Towards Industrial Democracy

This study, first published in 1979, analysed the international trend towards "industrial democracy" in the industrial relations practices in Europe, Japan and the United States. The development of industrial democracy was occurring through the establishment of employee and union participation on boards of directors and, at the shop floor level, in the extension of the role and power of works councils. In other countries the main development was through collective bargaining methods on labor-management relations and management decision-making. The authors examine various countries and explore any highlights, lessons and ideas that might be transferable from one political and social context to another.

Monograph on the trend towards workers participation in Japan - examines changes in management attitudes and employees attitudes in response to technological change, and includes survey data on workers' motivation, job satisfaction and leisure activities, etc. Bibliography pp. 215 to 221 and statistical tables.

This title, originally published in 1986, explores the political and economic conditions of the 1980s, and reflects the world-wide interest in industrial democracy. Each chapter analyses the main adaptations in policy, theory and experimentation that have occurred in industrial democracy in the 1980s. In particular, the role of managers is examined in depth and detail, since these personnel have been responsible for a number of recent initiatives. The themes covered are vital for all those seeking new directions in the reform of modern industrial relations in the late 1980s and into the 1990s.

The organization of work is under critique in many industrialized countries. Bureaucracy, specialization, repetitive technology, and hierarchical control structures are criticized by politicians, trade unionists, and social scientists. They argue for improved quality of work, for work democratization, and for the humanization of work. This book evaluates Norwegian field ex periments in the area of job redesign which started already in 1964. Norway has therefore a lead in experience compared to most other countries, particu to the United States, where debates and subsequent experiments re larly volving around the quality of working life and the democratization of work started only in the early seventies. The Norwegian social scientists who left their academic bastions and started action research drew heavily upon the 'open socio-technical system' thinking as developed by the Tavistock Insti tute of Human Relations in London. This descriptive evaluation study ana lyzes the job redesign experiments from an industrial democracy perspective and places the experiments in their national political and labor relations contexts. Special emphasis is given to the actual and potential role trade unions can play in shopfloor job design projects. The industrial relations of the United States is generally used as reference point in this study. system The theory guiding the experiments regards work democratization through job redesign as a first step in a bottom-up process of organizational demo cratization.

This book shows how the Rana Plaza disaster led to voluntary labour governance initiatives based on a model of transnational industrial democracy.

English translation of the Swedish language study entitled foretagsdemokrati och foretagsorganisation on implications in respect of business organization of the concept of workers participation in management, with some particular reference to Sweden - covers aspects of labour relations, leadership, decision making, job satisfaction, productivity, trade union policy, management attitudes, etc. Bibliography pp. 166 to 174.