Social Partnership and the Enterprise - Some Lessons From the Irish Experience

This paper examines the Irish experience of social partnership at organisation level. It argues that three features in particular distinguish the Irish case. One is the importance attached to a procedural consensus to advance partnership. Another is the stress placed on experimental action in the development of these arrangements. A third characteristic is the use of an essentially non-legalistic public support framework to foster and guide the evolution of enterprise partnerships. The paper argues that while these features have merit they have not been to overcome fully what is called the partnership trilemma. This has caused the spread of organisational partnerships to remain stunted