An Analytical Approach to Employee Involvement and Participation

This article describes an analytical approach which has been developed by two practising Personnel Managers in industry to achieve the following objectives: 1 To describe and analyse the scope of the term ‘employee involvement’. 2 To define and clarify terms and expressions which have been used in public debate on this subject, often indiscriminately. 3 To establish the interrelationships between the various forms of participation discussed and practised, particularly in the UK. The structure resulting from this analysis appears, in addition, to offer the following facilities: 4 To identify with some precision the extent of involvement achieved in any organisation. 5 To identify the implications of any change in the extent of involvement, (whether or not intentional), and thereby assist in the planning process. Furthermore, it could provide on a national basis the facility to measure, albeit coarsely, the extent of participation and movements therein by factors, such as industry, region, size of organisation, etc. In this context it could be a useful tool for assessing any effects stemming from the publication of the Bullock Report and any subsequent legislation. As yet its application in practice has not been rigorously tested to any great extent. We believe that the basic approach lends itself to further development and adaptation, and some thoughts in this respect are included at the end of this article. Already a certain amount of field research has been undertaken by the Management Studies Department of Bristol Polytechnic, the preliminary results of which tend to confirm this view.