The Oxford Handbook of Participation in Organizations

In its various guises, the topic of employee participation has been a recurring theme in industrial relations and personnel management. The last twenty years has witnessed growing managerial interest in participation, specifically in the area of employee involvement (EI). Recent EI initiatives have been management sponsored and, not surprisingly, have reflected a management agenda concerned primarily with employee motivation and commitment to organizational objectives. Compliance, hierarchy and following rules are seen as supposedly less appropriate for employees who are expected to work beyond contract and exercise their initiative. Of course, there is a danger that many of the new initiatives are viewed solely in a positive and upbeat manner, so ignoring the more contested and mundane nature of participation. Employee participation encompasses the range of mechanisms used to involve the workforce in decisions at all levels of the organization - whether direct or indirect- conducted with employees or through their representatives. This handbook discusses the different arguments and schools of thought, with the aim of problematizing it, not just in terms of implementation but also principles. It brings together leading scholars from around the world, to present and discuss some fundamental theories and approaches to participation in organization, and their connection to broader political and even change. The Handbook contains a range of theoretically-informedcontributions written by leading scholars in their respective fields, giving comprehensive coverage of changes in participation. It reviews changing contexts, different cultural/institutional models, old/'new' economy models, changing social and political patterns, and the correspondence between industrial and political democracy and participation.