Evaluating Employee Participation Programs Addressing Health,Safety,and Ergonomic Issues in the United States

Abstract

With the increase of system complexity, organizations are having to respond to these new demands by utilizing employee involvement methods. This paper attempts to review and examine representative studies of employee participation with particular focus on health, safety and ergonomic issues. Four topics are presented in this paper (1) the different organizational forms of participatory approaches (2) goals of the employee participation programs (3) evaluations criteria of the program and (4) conclusions. It appears that worker participatory programs are successful in addressing health, safety and ergonomie issues. However, in order to insure the success implementing a participatory decision-making program, a macroergonomics perspective should be taken.

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