Developing Organisational Life: Participation at Work

Abstract

Preston and Post described three stages of organisational and management development, which they refer to as the “three managerial revolutions”. The first managerial revolution was the appearance of management itself as a specialised function within “hierarchical organisations”. The second revolution, “professionalisation”, was encouraged by the growth in industrial organisations and the complexity of managerial tasks. The third and contemporary revolution is “participation”. Participation means, as Preston and Post define it, “the inclusion of persons and groups involved and concerned with the diverse outcomes of managerial activity as participants in the managerial process”. We see daily examples of the movement toward participation in industrial life, in the form of participative management within organisations, government pressure for greater worker participation in decision‐making, worker co‐operatives, etc. This third managerial revolution has enormous consequences for the development of managerial and organisational life. I would like to describe in this article where I think organisational change agents can play their part in this form of management development.

Citation

Cooper, C.L. (1980), "Developing Organisational Life: Participation at Work", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 15-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb053460