by Pasmore (1988). It is therefore functionally

equivalent development programmes which are compared, whose

structures may well differ, somerimes fundamentally, (e.g. some are clearly dominated by the

state, others by collective organisations, while others are under the control of firms.

Empirically the following paragraphs are based on the author's own experience and on expert interviews, together with comparative studies conducted at the WZB (Jtirgens et al. 1989; Naschold 1991). See also Cole 1989; Lillran k!Kano 1989; Weisbrod 1 989 and many others). This comparison is restricted to "enterprise-project" programmes which are clearly work-oriented, and thus ignores other types of national programme in both countries. The author has drawn on a small sample of projects from the project status reports made by the governing body of the German Programme from the last five years, checking the figure against documentary evidence and confirming it in telephone interviews. These comparative figures are based on analysis of the project status reports of the W&T Programme. Seven ofthe following ten process types (nos. 4-10) are based on the intensive case studies carried out by the evaluation team, and are described in detail in the Appendix to this evaluation report. The sample (n=50) was selected randomly by the author from the project list published in the pro 10

ject status reports from 1985 on. Additional information was drawn on and the results evaluated.

11

used.

Please refer to the appendix to the German Evaluation Report for details on the ordinal scales

I would like to express here my gratitude to the W&T Programme sponsors in Bonn for their tho discuss the W&T Programme openly. The com­ ments on the Programme in this report remain, of course, the full responsibility of the author. There is only space here to mention in passing, that the view of MITI as the central governing rough documentation and the opportunity to

12

body responsible for economic intervention is still a widespread misconcep

tion (cf. Samuels

1989).

105

Frieder Naschold

Commentaries on the Evaluation Report by the German Experts from the Field

Comments by Dr. Hans-Wolfgang Hirschbrunn and Ulf-Wilhelm Kuhlmann, Daimler-Benz A G on the Evaluation of the L OM Programme

For many years now Sweden has enjoyed a reputation for experimenting with relatively open forms of work organisation. In addition, the way in which Swedish trade unions are able to exert an influence on labour-market policies, and the country's social-policy legislation, considered radical by many, have meant that Sweden has attracted considerable attention from its European neighbours. In view both of this general interest and the fact that organisational deve­ lopment and active social-scientific developments in the world of work are accorded great importance at Daimler-Benz, we were pleased to take the opportunity of participating in the evaluation of the LOM Programme. Orientation

We wish to make it clear from the outset that we do not consider it our task to comment on the scholarship of the evaluation report, nor will we be considering the place of the LOM research programme within the various theories of development research. Our comments pertain to the reports presented by researchers and other participants at the conference held in February 1991 in Stockholm, the evi­ dently extremely thorough work of the German LOM-evaluation team, a number of case studies and on publications by other (Swedish) researchers involved with the Programme. At this point we would like to express our broad agreement with the conclusions reached in the evaluation report. Our perspective on, and frame of reference for the report are those of practitioners, closely involved in an on-going process of development in their own organisation. Our experience, particularly in recent years, has shown how necessary it is to face the fact that organisations are not closed systems, but are exposed to the influences of their environment, and, at the same time, are themselves able to exert some degree of influence on the world­ wide environment. Consequently, our approach to the LOM Programme will be concentrate on its results and its efficiency. In order to judge what is new and different about the LOM Programme it would seem most appropriate to proceed by identifying its aims, illuminating its methods, and then assessing the degree of goal attainment. One way of facilitating this task is via a brief interpretation of certain other development programmes, which were also referred to in the course of the evaluation report.

106

Organization development

The German Work and Technology Programme The German W&T Programme is the successor to the "Research on the Humanisation of Working Life" Programme, which began in

1974.

The

Programme operates with the support of three federal ministries, whereby responsibility for the planning, coordination and conduct of the research programme lies with the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology. The support for research and development provided by the W&T Programme is closely linked to a process of permanent change in technology and work organisation. Support is made available in situations where research and development that is closely oriented towards economic and technical goals leads to problems for which enterprises, administrative units and other social organisations and institutions cannot find appropriate solutions on their own. These situations usually arise where the consequences of structural change are such that they can only be met by developing innovative approaches to personnel management, work organisation, training, and product and pro­ cess design. The aim is to find pragmatic solutions to problems within the working environment as they arise and within existing structures and forms of regulation. Consequently the invitation to participate in the W&T Programme is extended equally to enterprises, organisations and research institutions. In line with the realisation that attempts to :rut the results of earlier research projects into practice using norms, legal stipulations and other regulatory forms had been largely unsuccessful, it was decided to orient new research projects "more closely to practical needs".

In many cases the most successful experiences with the practical use of research results were made where the user-organisations were involved not only with determining the research objectives, but also in the research pro­ cess itself and its on-going evaluation, and conducted independent realisa­ tion projects. It is not necessary for our present purposes to describe the W&T Programme in further detail. The brief description offered should suffice to have revealed the following important points: both W&T and the LOM Programme take as their starting point the necessity of confronting the per­ manent changes in working conditions and international processes of struc­ tural change. However, whereas the W&T Programme aims to promote a clearly praxis-oriented research approach, LOM, with its unequivocal pro­ cess-orientation, is founded on the view that problems will emerge in the course of a dialogue, in whose solution several group-interests will in most cases have a stake, so that a solution will begin to e�erge almost "automati'

cally".

107

Frieder Naschold

Japanese development programmes The extraordinary purposefulness found in Japanese marketing strategies is also built into the structure of Japanese development programmes. The "legendary" MITI is continually initiating new research programmes, which are usually so constituted that they penetrate deep into the participating organisations, whereby the support provided by the professional associations plays an important role.

In

each programme "visions of the future" are elaborated with respect to

the themes which will be important over a five or ten-year period in the social, technological and work-organisational spheres. Research institutions and offices of the state administration are involved along with the relevant branches of industry. The questions posed are usually along the lines of: "What will we need in the future?" and "What must we do to achieve this?". Social-scientific know-how is directly linked to - strictly customer-oriented product development. This provides the participating

firm

(which has been

successful in a previous selection process) with first-rate research results which - although according to the framework of the MITI programmes they have to be published - provide the enterprise in question with a significant market advantage for a limited period. The link to the enterprise is not established through organisational deve­ lopment within the

firm

,

but rather by continually pursuing (typically)

Japanese team organisation. Participation or membership in teams, improve­ ment groups, or quality circles is obligatory: the success, status, pay and pro­ motion of each individual worker are largely determined by the extent to which the individual subordinates him/herself to the aims of the group, sec­ tion or firm by the extent that such goals are met, and by the contribution ,

made to "Kaizen".

The LOM Programme What is striking about the LOM Programme in comparison to the two programmes just described is its extremely open approach. Although the backdrop to LOM is also provided by expected or imminent requirements for changes in the working environment as a whole - in both the public and private sectors - it is not the primary aim of the LOM Programme to solve

specific aspects of a given situation. On the contrary, LOM seeks nothing less than a "democratic restructuring of the economy and the public administration in Sweden"

(B.

Gustavsen:

Democratic Labour-Market Policies with the LOM Programme in Sweden). The degree of penetration into Swedish economic life which LOM is expec­ ted (or hoped) to achieve is also very considerable. Initially it was thought that one of LOM's most important instruments, the "network" "can cover the larger part, or indeed the whole of Swedish working life, functioning as an infrastructure out of which changes and development can grow, and where resources can be found for ideas, support etc." (Gustavsen)

108

Organization development

Such lofty expectations obviously beg the question to what extent the LOM idea has been realised. Of the 72 projects constituting the Programme 18 clusters were formed. The finding that in most of these clusters only one or two meetings were held indicates that this instrument was barely realised at all in practice. (Within the research system, which had also been explicitly called upon to form clusters, only one such research network was actually identified.) In our view this finding points to a fundamental weakness within the European economic system. Just as in the LOM Programme, the W&T Programme has so far had little success in establishing intra-sectoral net­ works (not to mention those transcending sectoral boundaries) to work together on problems and realise solutions. Although Japanese firms conti­ nue in many respects to stand in a competitive relationship vis a vis one an­ other, they have undoubtedly been much more successful in this field. Another instrument fundamental to the LOM Programme is the start con­ ference. On the available evidence it seems to have been a frequently and successfully used means of getting to grips with problems. According to the initial methodological conception, a group of organisations (ideally four) were to develop a common understanding of a particular problem area during the start conference. The policy of changing the horizontal and verti­ cal composition of the participating groups aimed to increase the mutual comprehensibility and acceptance of other opinions and to mitigate the "deference to hierarchy". Evidently a substantial potential for learning was made available and utilised in such conferences, even in those ("homogene­ ous") cases where a conference was conducted within a single organisation and project. In the context of these start conferences, and the first steps that were taken towards networking, it is important to identify how projects within the LOM Programme came about in the first place. The underlying philosophy of the Programme clearly led to the expectation (or at least the hope) that once the Programme was underway participation would spread pretty much of its own accord: "It is assumed that enterprises decide to participate becau­ se they want to do something about their pressing problems, which have to be dealt with in some way or other." (Gustavsen). That this self-sustaining diffusion did not occur to the extent expected is shown both by the absolute number of projects and by the fact that the plan­ ned duration of the Programme (a modest five years) had to be extended to enable the projects which began late to be completed.

In addition to the approximately 50 researchers involved with the Programme , a number of whic:.t conducted their own survey work, the link­ up of the individual organisation to the LOM Programme was provided by "actors in the enterprise in question based on a perceived - often by bipartite committees - need for development". Frequently contact was not directly to

109

Frieder Naschold

the LOM Secretariat, but rather mediated through other institutions. In the majority of cases the enterprises joined LOM following an approach by a superior organisation (typically a trade association), i.e. the organisations/ enterprises themselves were passive. It was not possible to determine exactly how intensive and appropriate the campaign promoting participation in the LOM Programme was. Still, a num­ ber of case studies would seem to indicate that some projects arose because LOM was "in the right place at the right time", i.e. because under the pres­ sure of the need to make adjustments enterprises were interested in taking advantage of the offer of research support and back-up for their develop­ ment work. The financial incentives on offer for project work evidently also provided an initial impetus or had a positive effect on the course of develop­ ment; some projects were wound up when LOM support came to an end. The level of adjustment pressure faced by many of the participating orga­ nisations seems to have had a very activating influence. A noteworthy phe­ nomenon was the predominance of the public over the private sector. Here criticism of a lack of sensitivity to users' and customers' requirements increased the willingness to countenance innovation. All the projects reported the more or less intensive use of one instrument, the democratic dialogue, whose positive effects in terms of changes in com­ municative structures should not be underestimated. Although it is not possi­ ble to go into the criteria in further detail here (see the evaluation report), we register striking similarities to many approaches to organisational deve­ lopment currently being practiced - in different forms and to a varying extent - in Germany. While not ignoring detailed, day-to-day problems, quality or workshop cir­ cles and other participatory projects are primarily aimed at longer-term lear­ ning concepts and at improving the overall competence of the operational unit in question. What is particularly striking here is the objective, in sharp contrast to traditional hierarchical structures, of promoting the communicati­ ve competence of

all

the participating employees as a precondition for their

participation in decision-making and responsibility. Organisational development projects in sections and other units of a larger firm are aimed at solving problems affecting particular areas in a way which transcends hierarchical boundaries. Whether or not accompanied by external consultants such projects can/should initiate far-reaching changes in structu­ res, work organisation, patterns of communication and internal-external relations. A development impact for the firm as a whole is seen as desirable (or is at least tolerated). This is reflected in the fact that, as in the LOM Programme, human-resource and organisational problems represent the cen­ tral thematic concerns.

110

Organization development

An important aspect in assessing the impacts of a programme is the stability

of the changes over the longer term. Not only do projects on the scale possi­ ble under the LOM Programme have to run for a certain minimum time if, even given the greatest willingness to innovate, sustainable solutions are to be reached, an adjustment period is also required in order firmly to anchor new forms of intercourse and effective communication. On this point, it is reported that in a number of projects described as "self­ sustaining" considerable workforce reductions were made. This occurred "without regard to the dialogue principle, resorting to traditional principles of bargaining", possibly indicating that the newly developed forms of com­ munication were still too fragile, allowing actors to "fall back" to behaviour­ al patterns characteristic of the pre-LOM phase. The overall number of pro­ jects continuing beyond their actual project duration (about 30% ) is very encouraging and is an indication of the effectiveness of the instruments which LOM has introduced. In conclusion we would like to take a brief look at - to some extent at least - comparable processes of change in the German economy. An orientation here is provided by some of the words and phrases currently en vogue: group work, lean management and profit centre, for example. In our view there is much to support the claim that within the German economy - the only one on which we have the necessary information - signifi­ cant, broad-based efforts are currently being made to distill the real meaning of these fashionable phrases and to use them in developing genuine answers to the international challenges facing it. Particularly evident is the desire not merely to transfer Japanese patterns to the German context. European views on participation by all employees are being extended, with a view to both a shift in the distribution of responsibilities, and improvement in the economic position of the firm and the work situation of all the employees. Decentralisation, the acceleration of decision-making processes, incre­ asing flexibility are some of the objectives and projects which have been taken up at all levels. The number of participants attending meetings held by, for instance, the Institute for International Research, running into the hundreds, bears witness to the active interest in, the willingness to act on, and the level of consciousness of developmental needs. These developments would appear to confirm, the ambitious, radical thrust of the LOM Programme, based on the incorporation of many or all organisations in a process of national change. The efforts being made to widen the coverage of such processes are certain to be rewarded. Dr. Hans-Wolfgang Hirschbrunn Ulf-Wilhelm Kuhlmann

'

'

111

Frieder Naschold

Comments by Siegfried Bleicher and Andreas Drinkuth (German Metal-wor­ kers' Union - IG Metall) on the Evaluation of the LOM Programme The evaluation of the LOM Programme comes at a time in which not only in the USA but also in Europe intensive thought is being given to how to meet the Japanese challenge based on lean production. Is there a European answer to the Japanese productivity concept? Are we forced to copy it? Or do our own traditions, particularly in Germany and the Scandinavian coun­ tries - codetermination, humane design of work and technology, cooperati­ ve/conflictual relations between the two sides of industry, standards of social security unparalleled anywhere in the world, high skill levels and the oft manifested ability to innovate - point to alternative European ways by which to meet this challenge? This overall context has a double importance for Sweden: the restructu­ ring of the national economy must be seen as adjustment both to the Japanese competitive model and a necessary preparation for the planned accession to the EC.

1. The basic ideas underlying the LOM Programme In terms both of its underlying conception and the evaluation of the results the LOM Programme certainly contains elements which could help point the way to such a European - social and ecological - productivity con­ cept. a) A broad basis was established for the projects initiated by the LOM Programme in the form of agreements between the collective organisations and the participation of the scientific community and the state. This is a reflection, among other things, of historically evolved relations of coopera­ tion and codetermination in Sweden. Such relations - and their further deve­ lopment - represent an important building block for the desired productivity concept. b) The LOM Programme sought the widest participation possible. The attempt was made to develop networks covering all levels from the individu­ al enterprises upwards as a necessary condition for successful change strate­ gies. The LOM approach was radically "participatory" and egalitarian, a fact which, however, led to a number of difficulties in practice (see below). c) As both a complement to, and a condition for such participatory structu­ res attempts were made to develop a communicative-linguistic infrastructure with the aim of organising discourses and establishing the required commu­ nicative competence in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. Perhaps this dialectical conception of language - to overcome barriers, or reduce lines of segmentation - must be considered one of the most important results of the Programme.

112

Organization development

d)· The LOM Programme was clearly process-oriented. This was obviously based on the realisation that it is not large-scale programmes or isolated "places of pilgrimage" that are decisive for structural changes, but that chan­ ges occur in processes which take time, and the results of which cannot usu­ ally be determined in advance. It is now becoming clear what gigantic rnisal­ locations of capital can result from large-scale projects (e.g. nuclear energy).

In our view the egalitarian participation by collective organisations and other interested parties, communication via as large a number of networks as possible and covering all levels, the conception of language as a condition for dismantling barriers and the process-orientation are the most significant ideas underpinning the LOM Programme, and those which it is important to grasp and develop further. 2. Instruments A whole range of instruments were developed and tested within the LOM

Progr amme with the aim of realising these fundamental ideas.

a) The most successful instrument was without doubt the start conference, in which representatives of all levels of the target group were brought together. The four phases into which the conferences were divided are particularly interesting: - What is our vision of a "good firm"? - What are the barriers? - What can we do to overcome them? - What shall we begin with? What shape will our plan of action take? In addition to these questions which were to serve as a "leitmotif' for each of the four phases of the initial conference, the policy of altering the compo­ sition of the work groups between phases had the effect of breaking down conceptual and cognitive barriers and stimulating the willingness to embark on processes of change. b) Some

25%

of the projects were conducted in the form of clusters. While

this is less than had originally been anticipated and intended, in comparison to the German HoW/W&T Progr amme it represents an achievement to be proud of, particularly in view of the short duration of the Programme and the considerable efforts required to generate stable clusters. c) As was already mentioned in our discussion of the ideas underpinning the LOM Programme , great significance was attached to developing a communi­ cative-linguistic infrastructure. How can language competency be improved in such a way that the participating actors - irresp.ective of their position within the enterprise - can communicate with and understand each other? The Volvo plant at Udevalla offers an illustrative example of this. What is the logic of assembly work? What language is required to express it in such a

113

Frieder Naschold

way that assembly operations can be conducted in accordance with this logic? Finding solutions to such questions was a necessary condition for the objectives of extending job contents in assembly work, and, at the same time, organising assembly operations so as to ensure a high level of productivity. The traditional use of parts' numbers to identify parts, and their processing by computers, for instance, is not appropriate to a human understanding of language and action. Beyond a certain number of parts this system becomes an insuperable barrier. The solution to this problem found at Udevalla was to sort the parts to be assembled 'physically', i.e. in the order in which they are to be assembled (along the lines of an exploded drawing), and to give both individual parts and assembly groups meaningful names comprehensi­ ble to human beings. This solution created the required language and action competence to enable assembly operations - which due to the large number of parts had always been very specialised with a high division of labour - to be redesigned in a more holistic way.

3. Weaknesses As with any other programme, nesses. These centred around the by the Programm e could not be innovative processes were broken

LOM was of course not without its weak­ fact that frequently the processes initiated controlled in the longer term and/or that off too soon.

a) In spite of the clear process orientation of the Programme, there was little understanding of the "time-logic" of processes: in other words, projects were not so designed as to be robust over time. The limited duration of the Programm e as a whole thus meant that many projects were wound down ­ with a view to the impending end of the Programme - just when they were getting under way. This structural weakness of the Programm e was further reinforced by the lack of an adequate concept of structural change in the Programme. By such an approach we mean one in which initiated projects continue to run once the programme has come to an end. b) A further weakness resulted form the lack of instruments to accompany the Programme. In spite of the success of the initial conferences, in the final analysis project actors were left very much on their own. Insufficient experts were on hand to offer support and advice in the conduct of projects. The most serious gap, though, was the lack of forms of supervision to accompany the processes: a permanent feedback from supervisors on the difficulties and obstacles arising in the course of the projects, and joint efforts to generate results and approaches which would have had a stabilising effect on proces­ ses within the projects. c) "Multipliers" to diffuse the results generated by projects were not effecti­ vely sought and the appropriate personnel ("missionaries") trained. The various actors from the different projects met infrequently or not at all.

114

Organization development

d) This problem was evidently exacerbated by the centralised nature of the actual Programme (as opposed to the underlying conceptual ideas). A limi­ ted number of "leading lights" dominated proceedings, which had the effect of restricting substantive discussions and reducing the innovative potential of the projects. e) The potential represented by the participation of Sweden's collective organisations was not fully exploited. While management was active in initia­ ting projects it provided too little support once they were running. The unions, too, while they supported the Programme and individual projects, exercised little "steering" influence on how they were run. f) From the perspective of the IG Metall the metal-working and engineering sector was underrepresented, perhaps a reflection of the absence of large enterprises. In addition the branch committees which should have served to facilitate the exchange of ideas between projects and networks that in the pre-LOM phase were thought to be confronting a similar set of problems clearly did not function effectively in this role. g) Insufficient attention was paid to the international aspect, in particular the aims of learning from other programmes and understanding the strategic dimension of the LOM Programme within the international context (cf. the discussion on Japan above). 4.

Conclusions

As has already been stated, the underlying ideas of the LOM Programme represent a significant step forward towards a socially and ecologically orien­ ted productivity concept, one which, at the same time, requires further deve­ lopment and extension. Any further development work on such a program­ me should, in our view, be aimed at just such a social and ecological produc­ tivity concept within the European context. a) The major requirement here would seem to be that of creating structures to bring about processual change. The basic LOM approach - process-orien­ tation - while correct, must be supplemented by on-going process support of a substantive nature, one which provides some form of supervision. b) Programmes such as LOM should be so constituted as to bee sufficiently powerful to create new, and modify existing structures. Otherwise the risk is that positive solutions will be lost during the course of the programme (as occurred within LOM in some cases) or do not come to full fruition due to the limited life-span of the programme. '

"

c) The scope for innovative activity by all actors must be enlarged. The policy of decentralisation within networks cannot exist merely on paper but must constitute a structural element of a radical praxis. However, as has already been mentioned, an effective, on-going supervision of projects is a necessary condition for such decentralisation to function.

1 15

Frieder Naschold

d) It is necessary to intensify the exchange of ideas beyond the boundaries of individual projects (and project networks), for instance to branch level. This requires the incorporation of larger firms, however, particularly in view of the extensive and diverse relations between small and large firms. e) Participation by collective organisations could also be improved if they were to receive the support necessary to set up their own structures, advisory services, if they were given the opportunity to assume a supervisory role, or funds to sponsor projects. f) A social and ecological productivity concept within a European framew­ ork would require not only structures of participation and communication, such as were, to some extent at least, successfully explored within the LOM Progr amme , but would have to be complemented by substantive issues; the "how" and "what" of production. To this end the national relations between firms, their integration within the national economy and also the internation­ al relations, and their "embeddedness" in, for example, a European context, would have to be incorporated. g) Finally, it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that many firms are now seeking to develop "lean" production structures. This usually involves radical decentralisation and the downward delegation of responsibility, while strategic decisions continue to be taken in a very centralised manner at supra-firm, and often at supra-national level. It is a particular concern of the German trade unions to find answers to these challenges within a broad fra­ mework delineated by the guiding principles of the LOM Programme leadership, organisational development, codetermination. There is much to be done. Siegfried Bleicher Andreas Drinkuth

116

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Chapter 2: The leadership, organization and eo­ determination programme and its evaluation: a comparative perspective

Robert E. Cole The evaluation report for the LOM programme produced by the scientific evaluation team headed by Dr. Frieder Naschold is an extraordinarily com­ prehensive and ambitious statement (Naschold et.al.,1992). It not only seeks to evaluate LOM's performance in the broadest sense but also to place it in the context of world-wide work reorganization efforts. It evaluates first the role of research in work reorganization with a particular focus on action research. Second it evaluates LOM in the context of the Swedish/ Scandinavian tradition of development programmes. Third, it evaluates LOM in comparison with the international experiences and standards of the German, American and Japanese experience. Fourth, and cross cutting these categories, sometimes in confused fashion, it evaluates the impact of research initiatives and workplace innovation (whether it is tied to research or not) on workplace outcomes. The comprehensiveness of the report, lauda­ ble as it is, however, comes at the sacrifice of concreteness. Thus, the relati­ vely abstract conceptualization makes any commentary particularly challen­ ging. One of the major themes of the evaluation report cited above is the use of international experiences and standards as a distinct frame of reference for the evaluation. I will limit my commentary primarily to this theme, although there are some overlapping concerns with the other themes. In particular, the evaluators seek to examine functionally equivalent development proces­ ses in Japan, the U.S. and Germany. Since this author's expertise lies heavily in Japan and in U.S.-Japan-Swedish comparisons, it is here that I can make my greatest contribution to the evaluation process. Specifically, I will evaluate some of the claims of the evaluation team and its description of the LOM program in terms of the evolution of the quality movement in Japan and in particular, a sub-activity of the quality movement, its fostering of the small group activity movement. This movement is known in the West primarily as quality circles (see Cole, 1989). The authors use kai­ zen, continuous process improvement, in Japan as their major unit of analy­ " sis when seeking to compare LOM to developments in Japan. Kaizen has its roots primarily in the quality movement (where most of the tools of impro­ vement were developed) and in its offshoot, the small group activity move­ ment (one of the organizational forms used to implement kaizen). In any 121

Robert E. Cole

case, kaizen goes well beyond the small group activity movement and the quality movement goes well beyond kaizen. The failure of the evaluators to specify these various relationships leads to considerable confusion. Finally, I will take the evaluation team's characterization of the LOM pro­ gram as a given since I do not have sufficient data to question their judg­ ments. On the other hand, I am in a position to evaluate their characteriza­ tion of the Japanese approach and it is here that I focus my efforts. Quite apart from the correctness or- incorrectness of the evaluation team's judg­ ments, my efforts aim to understand how the LOM programme and Scandinavian efforts more generally compare to Japanese work reorganiza­ tion efforts.

