Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Normative Underpinnings of Direct Employee Participation Studies and Implications for Developing Ethical Reflexivity: A Multidisciplinary Review

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper seeks to join studies which have drawn attention to the ethical reflexivity of research and the research enterprise in the organisational studies’ field. Towards this end, we review OB, HRM, and IR studies on direct employee participation in organisations post-1990s to examine their normative underpinnings. Using Fox’s (Industrial sociology and industrial relations. Research Paper 3, Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations, HMSO, London, 1966, Beyond contract: Work, power and trust relations. Faber and Faber, London, 1974) three frames—unitarist, pluralist, and radical—we compare the underpinnings within and across the chosen disciplines to bring ethical reflexivity to studies in this area of inquiry. Implications are drawn out to take forward the quest for more ethically reflexive employee participation research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

CTWs:

Companies taken over by workers

ER:

Employment relations

HPWS:

High-performance work system

HRM:

Human resource management

IR:

Industrial relations

NER:

Non-union employee representation

OB:

Organizational behaviour

SHRM:

Strategic human resource management

References

  • Ackers, P. (2014). Gramsci at the miners’ strike: Remembering the 1984–1985 Eurocommunist alternative industrial relations strategy. Labour History, 55(2), 151–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appelbaum, E., Bailey, T., Berg, P., & Kalleberg, A. (2000). Manufacturing competitive advantage: The effects of high-performance work systems on plant performance and company outcomes. New York: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appelbaum, E., & Batt, R. (1995). Worker participation in diverse settings: Does the form affect the outcome, and if so, who benefits? British Journal of Industrial Relations, 33(3), 353–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avey, J. B., Wernsing, T. S., & Palanski, M. E. (2012). Exploring the process of ethical leadership: The mediating role of employee voice and psychological ownership. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(1), 21–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, M., & Wilkinson, A. (2015). Pro-social or pro-management? A critique of the conception of employee voice as a pro-social behaviour within organizational behaviour. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(2), 261–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bathini, D. R., & Kandathil, G. M. (2017). An orchestrated negotiated exchange: Trading home-based telework for intensified work. Journal of Business Ethics. doi:10.1007/s10551-017-3449-y.

