Participation review

Eurofound — European Foundation For The Improvement Of Living And Working Conditions

Description

A review on foundation studies on participation
Working conditions

Sujets

• Workers' control
• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: EUROFOUND-EUROPEAN-FOUNDATION-FOR-THE-IMPROVEMENT-OF-LIVING-AND-WORKING-CONDITIO
• Nombre de lectures: 15
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

articipation Keview
A Review of Foundation Studies
on Participation
European Foundation
for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions Participation Review
A Review of Foundation Studies
on Participation
European Foundation
for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
% CONTENTS PAGE
1 INTRODUCTION
2 PARTICIPATION IS POSSIBLE AND ADAPTABLE.
3N IS MULTI-PATTERNED. 21
4 PARTICIPATION IS FUNCTIONAL. 35
5N IS POSITIVE. 59
6 PARTICIPATION: THE WAYS AHEAD. 77
7 CONCLUSIONS 8
CITATIONS/NOTES USED IN TEXT 93
APPENDICES 97 1 INTRODUCTION.
The theme of participation has been a major focus for the European
Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
since its inception. Its importance is reflected in the number of
studies commisioned on 'participation' by the Foundation since 1977.
The review is based upon approximately 70 different reports
conducted across a wide range of community countries. All of the
reports were relevant to the issue of participation with some 30
having a direct focus on the experience of participation. The Appendix
names the individual reports and the countries involved in the
studies. These studies have looked at both the formal and informal
aspects of participation in terms of the institutions, proceedures and
practices found in the different European national settings. This
review will assess the results of that research, highlighting the
significant trends that have taken place, the changing experience of
participation within organisations and the kind of issues around
which participation has proved benificial.
'Participation' as a concept has a long history. The current
Community interest in it has a number of sources; its broadest
interest refers to the securing of a community founded on consensus
and harmony, where the expression of the parties interests and the
realisation of those interests might proceed without overt conflict
or sustained distortion. Hence at a Community level 'participation' is
an important aspect of 'social partnership' through increased social dialogue. This has been stated as an end in the articles of the Single
European Act and in many Community initiatives, as for instance,
recently in the discussions at Val Duchesse regarding enhanced
social dialogue during the introduction of new technologies.
'Participation' also interlinks with the contemporary economic
debate on competitiveness and greater productivity. Here the fruits
of increased commitment, enhanced problem-solving and greater
workforce inputs, are likely to be a stronger European economy able
to innovate and compete with the U.S.A. and Japan.
The case study approach used in many of the Foundation's studies
permits a close and detailed study of the enterprise operation of
participation. This evidence demonstrates that 'participation' can
also have a very functional character, being a process that yields
immediate and tangible results for individuals or groups within
organizations. 'Participation' in this perspective takes on an
industrial relations aspect as it is part of the regulatory machinery
that the parties can adopt to set their relationship on a sustained
footing. Participation has a role in achieving greater social dialogue,
economic efficiency and in improved industrial relations, and it is
because of this that various practitioners are interested in it and
bring to it contrasting issues and problems to be resolved.
Defining Participation
The problem of defining participation is a difficult one; the term
'participation' has different meanings and connotations within
different national systems of industrial relations. Within these systems participation can range, on the one hand, from a superficial
to, on the other hand, an extensive involvement in decision-making.
Furthermore, it takes many forms ranging from the provision of
information, through consultation, to negotiation and in some cases,
to joint decision-making. When the concept is defined generally it
tends to command widespread support, since the variety of
meanings and possible conflicting aims associated with it, remain
hidden. When, however, the term is defined in concrete terms - as
for instance in forms such as works councils, worker directors or as
an obligation to discuss company policies - support for participation
form all parties is less readily forthcoming.
Since participation cannot be disassociated from questions of
power, authority, legitimacy and control, inevitably it has a political
aspect. In some national settings participation is conceived of as a
method of installing industrial democracy, and as a necessary
corrective that extends the rights conferred by political democracies
into the industrial area. The professed aims of many national
schemes and of European proposals have been to secure new rights, to
redress power imbalances and to give workforces initiatory powers
in certain areas. At the point at which political argument begins,
however, participation and its definition become shaped by the
conflict of interests between the social partners reflecting basic
differences in social and political philosophies about how industry
should operate and about how human activity, should be regulated.
Thus, the term 'participation' is not a politically neutral term and it
encompasses many different and conflicting stances. This heterogeniety of meaning has important implications for this
review of the Foundation's research on participation. Gaining some
minimal consensus about the object of the study is useful but
implies no pre-judgement or no pre-definition. What we are
interested in is the variety of ways in which participation is defined
by the actors, and because of this there will be no elevation of any
one model in advance of the definitions used in practice.
There are many models of participation which have gained currency
in recent years and these models tend to structure the thinking and
the approach to the subject. Participation can, for instance, be seen
as an organic unity of interests within enterprises. Under this model
the aim is the submersion of identity and alternative interests to a
larger corparate goal, with participation taking place through
workgroups and structures that attempt to improve aspects of
corparate performance. The quality circle, problem-solving group
with high levels of work force activity, the building of a corparate
consciousness and cradle to grave security, are components of this
model. A second type of participation, based on the statutory model,
tends to be found in societies which have a stable political
consensus, within which the state, industry and trade unions have
authoritative roles to play. Thus, the umbrella of welfare provisions,
progressive taxation systems and macro-democratic structures are
in part matched by micro-structures at the enterprise level. The
approach to participation under this model is relatively formal,
deriving from legal provisions and given expression in the form of