Workplace Democracy: An Inquiry into Employee Participation in Canadian Work Organizations

by Donald V. Nightingale

This book begins with a historical review of how authority in the Canadian workplace has changed over the past century. It proceeds to outline a theory of organization which provides a broad conceptual framework for the empirical analysis which follows. This theory is based on five the values of organizational members; the administrative structure of the organization; the interpersonal and intergroup processes; the reactions and adjustments of organization members; the social, political, economic, and cultural environments of the organization.A sample of 20 industrial organizations was selected to examine the effects of significant employee participation and to test the theory. They are matched ten permit some form of participation, and ten--similar in size, location, industry, union/non-union status, and work technology--follow conventional hierarchical design.The resulting data demonstrate that greater productivity results from employee participation in decisions rel

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982