  • Batt, R. (2010). Managing the human factor: The early years of human resource management in American industry and hired hands or human resources? Case studies of HRM programs and practices in early American industry. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 63(3), 553–555.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumann, Z. (1998). Work, consumerism and the new poor. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bélanger, J., & Edwards, P. (2007). The conditions promoting compromise in the workplace. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 45(4), 713–734.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhowmik, S. K., & Sarkar, K. (2002). Worker cooperatives as alternative production systems a study in Kolkata. India. Work and Occupations, 29(4), 460–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blyton, P., & Turnbull, P. (1992). HRM: Debates, dilemmas and contradictions. In P. Blyton & P. Turnbull (Eds.), Reassessing human resource management. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boxall, P., & Macky, K. (2009). Research and theory on high-performance work systems: Progressing the high-involvement stream. Human Resource Management Journal, 19(1), 3–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2008). Strategy and human resource management. NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braverman, H. (1974). Labor and monopoly capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M., & Cregan, C. (2008). Organizational change cynicism: The role of employee involvement. Human Resource Management, 47(4), 667.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryson, A. (2005). Union effects on employee relations in Britain. Human Relations, 58(9), 1111–1139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryson, A., Gomez, R., & Willman, P. (2007). The diffusion of workplace voice and high-commitment human resource management practices in Britain, 1984–1998. Industrial and Corporate Change, 16(3), 395–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budd, J. W. (2004). Employment with a human face: Balancing efficiency, equity, and voice. New York: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budd, John W., & Bhave, D. (2008). Values, ideologies, and frames of reference in industrial relations. In Nocolas Bacon, Jack Fiorito, & Edmund Heer (Eds.), Paul blyton (pp. 92–113). CA: Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, M. (1985). The politics of production. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Busck, O., Knudsen, H., & Lind, J. (2010). The transformation of employee participation: Consequences for the work environment. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 31(3), 285–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. Hove: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calas, M., & Smircich, L. (1996). From the women’s point of view: Feminist approaches to organisation studies. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organisational studies. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, S. (2007). Human resource strategy and unionization: Evidence from Taiwan. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(6), 1116–1131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheney, G. (2002). Values at work: Employee participation meets market pressure at Mondragon. New York: ILR Press, Cornell University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheney, G., Santa Cruz, I., Peredo, A. M., & Nazareno, E. (2014). Worker cooperatives as an organizational alternative: Challenges, achievements and promise in business governance and ownership. Organization, 21(5), 591–603.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, M. C., & Payne, R. L. (1997). The nature and structure of workers’ trust in management. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18(3), 205–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clegg, H. (1975). Pluralism and industrial relations. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 13(3), 309–316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, D. (2013). Management fads and buzzwords: Critical-practical perspectives. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Combs, J., Liu, Y., Hall, A., & Ketchen, D. (2006). How much do high-performance work practices matter? A meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. Personnel Psychology, 59(3), 501–528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cotton, J. L., Vollrath, D. A., Froggatt, K. L., Lengnick-Hall, M. L., & Jennings, K. R. (1988). Employee participation: Diverse forms and different outcomes. Academy of Management Review, 13(1), 8–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska, B. (2009). STS meets MOS. Organization, 16(1), 155–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, G. F. (2016). Can an economy survive without corporations? Technology and robust organizational alternatives. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(2), 129–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delbridge, R., & Keenoy, T. (2010). Beyond managerialism? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(6), 799–817.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaghey, J., Cullinane, N., Dundon, T., & Wilkinson, A. (2011). Reconceptualising employee silence problems and prognosis. Work, Employment & Society, 25(1), 51–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dundon, T., Wilkinson, A., Marchington, M., & Ackers, P. (2004). The meanings and purpose of employee voice. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15(6), 1149–1170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunlop, J. (1958). Industrial relations systems. New York: Rhinehart & Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, J. R., & Polanyi, M. (2006). Workplace democracy: Why bother? Economic and Industrial Democracy, 27(1), 173–191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, A. (1966). Industrial sociology and industrial relations. Research Paper 3, Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations, HMSO, London.

  • Fox, A. (1974). Beyond contract: Work, power and trust relations. London: Faber and Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, R., & Medoff, J. (1984). What do unions do? New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galang, M. C. (1999). Stakeholders in high-performance work systems. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(2), 287–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gephardt, M., & Van Buren, M. (1996). Building synergy: The power of high performance work systems. Training and Development Journal, 50, 22–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gewirtz, S., & Cribb, A. (2006). What to do about values in social research: The case for ethical reflexivity in the sociology of education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(02), 141–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, C. (2009). Union impact on the effective adoption of high performance work practices. Human Resource Management Review, 19, 39–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glew, D. J., O’Leary-Kelly, A. M., Griffin, R. W., & Van Fleet, D. D. (1995). Participation in organizations: A preview of the issues and proposed framework for future analysis. Journal of Management, 21(3), 395–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godard, J. (2004). A critical assessment of the high-performance paradigm. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 42(2), 349–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godard, J., & Delaney, J. T. (2001). An industrial relations perspective on the high-performance paradigm. Human Resource Management Review, 11, 395–429.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gollan, P. J., & Wilkinson, A. (2007). Contemporary developments in information and consultation. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(7), 1133–1144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gollan, P. J., & Xu, Y. (2015). Re-engagement with the employee participation debate: Beyond the case of contested and captured terrain. Work, Employment & Society, 29(2), NP1–NP13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomez, R., Bryson, A., & Willman, P. (2010). Voice in the wilderness? The shift from union to non-union voice in Britain (pp. 383–406). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood, M. (2013). Ethical analyses of HRM: A review and research agenda. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(2), 355–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood, M., & Van Buren, H. J. (2016). Ideology in HRM scholarship: Interrogating the ideological performativity of ‘New Unitarism’. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(4), 663–678.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffeth, R. W., Hom, P. W., & Gaertner, S. (2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26(3), 463–488.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulati, G. M., Isaac, T. M., & Klein, W. A. (2002). When a worker’s cooperative works: The case of Kerala Dinesh Beedi. UCLA Law Review, 49(5), 1417–1454.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson, M. (2005). Two faces of union voice in the public sector. Journal of Labour Research, 26(3), 393–413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(2), 250–279.

