Changing content and form: corporate training in Finnish retailing, 1900–1975

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I study the history of corporate training in the Finnish retail industry from the beginning to the last quarter of the 20^th century. In this effort, I search for answers to questions regarding how and why retail organizations adapted their in-house educational organizations to the different pressures arising from ideologically imprinted stakeholders or external regulators and the competitive business environment. From the historical development of corporate training systems, it is possible to discern two clear dimensions that help to structure the history of the corporate training of Finnish retail organizations. The dimensions are the form (generic vs. specific) and content (ideological vs. practical) of training. During the research period, corporate training transformed from the development of means-end rational capabilities into a ‘semipublic’ educational system.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate training
• ideology
• institutional environment
• professional skill
• retail trade
• task environment

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank three anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments on the earlier versions of the paper. Also, I am indebted to the participants of the economic history research seminar at the Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Notwithstanding the literature related to the Training Within Industry program (Dooley, 1945), which has directed research on corporate training and education toward the manufacturing industry, thus almost completely ignoring firms in the service sector (e.g. Jones, Kalmi, and Kauhanen 2012; Torraco 2016).

2. Retailers were no longer required to prove that they could read, write and keep the books, as had been the practice during the monopoly of urban retailers (Hoffman 1983).

3. The operation of Finnish retail co-operatives was based the co-operative principles of the Rochdale Pioneers, that is, open membership, democratic control, the distribution of surplus based on purchases, limited interest on share capital, political and religious neutrality, cash-only trading and the provision of education (Perko 1979, 42–48; Wilson, Webster, and Vorberg-Rugh 2013, 37–42).

4. Commercial colleges and commercial schools were both two-year schools; however, they differed in terms of admission requirements and the qualifications of their students after graduation. On paper, commercial schools trained and educated urban and rural retailers, while commercial colleges prepared students for the more demanding for duties of office clerks and businesspeople. Shop assistant schools did not have a fixed duration; however, they offered training in subjects that were relevant to shop assistants’ duties.

5. The percentage of state subsidies of commercial schools was 75%. In addition to the given percentage values, the maximum amount of annual state subsidy for an individual commercial college was 28,000 Marks and for a commercial school 20,000 Marks (Armollinen asetus kauppaoppilaitoksista Suomessa 1904).

6. Co-operative Institute organized also so-called ‘rural courses,’ which were 3-to-4-day events in the countryside (Pellervo-seura 1911). The rural courses were too short to realize significant learning results, yet their main function was to cultivate co-operative ideology and employees’ interests in self-development (YOL 1919).

7. In fact, many retailers had already gone bankrupt by the end of the 1920s; however, the emergence of new retail outlets outweighed the number of failing retailers (Hoffman 1983; Perko 1979).

8. Kesko. Documents of incorporation of the Retailer Institute and the preparatory committee. Memorandum of training of retail shop assistants 1939; Minutes of negotiations between Kesko board and SVL’s working committee 7 April 1943.

9. Another issue is that this strategy did not bear fruit. Only a few of the persons who completed SVL’s retailer course carried on the trade over the years (Hoffman 1983, 376–78).

10. TUKO. Annual report of the training department 1959–1961.

11. Co-operative E-Institute. Memorandum of the committee planning the renewal of training [1969]. Appendix B: Koulutuksen uudistamista suunnittelevan toimikunnan mietintö [Report of the committee planning the reform of training].

12. Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 7/1973. Appendix 46/1973. Muistio: Suoritushenkilöstön tehtävään perehdyttävät koulutusohjelmat [Memorandum: Training programs of performing employees].

13. Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 5/1970. Appendix 40: Merkonomilinja [Training program for the graduates of commercial institutes]; Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 7/1973. Appendix 46/1973. Muistio: Suoritushenkilöstön tehtävään perehdyttävät koulutusohjelmat [Memorandum: Training programs of performing employees]; Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 8/1973. Appendix 49: Liikkeenjohdollinen koulutusohjelma [Executive training program].

14. Co-operative E-Institute. Memorandum of the committee planning the renewal of training [1969]. Appendix B: Koulutuksen uudistamista suunnittelevan toimikunnan mietintö [Report of the committee planning the reform of training].

15. Relatedly, the National Board also set limits on appropriate wages for teaching staff at the commercial schools.

16. E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 7/1976.

17. The New Act on Apprenticeship that came into effect in 1968. The revised law incorporated service industries into the domain of state-subsidized apprenticeship training. Before that, retail organizations had trained apprentices through their individual practices and on their own account; however, since the late 1960s, they could apply for support for the costs of the apprenticeships from the government.

18. Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 2/1970.

19. TUKO. Annual reports of the Retailer Institute 1969, 1972.

20. Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 1/1971, 2/1974, 3/1974.

21. Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 1/1974. Appendix 2: Kaupan koulutuksen neuvottelukunnat [Advisory boards of retail education].

22. Co-operative E-Institute. Minutes of board meeting 1/1974. Appendix 2: Kaupan koulutuksen neuvottelukunnat [Advisory boards of retail education].

23. Co-operative E-Institute. Appendix 57/1972, Memorandum Correspondence education in E-training.

24. I would like to thank the editor for his comments.

25. I would like to thank one of the reviewers for emphasizing this point and bringing it to my attention.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jarmo Seppälä

Jarmo Seppälä works currently as a post-doctoral researcher at the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics. His research interests include business history and organization theory, in particular, the use of historical methods in organization studies.