Search results

Employee participation is conceived as a four‐stage process (interaction, communication to and from management, influence by and on management, employee effect on decisions). Eighty‐two lower supervisory managers perceived the four stages as highly related except for influence by management. Further, the four processes of participation were found in approximately equal amounts (except for managerial influence). An examination by decision type showed that employee and managerial influence were inversely related on corporate and departmental decisions, but were unrelated on departmental employee and operational decisions. Employees engaged most in participation on departmental employee decisions and least on departmental staffing decisions. This difference in participation was greater for organisations of small size.

Past research identifies many positive outcomes associated with workplace exercise initiatives. Realizing these outcomes is, however, dependent on securing sustained employee participation in the initiative. This study examines how organizational factors influence employee participation in workplace exercise initiatives.

The study utilizes data from 98 employees who were provided with the opportunity to participate in a workplace exercise initiative. Data were collected via an online survey as well as semi-structured interviews.

The paper shows that organizational, rather than individual-level, factors had the greatest impact on employee participation in workplace exercise initiatives. Leadership support for well-being was particularly important and had a significant effect on participation frequency. This relationship was moderated by employee perceptions of employer intentions, such that the more genuine and caring an employer’s intentions were perceived to be, the more likely employees were to participate. Our findings also show that perceived employer intentions have a significant direct effect on employee participation.

We extend research on employee participation in well-being initiatives by considering the influence of organizational, rather than individual-level, factors.

This research is of practical significance as it highlights the importance of positive leadership in fostering physical well-being in the workplace. It reinforces that sustained participation in workplace exercise initiatives requires deliberate planning, promotion and support from organizational leaders.

Most studies of workplace exercise and well-being initiatives focus on individual barriers to participation. Our study highlights the important role of leadership support and perceived intentions as organizational influences on employee participation.

This paper examines the relationship between participation and job performance. It also seeks to identify the impact of individual variables on the level of participation among managerial employees in the Public Service Department in Malaysia. Finally, it attempts to determine whether Porter and Lawler's (1968)‐expectancy model could represent an appropriate framework for studying employee participation. The results indicate that the level of perceived participation among managerial employees is high and that employee participation has acmoderate and positive relationship with job performance. The findings appear to match other studies conducted in the West, suggesting that these studies were not very much different across cultures. Managerial employees place equal importance on intrinsic and extrinsic outcomes. Employee participation could be better managed if employees possess certain critical factors. These include high job abilities, greater need for achievement, and a substantial amount of motivation. This study also suggests that Porter and Lawler's (1968) expectancy model is a suitable framework for studying employee participation.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an applicable solution to help organizations to solve the problem of participation vs privacy in office buildings.

A theoretical model is proposed based on research claims that employees' participation motivated by three issues simultaneously is likely to shape the ideal overall participation map in office layouts. These are organizational, physical planning, and personal characteristics issues. The model was applied to a case study and results were compared with employees' reaction.

Once the model was applied, results revealed misallocation of 63 per cent of staff in their workspaces. Results support employees' reaction towards their dissatisfaction with the level of participation vs privacy they possess in their workspaces.

Each organization could have a different participation map due to variations in organizational and personal characteristics issues. Further research is needed to understand relationships among the three incorporated issues.

The proposed model could be easily applied and would provide organizations with ideal office layouts that would support productivity.

The outcome of the implementation of a Total Quality Control (TQC) programme in a large manufacturing enterprise in Australia is described. Emphasis is given to the effects of TQC on employees′ perceived participation in the programme and concomitant employees′ job satisfaction. An extensive discussion of the relationships between these variables and TQC is contained in the preceding article. The results obtained from this study show that job satisfaction is related to employee participation, but to varying degrees at different job levels. Surprisingly, it was also found that there was a low increase in perceived employee participation following the implementation of TQC. The need for further research in the area is clearly shown. Future research should be based on more comprehensive research designs that incorporate longitudinal studies and investigate the differential effects of TQC at various job levels within an organisation. This approach will facilitate a better understanding of the complex dynamics within organisations when such programmes are implemented.

Employee participation is often suggested to improve employees' relations to the organization. A multidimensional perspective on employee participation may heighten its specificity. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the relationships between multiple dimensions of employee participation and social identification.

The study applies questionnaire data from 166 hospital employees, i.e. nurses, physicians and medical secretaries, in a cross‐sectional design. Hierarchical regression analyses were applied to investigate the hypothesized associations.

The results showed that individual influence on proximal (i.e. work‐related) issues predicted organizational identification. The relevance of proximal issues and psychological involvement in relation to direct participation were suggested to explain why this particular dimension of participation is directly associated with organizational identification. The result qualifies the theoretical notion that participation symbolically signals inclusion and status in the organization.