    Google Scholar 

  • Handel, M. J. (2005). Trends in perceived job quality, 1989 to 1998. Work and Occupations, 32(1), 66–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Handel, M. J., & Levine, D. I. (2004). Editors’ introduction: The effects of new work practices on workers. Industrial Relations, 43(1), 1–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, D. A., & Martocchio, J. J. (1998). Time for absenteeism: A 20-year review of origins, offshoots, and outcomes. Journal of Management, 24(3), 305–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, F. (2003). Participation and power: A critical assessment. Applied Psychology, 52(1), 144–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, F., Pusić, E., Strauss, G., & Wilpert, B. (1998). Organizational participation: Myth and reality (pp. 1–143). Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschman, Albert O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodson, R. (2002). Worker participation and teams: New evidence from analyzing organizational ethnographies. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 23(4), 491–528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hon, A. H., & Rensvold, R. B. (2006). An interactional perspective on perceived empowerment: The role of personal needs and task context. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(5), 959–982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphrey, S. E., Nahrgang, J. D., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1332–1362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huselid, M. A., & Becker, B. E. (2011). Bridging micro and macro domains: Workforce differentiation and strategic human resource management. Journal of Management, 37(2), 421–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, Richard. (1987). Strategy or structure? Capital, labour and control. Work, Employment & Society, 1(1), 25–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, J., & Mason, B. (1995). Managing employee involvement and participation. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janssens, M., & Steyaert, C. (2009). HRM and performance: A plea for reflexivity in HRM studies. Journal of Management Studies, 46(1), 143–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandathil, G. M. (2015). Contradictions of employee involvement in organizational change: The transformation efforts in NCJM. An Indian Industrial Cooperative: Lexington Books, Maryland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandathil, G. M., & Varman, R. (2007). Contradictions of employee involvement, information sharing and expectations: A case study of an indian worker cooperative. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 28(1), 140–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanter, R. (1983). The change masters: Corporate entrepreneurs at work. London: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, B. E., & Taras, D. G. (2010). Employee participation through non-union forms of employee representation. In A. Wilkinson, P. Gollan, M. Marchington, & D. Lewin (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of participation in organizations (pp. 258–285). Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keegan, A., & Boselie, P. (2006). The lack of impact of dissensus inspired analysis on developments in the field of human resource management. Journal of Management Studies, 43(7), 1491–1511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, J. (2004). Social partnership agreements in Britain: Labor cooperation and compliance. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 43(1), 267–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klaas, B. S., Olson-Buchanan, J. B., & Ward, A. K. (2012). The determinants of alternative forms of workplace voice an integrative perspective. Journal of Management, 38(1), 314–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knudsen, H., Busck, O., & Lind, J. (2011). Work environment quality: The role of workplace participation and democracy. Work, Employment & Society, 25(3), 379–396.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochan, T., Eaton, A., McKersie, R. B., & Adler, P. (2009). Healing together: The labor-management partnership at Kaiser Permanente. NY: ILR Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochan, T., Katz, H., & McKersie, R. (1986). The transformation of American Industrial Relations. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kruse, D. L., Freeman, R. B., & Blasi, J. R. (Eds.). (2010). Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee ownership, profit and gain sharing, and broad-based stock options. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory (Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies).

  • Lawler, E. E., Mohrman, S. A., & Ledford, G. E. (1992). Employee involvement and total quality management: Practices and results in Fortune 1000 companies. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leana, C. R., Locke, E. A., & Schweiger, D. M. (1990). Fact and fiction in analyzing research on participative decision making: A critique of cotton, vollrath, froggatt, lengnick-hall, and jennings. Academy of Management Review, 15(1), 137–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ledford, G. E., & Lawler, E. E. (1994). Research on employee participation: Beating a dead horse? Academy of Management Review, 19(4), 633–636.