Generative Forces Democratic dialogue is the central maxim of the LOM program. The eva­ luation team asks whether it is a qualitative leap forward in the development of socio-technical system design or just a further broadening of participative design (p.29). Their answer is that LOM is based on a very daring radical and innovative conception that constitutes a "qualitative break" in the history of Swedish-Scandinavian development programmes (p.31). To understand this claim, we need to go to the root source of democratic dialogue. The LOM program is oriented toward the creation of new language games" i.e., new systematics of knowledge and the organization of communi­ cation. Open and lateral forms of exchange constituting a "communicative infrastructure for development processes" (Habermas) are considered a necessary condition for carrying out complex processes of organizational change (p.31). In short, the creation of language games and communicative competence through a variety of discourses and incorporating as many of those affected by change as possible is the indirect but indispensable strategy for bringing about change. It is in this sense that LOM is all about the cre­ ation of a linguistic communicative infrastructure and this constitutes the central generative mechanism of the programme" (p.40). An underlying assumption is that there is a close interactive relationship between linguistic and operative actions. Communicative competence by large numbers of employees is seen as the necessary precondition for rational and strategic action. Put differently, language is a precondition for dismantling barriers and therefore the process orientation of the democratic dialogue is the most sig­ nificant idea underpinning the LOM programme (p.l35). In summary, a con­ dition for participatory structures is that successful efforts be made to deve­ lop a communicative linguistic infrastructure with the aim of organizing dis­ courses and establishing the required communicative competence in both horizontal and vertical dimensions (p.l34). Democratic dialogue is the cho­ sen vehicle and the most frequently used start conference involving large numbers of employees is a direct expression of the implementation of classi­ cal western democratic theory.

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These are imposing and noble thoughts and there is evidence (to be discus­ sed below) to support the fundamental premise that language discourse is an essential component (even if not a precondition) of rational firm-level action. Nevertheless, the evaluation team documents what they themselves term "meager results" (p.l02). LOM's existing range of concepts and instru­ ments is well suited for the initial phase of start up but is lacking in medium term concepts, methods, and instruments for subsequent deployment (p.109). In section B, the German experts from the field note that the start conferences were the most frequently and successful used means to coming to grips with issues. But once a programme was underway - the dialogue con­ ference was held and steering committees set up - the assumption seems to have been that participation would pretty much spread of its own accord (p.130-131). The evaluation team stresses the broad-based mobilization of the LOM model in which as many as possible are involved and they note the comparability to Japan in this regard (p.38). The reality, however, is that this mobilization does not penetrate the everyday work process of the LOM companies as do the Japanese work reform efforts. In short, project partici­ pants were pretty much left on their own after the start conferences (p.l37) and not all that much took place except in a modest number of cases that show widespread workforce involvement in workplace improvement. Finally, most cluster contracts across firms failed to survive after projects ended. The evaluation team does its best to put a good face on these results noting that if one focuses on the successes and identifies the factors responsi­ ble for these successes, one could develop a scenario for. a very successful LOM programme (p.l02). The also argue that the short project duration something that could be remedied in the future - hurt the chances of success. These explanations leave something to be desired. Following the evalu­ ation team, we may point to another standard for evaluating LOM activities. It is the international comparison with the Japanese. In emphasizing the stress the Japanese place on gaining control over the production process (p.l03), I believe the evaluation missed both some interesting similarities and differences with the LOM process. We will use the quality focus of Japanese firms as the point of departure for this comparison. Quality emerged in the postwar period in large and medium-size Japanese firms as the most central organizing principle of the firm. While management has clearly taken the lead in moving in this direction, - and it would not have happened without management leadership -it was done with the full expecta­ tion that employees could commit to continuous quality improvement as well. Indeed, the quality focus seemed ideal from the viewpoint of simultane­ ously achieving management objectives of improved quality and lower cost while at the same time one could appeal employees' �o join in a common enterprise. This appeal to workers and unions was grounsted not only in an intrinsic traditional sense of craftsmanship but also in the idea that successful quality initiatives would increase firm market share and help guarantee employment while providing ever-higher real wages. 123

Robert E. Cole

It is instructive to directly compare the notion of quality as a common langu­ age to the use of the principle of democratic dialogue as the central generati­ ve mechanism in the Swedish LOM program. We have seen that to create communicative competence the LOM approach envisions a gradual joint shaping of vision and development among all participants through a demo­ cratic dialogue. The start conference served as the major vehicle to launch this dialogue. Unlike the production of visible quality improvement in Japan, however, it is more difficult for management to directly see such efforts as leading to bottom-line results in quality and productivity improvement. There is also no guidance per se provided by democratic dialogue on the substance of the proposed development. The use of quality as a common lan­ guage cutting across organizational levels and functions does not directly challenge managerial control as does democratic dialogue. But it does have a very specific and concrete content in terms of tools, approaches, and objecti­ ves. As such it has a lot more power to move people at different levels and at different functions to cooperative activity than the explicit focus on demo­ cratic dialogue. Dr. Naschold's team calls the democratic component of the LOM program based on communicative coordination of action among all concerned, the functional equivalent of the egalitarian long-term strategies of improvement pursued by Japanese firms (p.6). While it may be functionally equivalent in terms of objectives, in practice it is not at all equivalent. The meager results emanating form LOM in the area of organizational improvement are ample testimony to that. Contrary to LOM, the improvement programs of the Japanese have a concrete substance; they rest on the tools, methods, and objectives of the quality movement involving all employees and using quality as common language. There is in short an engine here that is totally lacking in the use of democratic dialogue as a generative force for change. The evaluation team notes that the Japanese, like the LOM programme, also focus on communicative competence (p.4) and that the quality move­ ment in Japan has created a new language game standardized at the national level (p.l09). This is exactly correct and it is a critical point brought about in large measure by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), which we discuss later. B ut in the context of the current discussion, it is important to stress that quality language became standardized at the firm level as well, uniting employees horizontally and vertically. In other words, engineers and workers, managers and employees, cost estimators and marke­ ting people, design engineers and manufacturing people and so on developed a common fact-based language. This language of quality allowed them to communicate and cooperate across horizontal and vertical lines through a variety of problem-solving activities. This was the new language game and it had profound consequences for cooperative activity! It was the common uni­ ting denominator that broke down barriers. Too often, we underestimate the barriers to internal firm cooperation and joint decision making that derive from the different language and different interests that underlie this langu­ age. By creating this common language, the Japanese achieved an extraordi-

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A comparitive perspective

'nary breakthrough. Even though they didn't directly aim for democratization as those in LOM did, they achieved a kind of mass egalitarianism focused on decentralized decision making and horizontal and vertical cooperation. Thus, the 13 criteria for a democratic dialogue as listed by the evaluation team, by and large apply equally well to the operation of small group activity in Japan (pp.57-58). Just as we sometimes learn to sleep by thinking of something else, the Japanese firms went after quality and in so doing brought about quite fundamental changes in worker participation and cross-functional cooperation. So, we see striking evidence for the LOM position that "language is every­ thing" but there are significant differences as well. We have also seen that the common language in Japanese firms is grounded in substantive activities directed to quality improvement. In this sense, for all the radical innovation of the LOM programme, it continues to perpetuate a problem characteristic of the participatory movement. figure 1 Strenghts and weaknesses of the participative tradition by level of analysis Level of analysis

Strengths

Weaknesses

Individual/small group

1 Focus on motivation 2 Opportunity for goal agreement 3 Emphasis on inter-personal process 4 Human capital formation 5 Integrating interdependent tasks

1 Lack of employee rewards 2 Motivatational emphasis diverts attention from process improvement

Department/managers

6 Release for higher level activities

3 Absence of managerial rewards 4 Absence of role for lower managers

System/organization/society

7 Potential competitive advantage 8 Democratization

5 Flabbiness 6 Absence of strategic context for group activities

Figure 1 presents the strengths and the weaknesses of the participatory movement as evaluated by three researchers (Cole, Bacdayan, and White, 1993). The strengths are well-documented in the scholarly literature and range from micro to macro-level effects. The weaknesses are less well descri­ bed. In particular and for our purposes critically, at the organizational level, workplace implementations reflect a "flabbiness" and an absence of strategic context for group activities. Flabbiness refers to the lack of clarity of partici­ pation advocates about the nature of participative activities as they relate to the work process. The elements of participation typically do not contain a systematic work improvement methodology. It is often unclear just what one is supposed to be participating in. It is as if proponents think that the very act of participation is sufficient to sustain daily activities. Consequently, firms tend not to sustain participatory efforts since managers do not see participa125

Robert E. Cote

tion as tied to important organizational objectives. Employees also perceive the irrelevance and similarly withhold their support. Under these conditions, the agenda of issues in which people can participate tends to dry up. The absence of strategic context for group activities is also a critical factor in the failure of traditional participatory efforts. The work team is typically portrayed as "context-less". That is, it is not imbedded in the work flow and not tied to a customer. Given the lack of linkage to the work process, management support for participation fades because participation is seen as a peripheral activity. In this context, participation comes to be seen more as a philosophy, a parallel work process, and as an end in itself rather than as a means to the end of increasing organizational effectiveness. These are weakness that apply with full force to the process orientation of on democratic dialogue as the vehicle for change. We can also see that the quality movement very directly addresses these weak­ nesses (see Cole, Bacdayan and White, 1993). As discussed above, the LOM program emphasizes the development of a linguistically complex communi­ cative infrastructure to establish the necessary preconditions for instrumen­ tal-rational and strategic action, in particular for radical processes of self­ transformation. This involves a learning by doing approach but it is one in which the "doing" is very much a matter of participating in lessons in demo­ cratic action (e.g.,start conference). By contrast, implicit in the Japanese approach is a learning by doing strategy in which communicative competen­ ce proceeds apace with substantive improvement activities. That is, there is a reciprocal iterative process by which the two develop. In short, language is not a precondition but can develop together with substantive not just procedural action.

LOM with its reliance

The idea of linguistic competence by all concerned to be obtained through democratic dialogue as a precondition for a learning organization posited by LOM is unrealistic in the light of today's competitive world. It contains a quite romantic image of employees and organizational life - a thread that runs through much of Swedish research and theorizing on work organization throughout the postwar period. Ironically, this has lead them to accomplish less than if they had set more modest goals. The very idea that all the pre­ conditions need to be met in linear chronological fashion before one can go forward on substantive goals appears almost quixotic in the face of the Japanese juggernaut. In a highly competitive world, one needs to proceed on all fronts simultaneously if one's firm is to survive. This Swedish research approach has its foundation, in part, in Swedish postwar affluence and success which allowed them the luxury of setting such lofty goals and such leisurely schedules for achieving them. Volvo and Saab as the carriers of much of Swedish experimentation in the 1970s and early

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1980s typified these approaches. Yet, they were hopelessly inefficient from an internationally competitive perspective as became apparent once the Japanese invaded their once-safe market niches. The demise of Kalmar (their plant with the highest productivity and quality) and Uddevalla reveal the limitations of these approaches in a truly competitive international envi­ ronment. In this sense, LOM must be understood as part of the fabric of Swedish institutional life. It would be unrealistic to have expected the LOM project to have challenged the deeply-ingrained institutional constraints that existed in Sweden. These constraints encouraged employers, unions and government to avoid the need for strong productivity and quality improve­ ment objectives to drive the work reform movement. In the end, the LOM project strongly reflects these constraints. The Japanese on the other hand were too busy scratching and clawing their way up the competitive ladder to allow themselves the luxury of such sentiments. Simultaneity undertaken to mininllze time needed to complete tasks is a competitive theme that runs through many of Japanese firm-level organizational activities (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991). In my own assessment of small group activity in the U.S. Japan and Sweden from the 70's to the late 1980s, I concluded that Sweden tried more and accomplished less while Japan tried less and accomplished more. The U.S. tried still less and accom­ plished the least.

In summary, LOM is right about importance of communicative competen­ ce but wrong about how to achieve it. Learning by doing focused on substan­ tive goals is the most effective strategy. Japanese managers selected quality as the vehicle for their efforts. It should be noted that this conclusion is directly counter to the LOM position as espoused by Gustavsen. Gustavsen states: The point is not to "fill " concepts like "quality" "innovation," "cultu­ re," "participation," with as much content as possible but to link them to each other to form new wholes which can provide platforms for meaningful, coordinated and shared developments throughout the enterprise (Gustavsen,1991:312). Yet, in linking quality with participation, innovation, and culture, this is exactly what the Japanese have done (see also Cole,1991). That is using quality as their umbrella, they have created "meaningful coordinated and shared developments throughout the enterprise." We can choose to ignore these developments, or to adopt that model, or to adapt it to western condi­ tions. These are fateful decisions that have consequences not just for compe­ titive outcomes but also for organizational culture and democratization. To ignore Japanese developments will be fatal. To try to adopt their model as a complete package is likely to fail. That leaves the only rational course of action to be the adaptation of the Japanes� model to fit western values and culture.

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When is a Programme a Programme ?

The evaluation team expends considerable effort comparing the Japanese programme with the LOM programme. Are they really comparing program­ mes in the same sense of that term? To be sure, we can make a strong case for international comparisons of work reform initiatives and their impact on the workplace. This obviously is a productive area of inquiry. The evaluation team, however, is comparing programmes. The problem is that the Japanese did not have programmes in the Swedish sense of research- assisted innova­ tion initiatives at the firm level. Moreover, the evaluation team uses the term programmes when referring to the Japanese in several different ways. To speak of the kaizen program (p.52) or the Japanese development program­ mes (p.57) or Japanese "national programmes" (p.l03) represents a gross distortion of reality. Program have beginnings and ends. Statements like innovative developments require a minimum project duration of 2.5 years (p.80) in Sweden abut 3-7 years in Japan (p.llO) are meaningless in a Japanese context. Rather the Japanese had continuous firm-level experimen­ tation and innovation with quality improvement and participative forms. There was loose but critical support from extra-firm organizations like JUSE. But most Japanese firms proceeded on their own with no direct researcher or consultant guidance. The Japanese firms didn't have the same problems of conflict between innovators and day-to-day management becau­ se the line managers became immediately and directly involved in the conti­ nuous improvement of participative forms like quality circles. The concept of learning by doing dominated. This in turn made Japanese work reform efforts far less subject to the problem of encapsulation of program activities and subsequent atrophy and death. By contrast, the research-assisted pro­ gramme orientation of LOM almost insured that the encapsulation of work­ force efforts documented by the evaluation team would be a major problem (pp. 43, 52). To be sure, the network approach and the idea of participative design between researchers and all those concerned was designed to minimi­ ze this probability. But the reality appears to be that the programme was not successful in using participative design between researchers and participants to achieve that goal (Gustavsen,1991). As the evaluation team suggests, development activities in Japan are assessed by their impact on the firm's strategic objectives and its employees (p.103). They are not assessed by a formal program evaluation based on scholarly judgments of what the objectives should be. The reason for this dif­ ference is that the Japanese are not evaluating a program; they are evalu­ ating ongoing innovation in daily work activities. The evaluation team is somewhat critical of the high proportion of social scientists involved in LOM as opposed to German W&T programme (p.54). They justify the high social science profile in terms of the project's focus on communicative competence. It is interesting to note by comparison that social scientists were hardly involved at all in the formative stages of deve-

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A comparitive perspective

. lopment of the Japanese quality (and small group activity) movement. To the extent that academics were involved at all, engineering professors played a leading role though JUSE in crystallizing and publicizing the key learning that developed. This raises some interesting questions about the training of engineers in Japan versus Sweden. How it is that Japanese engineers who presumably do not read Habermas and would be hardly comfortable with terms like "communicative competence" and "language games" could never­ theless play a major role in creating this outcome. The simple answer is that through trial and error they learned what was necessary to achieve conti­ nuous quality improvement and they came to the realization that it involved breaking down barriers between different horizontal and vertical groups. For example, Kaoru Ishikawa (1985:107-108) describes how he invented the term "the next process is your customer" when visiting a steel mill and trying to solve a problem that required the cooperation of two different sections. A more profound answer to our question, however, would require an under­ standing of how and why Japanese engineers developed these competencies over time. National Infrastructure

The LOM program rightly stresses the importance of building a strong national infrastructure of collective actors to achieve workplace reform. The evaluation team characterizes the Swedish approach as one of a strong sys­ tem of industrial relations with lateral relations of cooperation and strong state involvement in setting the framework (p.4). The LOM program attempted to build up network clusters among its participants and its organi­ zers in the hope that these clusters would become the basis for a national­ wide network. The problem as noted earlier is that many of the clusters col­ lapsed once the research projects terminated. This suggests that the clusters had a certain artificial quality that held up only as long as the researchers were able to support them. One way to understand this situation is that the LOM projects themselves and the clusters in particular were not activities that management saw as directly serving their bottom-line interests and thus they were abandoned as soon as outside resources and pressures fell away. The contrasts with the Japanese case are striking. The evaluation report describes the Japanese approach to national infrastructure as networks con­ sisting of firms, central professional bodies, and the various tiers of the state apparatus (p.4). If we take the quality movement and its subsidiary support of the small group activity movement as cases in point, then this characteri­ zation is quite inadequate both for what it includes and what it excludes. First, JUSE provides, as discussed above, the nerve center of the national infrastructure supporting quality (see Cole,1989; Lilkank and Kano,1989). JUSE is not a professional organization in the Western s�nse of term. It is an organization to which companies not individuals are members and which is dedicated to improving quality, not to improving the professional status of its

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Robert E. Cole

members. Again, managers sent by their companies to organize local chapter activities are the backbone of JUSE when it comes to the small group activi­ ty movement. JUSE concentrates on identifying best practice in firms and diffusing that widely to all members through training programs, publications and mass fer­ tilization of worker groups from different firms through quality circle con­ ventions and worker visits to their counterparts in other firms. Its chapter system of local member companies organize the many local events like quali­ ty circle conventions and worker visits. In short, we have a national infrast­ ructure that coordinates learning not only between high status experts but also among ordinary employees. This is a concept of national infrastructure that goes far beyond anything that was contemplated by LOM or any other actors in Sweden or any other Western country for that matter. It is of criti­ cal importance in understanding the success of the quality movement in Japan. Contrary to the suggestion of the evaluation team, government bodies have played a pretty minor role in the development of the quality move­ ment's national infrastructure.

Conclusions

Management's direct interests must be met for them to become deeply involved in workplace reform. This doesn't mean that we should turn over all efforts to management a la the Japanese case. Rather all parties to the work reform effort must understand the need for management to hold a strong interest in their success. The labor shortage of the 1970s and 1980s provided some of this motivation for past management support of Swedish work reform efforts but that problem has gradually disappeared in recent years. The competitive motivation, whether driven by foreign firms or decli­ ning State revenues in the public sector, is now the driving force for manage­ ment. We may or may not like that, but this is the nature of the current and foreseeable environment. Those efforts to pursue participative activities that ignore the competitive realities and top management involvement are likely to fail. At the same time, no effort can succeed that does not appeal to and meet the interests of employees. The quality movement is one such vehicle that has proven successful. Many Swedish managers, academics and union officials have not understood its broad ramifications and as a consequence tended to dismiss it. The lessons of the quality movement are that quality is a vehicle for building communica­ tive competence while simultaneously providing a basis for action through specifying a set of tools, approaches, and objectives. This provides at the same time an effective force for workplace reform included expanded parti­ cipatory activities. Furthermore, a national infrastructure can play a decisive role in supporting these activities.

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A comparitive perspective

There may be other vehicles than can play this role but quality improvement looks like the best one around at the moment. I point in this direction not to display a simplistic panacea. The reality is that not all Japanese companies have fully internalized "the Japanese model" nor have they equally realized its results. It works better in some environments than others and we need to come to undcerstand that better. Moreover, there are features to the Japanese approach that are not compatible with Western values. In particu­ lar, the "controlled participation" style of large Japanese firms does not play well in the West, as even the Japanese are coming to recognize in their trans­ plants. Western managers, workers and unions must weave their own web of solutions to the needs of the various interest groups just as the Japanese bor­ rowed Western ideas on quality and wove them into their organizational fabric. The Americans have been quicker than the Europeans in embracing the

new quality movement and it will be interesting to see if this embrace is suffi­ cient to break the Americans out of their position as a laggard in workplace reform. At the same time, notwithstanding the significant contribution of the LOM programme in bringing communicative competence to center stage, the Swedish movement for workplace reform has yet to grasp the levers for implementing significant change on a wide scale. This reflects the institution­ al inertia of the Swedish workplace more than a lack of vision on the part of LOM participants.

'

131

Bibliography

Clark, IGm and Takahiro Fujimoto. Product Development Performance. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Ptess, 1991. Cole, Robert. Strategies for Learning: S17Ulll Group Activities in American, Japanese and Swedish Industry, 1989. Cole, Robert, Paul Bacdayan and Joseph White. "Quality, Participation and Competitiveness," California Management Review, (spring 1993).

Cole, Robert. "Different Quality Paradigms and their Implications for Organizational Learning," Paper presented at the conference: Japan in a Global Economy-A European Perspective. Stockholm School of Economics, Sept.5,1991. Revised version to be published in conference volume edited by Ronald Dore and Masahiko Aoki and published by Oxford University Press. Gustavsen, Bjom. "The LOM Ptogram: A Network-based Strategy for Organization Development in Sweden," Research in Organizatio!Ull Change and Development Vol 5, 1991, pp.285-315. Ishikawa, Kaoru, What is Total Quality ControL Englewood-Ciiffs, NJ.: Ptentice-Hall, 1985. Lillrank, Paul and Noriaki Kano. Continuous Improvement: Quality Circles in Japanese Industry. Ann Arbor: Mi.: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. Naschold, Frieder et.al. Evaluation Report: Commissioned by the Board of the LOM Programme. Berlin: Science WZB, 1992.

