Participation and Democracy at Work

Citation

(2006), "Participation and Democracy at Work", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2006.04414bae.003

Participation and Democracy at Work

Participation and Democracy at Work

B. Harley, J. Hyman, P. Thompson,Palgrave McMillan2005

Keywords: Employee participation, Economic development, Industrial democracy, Work organization

In 1977, one of the most significant contributions to the industrial-relations literature was published in Sociology – the “Cycles of Control: Worker Participation in Sociological and Historical Perspective” (hereafter “Cycles”) by the late Harvey Ramsay. Based on a Marxian theoretical framework and the premise that participation should be analyzed within a sociological and historical perspective, Ramsay attempted to chart the ebbs and flows of participation in its different guises since the late nineteenth century. Emphasizing the need for understanding the contradictory development of all factors influencing the actions of participants in relation to employees’ participation policy rather than at the micro level of appearance only, the heart of his argument was that employee-participation schemes arose out of a managerial response to threats to its authority from labor and fell into disuse or were abandoned by management once the threat dissipated (Ramsay, 1977).

For more than three decades the “Cycles” approach has constituted a point of reference for any analysis of employee-participation schemes. In the editors’ own words, the present collection of essays intends to honor Ramsay’s memory “in the way most befitting his career, by bringing together critical and cutting-edge theory, practice and policy in his best-know field”. Employee participation and democracy are examined within the UK and global arenas both at organizational and policy level. While the extensive breadth of coverage in this volume makes it hard to generalize and provide a broad-spectrum assessment of contemporary developments in the area, what is more appealing about Participation and Democracy at Work is that the contributors have been able to draw on a wide range of research in different aspects of economic and industrial democracy and link it to the “Cycles” approach and other theoretical prepositions advanced by Harvey Ramsay. As a result, important new perspectives on employee participation emerge, which manage to be comparative, forward-looking and critical.

In the opening chapter, Harley et al. set out the emerging themes and dilemmas in the area of employee participation and identify as the aim of the collection the need to examine the processes for employee participation more closely and to assess the extent to which Ramsay’s original and wide-ranging ideas are relevant to today’s changed political landscape and internationalized economy. In the following chapter, Marchington offers a constructive review of the “cycles” versus “waves” debate and points out that while cyclical theorists overlooked the significance of investigating patterns of employee participation at workplace level, scholars who adhered to the “waves” theory paid less attention to the broader socio-economic context that may influence such patterns. Employing the “Cycles” approach as the main conceptual framework, the next three chapters examine the role of employee participation in high-performance work systems (Chapter 3, by Harley), team members’ reactions to, and experiences of, such practices (Chapter 4, by Benders) and employee share-ownership schemes and their relationship to the employment relationship and corporate governance (Chapter 5, by Pendleton). Evidence from the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia is used to draw conclusions on whether the rhetoric employed for the introduction of such schemes is translated into reality at the level of the workplace.

The intrusion of customer demands and their legitimacy within organizations are explored in terms of recent language and rationale by Sturdy and Korczynski, in Chapter 6. The view of the customer as an “additional” labor-process actor is set against the rise of task-based participation and it is advocated that the latter could be associated with the rise in customer-facing and service activities. The importance of the contextual framework when analyzing employee-participation schemes is further emphasized by Ramsay and Scholarios, in Chapter 7. Based on a secondary analysis of a large-scale survey, the authors set out to examine gender differences in employee work attitudes, perceptions of control, perceptions of participation mechanisms, and issues of communication, consultation and representation. Their conclusion is that factors such as age, relations with boss and perceptions of control appear to be more important than gender in explaining the differences discerned. Homogenization of the experiences of men and women, when discussing organizational participation, should be therefore avoided. Task involvement as related to the skills required of employees to engage with expanded responsibilities, and the associated UK policy, constitutes the focus of the contribution by Payne and Keep, in Chapter 8. Following an analysis of the neglect of work-organization development by UK Government and organizational policy, the authors turn to the situation in Finland and Norway to look for possible lessons these countries might hold for the UK. Despite the fact that the experience of the Nordic countries is quite uneven, it is claimed that a legitimate role for UK public policy in the demanding process of workplace development exists. Measures for improving work organization and generating higher levels of participation in workplace innovation should hence be promoted.

Turning away from task-based employee participation, the next three chapters deal with the subject of power-centered participation and assess the prospects for labor’s collective influence. The outcome of all three analyses indicates – albeit cautiously – likely areas of development. Focusing on union strategies and high-performance work and partnership practices in the UK aerospace-manufacturing sector, Danford (Chapter 9) seeks to assess the extent to which workplace union organization is able to influence events at the point of production. His conclusion is that “there is an alternative to the ethic of worker accommodation” (p. 182) and that is for trade unions to adapt their traditional forms of independent organization based on critical engagement with the introduction of high-performance work and partnership practices. Moving on to international level, Haworth (Chapter 10) attempts to understand and evaluate the current situation regarding the relationship between organized labor and internationalization and asserts that today’s situation for labor’s future appears more optimistic. In comparison with the situation in the late 1960s and 1970s, when labor’s capacity to influence capitalist decision making at international level was constrained, today’s challenges of popular representation and necessary global regulation provide labor with new political and organizational opportunities.

Hall and Marginson’s analysis (Chapter 11) is also located beyond the national scope and focuses on the capacity of workers to challenge decision-making in multinational corporations (MNCs). Taking into account Ramsay’s (1997) call for examining the actual practice and outcomes of institutions that confer voice to workers instead of focusing solely on formal participation rights as specified in the legislation or agreements between management and labor, the authors investigate the establishment and operation of European works councils (EWCs). The emerging picture is mixed in terms of practice and effect and the authors consider that, while the international integration of company operations provides space for greater worker influence, the ability of labor to organize across borders appears to be less predictable.

The collection concludes with an assessment by Boreham and Hall of the outcomes of the application of economic-democracy principles in macro-economic state policies. Based on evidence from empirical studies dealing with this issue in comparative political economy, the authors draw a distinction between two models of the state and the capitalist economy, that is, neo-corporatism and neo-liberalism, and they remind us that politics and political institutions still matter.

Participation and Democracy at Work is worthy of a place on the bookshelf of every academic and student of industrial relations, human-resource management, organizational behavior and work organization. Policy experts in employee participation and, to a less extent managers and trade unionists, will also find much here that is valuable and thought provoking. The fact that, after more than 30 years since its publication, Ramsay’s seminal work on employee participation continues to generate a significant and stimulating array of academic responses makes the case for reading the book even stronger.

Reviewed by Aristea Koukiadaki, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Warwick, UK.

A version of this review was originally published in Personnel Review, Vol. 34 No. 6, 2005, ISSN 0048-3486.