    Google Scholar 

  • Legge, K. (1999). Representing people at work. Organization, 6(2), 247–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Legge, K. (2005). Human resource management. Rhetorics and realities (3rd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luchak, A. A. (2003). What kind of voice do loyal employees use? British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41(1), 115–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchington, M. (2007). Employee voice systems. In P. Boxall, J. Purcell, & P. Wright (Eds.), Oxford handbook of human resource management (pp. 231–250). Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchington, M. (2015). Human resource management (HRM): Too busy looking up to see where it is going longer term? Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), 176–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchington, M., & Wilkinson, A. (2008). Human resource management at work (4th ed.). London: CIPD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsden, D., & Cañibano, A. (2010). An economic perspective on employee participation. In A. Wilkinson, P. Gollan, M. Marchington, & D. Lewin (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of participation in organizations (pp. 131–163). Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard, M. T., Gilson, L. L., & Mathieu, J. E. (2012). Empowerment—fad or fab? A multilevel review of the past two decades of research. Journal of Management, 38(4), 1231–1281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayo, E. (1933). The human problems of industrial civilisation. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCabe, D., & Lewin, D. (1992). Employee voice: A human resource management perspective. California Management Review, 34(3), 95–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meira, F. B. (2014). Liminal organization: Organizational emergence within solidary economy in Brazil. Organization, 21(5), 713–729.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, E. W. (2011). Employee voice behavior: Integration and directions for future research. Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 373–412.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, E. W., & Milliken, F. J. (2000). Organizational silence: A barrier to change and development in a pluralistic world. Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 706–725.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mowbray, P. K., Wilkinson, A., & Tse, H. H. (2015). An integrative review of employee voice: Identifying a common conceptualization and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 17(3), 382–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogbeide, G. C. A., & Harrington, R. J. (2011). The relationship among participative management style, strategy implementation success, and financial performance in the foodservice industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 23(6), 719–738.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, E. K. (2013). The relative survival of worker cooperatives and barriers to their creation. In D. Kruse (Ed.), Advances in the economic analysis of participatory & labor-managed firms (pp. 83–107). Bingley: Emerald Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osterman, P. (2000). Work reorganization in an era of restructuring: Trends in diffusion and effects on employee welfare. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 53, 179–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V., & Land, C. (2014). The Routledge companion to alternative organization. NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M., & Slaughter, J. (1995). Unions and management by stress. In Steve Babson (Ed.), Lean work: Empowerment and exploitation in the Global Auto Industry. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patmore, G. (2010). A legal perspective on employee participation. In A. Wilkinson, P. J. Gollan, M. Marchington, & D. Lewin (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of participation in organizations (pp. 76–104). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paton, R. (1989). Reluctant entrepreneurs. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pencavel, J. (2014). The economics of worker cooperatives. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, M. (1966). The tacit dimension. London, Routledge. University of Chicago Press. 2009 reprint.

  • Posthuma, Richard A., Campion, Michael C., Masimova, Malika, & Campion, Michael A. (2013). A high-performance work practices taxonomy: Integrating the literature and directing future research. Journal of Management, 39(5), 1184–1220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehg, M. T., Miceli, M. P., Near, J. P., & Van Scotter, J. R. (2008). Antecedents and outcomes of retaliation against whistle-blowers: Gender differences and power relationships. Organization Science, 19(2), 221–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, C., & Harvey, G. (2012). Agonism and the possibilities of ethics for HRM. Journal of Business Ethics, 111(1), 49–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubinstein, S. A. (2001). Unions as value-adding networks: Possibilities for the future of US unionism. Journal of Labor Research, 22(3), 581–598.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sagie, A., & Koslowsky, M. (2000). Participation and empowerment in organizations. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoening, J. (2006). Cooperative entrepreneurialism: Reconciling democratic values with business demands at a worker-owned firm. Research in Sociology of Work, 16, 293–423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seibert, S. E., Wang, G., & Courtright, S. H. (2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), 981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sewell, G. (1998). The discipline of teams: The control of team-based industrial work through electronic and peer surveillance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43(2), 397–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, V. (2005). Worker participation: Current research and future trends. In V. Smith (Ed.), Worker participation: Current research and future trends (pp. xi–xxiii). Bradford: Emerald Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, G. (2006). Worker participation—some under-considered issues. Industrial Relations, 45(4), 778–803.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tapia, M., Ibsen, C. L., & Kochan, T. A. (2015). Mapping the frontier of theory in industrial relations: The contested role of worker representation. Socio-Economic Review, 13(1), 157–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taras, D. G., & Kaufman, B. E. (2006). Non-union employee representation in North America: Diversity, controversy and uncertain future. Industrial Relations Journal, 37(5), 513–542.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, F. (1974). Scientific management. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, P., & Harley, B. (2007). HRM and the worker labor process perspectives. In P. Boxall, J. Purcell, & P. Wright (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of human resource management (pp. 147–165). Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, P. H., & Ocasio, W. (2008). Institutional logics. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin, & R. Suddaby (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 99–128). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tjosvold, D. (1987). Participation: A close look at its dynamics. Journal of Management, 13(4), 739–750.

