Documents workers empowerment 18 results

"Worker representation is the first step toward democratizing the economy
Although contemporary Western societies refer to themselves as "democratic," the bulk of the population spend much of their lives in workplaces that have more in common with tyranny. Gigantic corporations such as Amazon, Meta, Exxon, and Walmart are among the richest and most powerful institutions in the world yet accountable to no one but their shareholders. The undemocratic nature of conventional firms generates profound problems across society, hurting more than just the workplace and contributing to environmental destruction and spiraling inequality.
Against this backdrop, Isabelle Ferreras proposes a radical but realistic plan to democratize the private firm. She suggests that all large firms should be bicamerally governed, with a chamber of worker representatives sharing equal governance power with the standard board representing owners. In response to this proposal, twelve leading experts on corporate behavior from multiple disciplines consider its attractiveness, viability, and achievability as a "real utopian" proposal to strengthen democracy in our time."

"Over the last 20 years, manufacturing of a wide variety of consumer goods in the global economy has shifted from relatively well-regulated, highwage and often unionized factories in the developed world to basically unregulated, low-wage and rarely unionized factories in the developing world. The prevailing supply chain approach for occupational health and safety (OHS) protections for workers is to incorporate them into the international brands' corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in the hope that there will be a “trickle-down” effect of corporate- level OHS protections to the factory floors of the brands' suppliers. This approach has resulted in only marginal improvements of working conditions in global supply chains. A different approach – exemplified by the work of the Maquiladora Health and Safety Support Network (MHSSN) – is a worker-centred approach where the goal is to create knowledgeable, informed and active workers in factories at all tiers of the global supply chains who are familiar with OHS concepts, hazards and controls, as well as their rights under the law. The article highlights case studies of OHS capacity-building activities by the MHSSN and partner organizations with workers in five countries: Mexico, Indonesia, China, the Dominican Republic and Bangladesh."

"La volonté affichée de donner des capacités d'agir aux salariés s'incarne dans le concept d'« habilitation » (empowerment) qui désigne des formes d'initiative et de participation accordées aux salariés, d'amplitude toutefois variable. Dans une perspective critique qui inspire notre travail, l'« habilitation » peut être vue comme une rhétorique managériale destinée à mobiliser la subjectivité des salariés tout en voilant les rapports de domination. En tout état de cause, la formation devrait constituer une ressource susceptible d'accroître le pouvoir d'agir des salariés et être conçue par les directions et perçue par les salariés comme telle. Comment et avec qui conçoit-on une politique de formation en cohérence avec ce projet ? Comment (et dans quelle mesure) cette politique contribue-t-elle effectivement à l'« habilitation » des salariés ?Cet article met la doctrine de l'« habilitation » à l'épreuve de la formation. Le terrain ici mobilisé est une enquête monographique conduite auprès d'une entreprise de l'agro-alimentaire, filiale française d'un groupe américain, qui a érigé l'« habilitation » en doctrine managériale. Saisie au niveau de l'organisation, la politique de formation apparaît congruente avec les autres pratiques mobilisatrices visant l'engagement et la responsabilisation des salariés, mais dans le cadre strict des objectifs stratégiques du groupe. Au niveau individuel, certains salariés, parmi les plus récemment embauchés, jugent leur capacité d'agir renforcée par la politique de formation de l'entreprise. Mais pour la majorité des salariés interrogés, leur rapport à la formation traduit leur désenchantement sur leur pouvoir d'agir dans un environnement où les décisions managériales demeurent opaques et imprévisibles. Le consentement et la coopération des salariés apparaissent fragilisés par ces contradictions.Ainsi, et malgré la situation très privilégiée de l'entreprise étudiée, dans un régime de gouvernance actionnariale où la prégnance des objectifs de rentabilité financière s'impose à tous les salariés et où, en outre, la représentation collective des salariés est faible voire inexistante, la politique d'« habilitation » ne parvient pas à concrétiser ses ambitions. Pour autant, elle n'est pas dépourvue d'effectivité. Au travers de la formation s'expriment les tensions dont l'« habilitation » est porteuse. Elle révèle, dans ce contexte, les promesses non tenues de cette doctrine managériale et questionne son efficacité économique et sociale. "

"There is a growing debate between mainstream and critical empowerment theorists; the latter criticize empowerment interventions that could be disempowering when the real power continues to reside with management. To draw upon the tension between these dualistic views, this study investigates whether organizations with formal power structures of collective bargaining as represented by union density and employee representation provide a facilitative social environment for empowerment to grow. Based on two combined sets of secondary data collected for the ETUI in 2006 and EWCS in 2005 from 27 European countries, this study found that countries with a stronger union tradition demonstrated higher workplace empowerment and job satisfaction for individual workers than countries with a weaker union tradition. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed."

"The aim of this article is to show that social benefits may accrue from work environments that support autonomous forms of work. Based on social psychology, economics and philosophy approaches, the authors argue that autonomy is a basic human need which, when satisfied, enhances civic behavior. Using individual data from the EWCS, the article finds evidence of the positive effect of work autonomy on volunteer work and political/trade union activities. Overall, work autonomy has decreased over the last 15 years for all skill levels in the EU, though there are substantial differences between countries. Organizational practices that promote autonomy should be deliberately stimulated if civic participation is to be furthered."

"The purpose of this article is to study interaction patterns within a steering group. Most large projects include a group of this kind whose task it is to steer towards set goals and provide the required resources. The origin of the research area lies in the observation that steering groups seem to have difficulties in living up to the expectations of project management and project participants, despite structured working methods such as regular meetings, distribution of responsibility and cooperation with different interested parties. By means of interviews and observations the article attempts to capture interaction patterns in a specific steering group. The study is anchored in theories of power with the purpose of supplying theoretical concepts and analytical tools. The most important conclusion is that the interaction patterns that emerged in the steering group rested on two foundations. The first one was that social relations in the steering group created power that was produced and manifested in different ways. The second one was that the exercise of power affected the action outcome, that is, the results of the actions and consequences for future actions. Another conclusion is that the exercising of the assignment presupposes four premises: the steering group member needs to have a positive approach to the project idea and the set goals, to have knowledge of the assignment, to have a position with the authority to make and carry out strategic decisions of the project, and be able to allocate time for active work and participation in meetings."

"Addresses employee involvement as a management approach, tracing the concepts, assumptions and roots in which it can be located. It reviews the plethora of typologies based upon which employee involvement programmes implemented in organisations today are founded. It advocates further research to enhance the conceptualisation and contextualisation of these programmes for practical implementation, as well as the development of a framework which could be generally accepted for their systematic evaluation."