Organizational Democracy and Management in Israel

Abstract

In recent years, the idea of industrial democracy and worker participation in management has grown in popularity in many countries. Israel is one such country where the principles of industrial democracy have developed considerably during the last 40 years. Its prime supporter in Israel is the Histadrut (the Israeli General Federation of Labor), which believes that true political democracy cannot exist without industrial democracy. Our aim here is to examine the Israeli experience in worker participation in management from the viewpoint of organizational processes. We deal, first, with the conceptual frameworks of various participation patterns accepted in the Western world, including Israel. Then we describe the structure of the Israeli economy as a basis for the distinction among its various participation patterns and analyze the various industrial democracy patterns from a management viewpoint. We conclude with an examination of major recent developments in worker participation in Israel [1],