    Google Scholar 

  • Upchurch, M., Danford, A., Tailby, S., & Richardson, M. (2008). The realities of partnership at work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vadera, A. K., Pratt, M. G., & Mishra, P. (2013). Constructive deviance in organizations integrating and moving forward. Journal of Management, 39(5), 1221–1276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van BurenIII, H. J., Greenwood, M., & Sheehan, C. (2011). Strategic human resource management and the decline of employee focus. Human Resource Management Review, 21, 209–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varman, R., & Chakrabarti, M. (2004). Contradictions of democracy in a workers cooperative’. Organization Studies, 25(2), 183–208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verdorfer, A. P., Steinheider, B., & Burkus, D. (2014). Exploring the socio-moral climate in organizations: An empirical examination of determinants, consequences, and mediating mechanisms. Journal of Business Ethics, 132, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, J. A. (1994). Participation’s effects on performance and satisfaction: A reconsideration of research evidence. Academy of Management Review, 19(2), 312–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walters, David, & Frick, Kaj. (2000). Worker participation and the management of occupational health and safety: Reinforcing or conflicting strategies. In K. Frick et al. (Eds.), Systematic occupational health and safety management (pp. 42–65). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, T. J. (2004). HRM and critical social science analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 41(3), 447–467.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, T., & Cheney, G. (2014). Worker-owned-and-governed co-operatives and the wider co-operative movement. In M. Parker, G. Cheney, V. Fournier, & C. Land (Eds.), The routledge companion to alternative organization (pp. 64–95). NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitener, E. (2001). Do ‘high commitment’ human resource practices affect employee commitment? A cross-level analysis using hierarchical linear modeling. Journal of Management, 27, 515–535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiting, S. W., Podsakoff, P. M., & Pierce, J. R. (2008). Effects of task performance, helping, voice, and organizational loyalty on performance appraisal ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 125–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittington, R. (2007). Strategy practice and strategy process: Family differences and the sociological eye. Organization Studies, 28, 1575–1586.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, T. (2012). Human resource management in a compartmentalized world: Whither moral agency? Journal of Business Ethics, 111(1), 85–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, A., Dundon, T., Donaghey, J., & Freeman, R. (2014). Employee voice: Charting new terrain. In A. Wilkinson, J. Donaghey, T. Dundon, & R. Freeman (Eds.), The handbook of research on employee voice (pp. 3–16). Cheltenham: Elgar Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, A., Gollan, J., & Marchington, M. (2010). The Oxford handbook of participation in organizations. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilpert, B. (1998). A view from psychology. In F. Heller, E. Pusic, G. Strauss, & B. Wilpert (Eds.), Organizational Participation: Myth and Reality (pp. 40–64). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T., & Roos, D. (1990). The machine that changed the world. New York: Rawson Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, P. M., Dunford, B. B., & Snell, S. A. (2001). Human resources and the resource based view of the firm. Journal of Management, 27(6), 701–721.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Harry Van Buren III, the two anonymous reviewers and the editorial team for their comments that greatly improved the manuscript. The first author thanks Prof. Mohan Turaga for his invaluable help during various stages of writing this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Management, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 380015, India

    George Kandathil

  2. XLRI – Xavier School of Management, C. H. Area (East), Jamshedpur, 831001, India

    Jerome Joseph

Authors
  1. George Kandathil
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jerome Joseph
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George Kandathil.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kandathil, G., Joseph, J. Normative Underpinnings of Direct Employee Participation Studies and Implications for Developing Ethical Reflexivity: A Multidisciplinary Review. J Bus Ethics 157, 685–697 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3689-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3689-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation