Cable, John (1986) Employee participation and enterprise performance : an economic analysis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between employee
participation in decision-making within production enterprises and
their economic performance. Alternative forms of employee involvement
such as profit sharing and employee ownership are also considered. A
theoretical framework is developed in which the firm's structural and
performance characteristics are seen as the outcome of a strategic
game in which employers and workers can either seek to impose
unilateral control or cooperate to maximise joint welfare. Two new
theoretical insights are gained. The first is that a latent
'prisoners dilemma' may be inhibiting more widespread adoption of
participatory production. The second involves an important
distinction between two conceptually separate ways in which the
hypothesized participation-performance relationship might operate.
Problems of measuring the key, participation variable in empirical
work are raised and solved. A test procedure is devised and applied
to arbitrarily-weighted participation indexes of the kind used in
previous econometric work. In all cases tested the indices are found
to rest on unacceptably restrictive assumptions. This calls into
question previous results and appears to present a barrier to further
work. However alternative, Guttman scales of participation are
proposed anfound statistically valid for samples of firms in the West
German and UK engineering industries. Incidentally these tests
provide support for an existing hypothesis in the literature
concerning the pattern of development of participation within the
firm. When applied to subsamples of participatory and
non-participatory firms in the West German database, significance
tests of subsample means and discriminant analysis reveal no
statistically significant differences in productivity. However
significant differences in technology and labour-force characteristics
are found, in particular indicating greater human capital development
in participatory firms. OLS and 2SLS estimates of augumented
production functions in general confirm these results. Implications
for public policy measures to promote greater industrial democracy and
profit-sharing are briefly considered.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Industrial management -- Employee participation -- Econometric models, Strategic planning -- Employee participation -- Econometric models, Industrial engineering -- Great Britain -- Econometric models, Industrial engineering -- Germany -- Econometric models
Official Date:	October 1986
Dates:	Date Event October 1986 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Sponsors:	Volkswagenstiftung ; Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Extent:	[9], 194 leaves
Language:	eng

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