A New Model for Workplace Development in Finland. Rethinking Employee Participation and the Quality of Working Life in the Context of Broad-based Innovation Policy

This article considers possibilities and challenges included in the attachment of workplace development as a part of innovation policy. The example used here is Finland, which has carried out a determined innovation policy for a long time and where the government and labour market organisations have invested a great deal in programme-based development of working life as well in recent years. The article strives to make visible what kinds of values and principles have guided Finnish programmes to develop working life in the past few years, and what kinds of pressures the attachment of workplace development as a part of new kind of innovation policy can generate towards these values and principles. Special attention is paid to two questions. The first one involves employee participation in development at workplaces. The second question is the weighting of objectives concerning the quality of working life in development, alongside targets relating to corporate productivity and competitiveness.