From Economism to Democratic Commitment: The Role of Worker Participation

This article reports relationship between work-related satisfaction and some important indicators of democratic commitment among the worker representatives on shop floor joint committees. Six measures—influence and autonomy, amenities at the work place, trust, job satisfaction, supervisory behaviour, and friendship on. work—were identified as measures of work-related satisfaction. Misanthropy, sense of political powerlessness, and sense of political normlessness were identified as indicators of low democratic commitment. The analysis revealed that supervisory behaviour and friendship on work are significant predictors of misanthropy, and influence and autonomy are the predictors of powerlessness and normlessness. The results have been examined in the context of programme of worker participation. The article suggests that participation is likely to produce a dent in misanthropy, powerlessness, and normlessness by increasing worker satisfaction with influence, autonomy, and interpersonal relations.