Chapter Eight: Participation, Teams and Democracy at Work

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Chapter EightParticipation, Teams and Democracy
at Work

• What we will cover
• Meanings and types of employee participation
• Implementation of team-based structures and
  processes
• Ideals, merits, ironies and limits of democracy
  in organizations

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Chapter EightHistory of Employee Participation

• The ever-present tension between the individual
  and the organization
• The craft guilds of the European Middle Ages as
  forerunners of both corporations and unions
• Worker-owned and managed cooperatives (18th
  century onward)
• Labor organizing (late 19th century onward)
• Employee participation in management from the
  Hawthorne Studies (1927-32) onward
• National systems of co-determination in Europe
  (post-WWII?)
• Socio-technical programs in industry (after WWII)
• Total Quality Management and other similar
  programs (1970s?)
• ESOPs and other profit-sharing programs (1970s?)
• Current trends

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Chapter Eight Defining Our Terms

• Job Enrichment Programs
• Employee Participation/Involvement Programs
• Quality of Worklife Programs
• Quality (Control) Circles
• Total Quality Management
• Self-directed (Semi-autonomous) Work Teams
• Gainsharing (e.g., the Scanlon Plan)
• Employee Stock Ownership (ESOPs) Plans
• Cooperatives Production, Consumer, and Worker

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Chapter 8The Three Main Categories of Employee
Participation

• Committees, Circles, Councils or Task Forces for
  Improving Production
• These are additions to the actual work.
• Team-based restructuring of work processes
• This involves fundamental reorganization of
  work.
• Employee Ownership
• This entails some kind of mutual investment and
  dividend.

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Chapter 8 Degrees of Participative Decision
Making in Terms of Influence/Power

• I am not involved at all.
• I am informed about the matter beforehand.
• I can give my opinion.
• My opinion is taken into account.
• I take part with equal weight.
• I decide on my own.
• --Heller, Pusic, Strauss Wilpert (1998)

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Chapter Eight Teams versus Groups

• A work team is
• a small number of people
• with complementary skills
• who are committed to a common purpose,
• set of performance goals,
• and approach,
• for which they hold themselves accountable.
• --Durbin (1998)

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Chapter 8 Team Facilitation versus Traditional
Supervision

• The Supervisor
• Plans, organizes, directs and controls
• Meets cost, quality, and timeline goals
• Manages and solves daily problems
• Plans and implements improvements
• Administers safety, housekeeping, and
  communication programs

• The Team Facilitator
• Insures available resources
• Develops team Counsels/coaches
• Represents the team to management
• Trains team in problem solving
• Assumes responsibility for indirect tasks
  supports teams work
• --By Zorn (2003)

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Chapter Eight Larson LaFastosTypes of
Effective Teams

• A problem-solving team emphasizes trust and
  focuses on pressing issues (e.g., organizational
  development, epidemic prevention).
• A creative team needs autonomy and explores
  possibilities and alternatives (e.g.,
  advertising, RD).
• A tactical team requires clarity and is highly
  focused and directed (e.g., surgery, military
  campaign)

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Chapter EightChallenges of Alternative or
Highly Democratic Organizations

• Micro-level
• Time
• Emotion
• Inequality

• Macro-level
• Self-maintenance
• Autonomy
• Goal Persistence

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Chapter Eight A Case Study of Feminist
Organizing

• Dilemma 1
• How to control membership through shared beliefs
  and honor the expression of different viewpoints.
• Dilemma 2
• How to foster close relationships among members
  without creating informal power blocs.
• Dilemma 3
• How to participate as equals in the midst of
  evident inequalities and centralized authority.
• --See Ashcraft (2000, 2001)

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Chapter EightThe Case of the Mondragón Worker
Cooperatives

• See textbook, pp. 234-236.
• See George Cheney, Values at Work (Ithaca and
  London Cornell University Press, 1999, rev. and
  updated ed. 2002).
• See separate slide show.

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Chapter EightParadoxes of Worker Participation
and Workplace Democracy

• Structure (i.e., the architecture or arrangement
  of participation)
• Agency (referring to an individuals sense of
  efficacy)
• Identity (regarding issues of membership,
  inclusion, and boundaries)
• Power (in terms of how power is actually
  exercised, on multiple levels)
• --Stohl Cheney (2001)