Episode 76 · 2021-05-06 · 44:25 · Original in Finnish
The Owner's Tripartite | Marjo Miettinen | Negotiator 76
Originally published as “Omistajan kolmikanta | Marjo Miettinen | Neuvottelija 76”
Marjo Miettinen, chair of Ensto Group and of Technology Industries of Finland, opens up a concept she found in her father's diaries: the owner's tripartite, in which the owner takes the risk, the employee brings the competence, and society's task is to create the operating environment. The episode also covers her doctoral thesis on shop stewards, where grounded theory produced fifty-nine competence areas in six categories — showing the role to be far more demanding than the employer-side stereotype allows. It continues into Technology Industries' dual-membership solution, the merits and drawbacks of universally applicable collective agreements, industrial peace seen through an international owner's eyes, and trust as a property of institutions.
Core theses
- The owner's tripartite reassigns the three roles: risk to the owner, competence to the employee, and the operating environment to society — which is a different division from the traditional one.
- Fifty-nine competence areas in six categories is an empirical finding about the shop steward's role, and it contradicts the stereotype held on the employer side.
- Technology Industries' split into two organisations put the choice to each company in August 2021, and this was recorded before anyone knew how they would choose.
- Building trust takes more than ten years, which is why it functions as an institutional property rather than a personal one.
Watch and listen
Key moments
- 00:00 — Highlights, and introducing the guest
- 01:28 — Matilda's sabre video, and a lighter moment
- 02:13 — The episode's theme is trust
- 02:33 — Never to Porvoo, and never to the family company
- 03:34 — The return to Porvoo, and the jump to Ensto
- 05:14 — Her father's trust capital, and Coase's theory
- 06:39 — The owner's tripartite, found in the diaries
- 07:53 — The role of the organised interests in the tripartite
- 08:33 — The traditional tripartite, and how it was crippled
- 09:32 — A doctoral thesis on shop stewards, using grounded theory
- 11:06 — Fifty-nine competence areas in six categories
- 12:09 — The interviewee who talked for four hours
- 12:46 — The shop steward's six roles
- 13:40 — The company's interest is everyone's interest
- 15:08 — Removing the fear of Covid on the production floor
- 15:43 — Co-determination in Germany and Sweden
- 16:38 — Technology Industries' two organisations
- 17:57 — Companies choose in August
- 19:04 — The bargaining round is laborious for both sides
- 20:28 — The conciliator's negotiating skills
- 21:03 — The elected representative as an alternative
- 21:58 — Protection from dismissal is the wrong motive
- 23:03 — Development work during industrial peace
- 24:00 — The trade union movement as a positive guild
- 25:10 — A message for software entrepreneurs
- 26:02 — The merits and drawbacks of universal applicability
- 27:18 — Universal applicability tightens on those leaving the agreement system
- 28:39 — Political strikes, and industrial peace
- 30:52 — Trust as a precondition for operating in Russia
- 31:39 — Acemoglu's narrow corridor, and institutions
- 32:16 — Building trust takes more than ten years
- 33:14 — A happy returnee, and the 2018 generational handover
- 34:53 — Sipilä's ownership paper, and the equity savings account
- 35:22 — Christening gifts, and her father's investment competition for the grandchildren
- 37:11 — The autumn labour market outlook, and guest suggestions
- 38:20 — Minna Helle and Lauri Ihalainen proposed as guests
- 39:53 — Would it be worth changing the negotiators
- 41:08 — How the Women in Tech network came about
- 43:08 — Opening the Stock Exchange Club to women, and closing
Summary
Marjo Miettinen, chair of Ensto Group and of Technology Industries of Finland, opens up a concept she found in her father’s diaries: the owner’s tripartite, in which the owner takes the risk, the employee brings the competence, and society’s task is to create the operating environment. The episode also covers her doctoral thesis on shop stewards, where grounded theory produced fifty-nine competence areas in six categories — showing the role to be far more demanding than the employer-side stereotype allows. It continues into Technology Industries’ dual-membership solution, the merits and drawbacks of universally applicable collective agreements, industrial peace seen through an international owner’s eyes, and trust as a property of institutions.
A different division of three
The traditional tripartite is employers, unions and the state. The version Marjo Miettinen found in her father’s diaries assigns the roles differently — risk to the owner, competence to the employee, the operating environment to society — and the re-division is the episode’s one genuinely original idea, because it names what each party is actually contributing rather than who they represent.
What the research found
Fifty-nine competence areas in six categories, arrived at through grounded theory rather than assumed in advance. The finding matters because it is evidence against a stereotype held on the side she sits on, which is the harder direction for a finding to point.
Recorded before the answer
Technology Industries had split into two organisations and companies would choose in August. This conversation happened months earlier, which makes it a record of what the split was expected to do rather than of what it did.
Watch
The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: Omistajan kolmikanta | Marjo Miettinen | Neuvottelija 76. A Finnish edition of this episode is published at www.neuvottelija.fi.
In depth
The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode: English · suomeksi.
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People and topics
Guests: Marjo Miettinen
Topics: Leadership & Governance Ownership, Capital & Tax Finnish Economy & Policy