Effectiveness of Employee Involvement

One of the newest developments in American business is the use of employee involvement (EI) programs-- by which we mean a diverse set of personnel and management practices such as self-directed work teams, total quality management, or quality circles, and the like that give workers more authority at workplaces. Existing studies of EI have not addressed whether these practices enhance organizational performance save in particular sectors, whether any performance gain is do to organizational change or human capital enhancement, or the benefits that flow to workers from EI. They have raised questions as to whether unions increase the effectiveness of EI programs, why some establishments have EI and others do not, and most critically, about the set of new practices that firms must adopt for EI programs to succeed, and what those practices might be. To address these questions a series of 20 case investigations of establishments, including some paired comparisons of establishments with EI programs and those without, and of establishments where these programs have failed will be undertaken. In addition, a new data on employee involvement programs in several hundred establishments will be developed; examine the relationship between EI programs and productivity using longitudinal data from the LRD Survey of Manufacturers files of the Census. Finally, employee outcomes using the Workplace Representation and Participation Survey will examined. The study will provide valuable information to business, labor, and government on the importance of employee participation in the creation and maintenance of high performance workplaces.