Strength and correlates of participatory desire among employees in two organisations

Abstract

Most research on participation has taken workers desire for participation for granted. In this dissertation an attempt was made to examine empirically the main assumption underlying participation theory namely, workers desire for participation in decision-making. For this purpose, first six major areas of organizational decision-making were identification. Using the familiar typology of participation ranging from information – sharing to complete delegation it was decided to study the extent of desired participation for each decision category. Finally an attempt was made to identify some correlates of participatory desire. Data present researches were obtained from 58 production workers of a fertilizer factory and 60 production workers of textile factory. Result showed a considerable difference in the extent of participation desired for different areas. Also different decision categories assumed different significance in the two organizations. There was also organizational difference in the form of participation demanded for different decision categories factory than in the textile factory. In both organizations participatory deprivation was experienced for all decision categories through the manufacturing of deprivation was greater in the fertilizer factory than in the textile factory. There was a high positive relationship between the extent of perceived existing participation and desired participation in both organizations. Among other variables the external locus of control and the perceived rigidity of organizational structural showed a weak negative relationship with participatory desire. Some implications of these findings have been discussed in the dissertation. Finally some directions for future research have been suggested