This article reports the findings from case studies carried out in two multinational enterprises. Structures and practices of employee participation in plants of the Indian subsidiary are compared with those in matched plants of the British parent company. The principal finding is that parent company management influenced employee participation in subsidiaries less through direct policies than by the indirect effects of control over business strategy and resources, and through 'auto-controls'. Legislation defined the basic structures of participation in the Indian plants, but not the way these bodies operated. Within each plant, management used employee participation to obtain and retain control in periods of crisis.
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