132

Chapter 3: Creating produktive structures: the role of research and development

Bjorn Gustavsen Introduction

As a research-based effort to change working life, the LOM program rai­ ses three basic questions: On what theory was it founded? What measures were applied to achieve practical effects? What effects were actually achie­ ved? The communicatively oriented theoretical basis for the program was, al­ though with roots in previous efforts, developed during the 1980s and the main elements presented in, for instance, Gustavsen (1985a; 1988; 1991; 1992). The measures taken to move from theory to practice - dialogue conferen­ ces, a holistic approach on the level of the individual enterprise, and the sys­ tematic application of clusters and networks to create scope - emerged in the same period and are dealt with in, for instance, Gustlfvsen & Engelstad (1986); Gustavsen (1988; 1991; 1992) RaftegArd (1990) Engelstad & Gustavsen (1 993). Some contours of the results started to emerge towards the latter 1980s, initially to be reported in fairly brief "work in progress" reports, such as Arbetsmiljofonden (1990a). Beyond this, what actually happened in the field was largely reported in contexts where the main purpose was to illustrate the theoretical and methodological points of the program, i.e. Gustavsen, et al ( 1991); Gustavsen (1992). It was not until the emergence of the evaluation report that this "third pillar" was more firmly in place and a more complete basis for a discussion of the program and its implications established. Before proceeding to this discussion there is a need to touch upon some points con­ cerning the evaluation: The evaluation must be seen as an integral part of the program. The choice of an external group must be seen in the light of the main theo­ retical premiss of the program, namely that language is an instrument with which we deal with the world and not a mirror in which we reflect the world. Hence, no evaluation can be "objective" in an absolute sense. Nor are there unequivocal "scientific criteria" which make an evaluation independent of who is performing it. It can, however, be more or less impartial on an every­ day-language level and the decision to approach German institutions was, from the LOM board, motivated by an interest in achieving this relative impartiality. This was also part of the reason why there was a wish to include 133

Bjom Gustavsen

representatives from the labour market parties. While the relevant research community - even if a broad international perspective is applied - is quite limited, and so-called "scientific" lines of agreement, parallelity and opposi­ tion hard to avoid, major organizations like IG Metall and Daimler Benz hardly have any particular interest in either promoting the LOM ideas or the opposite. A furt!:J.er reason for asking people from these organizations to par­ ticipate was the recognition that in efforts of the LOM kind, where a main dimension of theory is its practical efficiency (the pragmatic dimension), theory and practice can not be fully separated. It is the hope that this can set some of the standards for evaluations of efforts of this kind and that inci­ dents of the type occurring when three nee-positivists - Aage Bodtger Sorensen, Richard Hackman and Tove Helland Hammer - were entrusted with the task of evaluating the Norwegian Work Research Institute and the Institute for Industrial Social Research (NORAS,

1991)

can be avoided in

the future. The choice of a German group was motivated by a certain degree of paral­ lelity between German and Swedish institutions in working life, by the exis­ tence of tripartite development programs also in Germany and a correspon­ ding understanding of the issues and problems to which such programs can give rise, as well as by the rapidly growing Swedish interest in Europe and European comparisons. In addition, there is the point that Germany is among the high-powered nations within the field of industrial productivity, a major concern also in Sweden. (In his evaluation of the Development Program, Ford

(1987)

makes the point that a historically given tendency to

compare with Britain and the US had led to a certain complacency in Sweden - the exclusivity of these comparisons as well as the complacency are now rapidly disappearing.) One of the criticisms often voiced against research with a practical intent is that it does not substantiate its claims to practical impacts in terms of con­ vincing empirical evidence. This criticism is to a large extent correct, al­ though its fairness should be judged in the light of the point that most kinds of research can be made subject to impact studies. I.e. research which claims to "contribute to our understanding of - " something or other can, for instan­ ce, be made subject to studies with reference to such issues as the ability of the research to actually influence peoples' understanding of the topic in case. Such studies are, however, generally not done, which does not prevent a con­ tinuous demand for impact documentation from i.e. action research. These points have, however, to do with fairness rather than with policy. Research which claims to have a practical impact should clearly be investigated with reference to the question of what impact it actually does have. Although the LOM evaluation leaves some open spaces also from this perspective, it is nevertheless a hope that it can contribute to a renewed consideration of what evidence is needed as a basis for discussing impacts. One characteristic of the evaluation is its heavy emphasis on productivity, to some extent at the expense of such classical reform topics as work envi­ ronment and industrial democracy in their own right. This emphasis can be discussed, but it is probably defensible. In today's international situation it becomes more and more impractical to develop solutions which do not con-

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Creating produktive structures

stitute positive contributions also within a framework of competition, how­ ever well suited they may be to the demands of eo-determination and work environment. In discussing the relationship to productivity it is important to note that the evaluation report does not put much emphasis on short term develop­ ments on micro-level, such as percentual improvement in factory performan­ ce during the running-time of the project - traditionally a very common type of indicator in

OD

contexts. Instead, the evaluation focuses on what is later

in this paper called "productive structures", by which is meant more large scale patterns of organization which have the potential of occupying a posi­ tion at the leading edge of today's increasingly dominant concept-driven pro­ ductivity strategies. Below, the report will be taken as a base-line without a discussion of it's validity claims. This does not mean that such a discussion can not be raised.

If we look, for instance, at the issue of the efficiency of the program, the report by-passes two major factors of relevance in this context. One is the functions of the program as a training ground for researchers. As noted in Gustavsen ( 1992, pp. 26 - 27; see also the evaluation report pages

92 - 98)

there was very little research involvement in workplace development when the

LOM

program started and no pool of experienced researchers from

which to draw the researchers for the program. The program became much of a training ground in itself and it must consequently be compared to the training of 50 - 60 researchers in an institutional setting over a number of years, in itself quite an expensive measure and probably far less efficient. Secondly, the degree of consensus around such an effort as the

LOM

pro­

gram is overplayed in the report: The reader may easily gain the impression that democratically oriented action research in working life is so to say part and parcel of everyday life in Sweden, wanted and supported by everybody, so that the only problem facing us folks who are to do it is an efficiency pro­ blem. It has never befall e n this author to be able to experience reality in this way. When the

LOM program

started it was in the light of very sharp histori­

cal conflicts along many of the relevant dimensions: The role of bipartite efforts versus management- or union driven efforts; the role of research, and so on, and with a corresponding need to tread very carefully so as not to · generate conflicts which could not be handled on "site of origin-level" through the methods of the program itself, but which could drift upwards and give rise to semi political problems in Stockholm. These two factors count for much in explaining the shape of the program. These points, how­ ever, have to do with historical fairness rather than future policy. As a basis for the last, the report provides a good foundation. It is also quite clear that some of the major contextual problems of 1980's are gone by now.

The new industrial society A major characteristic of "the new industrial society" is the overwhelming importance of concept driven productivity movements which encompass large parts of working life in co-ordinated waves, of a fairly long duration. By

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Bjorn Gustavsen

characterising a development as concept driven it is distinguished from a development which is, for instance, technology driven, that is: pushed for­ wards by the emergence of specific technologies. "Just in time", "total quali­ ty", "global sourcing" - just to mention a few of the words which are com­ mon in todays productivity discussions - are concepts: They presume, of course, that the technologies, or instruments, necessary to make the concepts become reality are available, or can be developed, but they are not in them­ selves identical to these instruments. In launching its drive to cut time spent on various operations by 50 % , the top management of the ABB assumes that the possibilities for doing this are present but leaves it to management and employees in each enterprise, each plant, each workplace to find out how this is to be done (Bamevik, 1991). The developments associated with this kind of concepts are generally long term. If we chose to talk about the emergence of "a new industrial society" it is not because new elements are coming to the surface overnight but rather because a number of elements which have been present for a while have reached such a state of development - and done it simultaneously - that what is emerging is something which is new also in qualitative terms. "Just in time", to take one example, originally emerged in a talk by a Japanese indus­ trialist in the 1930s (Toyoda, 1987) and has stepwise led to a chain of develop­ ments ranging from improved logistics, via large scale production networks and new relationships between buyers and suppliers, modularisation etc., up to the level of global just in time practices which are possible today. Taking an example like this it also becomes clear that there is a need for broad collaboration in making the concepts come real: It is of limited help to the individual enterprise to have an excellent apparatus for the reception of just in time deliveries if the train is late or the supplier is unable to stick to the time schedule. Consequently, each enterprise is, for its own develop­ ment, dependent upon a corresponding process in other enterprises. As the evaluation points out, it is generally Germany and Japan which have most successfully handled the development of an R&D sector which can grapple with problems which have a broad as well as a long term per­ spective. The R&D policies of many other countries, i.e. the Scandinavian ones, are generally based on short term efforts, and - above all - on the assumption that all possible innovations can be developed in "R&D con­ texts" made up of one enterprise and one, or a few, researchers. As indicated by the just in time example above this, however, is no longer the case. In today's industrial development, each enterprise is dependent upon a large number of other organizations of many different kinds and can consequently not solve the problems on its own. Why has this fragmented and short term policy emerged as the main one? A further point, which is also indicated in the LOM evaluation, is that the more successful R&D policies of Germany and Japan, as far as achieving scope is concerned, are bought at a certain price, namely a partial loss of a radical content in the efforts. Even if considerations of work environment and democracy are fully integrated into the concept of productivity, it is nevertheless possible to argue that there is also a "participatory dynamics" built into the present productivity concepts which may come to demand

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Creating produktive structures

more radical solutions than what is possible within the current technology­ centered German approaches or the fairly centralist Japanese ones. This issue, however, belongs to the future - at the moment it is clearly so that Scandinavia is losing ground because of a fragmented development policy. (An under-utilization of research is pointed at also in the evaluation of the Development Program (Ford, 1987.)) Reforms, verticalization of relationships and the fragmentation of develop­ ment work

Traditionally, the Scandinavian countries have been leading in the deve­ lopment of the social democratic, mixed economy type of society. One char­ acteristic of this type of society is its preoccupation with issues of health, wel­ fare, personal development and equal opportunities for all its members. At the same time it has been thought - and probably quite correctly - that such aims are not made real by themselves through some sort of internal dyna­ mics within micro systems like the enterprise or the local community. Instead, it has been presumed that the state needs to take on a leading role. Originally, when reform policies started to emerge - in some scale this happened around the turn of the century - they were built on rather simple assumptions, as seen form the perspective of today. When, for instance, the first factory inspections acts emerged, to do something about problems of health and safety in the rapidly expanding industry, it was thought that a handful of inspectors with little to rely on in terms of rules or organized knowledge could perform the necessary "cleaning up". This, of course, was not possible and stepwise the issue of workplace health and safety was trans­ formed into more of a knowledge based technological-professional issue (Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1981; Bobra & Schwartz, 1985). In spite of this trans­ formation it was, however, still believed that the state could play its tradi­ tionally given, leading role through defining the framework and the right­ duty relationships of the reform, take charge of training, control and know­ ledge development and generally act as the orchestra leader. With the state in this kind of leading role in the development of new patterns in working life, the organization of the development process becomes structured around a set of vertical relationships. In this type of relationship the state - or a body expressing or representing the state - emerges at one end and at the other we generally find one single enterprise. There are a number of reasons for this, paramount among them is the reliance of the state on legal parameters. In using legal parameters in defining the relationship it is necessary to have a legally definable and responsible entity at both ends of the relationship - a so-called "legal person" - i.e. the state labour inspection at one end and one enterprise at the other. If we stay within the framework of health and safety as an example, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a further transformation of this topic. In this period, the technological-professional approach came under pressure, for a number of reasons: It tended to push those concerned the workers - into a passive role while the continuously growing complexity in working life had started to outflank the technological-professional pattern 137

Bjom Gustavsen

as it was generally applied, with a strong focus on dealing with single factors at a time, with quantifiable threshold limit values etc. (for an overview of the points and arguments of this debate see Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1981, pp. 1 15138). In this period it emerged that health and safety improvement demands a strong element of development - of departing from broadly defined, com­ plex "totalities" to improve on them through the use not only of generalized knowledge, but local knowledge and the systematic application of the prin­ ciple of "learning by doing" as well. Not least in Scandinavia, the work envi­ ronment reforms of the 1970s became characterized by this need to build in a developmental approach. Since the frame of reference still, however, was a law the state did not change its own basic position in the structure nor did it more seriously put any question mark at the idea of organizing the improve­ ment in terms of a large number of paired relationships. It was still thought that the basic unit of change was the individual enterprise and that the state had to provide the engine in the process. While "the single enterprise" has a strong position in health and safety efforts due to the location of these efforts within a strongly defined legal con­ text, the same does not pertain to all other issues of relevance to working life. The state has, for instance, a long time ago developed resources to sup­ port working life with respect to such issues as technological innovations, productivity, and the like - quite a substantial R&D sector has actually emer­ ged to deal with issues like these. Still, however, the single enterprise per­ spective has been the dominant one. Looking at, for instance, the funds which support work life development in Sweden - such as the Work Environment Fund, The Work Life Fund, the State Renewal Funds - they all depart from paired relationships with the fund at one end and "one enterpri­ se" at the other as the normal configuration. Clearly, there are exceptions: The LOM program is one, the Swedish state renewal funds are supporting network projects (Statens Fomyelsefonder, 1992), so is the Norwegian state fund for industrial development, (Industrifondet, 1992) etc .. The point here is not to argue that there are no exceptions but to make the point that the scope, complexity and strength of horizontal relationships in working life are insufficient compared to the needs of the emergent concept-driven productivity developments. For the LOM program, this implied that existing relationships, on which it could be possible to build, were few, and that the problems asso­ ciated with the generation of clusters and networks became larger than imag­ ined, which, in turn, accounts for the point made in the evaluation, that the number of enterprise-level efforts which were imbedded in this type of rela­ tionship became limited.

Innovation as a commodity

When the R&D field is broken down into a large number of paired rela­ tionships some further problems follow. In spite of the emergence of an R&D sector of some size it is still not possible to serve all enterprises at the same time. This would demand thousands and thousands of such pairs. Reasons of fair distribution of resources, as well as shifting demands, genera-

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Creating produktive structures

te a need to continuously create new relationships. Then, however, there is a need to deconstruct existing ones to gain free resources. This shifting around can be done with a shorter or longer time perspective. Currently, it is gene­ rally five years which is applied in Scandinavia. The various programs of the Work Environment Fund have a five year duration time, so has the (very large) Work Life Fund. The same pertains to the Quality of Work Life Center in Norway (SBA), to the programs of the Norwegian Council for Technological and Scientific Research (NTNF) and so on. This extremely widespread use of a five year time horizon is in itself quite remarkable. Even when applying a conventional approach to R&D one should still expect some division, i.e. between short term programs (some issues are still short term), medium term programs and long term programs. Today, however, practically all efforts are uniformly structured around a time span of five years. The consequences are exceptionally well defined and described in the LOM evaluation and there is no need to repeat the description here. In fact, the five year time horizon in actual practice is not even five years, since it generally takes some time to get started as well as some time to deconstruct a program when it draws towards the end. What image of innovations is implicit in this type of R&D policy? An innovation to be performed within the framework of such efforts must have certain characteristics: - It must be possible to perform the innovation within narrow time limits, generally no more than 4 years and often less. - It must be possible to develop all aspects of the innovation within the fra­ mework of one "basic R&D relationship" which is in principle identical to the relationship between "one fund" and "one enterprise" as mediated by one, or a few, researcher(s). - It must be possible to diffuse the innovation to other enterprises in a pro­ cess which is disconnected from the innovative process itself. Innovation will, to fit this context, have to take on some of the characteris­ tics of a commodity: An asset which can be moved around fairly freely with­ out losing its characteristics. In this way it starts to resemble capital in its abs­ tract form (Gustavsen, 1972) or a type of asset which is not unlike money. The basic advantage of money is its extremely negotiable character - it can be moved around and exchanged for any number of other assets In table 1 an effort is made to confront - in ideal type form - what can be called, respectively, a fragmented and an interactive approach to research and development In this table the differences are exaggerated. One modification is that even within the framework specified in the left hand column it is generally assu­ med that the researcher(s) constitute some form ot_.continuity, even though the research situation does not. The researcher is thought to be able to func­ tion as a "synthesizing bearer of experience over time" and hence to be able to provide the links which are lacking in the other parts of the system. To some extent this is also clearly the case - none of the models are operative in

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Bjom Gustavsen

table 1 A schematical comparison between a fragmented and an interactive approach to research and development Assumptions concerning innovations: Fragmented

Interactive

The basic unit of innovation is one enterprise/work site and one or a few researchers/other R&D personnel

The basic unit of innovation is a broadly defined structure/network of organizations

The universe of possible innovations is implicitly present in each and every basic unit, that is: one enterprise or workplace

The universe of possible innovations expand with an increasing number of participating enterprises

It is possible to develop the innovation within a short time span (1-4 years)

Innovations occur in cycles of different lenghts where some are very long (up to 30 years)

An

innovation can be defined and described out of context

Each element in a process of innovation is definable only within a context. The primary context is a productive structure (cfr. below) /network of organizations

Each innovation is self-sufficient

Each innovation is a piece in a puzzle game

Each innovation must have an immediate generalisable economic value in itself

The economic value of an innovation is primarily definable on the level of the productive structure/network

An innovation is describable in a closed, self­ sufficient text

The description of an innovation is an open text

The use of an innovation is identical to application

The use of an innovation is (also) a reconstruction

pure form. However, the idea of a long term development function built into the research system as such must be modified against the following points: Firstly, even if the researcher who participates in a fragmented and short term project has a basis in an institution with a long term perspective the research situation is nevertheless short term. The integrating function of research across time and projects presupposes that this can be done in spite of a discontinuous project basis, that is: in . a way which corresponds to the criteria in the left hand column. Consequently, the factor which is meant to overcome the limitations inherent in the left hand column model in itself reinforces this model. Secondly, the background institutions which are to form a stable basis for synthesizing and bridge-building functions are often not present. A substan­ tial number of people who work in the R&D establishment do not have ten­ ured positions within stable institutions. And those who have seldom partici­ pate in five year programs. Although these programs are short they are generally far too long to be based on people participating with leave of absence from other institutions, i.e. from a teaching position at a university. A tendency in Scandinavian R&D thinking towards fragmentation in time as well as in space is one main aspect which is highlighted by the LOM evalu­ ation. What is the alternative? To approach this, we will start by looking at what could be a fruitful unit of development in terms of what can be called "productive structures".

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Creating produktive structures

Productive structures Drawing upon the frame of reference established through the evaluation, the idea of a productive structure can be introduced. A productive structure is taken to mean: - A set of enterprises and/or other organizations - which are linked to each other - and where the configuration of participants and links enables the structure to move to the forefront the type of concept driven development characteri­ sing the leading edge in the field of productivity. It is necessary to emphasise that this idea of a productive structure is lin­

ked specifically to the type of development we face today and not to any type of productivity such as ability to mass produce simple products. In addition to the idea of a productive structure there is a need for the idea of the R&D element of-, or support to, a productive structure. It can be

seen as a part of the structure itself or a support function. As a point of departure it is an open issue what a productive structure should look like and likewise what form a corresponding R&D structure should take on. This is the issue we face, and in many ways this is the most important issue emerging in R&D since it determines the possibilities of the R&D system itself. The best idea in the world will mean little unless it is generated within what is here called a productive structure. If we look at the present situation in Scandinavia with a view to identifying existing productive structures, and stick to those which are reasonably well documented, or at least reasonably broadly known, there is a limited number of cases which presents itself. There is, of course, quite a number of historical success cases - from those described by this author in other contexts, we can take the example of Norsk Data (Gustavsen, 1990; 1992) but this is an examp­ le of an enterprise which was able to grow exceptionally fast for a long period due to its ability to perform technological innovations, and not an example of an enterprise at the leading edge of just in time developments, . total quality, global sourcing and the like. The most discussed case in Scandinavia today, is ABB's T 50 program; a broadly defined effort on group level covering fields like just in time, logistics, time consumption, co-ordina­ tion, and the like (Barnevik, 1991). ABB is a large concern and it is reason to believe that it has been able to develop internal structures for the synthethi­ sation, accumulation, discussion and diffusion of experience, enabling each new effort to stand on the shoulders of a chain of previous experience, while the idea of scope can be maintained as well. Those enterprises which have to

rely on the public R&D system and/or collaboration with each other, becau­ se they are lacking the volume of activity which makes it possible to internal­ ly develop all aspects learning networks, constitute most of the rest, and as a point of departure they are generally not quite on pal with AB B. Here, some modifications are clearly in place. If it was possible to· investigate each and every enterprise and enterprise combination in Scandinavia we would cer­ tainly find other structures which are, today, less visible, but perfectly ade-

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Bjorn Gustavsen

quate relative to, for instance, the market segment in which they operate. Furthermore, among the examples known from the various programs (LOM, HABUTIHFB, The Development program and others) there are cases which are at the leading edge - (see also Gustafsson (1991) for some further examp­ les - when they still deviate to some extent from, for instance, ABB it is because they are at the forefront primarily within one specific field, for instance quality management, while the same enterprises have not moved into a similar position with reference to issues like sourcing, time rationalisa­ tion and the like, thereby approaching the type of total development indica­ ted by concepts like "lean production". In search of productive structures - efforts and configurations

It is possible to see the history of workplace development in Scandinavia (as described in, for instance, Sandberg, 1982; Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1981; Gustavsen, 1990; 1992) in terms of a search for productive structures, al­ though the productivity problems with which the structures have had to cope have been changing over time. It is not the purpose of this contribution to repeat this - now quite complex - history. It can, however, be worth while to recount it very briefly from the particular perspective which follows from the idea of productive structures. In the period of the field experiment - covering the period from Lewin and followers (i.e. Coch & French, 1953) up to, and - although with modifications - including the Industrial Democracy program in Norway in the latter 1960s, the point of departure was that "one workplace" is sufficient to make the necessary findings, verifications or demonstrations. Each workplace is a microcosmos which can represent "all workplaces". Even small units like a work group within a factory can, in principle, exhibit all the key features of a productive structure, at least in terms of "fundamental elements". The ID program came to encompass - in its original version - four field sites. The second generation field experiments - which took place around 1970 - became more unclear in its features and hence more difficult to define in terms of such dimensions as number of participating sites - the figure may have been 8 to 10, encompassing cases like the Hotel Caledonien (Karlsen, 1976; Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1981 pp 51 - 56) the Shell gas station project (Gustavsen & Ryste, 1978) and the Norsk Hydro magnesium plant (Qvale, 1974) The corresponding URAF program in Sweden came to encompass about 10 enterprises (Sandberg, 1982). Soon, however, the basic model came under pressure. In connection with field experiments the following problems were identified (Gustavsen 1992 pp 17 - 19; Gustavsen, et al l99l): 1) The problem of the subject status of those concerned. 2) The problem of transcending the boundaries around the experimental site when the experiment was done and diffusion was to take place. 3) The problem of applying a pattern worked out in one field site under one set of conditions in other field sites subject to other sets of conditions. 4) The problem of the legitimacy of outstanding new patterns which by definition represent a break with prevailing patterns. 142

Creating produktive structures

These problems came to influence the next generation of efforts which can

be illustrated by two events, the job design workshop and the Norwegian

work environment reform: Emanating in the 1970s the job design workshop was based on establishing groups of six enterprises which worked together in the process of change and

did it in parallel (Engelstad & Odegaard, 1979). Initially, it was built directly on the field experiments and designed to transmit ideas and experiences from these efforts. Stepwise, however, it became transformed, to rely less on the use of the previous field experiments as "teaching material" and more on building the process around the experience existing and developing in the participating enterprises. This also implied a shift in emphasis towards the generative process as such. "Star cases" were tuned down to function as inspiration rather than blueprints. In changing the mode of working in this direction more space was opened up for defining those concerned in the par­ ticipating workplaces as subjects with a conscious and creative relationship to the process and its outcome rather than as objects in changes designed by others. As indicated by table 2 this restructuring of the approach - which occurred in 1974/75 - made it possible to overcome some of the problems which had come to the surface in the post experimental phase and to recreate a move­ ment towards new forms of work organization. table 2 Project development among participants in the job design workshop from 1972 to 1976

