Abstract

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ISSUES Vol. XVII No.3 September 1983 dei Labor-Managed and Participatory Firms: A Review Article Daniel R. FusJeld There is a great deal of literature on the contribution of worker partici­ pation to increased efficiency and improved productivity for the individual production unit. The chief surveys of the evidence for improved produc­ tive performance include R. Blumberg [1968], M. Bosquet [1977], S. Melman [1970], and D. Zwerdling [1978]. J. G. Espinosa and A. S. Zim­ balist [1978], who did a case study of Chilean experience in the early 1970s, provide an excellent bibliography. Much of the evidence is descrip­ tive and anecdotal, however, and there are enough examples of conspicu­ ous failure to indicate that worker participation is far from a universal cure-all for production ills. A new theory of the connection between worker participation and improved productivity has been developed nevertheless. It is argued that worker participation is able to utilize a great deal of knowledge about production that is not available to supervisory or managerial personnel; that participation is a counterweight to produc­ tivity-diminishing managerial decisions motivated by the status and power goals of managers and supervisors; that the psychological effects of par­ ticipation in