ABSTRACT
Recent years have seen a major revival of interest in methods that promote greater employee involvement and participation (EIP) in the workplace. To provide an organizational infrastructure for EIP, companies often create various kinds of teams, councils, committees, and review boards that are representational in nature and are intended to facilitate information exchange and two-way communication, improve efficiency and product quality, promote joint problem solving, decentralize decision making, delegate power and responsibility to lower-level employees, and increase morale and organizational commitment. In some instances, the structure and operation of EIP is jointly negotiated by a company and labor union through the collective bargaining process. Given, however, that today only one out of ten private-sector workers in the United States is covered by a union contract, most EIP initiatives are in nonunion firms and are thus management designed and operated.
