Worker Participation In Decision Research Articles

Worker Ownership and Participation in the Context of Social Change

Abstract. A massive volume of literature has been generated over recent years concerning the nature of work organizations and resultant effects upon worker satisfaction and enterprise efficiency. Between extreme radical and conservative views, a good deal of attention has focused on worker ownership and the locus of power in the organization. Worker ownership can lead to beneficial results, but only if carefully structured. Worker participation in decision making is the key, but the transfer from authoritarianism is difficult. Any substantial transfer of enterprise ownership is remote. Even transformation to greater power sharing, short of ownership change, will be slow and fragile.

Job experience, persuasion strategy and resistance to change: An experimental study

Resistance to attitude and behaviour change in organizational settings has been a consistent challenge for applied social psychology, especially since the study by Coch and French (1948) demonstrated the possible effectiveness of worker participation in decision-making. However, there is a lack of experimental studies which preserve features of the organization while studying change. Examination of previous research suggests that two variables, job experience and persuasion strategy, may be of critical importance in determining acceptance or rejection of the change. The present study reports on the experimental effects of these variables in a simulated organization. Job experience is a critical compounding variable in determining the acceptance or rejection of change (cf. Cummings 1982 review). One possible measure of experience, time on the job, has been shown to affect: commitment to organization (Pfeffer and Lawler, 1980), the strength of individual desires in organizations (Alderfer and Guzzo, 1979), and job satisfaction (Katz, 1978). Time on the job, however, does not provide information about the actual experience with a specific work procedure. Two individuals may spend approximately the same time on a job, yet one of them may gain more direct experience in performing certain procedures. It could well be that among veteran workers resistance to change in a procedure is more a function of this direct experience than of time on the job per se . The present study attempted to address

Work Place Democracy and Quality of Work Life: Problems and Prospects

The concept of increasing the participation of workers in decisions affecting their work lives is appearing more often on the labor-management agenda. The reasons for management interest include the need for (1) increasing productivity and quality; (2) increasing the quality of work life for the new worker, who is more educated, with a good work ethic but alienated and unmotivated under current management practice; and (3) meeting foreign competition. Problems may arise for firms involved in forms of participation such as quality circles and quality of work life programs, when management aims of a streamlined work force and control of worker innovations clash with the workers' expectations of work place democracy inherent in such programs. A dilemma is posed for unions when the new forms of participation undermine the union, or maintain or create so-called union-free environments. Many unions are now playing a more active role in these programs. More aggressive approaches to bargaining on work environment and other issues reflect movement by some unions to a more proactive philosophy of the union's role in participation-enhancing strategies.

Book Review: International Labour Office, Worker Participation in Decisions within Undertakings

Book Review: International Labour Office, Worker Participation in Decisions within Undertakings

The Coch and French Study: A Critique and Reinterpretation

Coch and French's interpretation of their classic (1948) study of worker participation in decision-making is questioned. It is argued that the superiority of the combined experimental groups to the control group could have been due to differences in: the way in which the job changes were explained; the manner in which the time studies were conducted; and/or the amount of additional training given. Similarly, the superiority of experimental Groups II and III to Group I could have been an artifact of differences in the amount of work available, or of differences in group size. In addition, the failure to find a difference within Group I between direct and indirect participants would seem to argue against a participation interpretation of the findings. It is suggested that the perceived fairness of the pay rates was probably the key factor in this and in some similar studies. The wider issue involved may have been organizational trust.

Desires for and Patterns of Worker Participation in Decision Making After Conversion to Employee Ownership

The article discusses patterns of and desires for employee participation in management and decision making after an organization has converted to employee ownership. The author notes a number of re...

Necessary Elements for Effective Worker Participation in Decision Making

For many decades, conventional managerial practice relied on strict hierarchical and authoritarian relationships to direct and coordinate a smooth flow of production. Managers' personal predilections for strict control were supported by Weberian views of the rationalized administrative system, which held that the most efficient performance of subordinates would be obtained by increasing the organization's degree of standardization, impersonality, specialization, routine, formal regulations, and promotion through levels of hierarchy to create a career [Weber 1947, pp. 330-40]. Beneath this administrative apparatus, the tenets of scientific management were applied to the production line. This approach assumed that the greatest efficiency would be obtained by fragmenting the overall production assignment into smaller and smaller operations, each of which is to be performed by an individual repeating a simple task,