Working on the quality of working life: Developments in Europe

In November 1975, the German Marshall Fund of the United States agreed to support a proposal from the International Council for the Quality of Working Life for study of 'cross-cultural com­ munication' on developments associated with the quality of work­ ing life -a shared interest of the fund and the council. In early 1976 the council invited four action researchers, each from a major language area in Europe Andreas Alioth, Switzerland and Germany; Max Elden, Norway and Sweden; Oscar Ortsman, France; and Rene van der Vlist, the Netherlands, to consider pro­ duction of a joint publication which would make more generally available, at international levels, reports on innovative Q. W. L. ex­ periences within individual European countries. The main task of the four 'correspondents' was seen as facilitating the exchange of experiences across international boundaries -it was left to them to decide which experiences, how these should be communicated, and how the project itself should be organized. In early March 1976, the 'correspondents' decided at their first meeting to search informally, through their existing national con­ tacts, for suggestions as to what papers might be of value to a larger and more international Q. W. L. readership. Decisions on the char­ acter of the proposed book publication, and further definition of the project itself, were at this point deferred. At their second meeting, some sixty suggestions from six countries were reviewed.