1972-3 Successful projects No projects/ unsuccessful projects

5

1973-4

1974-5

1975-6

2

5

5

4

Projects have been scored as successful if the workers actively participated in the redesign of their own jobs (participative design) and there emerged new forms of work organization which gave more autonomy to the workers. Source: Engelstad (1981)

Another effort in the 1970s was the work environment reform (Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1981; Gustavsen, 1992, pp. 21 - 26) Here, the need to consider the vertical to achieve the horizontal in workplace reform was much of the main focus. Departing from the problem of legitimacy - problem 4 of those men­ tioned above - an effort was made to bring together the following three main elements: - Policies and legislation - Expert knowledge - Local development and participatory structures

'

By developing a legislative framework whicll emphasises local action under worker participation as a key element in improving on health and saf­ ety, while using expert knowledge as a supportive resource, an effort was made to overcome the legitimation problem of the experimental - and other 143

Bjorn Gustavsen

single case - approach(es). A key element is art. l2 of the Norwegian Work Environment Act where the principles for organizing work which were pur­ sued in the earlier field experiments were given legislative expression (the

full text of the article is given in Gustavsen & Hunnius 1981, pp. 197 - 198 as

well as in Gustavsen, 1992, pp. 21 - 22). To merge expert knowledge and local knowledge in structures allowing for participation from those concerned, the need to develop action programs on enterprise level was emphasised in the guide-lines to the implementation of the law which were given in a set of rules issued by the Department of Labour as a supplement to Art. 14 of the act about the duties of the employ­ er. When the Work Research Institute some years later did a study of the extent to which appropriate action plans were developed, the picture to emerge was the one shown in figure I.

figure 1 The development of local activity: Percentages of enterprises fulfilling the requirements of the various steps Percentage

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Organizing

Training

Mapping

Action

the field

the actors

of problems

program

- 77 industrial enterprises from four different branches --

----

employing

150 or more 150 or more Iron- and metal enterprises in the Oslo area employing less than 150

Iron- and metal enterprises in the Oslo area employing

Iron- and metal sample: N:

201

Source: Gustavsen 1986

As can be seen, the percentage of organizations which had developed ade­ quate action programs was limited. The figure must, however, be read with the keeping in mind of the point that it was generally the larger enterprises which had developed programs. Consequently, the percentage of workplaces covered by a program was higher - actually much higher - than the percenta­

ge of enterprises. Still, the penetration of the reform was limited. This not­ withstanding, it clearly constituted the step when new forms of work organi­ zation went from being an interesting - and much debated - but practically

144

Creating produlctive structures

speaking fairly marginal issue, and to being a part of the broader processes of development in society. One way of looking at the problematic aspects of this reform is to see it as a re-emphasising of the vertically structured, paired relationships between the state and the single enterprise which had formed the historical point of departure for reform. While it had been possible, on the one hand, to decon­ struct this relationship to some extent through the diffusion strategy of the ID program and the collaborative character of the job design workshop (and similar initiatives), the work environment reform with its basis in a law brought this relationship back into focus again. While dealing reasonably successfully with one problem - the problem of legitimacy - another problem was reintroduced: The fragmented nature of the efforts to create change. "The work environment reform process" became structured as an endless series of paired relationships, generally with the labour inspection or an R&D unit at one end and a single organization at the other. The cases to be developed to illustrate the way the act should be implemented - such as the Jotul stove assembly plant (Ryste, 1978) and the Berger Langmoen wood processing plant (Ryste et al, 1979) - became isolated cases and did not form nodes in broader networks. A third major element of this period was the design projects emerging in the offshore oil industry. Largely drawing on socio-technical design princip­ les with a root in the early experiments, they nevertheless came to constitute some important steps ahead through their emphasis on the need to "design large systems" - i.e. large production sites - rather than smaller factories or group areas. In this way these projects became examples of "total design" which is very much a question of designing solutions to a large number of problems in such a way that adequate interaction and co-ordination can be achieved throughout the system as a whole (Quale, 1985; Hanssen-Bauer, 1990). There are parallels between these projects and the "total development projects" of such efforts as the LOM programme (Naschold et al l992, pp. 62 - 73; Gustavsen et al, 1991). The offshore design projects were, on the other hand, single enterprise efforts, although the enterprises were - in principle large, since a number of them are the large multinationals in the oil business. Insofar as a number of companies are behind an off-shore construction theii influence is generally mediated through special project organisations and not through the ordinary, everyday business organisation of the oil companies. This was the situation when entering the 1980s. In the beginning of this decade the labour market parties in Sweden as well as in Norway made agreements on development as additions to the existing Basic Agreements (Gustavsen, 1985b ), which came to form the umbrella for much of the efforts in the 1980s. In Norway, the HABUT/HFB program became the main effort, in Sweden one may say that The Development Program (Oscarsson et al, 1990) and the LOM program came to constitute the main thrusts towards new forms of work- and enterprise organization. Since the LOM program is dealt with in the major chapter of this book, as well'as in several other recent publications (i.e. Gustavsen, 1992), we will not touch· further upon this pro­ gram, but look at some other experiences. The HABUT/HFB program received its name from an abbreviation of the 145

Bjom Gustavsen

name given to the agreement on workplace development between the Norwegian Employers' Confederation (later renamed into the Norwegian Confederation of Business and Industry - NHO) and the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO). From 1982 to 1991 the abbreviation was HABUT, in 1991 it was changed into HFB. To give contours to this program is more difficult than to the LOM program since it generally does not have research attached to the projects - although with some exceptions. Some data and experience is, however, available, which makes some characterisations possible. In the period from 1982 to 1991 the program spent a little more than 40 mill. Norw. crowns - somewhat less than LOM over almost twice as long a period. This indicates that this is even less of a "high density" program than LOM. Most of the money was spent directly on enterprise activity and not on support systems, with some exceptions for the fellowship system (below). Before the 1991 revision, the agreement specified three types of means, or measures, to which support could be given: - Projects - Conferences - A fellowship system None of these measures were specified to any high level of detail and it was opened up for a number of local variations. By projects was generally meant "design projects" of the type which had characterized the Industrial Democracy program period, although with modifications. Generally, they were meant to be "shop floor" and imply changes in patterns of work organization. The conference model was called "mapping conference", or "planning conference", and was developed under the influence of two sources of expe­ rience: The type of discussion-oriented development effort represented by the job design workshop, and the mapping procedures of the Work Environment Act (about the last, see Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1981, pp. 159 161; 164 - 168). The fellowship system implied to pay up to half of the wages of union- and management representatives which were given special tasks in connection

with development efforts - a type of role which can be seen as a mix of resource person and project secretary. In the period from 1982, up to and including 1991, the Habut-board made 478 decisions about support to conferences, 221 about projects and 167 about fellowships (Kristiansen et. al., 1992). In terms of number of enterprises par­ ticipating in, or being touched by, this program, it is hard to give a figure, since participation could and can imply very different things, from participa­ tion in one conference together with a number of other enterprises and to a deeper involvement over years. Furthermore, one and the same enterprise can have received several types of grants over time; some enterprises someti­ mes appear in terms of the mother company, at other times in terms of one of its daughter companies, sometimes one and the same case came up before the board more than once, etc. As much as 3 in touch with the program.

146

-

400 companies may have been

Creating produktive structures

Figure 2 gives a picture of how the grants were distributed on the various types of measures over time. figure 2 HABUTIHFB Distribution of grants on, respectively, conferences, fellowships and projects in terms of number of support decisions Number of decisions 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

- Conferences I,,,',: ., >· :d Fellowships c=:::::J Projects Source: Kristiaensen et al (1992)

Up until 1989 the conferences were the dominant measure. Here it must be remembered that the enterprises themselves decided what measure(s) to use - there was no inherent preference for conferences within the program itself. If anything, in the beginning the expectation was that projects would be the dominant object of support. When the users could choose freely it emerges that they largely settled for the same type of main measure a.s applied in the LOM program. It is little doubt that there was, in the 1980s, among Scandinavian enterprises, a strong interest in gaining control over their own development processes and a corresponding unwillingness to jump straight into expert-based design projects. In this perspective, the LOM stra­ tegy was probably the right choice and it is not certain that a heavier design element at that time would have contributed to bringing more cases further ahead. Towards the end of the period, the pattern is changing. The fastest gro­ wing measure towards the end is, however, not projects but fellowships. This indicates that the enterprises have moved from a discussion phase and to an action phase, but that the action demands generalised resources rather than specific projects. Some preliminary field studies done as part of the same evaluation (Norsk Jetmotor, Bergen Diesel, Frank Mohn, ABB Norway and Kvremer Thune Eureka) indicates that a number of enterprises have moved into a phase of "total development" of the type which was aimed for in the

147

Bjom Gustavsen

LOM program - (see also the Swedish panel on productivity, Produktivitetsdelegationen, 1992, pp. 357 - 360) - and can find fellowships useful to have local resources employed specifically with coordinating deve­ lopments and playing a key role in the local development organization. Also the projects which now emerge tend to have a bent in such a direction - they concern "total development" more than specific parts of the system. From the same studies it emerges that the use of the HABUTIHFB meas­ ures has been as support to efforts generated within the enterprises themsel­ ves and in a way which implies that they would have appeared anyway but perhaps with a somewhat different pattern of evolution. If this proves to be generally the case, it follows that the main function of the program has been on the support side rather than on the initiating side or the steering side. This is emphasised through interviews with members of the secretariat who uniformly emphasise that successful application of the support measures pre­ supposes that a number of elements are in place, such as good labour­ management relationships, a reasonable degree of mutual trust, etc. (Kristiansen et. al., 1992, pp. 77 - 79). In other words: To be a successful user of these measures one must already have succeeded in solving a number of basic issues in a development context. If we to this add the point that all measures are lowly specified - there are, for instance, no communication criteria of the LOM type stipulated - and that they emerge out of somewhat different systems of ideas concerning how to create fruitful local development (Engelstad, 1991), it follows that the HABUTIHFB program can be seen as an advanced cafeteria system where the enterprises pick what they want, to serve their own purposes. When the term "advanced" is used, it is because what can be picked from the HFB menu is often highly sophisticated elements, such as the legitimacy which lies in getting the positive sanctioning of the central organizations of a local effort. Compared to the resources spent and the status assigned to this type of effort from NHO as well as LO, the development agreement must be characterized as reasonably successful. It is equally clear, however, that it's ability to contribute to a major reconstruction of Norwegian industry is ,still too limited. This point was also made by the board of the agreement in con­ nection with a renewal of the agreement which took place around 1990 - this was also when the name and abbreviation was changed. In this context the need to shape the program so that it can have stronger effects in terms of steering functions as well as in it's ability to provide continuous support over longer periods of time, was emphasised and several new steps taken. What they will lead to remains to be seen. Initially, the HABUT program was constituted along the lines of paired relationships with one enterprise at one end, HABUT at the other. There were some exceptions to the single enterprise structure, in particular a branch program among car dealers and a similar program in the fish proces­ sing industry in Northern Norway. The car dealer program is documented (Engelstad, 1990; Nlshaugen, 1988): 38 enterprises participated in a broad conference to discuss the program. Of these, 18 organized enterprise-wide project development conferences. Two times four organizations participated in experience exchange conferences. The branch program produced one 148

Creating produktive structures

"star case": Harald A. Moller (NHO - LO, 1992). This is the Volkswagen­ Audi dealer and is actually quite a substantial group. Here, changes were developed and implemented and on several different levels, ranging from the repair workshops and to management via the sales functions and customer relationships. Some time in advance the Daimler-Benz!Peugeot/Daihatsu dealer - Bertel 0. Steen - had, on their own initiative, done similar changes, for instance in pioneering new forms of repair workshop organization based on autonomous groups to which customers are directly attached, rather than having the relationship mediated through a customer receiver and a work­ shop foreman. The other dealers spread out between such star cases and zero impact. This program received a setback - but no absolute collapse - when car sales went dramatically down in Norway in the latter 1980s. After the 1991 revision, network development is given a much more prominent place (below). Of other programs and efforts, the predecessor of the LOM program - The development program for new technology, work organization and work envi­ ronment (generally referred to as the Development Program ("Utvecklingsprogrammet" (UP) in Swedish) - has left a limited amount of documentation. It came to encompass approximately 40 enterprises and public institutions, mostly organized in terms of projects with the program "at one end" and one enterprise or public institution at the other. On the other hand, a number of the participants were quite large organizations. There was, furthermore, at least one cluster of smaller enterprises which worked together in the process of change (Arbetsmiljofonden, 1990b p. 7) The main function of the program may possibly be seen as cementing the new collaborative relationship between the labour market parties which was expressed in the agreement on development from 1982, although it also came to deconstruct much of the belief in technology as a structuring force behind organization (Oscarsson et al, 1990) which was widely held in the early 1980's. An evaluation largely based on impressions was done by Ford (1987); his points correspond to a large extent to those made in the LOM evaluation. A location of the Development Program within a broader con­ text of rationalisation trends and labour-management dynamics in Sweden can be found in Bjorkman & Lundqvist (1989). An ongoing program for the reduction of damage to the musculo-skeletal system has some of the same characteristics as the LOM program. This pro­ gram is ongoing and not - so far - made subject to any overall analysis and documentation. In general, there is little to indicate, in connection with these programs, patterns which are markedly different from the one mapped out by the eva­ luation committee concerning the LOM program: A certain number of star­ ters, or initial participants, which, after a while, spread out along a series of different "levels of impact" ranging from high to zero. The in many ways outstanding effort to create' �hange in working life in Scandinavia at the time when this is written is the Swedish Work Life Fund which is a further five year program but with - comp ared to the other ones enormous economic resources: Approximately 10 billion Swedish crowns. This effort can, however, at least as a point of departure, not be seen as 149

Bjorn Gustavsen

exactly on par with the other ones. While the other ones have been programs emanating out of the R&D system for the purpose of, among other things, maximising the payoff from limited R&D resources, The Work Life Fund is the result of a decision by the government according to which a large sum of money was pulled in from the enterprises in a particular economic situation with, however, the explicit duty to pay it back again, when the economy was in a "less heated" situation. It was decided not to give the money back in blanco, but to attach some demands for development in terms of the way in which the money should be spent. In this way the Work Life Fund can be seen as a paying back of a sum of money with a "development clause attached" rather than as development with some money attached. In spite of the difference in emphasis, the Work Life Fund will , of course, excert a sub­ stantial impact on development processes in Sweden. This program is, howe­ ver, not only ongoing, but in the middle of its cycle, when this is written and it is too early to speculate about its impact (about this there is a discussion starting, where the Swedish Center for Working Life is involved, conse­ quently there is some possibility of discussing this fund in the light of the points and arguments of the LOM evaluation as well as of this article. A first preliminary report is found in Hofmaier et al, 1992). A further important ongoing program is The Norwegian Quality of Work Life Center (SBA) - a program which expires by the s ummer of 1993. To one project within this program we will return below. Also as this program is concerned, it is generally still early to start considering its role in Norwegian working life.

Change and campaigns Reform and change in working life has, as emerges above, to a large extent taken the form of "campaigns". A "campaign" is an event organized as a cycle, with a start, a build-up phase, a peak, and a deconstruction, some­ times followed by an evaluation. These campaigns have been of variable duration: In recent years they have generally been organized as five year programs. The work environment reform, being based on a law, is a major exception since a legislatively founded change is supposed not to be a "wave" but a permanent frame of reference. Nevertheless, even this reform largely came to take the form of a "campaign" - in Norway as well as in Sweden: In the early 1970s this was an issue of enormous significance on the political level, in the latter half of the 1970s the policies were h ammered out, the associated legal framework established and concrete action launched. By the early 1980s much of the energy had, however, gone out of these efforts. The ID program was not limited in time either - although it had a division in phases (Emery & Thorsrud, 1969) - but it still came to follow a cyclic pattern with a beginning around the middle 1960s, a peak around 1967-68, and an end in the early 1970s when the period of the early field experiments came to a close and the work environment reform took over as "the locomotive". The Swedish efforts of the 1970s - particularly the URAF program (Sandberg, 1982) - came to follow the same general pattern. A further effort with, in

150

Creating produktive structures

principle, an unlimited time horizon is the HABUT/HFB system; due to its low profile this may also be the program which has the least character of being a campaign. If we look at the impacts of these efforts it can be seen that they all have some form or other of short term impact. All programs have encompassed a certain number of enterprises and public institutions and they all have something to show for the effort. All have, their own premisses given, gene­ rated - or supported the generation of - some "star cases" (1. e. The Norsk Hydro Fertilizer plant within the ID program (Emery & Thorsrud, 1976), the Skandia Insurance company within the URAF program (URAF, 1974; Stjernberg & Philips, 1 982) the U.ngasjonas tissue paper plant within the

Development program (Utvecklingsprogramme t,1986), Norsk Jetmotor within the HABUT program (NHO - LO, 1992) and so on). The programs have, furthermore, had an impact also on a number of other organizations, although they did not make it to "star case" level. Although not linearly, the number of participants has also tended to grow over time, from four enter­ prises in the first part of the ID program via 10 in the URAF program, 24 in the job design workshop, about 40 in the Development Program 100 to 400 in the HABUT and LOM efforts; the Swedish Work Life Fund can, by the end of 1992, point at the staggering figure of 7000 projects. The star cases have, furthermore, tended to change over time, from experimental changes within narrowly defined production sites and to total development encompassing all major levels and functions of the organization, as in the LOM program (Naschold et al l992; Gustavsen et al, 1991; Gustavsen, 1992). It is also clear that all the efforts have had long term effects: While the ID program did not succeed in releasing a "wave" of projects to generate auto­ nomous groups in Norway in its direct succession (Bolweg, 1976) it came to excert an impact on developments in Sweden (Sandberg, 1982: Gustavsen & Rehnstrom, 1989) and this impact in turn drifted back into Norway in the 1980s when the engineering industry was facing the wave of new technology -

i.e. flexible, programmable machines, strong computer based systems for construction etc. - and a need emerged to consider new forms of organization on the shop floor. Autonomous groups and parallel patterns re-emerged after about 20 years. The work environment reform likewise started to reap­ pear around 1990, particularly in Sweden, due to a large public commission which was set down to investigate the field, give an evaluation, and develop recommendations for the future (Arbetsmiljokomrnissionen, 1990). The branch/region perspective of the car dealer program is carried on in ongoing branch programs under the Norwegian agreement on workplace develop­ ment (below) with a time lag of about 10 years, and so on. Since it is possible to identify a short term as well as a long term impact what is the problem? The problem is the middle range. Even though long term effects tend to occur they are uncertain in terms of when they will occur as well as in what scope. They are, in other words, n�t something which can be planned, or applied, as a parameter in industrial-economic policies. Furthermore, when they emerge it is often because "the rest of the world" has moved as well, and forced the issue back on the agenda. When, for instance, the Norwegian engineering industry started to develop group based

151

Bjom Gustavsen

patterns of work organization on a larger scale in the 1980s it was no longer alone at the leading edge of this type of development. The Japanese, the Germans, the Swedes and others had caught up in the meantime. Consequently, the gap between short term impacts - the 1-4 year perspective - and the long term one - about 15 years - is actually the major and critical issue. The lack of processes on this middle range level, which can to some extent be steered and brought to bear on national problems of development and productivity, actually means that the events drift out of control when the 1-4 year period is over and that there are - virtually speaking - no strategies to cope with the type of problems characterizing modem concept driven pro­ ductivity development. This is just the point which the LOM evaluation makes and the point is, furthermore, fully generalizable, to Swedish efforts in general and to Norwegian ones as well.

Overcoming the middle range gap - some further problems There are, of course, more factors which contribute to the middle range gap than a fondness for five year programs. Not all efforts are five year pro­ grams - at least some have had the potential of breaking out of this type of confine and generate more long term processes. Certain problems are gene­ rated within the R&D system itself: Whenever an innovation, or a change of perspective, has occurred, there has, for instance, been a tendency to see it as a major break. As emerges from figure 3, several such changes have occurred over the years: figure 3 Steps in approaches to change in working life:

1965-1990

1965

1970

1980

1990

Expert heavy projects of an experimental kind delimited in time and space

Participatory projects with more variable time­ space characteristics

Extension of action parameters through the development of legislative and agreement-based experessions of new forms of organization

Further development of the participatory element - dialogue as the main generative mechanism

Emphasis on total development on enterprise level Collaboration between enterprises on cluster level

Extension of the cluster idea into networks

Insofar as the novel character of each step is stressed, by research itself, it reinforces a tendency to see the development in terms of discontinuities which, in turn, may influence policy makers to apply the same view. Looking at the changes as they are reflected in figure 3 one may, however, equally well conclude that there has been one long term process with certain changes 152

Creating produktive structures

over time rather than a series of more or less disconnected "happenings". Within the research community there have been a number of other divi­ ding lines, for instance in terms of discussions between those in favour of tri­ partite development work, versus those in favour of, respectively, manage­ ment-driven, or union-driven, change: This distinction gave rise to a substan­ tial debate in the 1960s and 70s. Even among researchers who can agree to follow a particular line in terms of who is to be the driving force in the pro­ cess, there can still be different "schools of thought" concerning how a parti­ cular line is to be pursued - in the field of organization development there is a substantial number of different approaches to be found, ranging from the utilisation of psychodynamic forces as the chief vehicle in change - such as found in much American OD thinking - via the interplay between social and technological forces - such as in the early generation socio-technical school and to forces on the level of society - such as in the LOM program. Even if we move "inside" what seems to be "one school", major splits and mutual "misunderstandings" often appear. Generally, there is a tendency, which is particularly strong within social research, to give the critical - or differentia­ ting - function a very high profile and put a correspondingly lower emphasis on those elements which are necessary to play a constructive role. In developing a constructive element in the role of research (Kalleberg, 1992) there is a need to reassess the balance between the descriptive, the critical and the constructive. Constructive research can not be based on the "hit and run" character of much of the descriptive and critical efforts - construction demands ability to hang on to one plan for quite a long time. While it is possible to see the overall development as one process inter­ spersed with steps of evolution, or change, the campaign character of each specific field drive has implied a continuous series of change in the context in which the R&D sector is to make its contributions. The Industrial Democracy program emerged out of an industrial democracy debate and was built on an alliance with the labour market parties centrally, but with a strong component of direct action and personal relationships (Emery & Thorsrud, 1969). The work environment reform emerged out of the public responsibility for health and safety and came to constitute new actors, new contexts and new relationships (Gustavsen & Hunnius, 1981). With the agreements on development the labour market parties reassessed their posi­ tion but now the institutional-political element was more pronounced, the field was de-personified and the direct action element was replaced by more bureaucratically structured patterns of work. These continuous restructu­ rings of the context have probably contributed more to the hampering of the work of the R&D resources than theoretical and methodological changes. Each time a new context emerges, research has to start building itself into this new context through defining itself in relation to it, developing personal and organizational links, etc. In evaluating the efficiency of such an effort as the'LOM program this also counts for some of the characteristics, such as the long taJ<e-off period. Another set of reasons are located within the way in which the R&D sys­ tem is generally organized. Putting much emphasis on the distinction between basic research and different levels of applied research, it has been a 153

Bjom Gustavsen

tendency to believe that the research process should in some sense "start" with free-floating basic research which generates ideas. When ideas are cre­ ated they are brought to bear on issues in real life through a descending order of "applications" until such phenomena as workplaces are reached at "the lowermost end". That such a model grossly underplays the enterprises themselves as driving forces in the development of an R&D system is clear enough, and not unrecognized (i.e. Groholt-utvalget, 1991) The structure to emanate out of this time-worn way of practicing dividing lines within research does, however, not wither away simply upon say so. R&D is still to a large extent hierarchically structured with the "heaviest" forces at the top. In this way the frontline towards the enterprises becomes a weak link. This is a hard problem to deal with since it does in many ways imply a reversal of the driving forces of the R&D system itself, undermining the importance of central steering systems and increasing the importance of the field structures which grow forth in the interplay between R&D and working life. The hotch­ potch collection of somewhat harassed researchers, often with limited formal qualifications and a long way to go to tenured positions, which tend to make up the field force of today's R&D system (Naschold et al l992, pp 1 13 - 1 15) will suddenly be at the leading edge of the development rather than their senior colleagues who have finally been offered a place on a high level research council, from this seat to judge not only the living and the dead but their colleagues as well In figure 4 a simplified presentation is made of how the system will have to look if it is to reflect problem structures on enterprise level as a major dri­ ving force figure 4 Schematical illustration of the organization of an R&D system in support of productive structures Productive structure 'In structure' R&D support

V

.......

