Operation Phoenix 19: A study of living and working in a technological society

WHAT A STUDY OF THE WORKER PARTICIPATION MOVEMENT OF THE SEVENTIES HAS TO TELL US ABOUT THE WORLD OF TOMORROW JOINT DECISION MAKING MUST PERVADE THE WHOLE ORGANISATION. In this instalment I propose to look more closely into the issues related to worker participation. To do so is critical to the Phoenix exercise. I have already indicated that my starting point in the Phoenix synthesis is the acceptance of the need for some mechanism to promote the management of change: some way of handling change. It is not enough to solve the problem of how to adapt to the latest technological advance — in this case chip technology and the information revolution: the need is for some more radical change in the system capable of handling this and all other technological innovations which follow. In crude terms what we are saying, as a first approximation to an answer to our problem, is that authoritarian relationships, whether in social, political or working life, are the product of an earlier age to which they are related and that, in consequence, they are unsuited to the present challenge; in order to bring about a more helpful attitude towards change we need a more participative approach.