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Worker Participation and Productivity Change Worker participation and productivity change A careful assessment of the available evidence casts doubt on the viability of grafting industrial relations practices from abroad onto the U.S. scene SAR A. LEVITAN AND DIANE WERNEKE In the past several years, there has been increasing specu- patibly designed, given the existing skills of employees, or lation that the decisionmaking patterns of foreign business they may be inappropriately meshed. Information may be firms hold the key to improving U.S . productivity perfor- lacking, thereby forestalling smooth and coordinated work mance, reflecting greater recognition of institutional and processes. The consequence is deficient control over the cultural influences on productivity . In particular, the in- quality and quantity of production . Management can set its dustrial practices found in West Germany and Japan, the goals in broad terms, but at the lower levels there is con- United States' strongest competitors, have been cited as siderable room for variation both in the interpretation of models to be emulated to achieve optimal productivity . goals and in the effort made to meet them. To achieve greater Pointing to the traditional relationship between U.S. man- productivity, according to this view, management needs to agement and labor as well as the failure of many business share authority with workers by giving the employees a leaders to properly manage and motivate their employees, greater voice in determining production processes . proponents of reforming the workplace have stressed the Job satisfaction may also play a major role in worker potential of raising productivity through better labor- productivity . One of the principal arguments advanced in management communications and the establishment of pro- favor of worker participation is that giving employees a grams of greater worker participation.' greater share in decisionmaking can reduce alienation and, Rejecting the prevailing U .S . economic doctrine, which with it, nonproductive practices such as absenteeism, turn- tends to view the firm as a machine that maximizes short- over, and poor-quality work. Workers are viewed as being run profits, students of organizational behavior regard an less willing to accept authoritarian decisions just because enterprise as a social system with gaps between actual and they have stepped within the factory, office, or shop. optimum performance. An organization may be resistant or The evidence that workers' participation plans result in unresponsive to management goals. Jobs may be incom- greater productivity is far from conclusive, however. Gen- eralizing on the basis of case studies is unwarranted because it is difficult to identify the nature and extent of worker Sar A. Levitan is research professor of economics and director of the participation and because it is hard to isolate the impact of Center for Social Policy Studies, The George Washington University . workers' participation from other organizational and tech- Diane Werneke is an economist on the staff of U.S . Senator Paul Tsongas. nological changes affecting productivity . Moreover, what- This article is adapted from chapter 3 of their book, Productivity: Problems, Prospects, and Policies (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, ever the merits of the practices are in foreign countries, they 1984). may prove unsuitable for the American environment. Sys- 28 tems of industrial relations are specific to each country, cooperation. Employees believed that communication had reflecting the customs, attitudes, and traditions of the so- been increased . ciety, and they are not easily transferable across continents . The chief contribution of worker participation in West German productivity seems to be that it has promoted in- Experiences from abroad dustrial peace and acceptance of change . Workers' councils The West German and Japanese systems of worker par- have provided a mechanism for handling grievances and ticipation have been touted as models for achieving orga- disputes and have helped to prevent management decisions nizational efficiency . that could cause employee dissatisfaction. With respect to shop floor experiments, however, little hard evidence is West Germany. In West Germany, participatory mecha- available on contributions to productivity . nisms have been established at two levels within the com- pany: at the top and on the shop floor.' By law, workers Japan . In Japan, worker participation is less institution- have equal representation with shareholders on the super- alized and instead is derived from the unique system of visory boards of companies employing 2,000 or more work- industrial relations that characterizes many large Japanese ers. These boards approve major decisions about investments, companies .' Lifetime employment is reinforced by a sen- loans, and other activities affecting the company's balance iority-based system that establishes a steady progression for sheet. In addition, they select managers responsible for day- workers in status and pay, a system that is based on the age to-day decisionmaking . Thus, in principle, West German of the employee rather than on the precise work done . The workers' representatives share with owners the power to set result is a flexible work force that is willing to perform a policy . Also, through their right to select a labor director variety of tasks and to accept technological change . to sit on the management board, workers share in the day- The organization of unions on a company basis rather to-day implementation of these policies. However, in prac- than by occupation or industry, as is the case in most other tical terms, in the majority of companies, workers' repre- countries, tends to stimulate cooperation between the unions sentatives play little more than an advisory role, as the and management. It is in the interest of both labor and chairman of the board is elected by the stockholders and management for the company to perform well. This com- retains control of the board and the real authority to run the monality of interests is underpinned by a bonus system company. whereby as much as 6 months of wages are paid to em- On the shop floor, workers' councils are elected by all ployees on the basis of the company's performance. employees . These councils have a voice in virtually all In many Japanese companies, before any decision is made, aspects of performance on the job, and they have, in con- consensus is sought at all levels of the company, a procedure sequence, greater authority than American shop stewards known as ringi. Although time-consuming, the process or business agents. Although worker representation on com- stimulates an exchange of information and fosters cohesion, pany boards has received the most attention in the United ultimately resulting in decisions being implemented with States, workers' councils are the key element of the West speed and broad support within the enterprise . This is rein- German work force's participation in company operations. forced in many companies by an extensive labor-manage- In addition to the labor-management system, the govern- ment consultation system . Employee representatives have ment has promoted a number of programs to improve work- no formal veto power, but in practice many exercise con- ing conditions by reorganizing jobs to expand worker siderable informal influence in company decisionmaking. discretion in, and responsibility for, daily work and quality Shop-floor participation takes a concrete form in Japan. control. In such cases, the organization of work has been Adapted from the ideas of an American scientist, William reoriented around autonomous work groups, each of which Deming, quality control circles have proliferated in Japan, is responsible for part of the production process; this ar- currently involving more than one worker in every eight. rangement gives every worker a voice in the performance Part of the reason they have caught on is that as a concept, of their work. quality control corresponds well to the attitudes fostered by Have worker participation efforts in West Germany im- the system of industrial relations: cooperation for the com- proved that nation's productivity performance? The Bie- mon purpose of achieving company goals. denkopf Commission, established to review the system of The Japanese system of industrial relations has nourished worker participation, found that worker participation had industrial harmony . Damaging strikes are rare. However, served industry well and had not reduced the competitive- the most persuasive evidence of the positive relationship ness of companies as some employers had feared .' The between productivity and employee participation comes from commission concluded that board representation had pro- the quality control circles . With the establishment of these vided both employees and management with information circles, responsibility for quality control shifted from en- that facilitated change within the company . Management gineers with limited shop-floor experience to employees found it useful to have a mechanism for informing em- working in teams with engineers. Numerous examples have ployees of the company's situation and for encouraging been cited of employee suggestions that, when imple- 29 MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW September 1984 e Worker Participation and Productivity Change mented, improved productivity .' Once in the company, they undergo training not only to It has also been suggested that because of the quality perform particular
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