For at least twenty years, UK policy makers have defined the country’s long-standing skills problem as essentially one of poor or inadequate supply of skills. Many critics have pointed out the limitations of such an approach, arguing that it neglects structural weaknesses in the UK economy which serve to depress British employers demand for, and usage of, skills. More recently, however, there are signs that parts of the UK policy making community may be beginning to take a wider perspective. Both the Performance and Innovation Unit’s project on workforce development and the Learning and Skills Council’s workforce development strategy, signal a growing awareness of the need to address ‘demand-side’ issues.
In light of this, the paper considers how UK policy makers might begin to go about the task of designing policy interventions aimed at supporting the development and dissemination of new forms of work organisation that make better use of employees skills and capabilities. The paper begins by examining the reasons why job redesign and the quality of working life (QWL) movement failed to make much headway in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, only to then disappear from UK public policy debates in the years that followed. An attempt is then made to explain why issues of work organisation and skill usage have recently started to creep back into UK policy debates.
In contrast with the UK, the Nordic countries have carved out an international reputation in the field of publicly-supported programmes aimed at workplace and work organisation development. Drawing upon the literature currently available in English, the paper explores the successes, problems and challenges these programmes have faced in two countries (Norway and Finland), and asks what lessons the UK might usefully draw from these examples. While it is not altogether clear what these programmes have delivered in terms of the development of new forms of work organisation, progress has been made in terms of building up a body of researchers with necessary skills and expertise to assist organisations in development activity. Were UK policy makers to become serious about the need to address issues of work organisation and job design, all the indications are that they would not find such a task at all easy and would, in addition, have to confront powerful obstacles rooted in the UK’s social, political and institutional environment.