The result emphasizing participation in decisions about work issues may be limited to the highly meaningful patient work in the health care context. Future studies are to establish if the findings may be generalised to other contexts.

The originality of the study lies in the applied combination of participation dimensions, the inclusion of organizational identity at different social foci, and the application of social identity as a theoretically well‐grounded concept of employees' relations to their organization.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the development of employee financial participation in Estonia from patterns of employee ownership which was promoted during the privatization of enterprises in the transition period, to the emergence of different forms of employee participation, including employee share ownership and profit sharing schemes. The analysis of the changing institutional setting and legislation in Estonia in the context of EU accession serves as a basis for examining the actual diversification of forms of employee financial participation, and provides some suggestions of likely further development.

The study combines results from earlier research, analysis of Estonian legislation from the late 1980s to the present time, interviews with social partners, data collected through enterprise surveys during the transition period and case studies, examining recent examples of financial participation.

There is no historical tradition of employee financial participation in Estonia. By far the most important development was in relation to early privatization, with the employee takeover of many small enterprises. However, majority ownership by employees in these firms has changed quite rapidly, so that now the dominant ownership pattern is of ownership by managers and outside owners. This phenomenon was observed both in quantitative studies and in case studies. There are very few cases of profit sharing. The need to transform acquis communautaire into national law in connection with the EU accession has recently led to debates about employee participation in decision making. Although the government and other influential political players do not promote financial participation, the discussion on the implementation of EU directives shows that the issue will be addressed and even new legislation could be adopted if an EU act on financial participation of employees were approved.

In contrast with employee share ownership, the incidence of which was quite recently assessed in a survey study of January 2005 for 722 enterprises, profit sharing has not been the subject of regular and/or recent studies. Thus, one should be cautious when estimating the extent of the spread of diverse forms of financial participation in Estonian companies.

Description of the current status of employee financial participation can be important for policy makers for further development of the labour market in Estonia. Development of legislation following the trend in the EU, together with changes in the taxation system, could promote different forms of financial participation by employees, and could lead to strengthening employee motivation and productivity, especially in knowledge‐based companies.

The paper is a comprehensive description of the development and current status of employee financial participation in Estonia. The paper provides suggestions for further research.

This chapter analyzes the determinants of adoption of sharing arrangements by companies. Using propositions from agency and strategic human resource management frameworks predicting the adoption of sharing arrangements, we test the relationships with a large international dataset. The study finds that adoption of sharing arrangements is related to human capital investments, individual incentives, involvement practices, and human resource management practices and that adoption is affected by country differences.

Last decades scholars in the field of human resource management (HRM) have intensely examined the contribution of HRM to organizational performance. Despite their efforts, at least one major research shortcoming can be identified. In general, they have devoted far too little attention to an aspect of HRM potentially beneficial for organizational performance: worker participation, and especially its indirect or representative forms. In contrast, for academics embedded in the industrial relations tradition, worker participation is a prominent theme, even though less emphasized in its relationship with company objectives. One might defend traditional scholars' reservations by arguing that participations main goal concerns workplace democratization and not organizational prosperity. However, several writers state that industrial democracy involving worker participation can channel conflicts of interest between employees and employers and stimulate desired employee attitudes and behavior, consequently enhancing organizational performance (e.g., Gollan, 2006; Ramsay, 1991; Taras & Kaufman, 1999). And, indeed, several studies have shown positive effects of both direct participation (e.g., European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1997) and indirect participation (e.g., Addison et al., 2000, 2003; Frick & Möller, 2003) on organizational performance.

Nevertheless, to date, the absence of an integrated model explaining the connection between worker participation and organizational performance leads to the following question that still is in need of an answer: how do direct and indirect forms of participation – separate as well as in combination – affect organizational performance? This chapter aims to contribute to the filling of the aforementioned knowledge gaps. In so doing, we focus on direct and indirect, nonunion participation on the firm level, using a Western European and especially Dutch frame of reference.

This study aims to reveal the mechanism through which union commitment influences job performance in China, focusing on the mediating role of employee participation and the moderating role of affective commitment.

In this study, a cross-sectional design was employed to collect data from 596 union members in 33 unionized enterprises in China's Pearl River Delta region.

The results demonstrate that union commitment is positively related to both employee participation and job performance. Moreover, employee participation mediates the positive relationship between union commitment and job performance. In addition, affective commitment strengthens the relationship between union commitment and employee participation and the mediating effect of employee participation.

This study indirectly identifies the impact of a union on organizational performance from an individual-level perspective. It also provides new evidence for union construction in order to obtain support from corporate executives in China.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature by proposing and examining the mediating role of employee participation and the moderating role of affective commitment in the underlying mechanism between union commitment and job performance.