Direct Participation in Work Organization: A Survey of Recent International Developments

Abstract

For more than a decade, employer-driven changes in work organization have been spreading in all industrialized countries. The changes often involved greater opportunities given to workers at shopfloor for participating in work-related decision-making as individuals or as groups of employees. Debates among researchers and practitioners on such development tend, however, not to be well focused, due to the ambiguity surrounding such direct participation. This paper therefore attempts to clarify the various forms of direct participation, the objectives they seek to attain as well as their effectiveness. The author also calls for greater union role in the regulation of direct participation.