ABSTRACT
Participative management, defined as joint decision making or at least shared influence in decision making by a superior and his or her employees (Wagner & Gooding, 1987), is still a central theme of research in the organizational sciences. Many studies have yielded a positive, although sometimes weak, correlation between participation and matters such as motivation, satisfaction and task performance (e.g. Heller, Drenth, Koopman, & Rus, 1988; Miller & Monge, 1986; Rooney, 1993; Strauss, 1982). However, these results are also open to some criticism, one aspect of which is methodological (Wall & Lischeron, 1977; Wagner & Gooding, 1987; Whyte, 1987). Other authors state that a better distinction should be made between the effects of the various types of participation (Cotton, Vollrath, Frogatt, Lengnik-Hall, & Jennings, 1988; Long & Warner, 1987). And, during the past decade, a good deal has changed in the socio-economic context of most organizations (Lammers & Szell, 1989). What significance does this have for experiences with and possibilities of participative management?
