Firms in the Basque Autonomous Community is Spain are facing global challenges like the need to evolve into more sustainable modes of production, the effect of demographic change and technological transformations that affect their present activities as well as their expectations about the future.

One of the features of the Basque Autonomous Community, and specifically Gipuzkoa, where the case presented has developed, is the relevant weight of SMEs, as 20% of the industrial employment is in firms with less than 20 employees, and 53% in firms with between 20 and 249. Regional governments have assumed that their policies must generate conditions for SMEs to be able to transform to adapt to these challenges, as they might not have, on their own, resources that bigger firms might.

In this context, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the government of one of the three provinces of the Basque Autonomous community, initiated in 2020 a deliberative process using action research to determine, through the discussion with representatives of firms, firm associations and universities what the core challenges of work would be in the future. The main conclusion was that the government should initiate innovative policies to help firms make work meaningful, as this would be a key dimension of the wellbeing of individuals and the competitiveness of firms.

From that moment on action research has been used to co-generate with firms and intermediate agents that work with them a methodology and method to develop the meaning of work. Intermediate agents in this case are county development agencies (there are eleven in the province), the chamber of commerce, an association of vocational training centres and the association of work societies. They are named as intermediate because they have direct connections with firms and also with the provincial government and play a bridging role between them. As a result of this process 39 firms have been working on processes to improve the meaning of work in 2023, and there are around 40 working on it in 2024. The government has institutionalised programs for intermediate agents and firms to continue getting support for these processes in the future.