Effects of Participation on Performance and Satisfaction: Additional Meta-Analytic Evidence

Abstract

Stimulated by recent debate, this study investigated whether prior research supports the statement that different forms of participation have different effects on performance and satisfaction in the workplace. Using a collection of 75 correlations drawn from published analyses, a meta-analysis using random effects procedures indicated that relationships between participation and performance reported in the research literature are similar in size and direction across different types of participation. Meta-analytic results also indicated similarity in the size and direction of relationships between participation and satisfaction across different forms of participation and suggested that effect size statistics published in research on participation and performance are generally similar to those reported in studies of participation and satisfaction. These findings differ from the results of another recent meta-analysis and from those of several previous literature reviews but support the primary conclusions of an earlier meta-analytic assessment.