Workers’ Participation in

Management
John 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-determination and self-government, that is,
representative participation in making rules and enforcing them. This
is known as Workers’ Participation in Management.

Workers’ participation in management means giving scope for workers

to influence the managerial decision-making process at different
levels by various forms in the organisation. The principal forms of
workers’ participation are information sharing, joint consultation,
suggestion schemes, etc.
 Scope of Workers’
Participation in 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 Decision-Making. This school holds that participation of an individual
in something 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 Committees, Joint Management
Council, etc. along with the representatives of management. The decisions are
taken through mutual discussions between the representatives of the workers
and those of the management.
 3. Self-control. 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. Participation in Yugoslavia is an example of
self-control.
 Significance of Workers
Participation
1. Higher 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 minimum desirable to retain their jobs. Thus participation of
workers in management is essential to increase industrial productivity.
 2. Greater Commitment: An important prerequisite for forging greater individual
commitment is the individual’s involvement and opportunity to express himself.
Participation allows individuals to express 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 relating to
the organisation.
 3. Reduced Industrial Unrest. Industrial conflict is a struggle 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 conflicting interests between the parties, by substituting it with cooperation,
homogeneity and common interests. Both sides are integrated and decision arrived
at are mutual rather than individual.
 Significance of Workers
Participation
4. 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. Because of the existence of barriers to the
upward flow of information in most enterprises, much valuable information
possessed by subordinates never reaches their 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 decisions is improved.

 5. Human Resource Development. Participation provides education to workers

in the management of industry. It fosters initiative and creativity among them. It
develops a sense of responsibility. Informal leaders get an opportunity to 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. Their resistance
to change is reduced.
Pre–requisites for the
success of Workers’
Participation in beManagement
I. The overall climate in the organisation should be favourable to

workers’ participation. There should an 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 action is required;
because participation in emergent situations is hardly advisable.
 III. 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
that is what experience is all about!!
 Pre–requisites for the
success of Workers’
There must be effective system of communication. Both labour’s representatives and
Participation in Management

management’s 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.
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