Productive structure 'In structure'

R&D support

I

General R&D infrastructure

i'--..

.......

In figure 4 "productive structures" are pictured as the objects of the efforts and the points from where the steering signals for the whole R&D field are to emanate. For any signals to appear at all there must, however, be close contacts between the R&D system and the productive structures, to allow for a stepwise development of issues and problem areas where R&D 154

Creating produktive structures

can 'give a contribution. Such issues and problem areas do not emerge by themselves - experience indicates that a direct and close collaboration over several years may sometimes be necessary before the problems to attack have been identified. To create this direct interaction, there is a need for "in structure"-, generally regional, R&D resources, while national programs or institutions play a role more along the line of infrastructure and support for the frontline elements. From what points to construct? A productive structure, as defined in this paper, consists of two main ele­ ments: Enterprises and the R&D support. In addition, there is a third ele­ ment; namely the interface, or interaction, between the enterprises and the R&D system. In constructing new patterns it is possible to move in via all three of these elements: One can, for instance, try to strengthen the willingness and interest on the side of the enterprises in using R&D resources - what in Swedish is called "besta.Ilningskompetens". It is, however, hard to see how this interest and competence can be developed irrespective of what interaction exists between the enterprises and the R&D system. Here, as elsewhere, there is no pedago­ gic strategy which is better than "learning by doing" and for an enterprise to learn how to utilise research it must collaborate with research. The other alternative is to do restructurings within the research system itself. A strong movement in this direction is unfolding in Norway at the moment in the wake of the Groholt committee (1991) and the efforts of the current minister of research and education. There are, however, so far no specific steps taken in this context to strengthen the interface between research and enterprises. Consequently, the ability of the enterprises to generate problem structures which can be shared with research is not affected. However good the inten­ tions behind current Norwegian efforts may be they will lead to nothing unless the interface is strengthened. Since this interface is nothing but what here is called productive structures, the issue is how to create processes which can bring such structures forth. Below, some elements in an adequate R&D policy will be identified and commented on. In the system as it is, there are elements which are shaped in such a way that they can play a role in an alternative system and hence help promote it. Below, we will touch upon some such elements. The main focus will be on Norway: Since the unemployment crisis and related structural problems came earlier to Norway than to Sweden, the progress towards an alternative system may have moved a little further than what is the case in Sweden. Sweden has a stronger industrial structure and much larger investments in R&D, comparatively speaking, and can consequently hold off the problems longer (this does not mean that some elements of an .Qrganizational crisis are ' not emerging in Sweden as well). A first point worth holding forth is the type of col:laboration between R&D on the one hand and the labour market parties on the other which lies inherent in the Norwegian agreement on workplace development. The

155

Bjom Gustavsen

important point in this context is not that the agreement sanctions a "tripar­ tite" pattern - of such patterns there are quite a number in several countries but that there is an obligation to work together in the field. Through the agreement on development the labour market parties have undertaken a joint obligation directly in relation to the enterprises - contrary, by the way, to what is the case in Sweden where there is no field collaboration beyond the programs emanating out of the Work Environment Fund. Furthermore, when the agreement on development was revised in 1989-90 it was explicitly mentioned that research is a partner in these activities. Consequently, we can put up element number 1:

1. A joint obligation covering the labour market parties as well as the R&D sector to work together towards the enterprises (in the field). Such a shared obligation is necessary to avoid each party running its own course or letting the development field suffer whenever there is a more general conflict coming to the surface. The obligation to make one's points in terms of specific procedures which can be applied in concrete form on work­ place level also implies a pragmatic bent which can be useful even as con­ cerns the labour market parties. When the agreement on development was revised in 1989-90 the original model where HABUT - through its secretariat - dealt directly with each enterprise, was replaced by a model allocating more responsibility with unions and employer associations on branch leveL It was, furthermore, assu­ med that the responsibility of the unions and employer associations primarily refers to the development of programs which can cover the branch as a whole, or at least a substantial part of it, rather than a (limited) number of single enterprise projects. In this way the idea of scope was put into the agreement. From this, two points follow:

2. From central (national) bodies there must be developed a descending order of responsibilities mediated through successively lower levels of orga­ nization to ensure the necessary decentralisation and closeness to the areas where action must take place. 3. While central initiatives must be carried out through a descending order of mediating bodies, it is also necessary to "build upwards" on the enterprise side in such a way that the development of productive structures which can encompass a number of organizations becomes possible. The productive structure is the meeting ground between "top-down" and "bottom-up".

In the agreement - which in its abbreviated form is renamed HFB rather than HABUT little consideration was made of the regional dimension. This, however, is now emerging in some of the projects organized by the SBA as well as in some branch programs under HFB Point 4, then, beco­ -

.

mes:

4. The normal approach to the development of productive structures will

156

Creating produktive structures

be regional. There will, of course, be exceptions in the form of programs which are purely branch based or purely based on one single group, or con­ cern; another exception is towards the national: Particularly in small coun­ tries there will be certain constellations of resources which can be created only if the whole society is seen as the recruitment field. The regional dimen­ sion will, however, be a prominent element. Since the aim is to establish productive structures which need a regional framework at the same time as important parts of the R&D function must be close to, or integrated with, the productive structure as such, the fifth point follows:

5. First line support to the development of productive structures must be given on a locaVregional basis, that is: A basis which corresponds to the socio-geographic location of the productive structure itself. Experiences, not least from the LOM program (Naschold et al l992, pp 71 - 72; 80 - 81; cfr. Gustavsen, 1992, pp 92 - 100) indicate that the development of adequate regional support systems is a complex and demanding task in itself. Institutions which can take responsibility for first line support to the development

of productive

structures

are

not automatically

present.

Relevant institutions are such as university affiliates, regional polytechnics, and the like, which have generally not been at the center of national R&D policies:

6. Explicit, strategic, and long term efforts must be launched to develop the necessary regional support institutions. In Scandinavia, the requisite institutions are generally in place, what is needed is a change of role.

7. Since the locaVregional units will often be limited in resources, compe­ tence and contacts, it is necessary to have a national R&D infrastructure which can provide permanent support to the regional units.

8. In addition to linking the regional units to each other the national units must form a network between them. 9. The problems with which the R&D is to work, must emerge in the inter­ face between each productive structure and it's "in-structure" support. The time dimension is a key element in the

LOM

evaluation. At least

three main points can be made in this context:

10. It must be explicitly recognized that change consists of interdependent cycles with different time horizons and that

all

cycles must be structurally

reflected in the R&D system (and not only the short term ones).

1 1 . Contemporary experience seems to indicate that time horizons of less than 2 112 years on project level are uninteresting. Some few enterprises may ' achieve something during a shorter period but they will be so few that they will hardly affect the national picture. This may change in the future - i.e. because of further refinement of methods - but currently the "lower thres­ hold" lies somewhere between two and three years.

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Bjorn Gustavsen

12. For certain purposes, the Japanese define horizons of up to 30 years. This is probably well beyond current political and administrative capacity in Scandinavia. Horizons of 15 to 20 years should, however, be possible. The HABUT/HFB system has been running for 10 years quite continuously and one might imagine the possibility of extending this horizon without losing flexibility. In the near future there is a need to give special consideration to the long term perspective to compensate - as far as possible - for the short­ sightedness of past policies. It is becoming increasingly common for R&D institutions with responsibi­ lity for creating enterprise- and workplace development to demand that a project, to receive support, must, as a minimum, be linked to at least one specific enterprise through specific organizational links such as a joint pro­ ject group. Only by having such a direct link is it possible to continuously confront the project with at least one real situation. In addition, it is of cour­ se nothing against having a number of other target groups, such as working life in general; this is all to the good: There must, however, be one specific enterprise which undertakes a specific obligation to directly participate in the project in terms of being an arena for action: 13. In each specific part project within the larger system of activities which is necessary to develop and sustain a productive structure, there must be at least one enterprise which is linked to the R&D system through a joint pro­ ject organization with the obligation to function as an arena for project based action. This obligation is to a large extent practiced by the Norwegian Council for Scientific and Technological Research (NTNF) and also by a council for the support of applied social research in working life set down by the abovemen­ tioned council and the Council for Applied Social Research (NORAS). A similar obligation can sometimes be found in programs emanating out of the European Community. Such an obligation should of course not be practiced without exceptions: Sometimes there may be a need to perform broader eva­ luations or launch other projects without a specific link to at least one speci­ fic enterprise, but such a link should be the normal and deviations should need arguments. Furthermore, an obligation like stated in point 13 should be enforced only within efforts where the aim is to create a productive structure from a long term perspective. "Professors running around to acquire enter­ prise support for their projects" is, according to an investigation done on behalf of the Norwegian Confederation of Business and Industry (Annexstad, 1992), by way of becoming another element in the panorama of more or less pathetic efforts from various quarters to which the enterprises are continuously exposed. Within a single enterprise framework such a clau­ se does, of course, not help very much and should consequently be avoided

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Creating produktive structures

Developing a productive structure: An example Finally, it may be worth while to give, however briefly, one example of an effort to develop what is in this paper called a productive structure. The example is taken from current efforts in Norway. The initiative in case emanates out of the Norwegian Center for Working Life in the form of a regional program which was launched in 1990. Directed at Vestfold and Telemark - two districts on the west side of the Oslofjord ­ the original intention was to launch a composite development process encompassing enterprises as well as public institutions and the interplay between them, particularly in the creation of regional economic-industrial policies. A special foundation called the Foundation for Work and Society was established to function as the umbrella organization. Contact was esta­ blished with the Work Research Institute to take care of the enterprise deve­ lopment part of the program and with a consultancy firm to organize the eco­ nomic policy part of it. None of the original initiatives succeeded as intended: The effort to deve­ lop a basis for a new economic deal in the region ran up against several hindrances, such as disputes between districts within the region concerning such issues as the location of a new container harbour. The core element of the enterprise development thrust - a so-called production forum to create an arena for exchange of experience between enterprises within the field of production technology and work organization - turned out to have insuffi­ cient anchoring in the enterprises. Since this initiative was not linked to spe­ cific developmental efforts within the participating enterprises it did not create specific obligations to take part in the events which were organized. On the basis of this experience the program was restructured: Due to the splits within the region it was decided to separate, at least for a time, the efforts in, respectively, Vestfold and Telemark. In the Telemark area, some of the local entrepreneurs decided to launch a major program for re-employ­ ment of the unemployed, based on bringing the unemployed - about 3000 people - through a training program and into real workroles in existing enterprises but at the same time also creating new enterprises so as to avoid this effort just increasing the competition for existing jobs. This program, which has been well supported by the labour market authorities, is now one part of the regional program. Another is a group of 11 engineering enterpri­ ses which have entered upon a formal agreement on collaboration to, for instance, jointly enter new markets. In the Vestfold area three clusters of small to middle sized engineering enterprises have been established to work with specific issues emanating out of the interests of the enterprises themsel­ ves: One cluster is starting the development of a system for planning and control of production, tailormade to fit the particular needs of the participa­

ting enterprises, one cluster is starting a process to implement the new European quality standards (ISO 9000 etc.) whil-e, the third group is launching a development program for their supervisors (using the metho­ dology described in Gustavsen, 1992, pp. 47 - 51). In all cases the basic issue is the development process as such: How to organize fruitful "learning expe­ ditions" into new terrain. There is any number of experts on such themes as

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MPS systems or quality standards - the problem does not lie here but in the ability to structure processes which can enable small firms to absorb and use such norms and systems. Further clusters are under development, in retail sales (shopping centers) and among electrical contractors. Although it is not unequivocally so that small enterprises are far from the leading edge of the international productivity development, and larger enterprises correspondingly closer, the general tendency will often be in this direction. Clusters of small enterprises can, consequently, by utilising their own resources only, not move all the way to the leading edge of the producti­ vity development. They need more advanced partners and in a small indus­ trial setting like Norway these partners have to be mobilised on the national level. As a part of the new deal in the HFB system, a branch program is cur­ rently evolving in the engineering industry. This program, in the develop­ ment of which research collaborates, makes it possible to search for clusters of enterprises also outside the Vestfold - Telemark region as well as for enterprises which may be close to the leading edge of the international deve­ lopment. Although Norway generally lacks forceful productive structures which can bring large slices of enterprises up to the forefront of the producti­ vity development, there are nevertheless enterprises which touch this fore­ front within more specific areas such as quality management (Norsk Jetmotor), the utilisation of synergy effects (The Ulstein Group) etc. With enterprises of this kind, discussions about participation in broader strategies for productivity development are currently taking place. To this structure new elements are con_tinuously added, building towards what may eventually be a reasonably forceful productive structure, or more. A number of problems need to be dealt with, such as how to link regional and national structures, how to link advanced enterprises to less advanced ones (where is the payoff for the advanced?) and so on. To some of the questions we can see elements of answers already at the present stage, others need to be dealt with in the future. On the support side there is also a growing number of institutions entering the structure. The main support unit in Telemark is a local organization for the development of economic-industrial initiatives in the region, which is owned by private enterprises as well as by public institutions and programs. In Vestfold it is a regional polytechnic which is being developed to take care of the first line support function. On the national level, the SBA, the Work Research Institute, the labour maker parties centrally, and in a growing num­ ber of branches, are involved, so are other institutions such as funds for financing new initiatives. On the other hand, the relationships within this support system are far from clarified and the degree of collaboration achie­ ved up until the time when this is written indicates that there is a certain way to go before Norway has a fruitful and co-ordinated policy for support to development projects on enterprise level. Since each of the institutions and programs is too weak to achieve significant developments on its own, a pool­ ing is necessary. Generally, the productive structures must be the leading for­ ces in shaping the interaction between the national support elements. Compared to the efforts which were made within the LOM program, the development indicated above is more complex and manysided and occurs on

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Creating produktive structures

a larger scale, at least when compared to the networks which were developed as part of the program (Gustavsen, 1992, pp. 92 - 100). Another difference is that now more care is taken to "create the structure which is to generate the processes". Network building within the LOM program to a large extent took the form of a fairly direct application of the methodologies of the pro­ gram with relatively limited consideration of the network itself as a more or less permanent organizational structure with its own needs, functions and characteristics. Within the LOM program the major exception in this respect was the Karlstad network, where the process towards a more thorough struc­ turing of the network itself can be said to have started; this network has con­ tinued to develop, roughly along the same lines as the one described above. (Engelstad & Gustavsen, 1993).

Concluding remarks

Experiences from, and the evaluation of, the LOM program have brought certain issues in Scandinavian work- and organization development out into the open. In this contribution, focus has been on the context in which research-supported efforts to change organizations take place. So far, the problems have been located here, rather than in, for instance, the approach of the LOM program itself. This does, of course, not mean that there are no reason to discuss the various aspects of the strategy of the program as well. Frequently mentioned in this context is the relationship to design appro­ aches: Schools of thought where ideas about how to structure, for instance, man-work relationships are at the leading edge (i.e. Naschold et al, 1992 pp 74 - 86). Clearly, there are good reasons to raise this debate and it is likely that one of the main directions of the post-LOM activities will be towards integration with design thinking. It may, however, be worth pursuing this issue a little bit further to demonstrate that it is no easy path to follow: When design issues have not played a major role so far in the immediate post-LOM discussions it is because if it is true - as argued in the evaluation and accepted by this author - that the main stumbling block against furthex: progress lies in the time structure and lack of scope in present R&D policies, one would hardly be better off with a stronger design element under present conditions since a design thrust would fall victim to the same constraints. Furthermore, if it is anything which has up to now been the overriding ele­ ment in Swedish ideas about organization development it is just design - one well known example is the enormous emphasis put on the socio-technical configurations of Volvo's Kalmar and Uddevalla factories (rather than, for instance, on the ways in which these factories were created). In Sweden there is generally no "design deficit". One may of course discuss to what extent Sweden is on the right track - see, for instance, the discussion about car pro­ duction systems in Womack et al (1990) - but this-� a problem which has to do with the relationship between different design schools rather than with the place assigned to the design element as such. The problem rather seems to be to get the accumulated competence in the design area - such as can be found in leading edge enterprises like Volvo, ABB and others - into faster 161

Bjorn Gustavsen

and more efficient circulation and this may as well be defined as a problem of communication. Alternatively, one may argue that creating arenas and structuring processes of communication is in itself design. However true this may be, it does not help settle the substantial issues, which would then be a debate between different schools of thought concerning "what to design". It is also worth repeating that although the LOM program is linked to design efforts (see, for instance, the overview in Gustavsen,

1992,

pp

11

- 30) this

link is empirical - pertains to the dynamics of historical experience - rather than theoretical. In theoretical terms the LOM program emanates out of a theory where communication is the point of origin and where the departure level is society and societal organization and not micro structures, be it in specific or abstract form.

In

what sense and in what way design thinking

should be introduced into such a framework as constituted by the theoretical background for the LOM program, must be settled on the basis of the theo­ retical - empirical dynamics set in motion by the theory itself. Let us, how­ ever, assume that one would like to enter the discourse on, for instance, the issue of "Swedish versus Japanese design thinking". What would this imply?

In spite

of decades of efforts it seems to be extremely difficult to extract

anything resembling universal design principles from Japanese industrial practices, nor indeed stable design principles. Instead, specific patterns of organization seem to be created according to needs, and context, with a broad range of patterns as a result, and the key instrument in the generation of this wide range of organizational forms is communication. (In, for instan­ ce, the analysis by Helling

(1992), which is so far one

of the most meaningful

efforts this author has run across to understand the specific micro level char­ acteristics and dynamics of Japanese work- and enterprise organization from a Scandinavian perspective, there are numerous references to "communica­ tion" - but no analysis of the properties of this phenomenon. Helling likewise a number of places mentions the emphasis put on linguistic resources and choice of concepts in Japanese plants but again with no analysis of language as a strategic force in itself). To help create new design alternatives the Japanese seem to have let their language undergo a major transformation, to make it better suited to dealing with industrial issues - the tail end of which the rest of the world meets in the role of Japan in the generation of most of today's concept driven productivity strategies. This means, however, that the characteristics of the

communication existing in Japanese

enterprises are the

leading edge of the development. The problem of "catching up" with this development is that insofar as the Japanese have a leading position due to their linguistic resources, these resources are by definition not automatically translatable into the still more "fordist"-oriented Western industrial langu­ ages. Hence, it is difficult - although not impossible - to turn Japanese ideas and practices into verbal expressions which are operationally meaningful in, for instance, Western workplaces. Language is, furthermore, not only mea­ ning but commitment - the immense power of an approach based on langu­ age is that language has to be shared to be efficient and the process of making it shared - historical or specific dialogues - in itself creates much of those social structures which are needed for commi�ment to joint action. One may argue that it is the failure to grasp this point which constitutes the limi-

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Creating produktive structures

tation of much Swedish design thinking, rather than the quality of the design

principles as such. The efficiency of specific design principles may hang less on their content than on the way in which they have been created (again, Helling 1991, i.e. p. 184, makes the point when he states that in (many) Japanese factories there is a high commitment even to work under tradition­

al principles of organization). The same point emerges quite strongly also from Adler's analysis of the NUMMI plant (Adler, 1 992). This analysis actu­ ally gives strong indications in the direction of communication being an ins­ trument of such power that it can overcome - or compensate for - the pro­ blems inherent even in a workplace with quite pronounced Tayloristic char­ acteristics, such as very short work cycles. If this pattern is able to withstand the problems usually associated with short work cycles - such as bodily wear and tear - and is found to previal in a larger number of cases, it seems as if a major shift in productivity thinking may be taking place: When the work reform movement emerged to challenge Taylorism it em­ phasised task autonomy and minimum critical specifications as the chief organizing principle as well as the local nature of optimal solutions, or best practices (Herbst, 1978). Against this, the NUM:MI plant seems to be based on full specification of tasks, no task autonomy for the workers and a belief in global best practices. See also Womack et al (1990) on so called "lean pro­ duction" which is, however, hardly a design principle but rather a set of con­ cept-driven productivity strategies working in parallel. What may prevent this from being a return to Taylorism is a system of ongoing discussions and improvement processes where everybody participates and which provides some possibilities for indirect influence over definition and execution of tasks. The main point, however, is that task autonomy iS replaced by commu­ nicative autonomy. If such a trend finds comfirmation and further manifesta­ tion in future research, it strengthens the main focus of the LOM program it does, on the other hand, imply the criticism against the program that in spite of its network orientation it nevertheless underplayed the significance of emerging global best practices. To return to the more pressing problems raised by the evaluation: To what extent will the time horizon and the scope of development efforts in. Scandinavian working life change? This is a diffi cult question. Initially, one

may of course focus on such bodies as the research and development coun­ cils and funds, which dole out much of their money on small-scale and short term efforts, thereby maintaining the illusion that this leads anywhere. These bodies are, however, not fully autonomous in their policies but linked to a larger society with characteristics and steering systems which structure the work of the R&D funds. In looking, however briefly, at this issue one may take, as a point of depar­ ture, the situation in Norwegian industry which, today, counts for less than 15% of the national employment and less. Every time industry is pushed backwards, oil and gas resources are further exploit�d to compensate for the loss of income, particularly on the export markets. Every time the oil and gas resources are further developed much of the most competent engineering and project management resources in Norway are utilised in this sector, while traditional industry generally develops too slowly. The fact that the

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Bj6m Gustavsen

Norwegians still earn money has up until recently kept any sense of urgency out of the debate about "what to do with (ordinary) industry". Recently, when unemployment has started to grow, a set of traditional Keynesian-type macro-economic concepts - with the unemployment issue in focus - have started to chase each other in the political system (interest rate, public spen­ ding, etc.). The end result as far as employment is concerned is zero since these arguments today cover only a small part of the conditions which need to be considered to create industrial development. The discourse maintains, however, the upper part of what can be characterized as an hour-glass socie­ ty with heavy central political and administrative resources but thin links between these resources and the part of society which is supposed to genera­ te the values. This characteristic is even more strongly present in Sweden (this point is emphasised by, for instance, Ford (1987) in an evaluation of the Development Program). When industry is still much stronger in Sweden it is likely that much of this can be ascribed to the point that Sweden still has one of the most competent management structures in the world - although it was to some extent eroded through the chasing of "paper wealth" in the 1980s' ­ as well as highly competent techno-structure within the enterprises (Ford, 1987) in combination with productivity oriented unions which generally ref­ rain from re-circulating historical conflicts into their relationships to local management (When the industrial sector is currently shrinking also in Sweden it is to a large extent because the companies are developing abroad, which makes the companies thrive - but not necessarily Sweden). Both socie­ ties are in a sense continuing to live in the past, when they were able to cre­ ate very powerful combinations of participative democracy, free enterprise, political steering systems and welfare - all held together by strong versions of Keynesian economics (or Wigforss economics for that matter) - the Swedish case is probably unsurpassed in the world. Today, however, when one has to move towards something which may - however vaguely - be characterized by such terms as "the innovation supportive state", the decentering of steering systems, broad mobilisation in working life (and not only in the political sphere), direct participation as the chief source of legitimacy also behind general solutions, linguistic resources as central to participation all this to occur in a post Keynesian - or indeed a post modernist - economic context, the problems are mounting. What drifts down from higher levels of society to people responsible for efforts like the LOM program is that work- and orga­ nization development are secondary issues, largely to take the form of "tech­ nical adjustments" to whatever policies or specifications emanate out of the central political bodies. This seems to be the background for the type of R&D policies so well brought into light by the LOM evaluation. If the evalu­ ation can help initiate a process of restructuring in this field it will have car­ ved out for itself a milestone place in the development of work- and enterpri­ se organization in Scandinavia.

