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-

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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

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

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6 Dialogue meetings for executives

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