What Works in Democratic Dialogue?

Satu Kalliola,Tuula Heiskanen,Riikka Kivimäki

doi:10.3390/socsci8030101

Abstract

As the global world produces new social problems and the continuously changing environment of work organizations calls for new modes of operation, there emerges a need for discussion forums to analyze and find practical solutions, involving the people concerned. This article examines, within the framework of realist evaluation, the potential of democratic dialogue, a Nordic method of workplace development, to generate outcomes that are put into practice in work organizations. Democratic dialogue is seen as a social program that, by providing the participants with new resources and new reasoning in work conferences and other dialogue forums, enables them to make new choices. The focus is on three Finnish action research networks applying democratic dialogue, and the recompilation of these cases along the Context-Mechanism-Outcomes formula of realist evaluation. Changes in the organizational patterns of communication, linked to the criteria of democratic dialogue and the design of work conferences, are identified and examined through the lenses of varied organizational concepts that elaborate the underlying processes generating change. The article suggests further research to compare cases with the same starting points but differing outcomes to trace the finer distinctions in the preconditions for accomplishing the desired objectives.

Highlights

Of late, management reforms have been traded from one country to another perhaps more intensively than previously, as Pollitt (2003) puts it, such international traffic is far from new
In this framework of management reform trading, we reflect on Finnish applications of democratic dialogue, a workplace development method that originated in Scandinavia
We argue that participatory action research (PAR) applying democratic dialogue, as defined by Gustavsen (1991), may be fruitful in the current circumstances characterized by continuous changes of work organizations

Summary

Introduction

Management reforms have been traded from one country to another perhaps more intensively than previously, as Pollitt (2003) puts it, such international traffic is far from new. Nowadays the European Union is interested in gathering and disseminating ideas of new methods used in workplace development programs, or on a smaller scale in change initiatives at the workplace level (Eurofound 2015). In this framework of management reform trading, we reflect on Finnish applications of democratic dialogue, a workplace development method that originated in Scandinavia. Democratic dialogue was adopted in Finland from the Swedish LOM (Leadership, Organization, Co-determination) program (Gustavsen 1991; Gustavsen and Engelstad 1986) and was practiced as an intervention method in workplace development deploying participatory action research (PAR). The context of democratic dialogue is that of work organizations and management cultures, referring to workplace democracy

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Conclusion