164

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Gustafsson, L. (1991): Snabbare foreto.g genom klokare arbete. Svenska Verkstadsindustrin, Stockholm. Gustavsen, B. (1972): IndustristyreL Tanum, Oslo Gustavsen, B. (1985a): Workplace reform and democratic dialogue. . Economic and Industrial Democracy, Vol. 6, pp. 461 - 479. Gustavsen, B. (1985b): Technology and collective agreements. Some recent Scandinavian developments. Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3. pp. 34 - 42. Gustavsen , B. (1986): Training for work environment reform in Norway. In: Stem, R.N. & McCarthy, S. (eds.): The organizational practice of democracy. Wiley, Chichester. Gustavsen, B. (1988): Creating broad change in working life: The LOM program. QWL Center, Ontario Ministry of Labour, Toronto. Gustavsen, B. (1990): Viigen till biittre arbetsliv. Arbetslivscentrum, Stockholm. Gustavsen, B. (1991): The LOM program: A network-based strategy for orgaztization development in Sweden. In: Pasmore, W. & Sherwood, W. (red.): Research in organizational change and deve lopment, Vol. 5, pp. 289 - 319, JAJ Press, New York. Gustavsen, B. (1992): Dialogue and development, Van Gorcum, Maastricht Gustavsen, B. & Engelstad, P.H. (1986): The design of conferences and the evolving role of democratic dialogue in changing working life. . Human Relations, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 101 - 1 16. Gustavsen, B. et al (1991): From linear to interactive logics: Characteristics of workplace development as illustrated by projects in large mail centers. Human Relations, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 309 - 332. Gustavsen, B. & Hunnius, G. (1981): Newpatterns of work refonn. The case of Norway. The University Press, Oslo. Gustavsen, B. & Rehnstrom, K. (1989): The development of new forms of work organization in Norway and Sweden. In: Grootings, P., Gustavsen, B. & Hethy, L. (eds.): New forms of work organiza tion in Europe. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick!Oxford. Gustavsen, B, & Ryste, 6. (1978): Democratization efforts and organizational structure: A case study. In: Negandi, A.R. & Wilpert, B. (eds.): Work organization research: American and European perspectives. Kent State University Press, Cleveland. Hanssen-Bauer, J. (1990): Plattfonndesign. Prosjektering av arbeidsmilji:J til havs. Ad Notam, Oslo. Helling, J. (1992): Viirldsmiistama. Sellin & Partners, Stockholm. Herbst, P.G. (1978): Socio-technical design. Tavistock Publications, London. Hofmaier, B. et al. (1992): Arbetslivsfonden som forlindringsprogram. Arbetslivscentrum, Stockholm. Industrifondet (1992): lndustrifondets netrverksprogram. Strategi og handlingsplan 1992. Oslo. Kalleberg, R. (1992): Constructive research (in prep). Karlsen, J.I. (1976): Samarbeidsprosjektet ved Hotel Caledonien. SamarbeidsrAdet LO - N.A.F., Oslo. Kristiansen, HJ.M. m.fl. (1992): TBL i HFB. Fiasko eller suksess? Prosjektforum, Universitetet i Oslo. MVL (1989): Erfaringer av Hovedavtalens Tilleggsavtale I. Mekaniske Verksteders Landsforening, Oslo. Naschold, F. et al. (1992): Evaluation report. Commissioned by the Board of the LOM Program. The Swedish Work Environment Fund, Stockholm. NHO-LO (1990): The social process: Joint action programfor enterprise developmenL Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry - the Norwegian federation of Trade Unions, Oslo. NORAS (1991): Evaluering av den anvendte arbeidslivsforskning i Norge. Norsk R�d for anvendt sam funnsvitenskapelig forskning, Oslo. Oscarsson, B. et al. (1990): A new world ofwork_ The Swedish Work Environment Fund, Stockholm. Produktivitetsdelegationen (1991): Drivkrafter for produktivitet och vlilst�d. SOU 1991:28, Stockholm. P�lshaugen, 6. (1988): Wie kann eine Aktionsforschungsstrategie in die Praxis umgesetzt werden? Eine Beispiel aus der Norwegischen Automobilbranche. In: Fricke, W. & Jager, W. (Hg.): Sozialwissenschaften und Industrielle Demokratie. Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn. Qvale, T.U. (1974): Rapport fra samarbeidsprosjektet p� Norsk Hydros magnesiumfabrikk p� Heroya. Arbeidsforskningsinstituttene, Oslo. Qvale, T.U. (1985): Safety and offshore working conditions. The quality ofworking life in the North Sea. The University Press, Oslo. Rice, A.K. (1953): Productivity and social organization in an Indian weawing shed. Human Relations, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 297 - 312. RiiftegArd. C. (1 990): Metoder i LOM-projekten. I: Arbetsmiljofonden: Utveckling genom diskussion. Stockholm. Ryste, 6. (1978): Rapport fra arbeidsmiljoprosjektet pA Jotul. Arbeidsforskningsinstituttene. Oslo. Ryste, 0. et al. (1 979): Praktisk miljoarbeid: Erfaringer fra Berger Langmoen AS: Arbeidsforskningsinstituttene, Oslo.

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·sandberg, T. (1982): Work organization and autonomous groups. Gleerup, Lund. Statens Fomyelsesfonder (1992): Att bygga niitverk. Stockholm. Stjemberg, T. & Philips, A. (1982): Ungsiktiga effekter av organisatoriskt utvecklingsarbete inom Skandia. EFI, Stockholm. Toyoda, E. (1987): Toyota · 50 years in motion, Kodansba, Tokyo/New York. Uttvecklingsprogrammet (1986): Kompetens for kvalitet. Ungasjonas Pappersbruk. Arbetsmiljofonden, Stockholm. URAF (UtvecklingsrAdet tor samarbetsWgor, arbetsgruppen f6r forskning) (1974): Fors6k med chefslosa grupper inom Skandia. EFI, Stockholm. Wilson, A.T.M. (1951): Two constrasted mining systems. In: Emery, F.E. (ed.): The emergence ofa new paradigm of work, Center for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra. Womack, J. et al. (1990): The machine that changed the world. McMillan, London.

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Chapter 4: The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

Hans van Beinum Introduction The search for new forms of work organization which started after the war, is one of the most interesting, challenging, relevant but also problematic areas in the field of applied social science. Its objectives have not changed very much in the last forty years and, simply put, are concerned with the development of both the democratization of work and the economic perfor­ mance of the enterprise. It has become clear by now and gradually accepted that participation and productivity are not mutually exclusive phenomena but are positively correlated. Among today's multitude of approaches in organizational development in Europe, North America and other parts of the world, the Swedish LOM pro­ gramme, which took place from 1985 till 1990, stands out as a unique deve­ lopment. From an historical point of view it must be understood in the con­ text of a events and orientations which are typical for Sweden (and to a large extent also for Norway). After the experiments of the 70's, and the legisla­ tive offensive in the early 80's, the beginning of an infra-structure emerged in Sweden which consisted of such bodies as the Work Environment Fund, the Work

Life

Fund,

the

Swedish

Centre

for

Working

Life,

and

the

Development Programme . The LOM Programme, with its aim of building broader networks in which local initiatives are linked with social and political structures at other levels, is the latest and a logical component in this deve­ lopment. (Rankin, 1989, Gustavsen, 1992). The LOM programme has many unique characteristics, but in particular I wish to draw attention to three different but interdependent dimensions , i.e. its theoretical and conceptual orientation, its organizational structure, and its scope. They can be summarized in the following points: *

The theoretical as well dS methodological spea,;head of the programme is

ry, practice and language

based on the concept of democratic dialogue. Theo

are seen as intimately connected. Gustavsen discusses the various ways in which the strong link between language and practice is constituted and points out that language development and the development of new forms of

1 69

Hans van Beinum

practice cannot be separated. "Understanding is seen as linked to language, which in turn is linked to practice. Language, and hence understanding, can be changed, but only - in principle - by a mutually dependent development of language and practice where the dependence is mediated by dialogue" (Gustavsen, 1992). This perspective on the fundamental relationship between learning, langu­ age and action, forms the basis for the theoretical and operational significan­ ce of democratic dialogue and makes it the leading element of the LOM pro­ gramme.

* The programme is conceived and organized as a tripartite structure, in which research is actively involved together with the two labour parties in workplace development. In this approach, research is neither a tool to be mobilized when necessary, nor is it placed in the role of a leading expert showing the way, but defined as an equal partner working with the other partners on the basis of joint involvement and shared responsibility. This position of research as an equal component in a tripartite structure is typical for the organization of the LOM programme , on the macro as well as on the local micro level. It is an expression of its theoretical orientation. (Gustavsen, 1992). * The third unique characteristic of this programme lies in its scope. It encompassed about 150 enterprises and public institutions and about 60 researchers. The sheer size of it made the broad based approach, which was one of the explicit strategies on the local enterprise level, also a hallmark of the programme as a whole. These three characteristics, together with other elements, such as the con­ cept and use of start-up conferences, the practice of having a cluster of four enterprises as the unit of change, and the recognition of the importance of building broader networks, saw to it that one of the most striking features of the LOM programme is its extensive multi-dimensional profile. "In linking the symbol, the context and the historical experience, the frame of reference of the programme will emerge" (Gustavsen, 1992, 102). Frieder Naschold in his extensive review and evaluation of the LOM pro­ gramme, which forms the opening chapter of this book, provides a compre­ hensive analysis of its multi-level characteristics. The LOM programme has the properties of a "kaleidoscope". In order to appreciate it, one has to rotate it. In that way the different facets of developing the democratization of work will emerge, such as the historical, the theoretical, the methodological, the cultural, the political, etc. Each facet provides a typical illustration of relevance, and raises its own critical questions. The structure of the programme makes it possible to look through the programme at today's developments. In other words, the LOM programme also acts as a window through which we can examine and explore the complexities and implications of the reality of workplace development.

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The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

It is from this perspective that I have choosen to discuss: first, some typical aspects of the historical development, * second, the ambiguities and other issues we are today confronted with in workplace development, and * third, the characteristics of action research.

*

I. Milestones and other features in the history of the development of new forms of work organization. The developments in the field of work place reform will be briefly sketched by reference to a number of landmarks (Emery, 1989, Trist and Muray, 1990): 1. The first landmark is the well known studies conducted in 1938 and 1 939 by Lewin, Lippitt and White into the effect of differing styles of management such as autocratic, democratic and laissez faire, on the social climate (Lewin, Lippitt and White, 1939). During this period the term action research was coined to describe the method of testing and developing theories by creating and changing practical, action based settings. The philosophy was "there is nothing so practical as a good theory" and its operational form was expres­ sed as "you don't know how a thing works until you change it" (Emery, 1989, paraphrasing Karl Marx). 2. The second landmark is formed by the action oriented research projects carried out during the second world war by members of the "Tavistock Group". These projects were concerned with the transformation of selection procedures in the British army (which saw the application of the leaderless group method introduced by Bion), the discovery of the therapeutic commu­ nity, and the development of transitional communities ((Murray, 1990; Bridger, 1990; Wilson, Trist and Curie, 1990). These seminal studies which were carried out in the 40's have only been recently decribed from original documents and unpublished papers held in the archives of the Tavistock Institute. They are a remarkable illustration o f

sophisticated action research which subsequently lead to further conceptual developments after the war (Trist and Murray, 1990). 3. The third landmark is the discovery of autonomous groups in the British coal mines in the 1950s, and the subsequent experiment conducted in the Bolsover mine by members of the Tavistock Institute in London (Trist and Bamforth, 1951; Wilson, 1951; Trist et al., 1963). It marked the beginning of socio-technical system analysis and of the conceptualization of the enterprise as an open socio-technical system. Since then, during the 70'i< and 80's, in Holland ge Sitter and his colleagues have developed the "Dutch Modem Socio-Technical System Design variant of Integral Organizational Renewal" (de Sitter, 1989, de Sitter, et. al., 1 990; see for a comprehensive discussion and overview of these developments: van Eijnatten, 1993).

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4. The Norwegian Industrial Democracy Project which took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s can be regarded as the fourth landmark. It was both an intensive conceptual study and a practical exploration and demon­ stration of the democratisation of work by means of series of experiments (Emery and Thorsrud, 1969, 1976). 5. The fifth landmark was formed by a significant change of a methodolo­ gical nature which took place in the 1970s with the development of two con­ ceptually and methodologically linked approaches, i.e. the participative design workshop and the search conference (Emery F. and Emery M, 1974; Emery M, 1982, 1989). Both were conceived within and derived from the same set of concepts and principles, those which comprise open systems thinking (Emery F, 1981). B oth participative design and search are characterized by the fact that the participants are in control of the process of design and decision making. The social scientist is present to introduce conceptual tools and to facilitate and "manage" the process. 6. The Swedish LOM programme (1 985-1990) constitutes the sixth and latest landmark in these developments. It is important to understand that in Sweden the two sides of industry signed in 1982 an agreement on "Participation and Efficiency", in which work organization, technology and economic performance are placed in their mutual interdependencies. This agreement, which provided the legitimacy for the LOM programm e , is a public statement of shared values and common understanding. It stresses the importance of a joint approach by employers and employees to problems in industry and the significance in this context of dealing with problems in terms of a process of development and learning, instead of through rules and inflexible structures. Productivity and participation are seen as overlapping issues and the production process should thus be organised in such a way as to promote both competence and autonomy. The LOM programme was an attempt to give practical effect to these ideas through cooperation between management, unions and researchers. As mentioned earlier, the main characteristics of this programme were:

* Democratic dialogue

as the leading element: it determines the direction and the nature of local developments. Based on communications theory and on the so-called linguistic turn in philosophy, it forms the vanguard of the programme. It expresses the notion that the quality of human thought and action is largely determined by the quality of the communication between people, and punctuates a shift in focus away from design theory and more on the process of developing the linguistic resources with which management

and workers themselves can approach their problems. * The large-scale nature of the programme with its involvement of 150 enterprises and about 60 researchers. * The basic unit of change is not the single organization, but is formed by a cluster of four enterprises

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The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

· * The projects in the programme are part of a process of building broader

networks in which local developments are linked with social and political structures at the macro level. With its inter-organizational orientation, broad based societal develop­ ment, network building and linkages between mico and macro, the LOM programm e represents the emergence of the socio-ecological approach.

These various landmarks are only punctuations, albeit very significant ones, in a large complex landscape of organizational developments in which there is a great variety of orientations and approaches (van Eijnatten, 1993). The new form of work organization, which gradually emerged in the last thirty years from this multitude, is based on an understanding of the organi­

zation as an open socio-technical system. It differed to such an extent from the existing traditional bureaucratic one, both conceptually and operational­

ly, that we can speak of a new organizational paradigm. Although the term paradigm is very fashionable nowadays and is being applied in such a general sense that it has become virtually meaningless, I will nevertheless use it as it denotes the fundamentally different theoretical and value base of the new way of organizing work. The characteristics of the new organizational paradigm has been extensi­ vely described and discussed elsewhere (Emery, 1977; Trist, 1981; van Beinum, 1991; van Eijnatten, 1993), and will therefore be presented here only in a summarized form. Probably, the most poignant and illustrative way of describing the diffe­ rence between the old and the new is by mean of comparing the notions and values underlying their orientation. The new paradigm is basically the result of a change in the choice of design principles. The theoretical point of departure is based on open-system thinking and is concerned in particular with the significance of the adaptive capability of social systems. To be able to pursue their objectives, organiza­ tions must be able to adapt to a wide variety of changing circumstances. However, adaptation is possible only if the organization has built overcapaci� ty into her system. There are two ways in which this can be done (Emery, 1977):

1. by adding extra parts to the system, which is called overcapacity of parts, or 2. by increasing the capacity of the individual parts, that is through overca­ pacity of functions. Overcapacity ofparts is based on the old mechanistic concept of the orga­ nization, in which the individual is seen as an object, a replaceable part of a machine. Work processes are being managed by means of external coordina­ tion and control, the leading principle of the bureaucratic and autocratic organization. ' Overcapacity offunctions, on the other hand, recognises the multiple capa­ bilities of the individual and regards him foremost as a subject, an actor, as a societal resource to be developed. The work process is being managed by means of internal coordination and control which form the basis for the

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Hans van Beinum

democratization of work, and finds it organizational expression in the self managing group. The choice between overcapacity of parts and overcapacity of functions is a choice between two totally different value systems and results in two very different forms of logic and hence very different ways of defining, under­ standing and managing organizations.

A summary of the nature of the differences between the old buraucratic form of work organization and the new organizational paradigm is given in figure 1 .

figure 1 Characteristics o f the Old and New Organizational Paradigm (Emery, 1993, 16b) Old paradigm

New paradigm

Basic design principle:

Redundancy of parts

Redundancy of functions

Unit of analysis:

Maximum task breakdown, narrow skills; building block is one person-one task

Multiskillin g, 'whole task' grouping; building block is a self managing group

Organizational rules:

•

•

•

Technological imperative: people added on. Aim to design people out of the system Coordination and control decisions located at levels above the workers Aim at total specification of responsibilities and authorities

•

•

•

Design for 'man-machine' comp!ementarity and hence for optimal staffing levels Coordination and control located, as far as possible, with those doing the work Aim at minimum critical specification of responsibilities and authorities

Typical outcomes: sociotechnical

Fragmented sociotechnical system, resistant to rational change

Dynamic process of joint optimization of the socio­ technical system

cultural

Autocratic

Democratic

psychological

Alienation

Involvement and commitment

Having sketched the difference between the old and the new, we should however not confuse the logic of a new design based on a new way of under­ standing organizations, with the understanding and logic necessary to brin­ ging it about. It is one thing to know what to do, it is another thing to know how to do it. It

is one thing to perceive a structure, it is another thing to deal

with the dynamics of a process. That is to say, so it seems. We distinguish between process and content, between aims and means. Consequently, an important focus in the field of workplace reform had to do with how to deal with these two apparently dif­ ferent realities and their relationship. Even today one talks about a design school and a process school. However, another way of looking at this distinction is to consider it as a

174

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

false dichotomy, as a distinction which is based on the old mechanistic way of thinking, and consequently becomes a misleading strategy for the develop­ ment of workplace reform. Content and process are different perspectives of the same phenomenon. One cannot have one without the other. The content is in the process. They are intimately related and cannot be separated. Neither content nor process can be used as the exclusive point of departure. A process is always about something, and any human product is always the outcome of a relationship. In this connection, such developments as participative design, the search conference and the conceptualization expressed in the LOM programme are illustrations of an approach in which the mutuality of process and content is explicitly recognized and accordingly accomodated conceptually as well as operationally. From a somewhat broader perspective the development process of work­ place reform can also be described in the context of a series of shifts: * On the conceptual level, we see a shift from an initially socio-psychological orientation, to a socio-technical approach, which is recently moving in a socio-ecological direction. * On the methodological and operational level there has been a correspon­ ding shift from engaging in organizational redesign by means of a detailed step by step socio-technical analysis carried out by external experts, to an organizational redesign practice in which workers and management, using their knowledge and experience develop the new design themselves, and in which the experts have only a support role, to the most recent approach which is a programmatic, open, broad based, and large-scale development oriented design strategy, supported by research and in which democratic dia­ logue is the spearhead. * In these changes we also see a shift from regarding communication as a cri­ tical condition for change, to communication as the leading element in the . change process (Asch, 1952; Emery M., 1982; Emery F., 1989; Gustavsen, 1985). * Furthermore, there is a change in the use and understanding of theory. There is more emphasis on theorizing as an ongoing process of conceptuali­ zation and less on theory as a hypothesis or as an ordering-framework, i.e. a filing system (Sayer, 1992). * There is also a shift in the way we look at organizations: instead of defining an organization exclusively as a static entity, to understanding it as a process. The emphasis is taken away from the noun and put..on the verb. Rather than making decisions about finite structures, organizational design will become more and more a matter of being involved in a never ending process of orga­ nizing and reorganizing changing relationships between systems. (van Beinum, 1 988).

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* The most critical shift is probably the continuing change of our environ­ ment from being a "disturbed-reactive" one, to increasingly becoming a "tur­ bulent" one (Emery and Trist, 1972). The most recent phenomenon in this transition is the emergence of the global environment. The increase in the size of organizations, and of their interdependencies and their linkages across national and continental boundaries, combined with the rapid increase in the speed, scope and capacity of all forms of com­ munication, has triggered off an all encompassing process of globalization. We may well have to rethink some of our understanding of workplace reform and organizational design. For instance, when the socio-technical sys­ tem extends far beyond the boundaries of the local enterprise, when the notion of organizational choice has to be re-conceptualized in a global con­ text, when active involvement and participation take on a cross-cultural mea­ ning and when coordination and control become a matter of international politics. It is not unthinkable that the characteristics of the globalization process may provide a new life for the old paradigm which would make the democra­ tization of work even more urgent, but also less likely.

These various developments reflect a process of increasing contextualiza­ tion, in which a previous orientation is often included in the subsequent one. An increasingly comprehensive understanding of the growing complexities of workplace reform in today's world will require an increasingly sophistica­ ted ability on the part of the political systems to deal with it. However, this will make the redesign of our political structures in terms of the new organi­ zational paradigm even more a matter of growing urgency. We may well find ourselves in a catch 22 situation, a double bind. ll. Today's challenges: the ambiguities of participative democracy

Since the 1950's we have seen a steady increase in the development of par­ ticipative forms of work organizations. Many examples can be given from both the private and the public sectors in North America, Western Europe and other parts of the world (Emery and Thorsrud, 1969, 1976; Kolodny and van Beinum, 1983; Gustavsen, 1985; van Beinum, 1986; Rankin, 1990). As a result of the economic pressures coming from international competi­ tion and the requirements of new technology, there is an increasing recepti­ vity for the connection between the effectiveness of the enterprise and the democratization of its organization. Although there are many encouraging developments, the actual process of diffusion is moving very slowly. Many participative approaches have been confined to changes of a local nature, and the majority of attempts at organizational renewal furthermore take place in the context of the old paradigm and can be characterized as a form of parochial democracy (van Beinum, 1986, 1990).

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The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

Also, democratic structures are being introduced but not through a demo­

cratic process. They are generalized and standardized solutions. It is a form of enforced democracy, a contradictio in terminis.

It is obvious that there is considerable resistance to the democratization of

work, despite its organizational logic, its economic relevance and the fact that it corresponds with some of the basic values of Western society.

It looks as though the present irrational attitudes and ambivalent feelings

towards this new form of work organization are the result of the fact that it

generates a set of contradictory forces. On the positive side, it fulfills the requirements of organizational effectiveness and efficiency, but on the nega­

tive side, there are feelings of fear, and anxiety and uncertainties about the consequences of introducing and developing democratic structures and pro­

cesses. It seems that we are faced with some serious difficulties, which inclu­

de a not insignificant ambivalence about participative democracy itself, which is furthermore different for different social structures. I

will give some examples in this connection of the various issues involved

on the different levels, such as the individual, the organizational, the socio­ ecological and the societal.

