This article presents an overview of participation schemes in European companies. It is based on a secondary analysis of data from the 1996 EPOC mail survey among managers of profit sector establishments in 10 EU countries. The article describes the diverse extent and nature of participative workplaces in European countries. It analyses the inter relationships between several forms of participation schemes and indicators for the participative nature of the workplace: schemes for direct participation (DP) of employees, i.e. group consultation and individual and group delegation; schemes for financial participation (FP), i.e. employee ownership and profit sharing; and the arrangements for indirect, employee representative participation (ER). Based on a multivariate analysis of the intensity of the participation schemes, a profile of participative workplaces is presented. To categorize these workplaces, we focused on country factors, management practices and workplace characteristics.
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