A case of slow learning?: Recent trends in social partnership in Norway with particular emphasis on workplace democracy

The article outlines the continuous series of participative research and development projects and programs that have been run in Norwegian industry since 1962 in order to democratize work life and improve learning and the utilization of human resources. These efforts entered a new stage in 2000 through a national program for regional economic and industrial development in which ten applied research centers and associated networks of enterprises participate. The article discusses aspects of the strategy followed through the various generations of programs and attempts to explain why the country in general has been so slow in benefitting from the these programs. In spite of what formally seems to be positive cultural, political and administrative conditions for success, the social science-based, research-supported approach to work life development still has not reached critical mass nor given much international competitive advantage. The article concludes with a discussion of the likelihood for success with the current 10-year national change program.