Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Leitch has defined Industrial Democracy as “the organisation of any factory or other
business institution into a little democratic state with a representative government which
shall have both the legislative and executive phases”. In the same manner as political
democracy has converted subjects into citizens, with right of self-determination and self-
government, industrial democracy converts the workers from the mere subjects obeying
the orders of the employers, into citizens of the industrial world, with a right to self-
participation in management means giving scope for workers to influence the managerial
Management 1. Information Sharing. Share the information! That says it all. According
to this view, participation takes place when the management solicits the opinion of
workers before taking a decision. The management ultimately takes the decision.
Workers are given a say or an opportunity to influence decisions, they play a passive role
in the process of decision-making, but have no final say in the matter. 2. Sharing
occurs when he actively takes part. The focus here is that there must exist taking part
actively. Workers sit with the representatives of management to take important decisions
particularly on matters affecting the workers. Workers may be members of Works
management. The decisions are taken through mutual discussions between the
essential feature of self-control (or management) is that management and workers are not
visualised as two distinct groups but as active members with equal voting rights.
Productivity: The increased productivity is possible only when there exists fullest co-
operation between labour and management. It has been found that poor labour
management relations do not encourage the workers to contribute anything more than the
themselves at the work place rather than being absorbed into a complex system of rules,
procedures and systems. If an individual knows that he can express his opinion and ideas,
a personal sense of gratification and involvement takes place within him. I am sure you
will agree that participation increases the level of commitment and the employees start
between two organised groups, which are motivated by the belief that their respective
interests are endangered by the self-interested behaviour of the other. Participation cuts at
the very root of industrial conflict. It tries to remove or at least minimise the diverse and
and common interests. Both sides are integrated and decision arrived at are mutual rather
than individual.
Improved Decisions. I am sure that you will agree that communication is never a one way
process, Also note that it is seldom, if ever, possible for managers to have knowledge of
all alternatives and all consequences related to the decisions which they must make.
managers. Participation tends to break down the barriers, and makes the information
available to managers. To the extent such information alters the decisions, the quality of
reinforce their position and status by playing an active role in decision-making and by
inducing the members of the group to abide by them. 6. Reduced Resistance to Change.
Last but not the least, it should be noted that changes are arbitrarily introduced from
above without explanation. Subordinates tend to feel insecure and take counter measures
aimed at sabotage of changes. But when they have participated in the decision making
process, they have had an opportunity to be heard. They know what to expect and why.
requisites for the success of Workers’ Participation in Management I. The overall climate
attitude of mutual co-operation, confidence, and respect for each other. Management, in
particular, should be genuinely receptive to the labour’s ideas so that the latter can
perceive that their ideas are useful. II. There must be sufficient time to participate before
The subject of participation must be relevant to the enterprise; it must concern something
in which both the parties are interested, otherwise the parties are likely to become
indifferent to the process of participation. IV. The workers’ representatives should have
the ability such as intelligence and knowledge, to participate. It is not appropriate to ask
workers to participate in technical aspects of the machinery; but they can participate
successfully in problems relating to their work. The contributions made by the workers
should be worthwhile and should benefit the workers in the long run. It should be in the
interest of the management as well! Now maintaining that balance is not that easy but
representatives must be able to understand each other and express themselves without any
inhibitions. The whole idea after all is to be able to speak out one’s mind and listen to the
counterpart’s point of view! VI. Participation should not adversely affect the status or
authority of the participants. Managers will not participate, if their authority is threatened.
Workers will hesitate in participating if they think that their status is being adversely
affected. In fact for worker’s participation to be effective, both the management and the
labour should get rid of their ego problems and share their ideas. I am sure that you will
agree that no relationship can continue for long if there are ego clashes. Both the parties
should make efforts to come closer rather than moving away. VII. The financial cost of
participation should always be lesser than the benefits-both economic and non-economic-
of participation. We all can understand the economic aspect but as far as the non-
economic part is concerned, it will depend on the organisations. What I can tell you at
this point of time is that the pains and pleasures should be matched! The pleasures should
be much more as compared to the pains. VIII. Participation should be within the
framework of overall policy of the enterprise in question .I am sure you will agree that
every decision has to be in line with the Vision and Mission statements of the
organisation.
WORKERS’ PARTICIPATION IN MANAGEMENT
Introduction:
offs, mergers.
rules and conduct of individual worker’s safety, health, sanitation and noise
control.
¬ Participation basically means sharing the decision-making power with the lower
Definitions:
from the practices which increase the scope for employees’ share of influence in
assumption of responsibility.
Objectives:
harmonious relations;
o A means for achieving industrial peace and harmony which leads to higher
democracy.
o To improve the quality of working life (QWL) by allowing the workers greater
influence and involvement in work and satisfaction obtained from work; and
by ILO:
o Workers have ideas which can be useful;
o Workers may work more intelligently if they are informed about the reasons for
Importance:
¬ Workers get to see how their actions would contribute to the overall growth of
the company.
