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.

Table of Contents:
Section One: Introduction.- 1. Project goals and approach: increasing actionable Q.W.L knowledge.- Section Two: Quality of working life improvements in Europe: National programmes and perspectives.- 2. The action programme of the German federal government: Research on the humanization of working life.- 3. Q.W.L. developments in Holland: an overview.- 4. Swedish industrial democracy, 1977: progress and new government initiatives.- 5. Historical background and action plans towards improving the quality of working life in the United Kingdom.- 6. A general overview of the current Q.W.L. scene in Italy: Notes on the situation in 1974, 1975 and 1977.- 7. Problems of middle management in France: Their special position regarding work reorganization.- Section Three: Action research reports: Production and technical units.- 8. Warehouse workers reorganize their own work organization.- 9. The Volkswagenwerk AG project within the framework of the research programme ‘Humanization of Working Life’ of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology: Comparison of work structures in machine production (engine assembly).- 10. Breaking the deadlock: The search for new strategies for Q.W.L..- 11. Democratizing work and social life on ships: A report from the experiment on board M.S. Balao.- 12. ‘Action learning’ among unskilled women workers.- 13. Developing new forms of work organization in a new chemical plant in France.- 14. The starting-up of a new plant organized in multi-skilled production groups.- 15. Introduction of a procedure of change: An example of operation.- 16. From training to job redesign in a chemical plant in Italy.- Section Four: Action research reports: Administrative and office units.- 17. Participative work design: A contribution to democracy in the officeand on the shop floor.- 18. Clerical employees in X Y Z Company reorganize their department.- 19. Project: ‘Humanization and Participation’ in Centraal Beheer.- 20. Participatory research leads to employee-managed change: Some experience from a Norwegian bank.- Section Five: Action research reports: Public service.- 21. Experiment at Triemli Hospital: Environmental and physical changes in a hospital ward and their impacts on the behaviour and the social interactions of patients, visitors, and nurses.- 22. The implementation of team nursing: A change process and research project in a Dutch general hospital.- 23. Job satisfaction in the Civil Service in the United Kingdom.- Section Six: Trade union-oriented issues.- 24. The Demos project: Democratic control and planning in working life.- 25. The worker-union-management interface in workplace changes: A case study on problems of participation.- 26. Trade union involvement in retraining to develop new patterns of work organization.- Section Seven: Off-site training programmes.- 27. Participative redesign projects in Norway, summarizing the first five years of a strategy to democratize the design process in work organization.- 28. Participation in organization redesign: A five company Scottish workshop and later review meeting.- 29. Setting up a sociotechnical training programme at an engineering school in France: 1976/1977, a transitional year.- Section Eight: Concluding notes.- 30. Concluding notes.- Appendix: Addresses of contributors to the volume.