Employee Participation During the Early Stages of Transition: Evidence from Bulgaria

Abstract

By using data for individual workers and managers with matching information for firms, we provide the first evidence from a large-scale study of a former socialist country on employee participation during the early stages of transition and the final period of communism. We find that: (1) throughout 1989-92, the average level of employee participation is quite modest; (2) workers did begin to assert a greater measure of influence during this period; (3) during 1989-92, cases of genuine 'worker self-management' while apparent, were always rare; (4) there are potentially important discrepancies in the views of managers and employees as to who has what degree of power and on what issues; and (5) when respondents are classified into three categories of 'participation', there are statistically significant differences in individualand firm-level characteristics. Finally, we contrast our findings with other evidence and consider broader implications for transition.