¬ They tend to view the decisions as `their own’ and are more enthusiastic in
their implementation.
o They become more willing to take initiative and come out with cost-saving
¬ One view is that workers or the trade unions should, as equal partners, sit with
¬ The other view is that workers should only be given an opportunity, through
¬ In practice, the participation of workers can take place by one or all the
o Ownership participation
o Complete control
o Staff or work councils
o Collective Bargaining
o Suggestion schemes
o Quality circles
o Empowered teams
o TQM
o Financial participation
o He or she can prevail upon top management not to take measures that would
¬ The Tatas, DCM, and a few others have adopted this practice.
representative and the workers suffers after the former assumes directorship.
o As a result, he or she may be less effective with the other members of the
feel inferior to the other members, and he or she may feel suffocated. Hence, his
or her role as a director may not be satisfying for either the workers or the
management.
the decisions of the Board are arrived at on the basis of the majority vote.
service sector.
¬ Advantage:
¬ Drawback:
¬ Advantages:
decisions.
¬ There may be one council for the entire organization or a hierarchy of councils.
¬ The employees of the respective sections elect the members of the councils.
¬ Such councils have not enjoyed too much of success because trade union
leaders fear the erosion of their power and prestige if such workers’ bodies were
to prevail.
employees.
o This method sees a very loose form of participation, as these councils are
¬ Through the process of CB, management and workers may reach collective
agreement regarding rules for the formulation and termination of the contract of
¬ Even though these agreements are not legally binding, they do have some
force.
¬ But in practice, while bargaining, each party tries to take advantage of the
other.
¬ This process of CB cannot be called WPM in its strongest sense as in reality; CB
is based on the crude concept of exercising power for the benefit of one party.
o WPM, on the other hand, brings both the parties together and develops
relationship.
¬ Two methods of job designing – job enlargement and job enrichment– are
o Job enlargement means expanding the job content – adding task elements
horizontally.
rewarding.
♣ This is WPM in that it offers freedom and scope to the workers to use their
judgment.
♣ But this form of participation is very basic as it provides only limited freedom
¬ The worker has no say in other vital issues of concern to him – issues such as
job and income security, welfare schemes and other policy decisions.
¬ Employees’ views are invited and reward is given for the best suggestion.
¬ With this scheme, the employees’ interest in the problems of the organization
is aroused and maintained.
¬ The rewards given to the employees are in line with the benefits derived from
the suggestions.
¬ Concept originated in Japan in the early 1960s and has now spread all over the
world.
¬ A QC consists of seven to ten people from the same work area who meet
regularly to define, analyze, and solve quality and related problems in their area.
¬ QCs are said to provide quick, concrete, and impressive results when correctly
implemented.
¬ Advantages:
o Tried by BHEL, Mahindra and Mahindra, Godrej and Boyce among others.
o Experienced mixed results:
• Workers got to get out of their daily routine and do something challenging.
¬ These circles require a lot of time and commitment on the part of members for
o Few circles survive beyond this limit either because they loose steam or they
approaches.
¬ For QCs to succeed in the long run, the management needs to show its
Empowered Teams:
employees who then experience a sense of ownership and control over their
jobs.
¬ Employees may feel more responsible, may take initiative in their work, may
get more work done, and may enjoy the work more.
Job process Managers plan, control, improve Teams plan, control, improve
o May prepare their own budgets and co-ordinate their work with other
departments.
o Frequently responsible for acquiring any new training they might need.
o May hire their own replacement to assume responsibility for the quality of their
products or services.
quality.
o Meet the customer’s requirement on time, the first time, and 100% of the
time.
employee in the organization; making each one responsible for improving quality
everyday.
Financial Participation:
¬ The logic behind this is that if an employee has a financial stake in the
organization, he/she is likely to be more positively motivated and involved.
o Profit-linked pay
o Pension-fund participation.
¬ Workers’ education and training. Trade unions and government needs to work
in this area.
¬ Employees cannot spend all their time in participation to the exclusion of all
other work.
Limitations of participation:
are required.
from satisfactory.
¬ The beginning towards WPM was made with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947,
that there should be some joint consultation to ensure industrial peace, and
¬ The functions of both these joint bodies were to be consultative and were not
¬ The response to these schemes was encouraging to begin with, but gradually
waned.
o A study team was appointed in 1962 to report on the working of joint councils
and committees.
♣ No concrete steps were taken to remove the difficulties, or change the pattern
of participative management.
¬ During the emergency of 1975-77, the interest in these schemes was revived
¬ The Janata Government who came to power in 1977 carried on this initiative.
¬ In was again emphasized by the Congress government who came back n 1979.
¬ This continued in a “non-statutory vein” till the late 1980s, and the response
♣ Now, Article 43-A reads: The State shall take steps, by suitable legislation, or
♣ The bill requires every industrial enterprise to constitute one or more `Shop-
establishment level.
♣ The bill also provides for penalties on individuals who contravene any provision
of the bill.
¬ In spite of all these efforts, only the government and the academicians have
o Managers and the managed are forced to forget their known stands, break