Workplace democracy under pressure

The common telling about the Nordic working life model is that it is robust in the face of economic and political change and will resist the consequences of economic globalization better than other models. It is also said that the domestic versions of the Nordic working life model apply to all workplaces in a more or less similar manner, and that there is thus “one best model” in use across the labour markets. This discourse is questioned in this chapter. We present results from an annual Norwegian working life survey conducted in 2016 and 2017. A sample of 6,000 employees/employers are randomly chosen from a panel of 45,000 Norwegian citizens. In 2017, there were 3,056 respondents. We find varieties in the practice of Norwegian working life democracy across sectors and industries, and across the ownership and managerial models in use. We introduce four different models of governance and management and relate them to companies and practice. Finally, we compare the answers from employees in private and public sectors and different industries. We pay special attention to different kinds of state-owned enterprises in relation to new public management.