The Oxford Handbook of Participation in Organizations

Abstract

The Oxford Handbook of Participation in Organizations discusses various arguments and schools of thought about employee participation; analyses the range of forms that participation can take in practice; and examines the way in which it meets objectives that are set for it, either by employers, trade unions, individual workers, or, indeed, the state. Employee participation encompasses the range of mechanisms used to involve the workforce in decisions at all levels of the organization whether direct or indirect conducted with employees or through their representatives. In its various guises, the topic of employee participation has been a recurring theme in industrial relations and human resource management. One of the problems in trying to develop any analysis of participation is that there is potentially limited overlap between these different disciplinary traditions, and scholars from diverse traditions may know relatively little of the research that has been conducted elsewhere. This book analyses a number of the more significant disciplinary areas in greater depth. Not only is there a range of different traditions contributing to the research and literature on the subject, there is also an extremely diverse sets of practices that congregate under the banner of participation. All the authors are leading scholars from around the world, who present and discuss fundamental theories and approaches to participation in organization as well as their connection to broader political forces. These selections address the changing contexts of employee participation, different cultural/institutional models, old/new economy models, shifting social and political patterns, and the correspondence between industrial and political democracy and participation.