1. The individual /eve/. The new organization paradigm creates work situations which require

direct participation and personal involvement. Instead of the segmented

work process, with its fragmented people and relationships, we see an em­

phasis on the development of the "complete" task, which makes demands on the "whole" person. Self-managing groups, ongoing learning and ability to exert influence, are the key characteristics of the new organizational design.

Numerous studies have shown that, to have a say on the job, to have varie­

ty in one's work, and to have a challenging task, score very high in surveys which focus on what people want from their jobs (Hackman and Oldham,

1975, 1976) The successful experiences with participative redesign workshops 1989). The new form of work organization meets the

confirm this (Emery,

social and psychological needs pertaining to work.

In spite of all this, we see that workers can have reservations and even

negative attitudes about the democratization of work. The difficulty we

experience with initiating, sustaining and diffusing the new work organiza­

tion, cannot only be explained in terms of organizational or societal condi­ tions.

The new development creates a shift in the relationship between the indi­

vidual and the organization. A shift, which makes new demands, not only of an intellectual but also of an emotional kind. In addition to the obvious diffi­ culties having to do with learning new skills and new ways of working, there

are unconscious fears and irrational attitudes which play an important role in

this process and which are insufficiently recognized.

The fear of losing control and power as a result of structural change, parti-

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Beinum

cularly among lower and middle managers, is a common factor. Associated with this are the feelings of uncertainty due to the dissonance between the new organization and the existing internalized image of the old organization and the way the latter still determines one's sense of competence and sense of self. The relationship between organizational change and personal identity is a fuzzy and ignored area. We often forget that, in organizational change, indi­ viduals have to change their views about themselves, whilst they cannot and should not discard their past. We probably put too much emphasis on the spatial, synchronic context in organizational design and do not give enough attention to the fact that we also must redesign in time, along a temporal, diachronic dimension which does not only include the future but also very much the past. It is not improbable that the ambivalence which we encounter is also a reflection of a more general phenomenon, namely of a deep-rooted cultural and personality syndrome which Fromm identified many years ago as "the fear of freedom" (Fromm, 1942). Being free from does not necessarily mean that one feels free to. Modem European and American history largely concerns the social, eco­ nomic and political liberation of the individual. According to Fromm, howe­ ver, this process has also liberated people from the ties of safety and security. Accordingly, the new freedom also gives rise to feelings of insecurity, fear and doubt. The individual must choose. He can rid himself of the burden of freedom by taking flight into new forms of dependence and subordination, or he can decide to exercise his newly found freedom in accordance with the uniqueness of his own individuality. However, the latter requires an environment which allows for such a deve­ lopment to come from within the person, which makes high demands on the quality of interpersonal relations. A major difficulty, which arises in this con­ nection, lies in the fact that participative democracy has by definition an unfolding character and thus entails a certain measure of unpredictability. This is why this development can be quite threatening, particularly during the design and transitional phase when unfamiliarity is accompanied by insufficient trust and lack of influence. The new mode of operation cannot, after all, provide the same safety as traditional bureaucracy. Consequently, many people do not have sufficient confidence in themselves to develop the competence they need in order to be able to act. Fear of the unknown is a universal phenomenon and probably has its ori­ gin in man's early history, when the unknown usually signified danger. We probably are dealing here with an example of conditioned behaviour which has a pre-cultural basis. One wonders, therefore, to what extent the slow dif­ fusion of participative democracy has been due in part to a collusion between the fear of democracy and the apparent safety provided by the old paradigm. This type of negative relationship can develop into an especially intractable vicious circle in circumstances in which the structure of the exis178

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

ting organization also serves as a defence mechanism against anxieties gene­ rated by the very same organization (Menzies, 1 970). A situation can then arise in which people feel good about feeling bad.

An ambivalent attitude towards new forms of work organization is proba­ bly more closely connected with the psychological and cultural aspects of organizational change than with the technical and structural aspects of orga­ nizational design. Hence, it is of great importance that the process of change from the bureaucratic to the democratic structure should be developed and managed in such a way that the various psychological conditions can receive the space and attention they require. This means generally that it should be a process in which people feel safe, and can be in control. The redesign workshop, the search conference and the Swedish LOM pro­ gramme with its democratic dialogue as the leading element, are all ap­ proaches which make it possible for people to face up to their paranoia (i.e. the suspicion, the splitting, and pitting one against the other) and their fear

of what is new, and to come to grips with them by means of a process of per­ sonal and interpersonal testing and working through. (Asch, 1952; Emery and Thorsrud, 1976; Gustavsen, 1992).

2. The organizational /eve!. On the organizational level we encounter an ambiguity which is somewhat similar to the one on the individual level. The critical significance of the new organizational paradigm is of course given in the fact that it is the most appropriate design strategy for an organization in order to survive in a turbu­ lent environment. Unless organizations are flexible and adaptive, have a learning orientation, and are able to motivate and develop their human resources, they will not be able to cope with international competition and the ongoing and unpredictable changes in today's world. As the relevance of the new form of work organization is beyond dispute, it therefore cannot be the reason for its slow diffusion from an instrumental rational point of view. We have learned by now that it is na.lve to expect that the good example will necessarily be followed. On the contrary, there are many cases of succes­ sful projects which have simply been encapsulated. The experiments and projects of the last thirty years have taught us that diffusion is not an automatic linear process and that it does not take place along lines of simple causality. Dissemination of new ideas and practices involves more than providing compelling scientific evidence and making information available about successful developments. Nonetheless, we conti­ nue to do so; we use the logic of the old paradigm in order to introduce the new one, as a result of which we create an even greater barrier to under­ standing the new form of work organization. Information is not experience. Diffusion of something as radical as the democratization of work, requires a process in which there must be ample scope for direct active participation

and for learning by doing. There must be an opportunity for "working through" in the context of the unique characteristics of one's own organiza­ tion.

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Organizational design is a "whole system" concept. The redesign cannot be confined to a reorganization of the structure of the production system, but must be extended to the assumptions underlying the organization as a whole. The redesign process thus proceeds at two levels simultaneously, namely at the concrete operational level of re-arranging the socio-technical structures and at the abstract representational level of redefining the ideas and value systems expressed in the mission and objectives of the organization. Organizational change in the field of health care and education provide stri­ king examples of this phenomenon, the former in view of the implications of the definition of the concept of health and the latter with regard to the pro­ blems resulting from the revision of views on learning and the structure of knowledge. The success of the redesign process at the concrete, operational level then depends to a large extent on the ability to change the culture of the organiza­ tion, i.e. the shared beliefs, values and taken-for-granted assumptions (van der Vlist, 1991). Greenwood and Gonzalez Santos talk in this connection about " .... culture as a system, a "web of meanings", a pattern held together by processes of continual interpretation. The making of meaning and coherence is an essen­ tial part of everyday life." (Greenwood and Gonzalez Santos, 1 992, 35). In other words, succesful organizational change requires reframing organiza­ tional identity, i.e. the collective identity of its members. Participants will not just be involved in redesigning the operational socio-technical system, but in redefining their collective organizational self. This is a formidable task which makes very high demands on the vision and leadership qualities of manage­ ment (van der Vlist, 1991). Demands which go well beyond skills and compe­ tences and such features as drive, sense of purpose and tenacity, into the realm of moral courage. The complexity of changing the culture of the organization can be further illustrated by focussing on the behavioural variables of the organization. The behaviour of people in an organization is determined by three types of variables, namely personality variables, the way in which roles are structu­ red and the characteristics of the members of. the organization as a collective, as an aggregate. It is the last category I wish to draw attention to. Churchman and Emery pointed out that organizations have dual characteris­ tics, since they are a structure of roles and at the same time a collection of persons, a kind of "aggregate" (Churchman and Emery, 1 966). The latter refers to the fact that the members of an organization are connected as indi­ viduals with a large number of other organizations. In their multifarious organizational connectedness, the individuals in the organization together form a collection, a "social aggregate" with its own own characteristics. They form a separate internal environment which has the properties of a dynamic field. The importance of this phenomenon lies in the fact that along this dimen­ sion the organization internalises its societal environment. The state in which the social aggregate finds itself, its mood, its attitude and values, largely

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determine

the

scope

for

communication

within

the

organization.

Organizations manage their relationship with the social aggregate by means of the values which are inherent in their objectives and different policy sphe­ res. The extent to which, for example, the new paradigm can develop in an organization will depend on the extent to which the values and principles of

participative democracy correspond with those of the social aggregate. The relationship with the aggregate, which goes beyond the formal structural arrangements, forms an important invisible regulating mechanism. It is along this dimension that the organization has an internal dialogue with society.

3. The socio-ecological level. It has gradually become clear that in the processes of organizational design and development we cann ot focus only on the organization as such and regard the external environment simply as a backdrop, as a set of cir­ cumstances which are blocking or facilitating organizational change. Organizations and their environment are complementary, they determine each other. It is not possible to describe the features of the one without char­

acterizing the other. An organization can ultimately be defined only in terms of its environment. And vice versa, an environment cannot be described without portraying the organizations it provides an environment for.

Organizational change is therefore rooted in the interdependencies between the organization and its environment. Consequently, the unit of analysis and the unit of organizational change is not the organization as such, but it is the organization in its environment and with its environment. This understanding represents a major development, both from a concep­ tual and a methodological point of view (Sommerhoff, 1969; Emery, 1981; Trist, 1985,). It signifies a shift from a socio-technical to a socio-ecological approach. The environment no longer acts as a background, but is an active participant in the process of change. Consequently, the connection between the intra-organisational and the inter-organisational processes can be further developed conceptually and deliberately incorporated and mobilized in prac� tice. From this socio-ecological perspective, one should distinguish between the transactional and the contextual environment (Trist, 1976). The transactional environment is the environment the organization inter­ acts with in carrying out its primary task, it constitutes the organization-set of the focal organization (Evan, 1966). However, there is also a wider environment beyond the task environment, which can be called the contextual environment. In this contextual environment, the various organizations which compose the organization-set of a focal organization have relations with other organi­ zations, which overlap in their relations with still others and others still again. They have only indirect relations with the focal organization. The field of these interwoven indirect relations constitutes the contextual as distinct from the transactional environment (Trist, 1976). What goes on in the con-

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textual environment influences to a considerable extent what goes on in the transactional environment, and thus in the organization itself. The contextual environment with its web of inter-organizational connec­ tedness is also the basis for the formation of (inter) organizational domains. These are networks of organizations which are engaged with a set of pro­ blems or a societal problem area that constitute a domain of common con­ cern for its members. (Trist, 1985, Engelstad and Gustavsen, 1993). The issu­ es involved are too extensive and too many-sided (meta problems) to be coped with by any single organization. Many of those problem areas such as health care systems, regional development or industrial relations are further­ more also very pertinent for the development of the new paradigm. The response cability required to deal with these meta problems is inter- and multi-organizational. The identities of these organizational domains are a result of what Vickers calls "acts of appreciation". Appreciation is a percep­ tual, conceptual and valuing process that melts together judgements of fact and judgements of value (Vickers, 1965). Early examples of these socio-ecological approaches in action research are the "National Farmers' Union" and "Local Government" projects of the Tavistock Institute in the 60's (Higgin, Emery and Trist, 1960, Friend and Jessop, 1969). A more recent example is the well-known "Jamestown Area Labor-Management Committee" project in New York State in the 70's. The latest and most comprehensive development in which the democratization of work is both the medium and the focus is the LOM programme. The socio-ecological level is in my opinion the most critical level for the development of the new the new organizational paradigm. It combines local initiative with diffusion, it is broad based and provides an opportunity to weave into the societal infrastructure, and, what is very important, it opera­ tes at the interface between the micro and the macro level and thus may establish the so urgently required operational link between these two levels. We face two difficulties with the socio-ecological approach. First, we have not much experience with these strategies; they are complex structures and difficult to develop, and furthermore, their special importance is still insufficiently recognized. Second, organizational domains are not so easy to see. It requires some kind of figure-ground reversal. The structuring of the social fields at the mid­ dle level of society is itself weak. In general, the power and high visibility belongs either to the singular organizations on the local level or the gover­ nmental and other structures on the macro level. There is some kind of a gap on the intermediate level of the societal organization. Developing organizational ecological systems on that level has dual char­ acteristics, because, in doing so, we are not only engaged in strengthening workplace reform within organizations, but we also have the opportunity to design a new social system on the meso level according to the principles of the new organizational paradigm and thereby extending organizational democracy further onto new levels in society. 182

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

There is another dimension to the contextual environment which also influ­ ences the development on the organizational level, and which is relatively independent of the organizational domain and difficult for the organization to interact with directly. I am referring here to patterns of beliefs, meanings and values about the various features of the human condition, such as health, youth, politics, women, unemployment, etc. One of these beliefs consists of our views about organizations and in particu­ lar about organizing in general, about the meaning of responsibility, coordi­ nation and control. Organizations are ubiquitous, not only because they are everywhere as actual operational social systems, but also in view of the way organizing principles and organizational logic are part of the way we under­ stand and manage our daily lives. They determine our views on such matters as the nature of relationships, the need for coordination and the meaning of control. They have a not insignificant influence on the way in which we expe­ rience our life, our relations with others and, ultimately, ourselves. They play a major role in the way we position ourselves in society. Our values and views with regard to the phenomenon of organization have been grounded in the course of history in a broad societal context. It is there­ fore very understandable that the traditional bureaucratic organization para­ digm, embedded in its Newtonian/Cartesian logic, is firmly entrenched in our culture and still manifests itself in widely differing social settings. It also fol­ lows that in the development towards more democratic work organizations, we have to pay much greater attention to our implicit views about coordina­ tion and control in general, and to those "places" in our culture where bureaucratic beliefs and values are still being produced, hidden and develo­ ped. In other words, we have to be more sensitive about the degree to which the effectiveness of democratic organizational change is a function of cultur­ al change. 4.

The societal level.

It is obvious that conditions on the societal level and the quality of the national infrastructure in general will greatly determine developments on the organizational level, particularly when the values involved in the latter are dependent on those embedded in the former. To a large extent micro is determined by macro (Cole, 1985). In that connection, the degree to which the democratization of work will take root will be strongly influenced by the position taken by the social partners. For instance the ability as well as the inability of trade unions and employers to include the values and practice of participative democracy in their mission and primary task are well known ' examples. From a societal point of view the process of democratization of work represents only small steps along the path of participative democracy. Nevertheless, one can expect that in due course the new developments in organizational thinking and practice will be heard via the aggregate and the

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inevitable public stance of the social partners. Furthermore, the socio-ecolo­ gical approach and its organizational domains and the way in which they can be linked, will generate new social fields through which the values and the principles of the new work organization will be expressed. They will provide new opportunities for the participating organizations to connect with society and to extend their experiences with organizational democracy to the meso and macro levels. One can visualize a process of weaving the values and prin­ ciples of participative democracy into the social fabric of society by following its natural strands in some kind of a warp and weft fashion. Two reactions can be expected: one, having to do with the relationship between participative and representative democracy, and the other one, con­ cerned with the appropriateness of participative democracy in today's socie­ ty. Participative democracy is after all in the first instance a societal issue and not a specific organizational one. Also, one can expect that behind the views about participative democracy there will be attitudes about democracy in general. Democracy denotes both a set of political institutions and a set of political ideals. As a set of ideals, democracy is connected first of all with liberty, and next with equality. For a discussion about the nature of the relationship between the components of this triangular set, and about the importance of the similarity and dissimilarity between today's democracy and "demokra­ tia" in ancient Athens, I refer to the extensive literature which exists about these issues1 • However, I wish to draw attention to a few aspects in connec­ tion with the present developments. In order to have the right historical perspective we should remind oursel­ ves that both the history of the concept of democracy as we know it, and the history of the concept of demokratia, span two hundred years. The ancient Greek concept flourished in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. and the European concept flourishes since the early 19th century. There is a big gap in philosophy between Aristotle and Rousseau, and in history from Greek polis to the American and French revolutions. Although, there was thus no unbroken tradition, demokratia as a political ideology was remarkable close to the political ideals associated with liberal democracy from the mid-nine­ teenth century to the present day (Hansen, 1989). It is difficult to deny that direct participative democracy is more "demo­ cratic" than representative democracy. However, direct democracy is usually dismissed, without much debate, with the argument that it fits small city sta­ tes only, and has been made impossible by the size of modern nations. Moreover, the majority of people do not have the ability to decide upon detailed complex issues. Several comments can be made on this kind of statement. * First, it is rather remarkable that hardly any mention is made in this expla­ nation of the possibility and meaning of participative democracy in the work­ place. 184

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

* Second, today's technology makes it quite possible to develop a system in which television viewers, after watching a political debate, vote directly on the issues by means of buttons attached to their set. Tele-democracy is a potential reality. * Third, the question of competence can be looked at quite differently: "the fallacy is that problems arising from international monetary agreements or space satellites are technical problems, not political ones.... " (Finley, 1985, 15). "Where ends are agreed, the only questions left are those of means, and these are not political but technical, that is to say, capable of being settled by experts or machines like arguments between engineers or doctors." (Berlin, 1979, 1 89). Political decisions should be made by political leaders, not by technical experts. " .... the arguments from the complex nature of modem society would invalidate not only direct but also representative democracy and lead to pure technocracy, since most members of modem parliaments are no longer capable of understanding the technical aspects of the issues they decide" (Hansen, 1989, 34). The conclusion is formulated with devastating clarity by Hansen: "The champions of representative democracy can no longer disregard direct democracy as an impossible form of government in a modem nation. They must come out in the open and argue, more forcefully than hitherto, that the most democratic form of government is not the best form of government and that direct democracy is technically possible, but not desirable" (Hansen,

1989, 6). Democracy and liberty are intimately conncected. The complexities of the reality of human freedom for human dignity is extensively discussed by Sir Isaiah Berlin in his seminal four essays on liberty (Berlin, 1979). The demo­ cratic concept of liberty has two very different aspects. Berlin distinguishes between negative freedom and positive freedom. On the one hand, liberty is characteristically freedom from something. "The sense of freedom, in which I use this term, entails not simply the absen­ ce of frustration (which may be obtained by killing desires), but the absence of obstacles to possible choices and activities - absence of obstructions on the road along which a man can decide to walk" (Berlin, 1979, XXXIX ). On the other hand, liberty is characteristically freedom to do something. As a positive ideal, liberty is social: freedom is self-determination, it is self­ empowerment. The relationship between the two freedoms is complicated and may or may not be complementary or mutually exclusive, depending on the circum­ stances (Berlin, 1979, Hansen, 1989). However, liberty requires both. If posi­ tive freedom is pursued without the conditions for negative freedom, the foundation are being laid for turning freedom into a doctrine of authority and, at times oppression, a phenomenon all too familiar in our own day. Similarly, an exclusive belief in negative freedom,(as in 'social Darwinism') facilitated politically and socially destructive policies which have generated great and lasting social evils. ·

Turning from the macro and the philosophical to the micro and the practi-

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cal, the question is how can we accomodate both types of freedom in the pro­ cess of workplace reform? The answer lies, I believe, in the way we under­ stand and operationalize the relationship between process and content, as discussed earlier. The fundamental meaning of the democratic dialogue in the LOM programme is that it gives people the freedom to search and explo­ re and build, whilst being free from pre-conceived solutions. The essence of liberty is that it is a process, a never ending dialogue between freedom from and freedom to. As the process of developing and diffusing the principles and practices of participative democracy extends into the societal infrastructure, the partici­ pating ecological systems will be faced with the logic and the practice of representative democracy. This will happen in two types of situations: 1. when they must interact with an existing representative system, and 2. when it is necessary for the development of their own ecological structu­ res to create a new body that can represent a population or group which is part of the ecological field, but which is too large for direct participation. This raises the question of the nature of the relationship between direct and indirect democracy. Do they constitute a complementary system or are they contradictory and mutually exclusive? To discuss the various positions taken in this debate and to examine the theoretical and empirical aspects of this relationship is beyond the scope of this chapter. However, some remarks and observations seem appropriate and necessary here. The representative system as we know it is about two hundred years old and forms the operational basis of today's democracy. The original idea being that it would give the ordinary citizens a greater role in their own governance. However, the way in which representative democracy has deve­ loped over the years is well reflected in Churchill's famous statement to the effect that he deplored it, but that he deplored the known alternatives even more. The reality today is that there is quite a gap between democratic ideals and actually existing democracy. Representative systems do not promote participation, rather the opposite. Cynicism, apathy and distrust of politi­ cians are widespread (as is witnessed by some recent developments in Europe and North America). In some countries the majority does not even bother to vote. Some argue that this is not necessarily a bad development. The "ideal" citizen in a representative democracy actively contributes to the electoral process by voting but otherwise should not become a nuicance by trying to interfere in the deliberative processes of the governing body of representatives. The so called elitist theory holds that democracy can only function under an oligarchy of professional politicians and bureaucrates, that popular participation must be restricted to occasional elections. In other words, popular political apathy is a good thing, a sign of a healthy and stable society. It shows that people recognize that, in a complex, high-technology society, the important decisions must be left to administrative and technical experts monitored by politicians.

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·

I will not enter the debate here that goes on within political theory, but wish to point out that lack of interest can also develop in situations where the person feels that nothing he or she could do or say would make the slightest difference. When there is a serious conflict between the desire to exercise some control or influence and the ability to do so, people will turn away and disconnect. Apathy, anomie and shutting out the wider world are forms of dissociation, which is the worst and the most dangerous type of maladaptive behaviour. It dissolves social bonds and denies the rationality of entering into dialogue with others. In our complex world it creates the perfect condi­ tion for the totalitarian state. The big question is whether it is possible to change and improve the sys­ tem of representation as we know it. Is it possible to break through the vicious circle of neo-corporatism and bureaucracy? It is not necessary to go into the complexities of the pros and cons of the representative system, and of the merits of the representation of general ver­ sus particular interest, in order to recognize that we find ourselves in a serious crisis. There is an obvious connection, and not only on the conceptual level, between representative democracy and the old bureaucratic paradigm. It looks like it, that it will be very difficult if not impossible for participati­ ve democracy to connect with the representative system as it is functioning at present. The late Phil Herbst pointed out that it is a figure-ground issue, that

is, if participative democracy would form the "ground" in our society, it could accomodate representative systems as "figure", but not the other way round (personal communication). Emery suggests that democracy can be radically strengthend by changing the form of representation. He proposes to replace the election by popular ballot and co-optation by selection by lot (sortition) as in ancient Athens and as it still exists in today's jury system (Emery,

1989). He refutes the argument that such a system cannot cope with

the modern complexities of science, technology and business. The characteristics of a representation based on selection by sortition include the following elements:

* all people concerned have a duty to serve; * they are not selected by popular vote but by turns; * they cannot be lobbied as they are not viewed as representatives. These features bring the representative system much closer to the values and principles of participative democracy and represent a shift from a con­ tradictory and mutually exclusive to a complementary relationship. The representation of interest in society by means of selection by lot is, as a political system, a very interesting but also a radical new concept which needs further thought and exploration, and can of course only be tried out in such a way that it will not endanger existing democratic freedoms. This means that it can only be tested in settings which are outside the existing political representative systems. It would be v�ry naive and unrealistic to suppose that this would be feasable in the near future under present condi­ tions. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that in particular the develop­ ment of the ecological approach may well provide opportunities for such an experiment.

