The New World of Productivity

Date: 12th-16th May 1984

This Congress was organised in partnership with The Norwegian Productivity Institute.
At the time James L.Riggs was President of WCPS and Martin T. Tveit was Deputy President.

The Oslo Declaration

With the understanding that productivity:
is a universal concept aimed at providing more and more goods and services for more and more people with less and less consumption of real resources,

relies upon an inter-disciplinary approach for the effective formulation of objectives, development of plans, and application of productive practices to utilize resources efficiently, while maintaining high quality,

involves integrated applications of human efforts and skills, capital, technology, management, information, energy, and other resources to bring about sustained improvements and betterment of the standards of living for all, through a total productivity concept,

differs necessarily from nation to nation, each having inherent and potential strengths and weaknesses and each with disparate short-term and long-term needs and aspirations, but sharing commonalities of industrial applications, as well as those in education, public services, utilities and communications, and

is more than science, technology, and management techniques, being also a philosophy and an attitude of mind that rests on the strong motivation of people to constantly strive towards a better quality of life;

And in the belief that all nations must be encouraged to concentrate efforts on implementing methods that bolster productive performance through the creation of a network of cooperating individuals and associations that:

  • calls attention to critical productivity issues, both regional and worldwide
  • provides practical services that demonstrate specific ways to improve goal-setting, decision-making, an operations
  • conducts comparative studies to reveal more about the complex nature of total
    productivity
  • improves the body of knowledge through research and analysis, and
  • promotes education about the importance of productivity, starting with the very young and extending to all ages, spreading existing knowledge and technology to all participants
  • by enlisting productivity specialists from industry, government, universities and professional institutions into a supportive information-sharing organisation;

Be proclaimed that participants at the WCPS-sponsored 4th World Productivity Congress in Oslo, Norway, shall:

continue their personal dedication to the productivity movement and will share non-proprietary findings for the benefit of all, strive to raise public awareness of the importance of productivity gains for the attainment of a higher standard of living, recognising that the State of Worldwide Productivity deserves immediate concern, the improvement being vital to survival, endorse the development of an organisation to facilitate as an outgrowth of the 4th Congress by the President of the WCPS, which has the mission of strengthening communications and soliciting cooperation among all who are productivityminded.

By establishing a secretariat to organise communication channels, information media, and appropriate activities Including, but not limited to, academic research, practical demonstrations of research results, and dissemination of information about such processes as performance measurement at the individual, group, and total organisation levels, productivity audits, methods to raise quality, an adaptation of technology to meet national needs, workplace improvements, management practices, workforce motivation, and quality of life, and to nourish productivity causes until the 5th Congress is held:

So be the covenant, May 16, 1984.