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It is very encouraging to note that a development in industry which is going in this direction called "strategic management, the bottom up approach", has been initiated in Holland by Annemieke Roobeek. Professor Roobeek has introduced an approach in which a cross section of employees from all levels (a vertical slice) becomes actively involved in strategic planning and decision making. The experiments are so succesful, that all the four companies invol­ ved have decided to a follow up, to further develop this approach. (Roobeek,

1993). It will probably not be disputed that democracy is in need of renewal, revi­ talization and further development. Also, it is quite evident that the demo­ cratization of work and the nature of our democracy in general are closely linked, both positively and negatively. Furthermore, looking at the various examples given of the kind of conditions affecting the development of new forms of work organization on the different social system levels, it is clear that the situation is very complex. Each level has its own idiosyncratic profile of complementary and contradictory conditions. When moving from the individual level to the societal level, two sets of linked and mutually reinfor­ cing factors emerge. One positive, and the other one negative. figure 2 Ambiguities about participative democracy on different Social System levels

Social systems

Positive aspects

Negative aspects

- Meets social and psychological needs pertaining to work - More autonomy, responsibility and opportunities for learning

- Fear of process which is unfolding and unpredictable - Lack of trust - Lack of confidence

- More responsibility, more challenging task

- Fear of losing control and power - Existing self image often radically affected by new role

2 Organizational level:

- Greater flexibility, adaptability and thus effectiveness

- Complexity of changing organization as 'whole system', i.e. cultural change

3 Socio-ecological level:

- Strengthens organizational change - Provides value base for linking transactional and contextual environments - Combines local development with diffusion - Connects micro with macro level

- Little experience with socio­ ecological structures - Middle level of society is weakly structured - Influence from wider environment with different values and beliefs

4 Societal level:

- Increase in participative democracy in general and of democratic and adaptive organizations will reduce turbulence - Possibility for extending direct participation into representa­ tive democracy by means of sortition

- Reservations about participa­ tive democracy - Dissonance between participa­ tive and representative democracy - Social systems based on different logic and values, e.g. industrial relations and education

1

Individual level: a. workers

b. (middle) managers

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The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

·

On the positive side, we see the connection between the development and involvement of human resources and effective organizational performance, and the way in which this process will become further reinforced in wider ecological structures, thus contributing to a less turbulent environment. Economic considerations are the powerful driving force in this chain. On the negative side, the combination of individual apprehension, the complexities of organizational change, dissonant structures on the macro level and reservations about direct participation in general, constitute a for­ midable barrier. In trying to understand and relate to complex situations of this kind, there are two traps we should avoid: inappropriate dichotomizing ("splitting") and searching for the all encompassing solution. By compartmentalizing the people, structures and processes on, for instan­ ce, the individual and organizational levels, into good and bad, we polarize their responses accordingly. We engage in a defense mechanism against the anxiety of holding the contradictory whole together. The process of demo­ cratizing work on the individual and organizational level is characterized, on each of these levels, by an intrinsic and therefore inevitable ambiguity, which has to be recognized and dealt with as such and within the typical logic of each level. All four levels are, to a greater or lesser extent, characterized by these kinds of conditions. There is a natural tendency, when confronted with a diverse and complex situation like this, to look for the one grand theory which can explain every­ thing, and to search for the all embracing method which enable us to deal with it. "There is little need to stress the fact that monism, and faith in a single cri­ terion, has always proved a deep source of satisfaction both to the intellect and to the emotions" (Berlin, 1979, 170). However, history has shown time and again that if we reduce complex reality to one belief or try to accomoda­ te its diversity in a final harmony, we do so at our own peril. Basically, this also holds for the more mundane level of workplace reform. There is no single system that can encompass the plurality inherent in this process. Macro and micro can be connected via the transactional dimension of the socio-ecological approach, but this does not necessarily mean that their two different logics will be connected. Considerations of company poli­ cy do not lend themselves so easily for expressing political concerns on the national level, and vice versa. This kind of reasoning suggests that the democratization of work requires an orientation which is pragmatic and in accordance with Ashby's law of requisite variety. There should be an appropriate fit between approach and reality, between the characteristics of the strategy and the features of the field. This means among other things a multi level methodology which can accomodate the different contexts and diffe�ent types of relationships (Gustavsen, 1992, 105). Although there is no single conceptual scheme that will integrate the features of the different social system levels, there is never­ theless a "universal" in the "particulars" of the pragmatic approach, which is in fact the glue of the human condition, and that is language and communica-

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tion. This fact, combined with the notion that one can only democratize by means of democracy, form, in my opinion, the fundamental logic of the democratic dialogue of the LOM programme. It is only through dialogue that the linguistic resources will be developed that will make it possible for the different levels to discover and build the kind of language and the neces­ sary concepts that will enable them to connect and create a common ground which is required for the democratization of work in a wider societal context. This is what Gustavsen would call linguistically oriented pragmatism, the hallmark of the LOM programme.

m. The epigenetic landscape of action research.

The tripartite structure, with research as one of the partners, is a unique and very distinctive feature of the LOM programme, but it is also its most problematic one.

The main reason is that the research orientation of the LOM programm e does not quite correspond with the research and development policy as it exists in Sweden and with the research tradition of the Swedish Academe. This created difficulties on both the macro and the micro level of the pro­ gramme (Gustavsen, 1992, Naschold, 1992). In the following discussion, I will focus on the micro level and in particular on the role of the researcher in this kind of action research, which turned out to be a significant problem in the LOM programme. The emphasis in this discussion will be on the social psychological and relational aspects of action research.

1. Towards a definition. Action research, which can be described in general as the study of opera­ ting systems in action, is not a method in the traditional sense of the word. Action research, like all social research, refers to a way of understanding and managing a relationship, i.e. the relationship between epistemic subject (the researcher) and empirical object (the researched), the relationship between theory and practice (van Beinum, Faucheux and van der Vlist, 1993). In order to investigate the nature, causes and effects of social phenomena in reality, that is to engage in social research, one requires a logical frame­ work which is based on assumptions about the nature of the relationship between subject and object. The time that science was thought to involve the steady accumulation of objective knowledge through a neutral medium of observation has long since gone (Emery, 1980, Giddens, 1982, Sayer, 1992). The dominant feature of the relationship between an epistemic subject and an empirical object in social research is that the object is also subject, it talks back. Their relationship is intersubjective, researcher as well as researched are social actors; They are purposeful, capable and knowledgeable beings. They are both the product and the producer of history. As a general proposition we can therefore state that the social sciences, in a democratic culture, have to be responsible to society for their actions and

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The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

·cannot pursue purposes that are not shared by their chosen objects of study.

In other words, it acknowledges the fact that the empirical object is also a subject, an actor. In that connection the unique mission and responsibility of the social sciences can be formulated as being concerned with: "the mutual enrichment of social science and the practical affairs of man" (Emery, 1977). It is important to understand that pursuing mutual enrichment is not the same as doing one task for practical purposes and doing another for social science. Mutuality implies something differently. Mutual enrichment implies that one and the same class of activities serves to enrich both social sciences and the practical concerns of man (ibid. 1977). Within these parameters we can distinguish different types of research relationships and different levels of mutual engagement. In action research, the relationship between researcher and empirical object is an explicit collaborative one, contrary to other types of research. In a more traditional academic research relationship, the researched is more of an object, and the role of the researcher is steered by traditional values of objectivity and the disinterested pursuit of knowledge. How that knowledge is used by others is not the responsibility of the researcher. The product of the research is a theory. In a consultant relationship, the social scientist is in a service role. His capabilities will be called upon only for the purposes of the client he serves, and he or she can thus be involved in a process which is dissonant with the aims of social science. The product in this relationship is a new system and the theory involved basically does not get changed. In action research we see that: The empirical object has changed its role from a position of mere sanctio­ ning research, either as object or as client, to a position of active participant. * The researcher changed from a position based on empirical or descriptive research or critical theory to a position of active involvement based on con­ structivism. The relationship between researcher and researched becomes one of joiri.t involvement and shared responsibility. The development of this kind of collaborative relationship in the opera­ tional immediacy of the action research setting, has far-reaching consequen­ ces of a theoretical as well as of practical kind, and makes high demands on the researcher. *

2. Structural characteristics ofaction research, the ABX - pox relationship. Any social relationship is about something. Person A is in relation with person B with respect so something, event or si.t,uation X. The relationship between A, B and X thus represents the basic structural characteristic of a social relationship. In social psychology it is known as the ABX system (Newcomb, 1953). A, B, and X are interdependent and the relationship between A and X, or

191

Hans van Beinum

between A and B the

cannot

be understood without placing it in the context of ·

ABX system as a whole.

The way in which these relations exist in the mind of the participants, the way they are perceived, is indicated by the notation pox (Heider,

1946). The

pox thus refers to a corresponding intra-personal system, i.e. the internalized

ABX, the various attitudes and beliefs of an indivi­ ABX. The inter-personal (ABX) and the intra-personal (pox) are parallel sys­ tems and interdependent. In their interaction they represent the behavioural

interdependencies of the dual with regard to the

dimension of social systems. As action research represents a social relationship, its basic structure has therefore the characteristics of an

ABX system, which

consists of the resear­

cher A, and the researched B, and their joint involvement with

X,

the pro­

ject. The relationship between researcher and researched, or between resear­ cher and project can therefore only be understood in the context of their

ABX

as a whole. It is the

ABX

and the nature of its interdependencies

which, in the first instance, is the unit of reflection and of analysis in action research. The basis of the relationship between the researcher and the researched is their common concern

(X),

which usually starts with the presentation of a

problem, which is then gradually translated and developed as a project through a process of collaboration, increasing joint involvement and shared responsibility. It is a process in which the knowledge and experience of the researcher and the local and tacit knowledge of the researched combine in a process of joint learning. It has the characteristics of an epigenetic landscape, in which one is involved in discovery as well as creation (Waddington,

1 977).

It is this engagement with reality, in which existing knowledge is mobilized and new knowledge is created, which constitutes the epistemology of action research.

3. The evolving parameters ofthe joint involvement in action research.

In

social research in general, positions must be taken and choices have to

be made with regard to four interdependent aspects: a. the focus of the research and its objectives. b. the nature of the contextual setting of the research focus, that is, the wider reality from which the research question has been distilled, c. the method to be used, that is, the kind of action necessary for reaching the objectives, d. the assumption (theoretical and otherwise) which are used for understan­ ding the reality, as well as the relevance of the focus, and the appropriateness of the method. In action research, these choices, which are choices about

X,

are made

jointly by the researcher and the researched. It is only as a result of their interaction in the context of practice, that is, in their joint development of a project, that the content and other characteristics of these elements will

192

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

emerge and crystalize. They can be seen as the evolving parameters of action research. They form a dynamic profile which, after a while, may need refra­ ming due to the unfolding nature of the action research process (see figure 3). It should be pointed out that an action profile determined in this fashion may be very appropriate for tackling the problem of the empirical object, but does not necessarily result in action research. It only provides a possible opportunity for it. Whether or not the X will make it possible to develop the project as an action research project (i.e. making a contribution to social science) will of course be greatly influenced by the content of X; for instance, whether it requires research or not, or will generate new ways of conceptuali­ zing reality, or will produce new hypotheses. In particular, the skill and cre­ ativity of both the researcher and the researched will play an importan role in this. Ultimately, the question of whether there is contribution to science will be decided by the social science community. This can raise controversial issues, I will not go into here, such as with regard to the scientific status of action research. It should be pointed out, that all the methods of the social sciences are legitimate in action research, as long as they are the outcome of joint deci­ sion making based on a genuine understanding of the ABX-system. Although a project may begin with the presentation of a problem as for­ mulated by the "client" organization, it is essential that the researcher and the empirical object take the reality of the empirical object as point of depar­ ture, and begin their mutual engagement with exploring the way in which they both perceive and understand that reality. This· is a critical phase in action research as: 1. The joint understanding of the reality of the empirical object is a prima­ ry point of reference. 2. It is only via the reality of the empirical object that the appropriateness and relevance of the focus can be assessed. 3. It is a good starting point for initiating the essential process of moving to and rro between the four elements mentioned above. 4. It lays the foundation for building the necessary common ground between researcher and researched, by enabling them to explore views about organizations and images of man. It provides both parties with a basis for defining the values that should govern their joint pursuit. 5. It is also the obvious point of entry for the researcher, as he must deve­ lop a good understanding of the organization concerned. It also will enable him to begin the process of "earning the right" to work with the empirical object. With each new project the researcher has to be involved in such a process, as academic qualifications do not give that right. In view of the nature of the interdependenc�es of the ABX in action research with its strong dynamic features based on joint involvement and shared responsibility, the quality of action research is determined by the quality of the communication between researcher and the researched. " ...theory and practice ... are joined and the joining mechanism is everyday language" (Gustavsen, 1992). 193

Hans van Beinum

figure 3 Structural characteristics of Action Research

Reality

194

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

'rhe relationship between researcher and researched, being a true collabora­ tive one, is a relationship between two equals, and therefore by definition managed and developed through democratic dialogue. An open communica­ tion in which researcher and researched can develop a shared language and shared concepts in a direct correlation with their practice. As mentioned ear­ lier, it is a process in which they will fuse their existing knowledge as well as develop new knowledge. The epistemology of action research is in the action, it is in its ABX. 4.

Two levels of realities and two types of knowledge.

Action research like all research, is concerned with generating knowledge. Furthermore, in action research, with an ABX which is characterized by an intensive, collaborative inter-subject relationship, we can identify two kinds of reality which correspond with two concepts of knowledge. We can distinguish between an experiential reality and a representational reality, and between knowledge which is "in the act of doing", in directly engaging with reality and knowledge which is "about aspects" of reality. It is very interesting to note, that Stavenga, in an inquiry into the founda­ tions of science, in which he gives an analysis of modern physics and in parti­ cular of the measurement and interpretation of elementary particles tracks, arrives at a structure of physical reality which is very similar to the characte­ ristics of action research (Stavenga, 1991). He compares different theories in physics by means of analysing the way in which the measuring system, the epistemic subject, and the object observed are related. * In classical physics, subject and object are completely independent and separable. * In relativity theory, subject and object, though independent systems, are intrinsically connected. * In quantum theory, subject and object are not completely independent, they partly overlap. * And in experimental situations in which an elementary particle manifests itself by means of a track, subject and object are totally and indistinguishable involved in the event; there is a complete overlap. "Going strictly by what is really measured, and particularly by what can­ not be measured, we are led to conclude that the particle cognized, the event and the effect on the instrument coincide completely as regard their cogniti­ ve content" (Stavenga, 1991 , 61). The new structure of physical reality brought to light by the elementary particle experiment is showing the same characteristics as the structural pro­ perties of action research on the experiential level: epistemic subject and empirical object coincide completely in the cognitive event. This is a very radical break with the traditional Cartesian subject-object dualism. It is an illustration of how the nature of the subject-objsct relationship determines ' the concepts of knowledge and reality. ·

The experiential level in action research refers to the actual interaction between researcher and researched, an event in which both are totally invol195

Hans van Beinum

ved and by means of which the unique knowledge of that relationship is obtained and expressed. On this level, that is in the very act of interacting, subject and object are not independent and, as mentioned earlier, from a cognitive point of view, A,B and X completely coincide. ABX forms a triune structure. In action research, on the experiential level, practice and research therefo­ re become the same thing. Who is researcher and who is researched cannot so easily be distinguished. Conceptually, researcher and researched can and should be distinguished, but from an information content point of view they are indistinguishable on this level of reality. The interaction is a unique and non repeatable event and cannot be objectified. In a strict sense it cannot be described and it is impos­ sible to make a model or an image of it. The only way of knowing this reality is by the event in which it reveals itself, i.e. that it is and what it is (Stavenga, 1991). Knowledge here is not knowledge regarding states or possible proper­ ties of that relationship, but the relationship itself. Theory in this context is the theory of this particular praxis. The other reality is the representational reality, in which we conceptually distinguish between subject and object. In that reality we may start with knowledge and facts and subsequently with action, in that case praxis follows theory. We can call this knowledge instrumental knowledge. That is know­ ledge concerning the various aspects of the action research reality, e.g. with regard to the roles of the researcher and the researched or the nature of the research findings. Conceptually A,B and X are separate. It is on this level that researcher and researched express their individual understandings of the situation, i.e. the pox, and show their conceptual and theoretical positions. The existential and the representational level, the ABX and the pox, are in a state of continuous interaction in which, in the first instance, the repre­ sentational is a function of the existential. Action research is an unfolding process and has heuristic characteristics. It is more concerned with "theori­ zing" than with the application of an a priori "theory". Each of the two levels has its own relational (subject-object) and corre­ sponding structural characteristics (Stavenga, 1991). An awareness of these two realities and their corresponding types of knowledge is a pre-requisite for understanding action research and for enga­ ging in it. The distinctive characteristic of action research lies in the very fact that it encompasses two different concepts of reality which gives it a special place in the ongoing dialogue between theory and practice. 5. Dialogue and competence.

An effective collaborative relationship, which is essentially a process of joint learning, must be based on an open communication, a democratic dialo­ gue. However, although democratic dialogue is a necessary and critical con­ dition in an action research process, it is not a sufficient condition. As Gustavsen points out "The idea of democratic dialogue.... , must be converted 196

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform

'into a set of more specific means, or measures, to become operational in actual workplace change." (Gustavsen,

1992).

The relationship between A

and B is determined by the features of the ABX as a whole. Whether or not a democratic dialogue between researcher and the resear­ ched will be effective is therefore dependent on other conditions, such as: * the appropriateness of their decision about the focus of their project (i.e. X) with its specific profile of the four parameters of action research: objec­ tives, nature of the reality, method, and assumptions, and * the competence and role of the researcher. The extent to which the first condition will be fulfilled depends on the quality of the interaction between researcher and the researched, in which the researcher has a special responsibility. It is the second condition, the competence of the researcher which is of special importance here. It is not sufficient that the researcher be an able social scientist in the tra­ ditional academic sense and is well acquainted with the relevant theoretical and methodological developments. This is of course necessary, but not suffi­ cient. In addition to academic qualifications and an intellectual ability to conceptualize the unfolding dynamics of action research, the researcher needs to have other skills as well. This means that he should not only be willing to be involved in a process of collaboration in general, but should also be able to do so. In other words, he must have special professional skills with regard to social processes. The researcher must be able to take distance and to critically reflect on the natu­ re of the relationship between self and others. It requires a sensitivity with regard to others as well as insight into such matters as one's own cognitive style, values and defense mechanisms. In short, it demands an ability to learn about the way in which one learns, i.e. learning how to learn, which is a mat­ ter not only of training but also of personality. These demands, which are made on intellectual competence as well as on social skills, make action research probably one of the most difficult and demanding forms of social research. A good researcher in a narrow academic sense is not necessarily good in or comfortable with action research. An ongoing concern for the researcher is the fact that he has to combine a professional responsibility, with being involved in a democratic relationship with its needs for open communication. He is in the collaborative relation­ ship as a researcher, as a social scientist, and brings with him special skills and experiences. Consequently, he is being faced with a dilemma, he is wal­ king along a narrow path: either he provides too much input, becomes "the expert", creates dependency and block the learning of the other, or he does not allow the other to profit from his knowledge and experience and is not quite authentic in his relationship. He has to avoid sins of commission as well as sins of omission. , One can argue that, if this dilemma remains the exclusive concern of the researcher, the action research process has not reached its appropriate level of jointness and shared responsibility. It should be understood in the context of the joint learning of the researcher and researched, that is, it should be

197

Hans van Beinum part of the process of giving meaning to their experience. This refers to the crucial significance of the context which is chosen for dealing with the expe­ rience. Who or what

will contextualize, who or what will determine the

meaning of the experience and thereby determine what is being learned?

In action research,

the learning is about the ABX as well as takes place in

the ABX system. The choice of context is an integral part of the action research reality itself. With its unfolding character, it sounds a bit, on the sur­ face, like the old problem raised in Plato's Socratic dialogues: "A person can learn only that which he does not know, but if he does not know it, how does he know what he is seeking to learn?". In the ABX - pox process of action research, in the interaction between the experiential and the representational, this is exactly the kind of question the researcher and the researched are concerned with. They do not solve the paradox, they do not do away with the paradox; in a manner of speaking, they are the paradox. The researcher and the researched jointly contex­ tualize an unfolding process. They are involved in the double hermeneutic of the social sciences, that is, in managing by means of dialogue the relationship between the ordinary language of lay actors and the technical terminology invented by social scientist. It seems that on the local level, the problems in the LOM programme with the research dimension had to do with the complexities of the role of the researcher in action research. (Gustavsen,

1992, 83;

Naschold,

1992, 94).

Many of the LOM researcher were not experienced enough to handle the (potential) action research properties of the LOM programme, with as its objectives the development of the linguistic resources of the enterprise through democratic dialogue. Dialogue is always about something, it is an ABX system. In this case the operationalization of democratic dialogue was done by means of action parameters, which included the start-up conference with its follow ups. The researchers played an important role in this process. However, it looked like it that they gave action research and their role there­ in a much too narrow definition. In doing so they avoided the professional dilemma mentioned earlier, and thereby avoided the real role of the resear­ cher in action research. One can only develop democratic dialogue by means of a democratic dia­ logue. However, by limiting their role, and splitting process and content, the researchers put themselves in an asymmetrical and thereby undemocratic relationship with the enterprise. Thus, they were unable to offer conceptual tools when necessary, or point out the consequences of decisions or non decisions, or show alternative ways of looking at reality, etc. By defining their role as only (and thereby specially) concerned with process, they mysti­ fied the relationship and defined themselves as experts. The limited number of changes of a structural organizational nature on the local level, which is only one of the outcomes of the programme, is mainly due to difficulties with the action parameters and particularly with the expe­ rience of the researchers and the interpretation of their role. It is not an out­ come of the theoretical and methodological assumptions underlying the pro­ gramme.

198

The kaleidoscope of workplace reform · Concluding remarks

The defining feature of action research is in the nature of its subject-object relationship. In the ABX of action research, B is object as well as epistemic subject together with A. They both decide on the event (X) and evaluate its effect. Their relationship can therefore only be but a collaborative one. It is a relationship which requires open communication, a democratic dialogue. It is in and through democratic dialogue that the language and concepts, the com­ mon ground, will be developed which will make this collaboration possible. Action research and democratic dialogue are interdependent and in their structural characteristics they are isomorph. It is on the experiential level of action research, where the researcher, the researched and the event overlap from a cognitive point of view, that theory, practice and language will fold into each other. Participative democracy is thus an intrinsic feature of action research. Furthermore, the ABX system of the action research process cannot be kept separate from the various other ABX systems which exist within the partici­ pating B system. Consequently, the action research process will have a democratizing influence on the participating system. We can therefore conclude that action research, irrespective of its focus, is by definition democratizing. This make the epistemology of action research an epistemology of demo­ cracy. In view of today's socio-economic and political challenges which we can no longer define adequately or manage effectively along traditional lines of reasoning, there is a need for a new kind of dialogue, a new societal space which is "safe" for reflection, debate and exploration, and where "society" can meet and engage free from its traditional structures and boundaries. The LOM programme could make a significant contribution in that direction if its kaleidoscopic features would be recognized and used as a basis for such a process and thus would become a window through which the direction for future developments could be identified.

'

'

199

Notes

See for instance Anthony Aiblaster "Democracy", Open University Press, Milton Keynes 1987; Carol C. Gould "Rethinking democracy", Cambridge University Press, 1988; Robert A. Dahl "Democracy and its critics", Yale University Press, 1989; Carole Pateman "Participation and democratic theory", Cambridge University Press, 1970; and also Berlin, 1979; Finley. 1985; Hansen, 1989.

200

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202

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Theory of communication, action research and the restructuring of working life. 1992. 136 p. f 39,00. $ 23,- ISBN 90 232 2691 7

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