Paths and barriers in employee involvement at Danish manufacturing companies 

Paper by Jonas Felbo-Kolding & Mikkel Mailand

The overall aim of this paper is to analyze paths and barriers to well-functioning cooperation between employees and management at workplace level in Danish manufacturing companies. A number of studies have reported on a relatively well-functioning cooperation between employees and managers in the Danish manufacturing industry and pointed to the importance of trust. However, there still exists a number of knowledge gaps with regards to a number of important features of cooperation:

Firstly, although cooperation and employee involvement in previous studies in general has been described as well-functioning, the cooperation is not always formalized. The paper aims to explain why a large number of companies do not have a Cooperation Council (although this is obligatory for companies with more than 35 employees to set-up these, if one of the parties ask for it), what the reasons for having/not having these councils are and if the presence of these councils makes a difference for the extent and quality of employee involvement.

Secondly, several studies have pointed to the importance of trust and respect in relation to good cooperation. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the importance of other importance features for the quality of cooperation, such as the degree of formalization, content and extent of employee involvement.

Thirdly, most existing studies on cooperation have tended to only take a snapshot of cooperation. By combining quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis the paper will attempt to identify the dynamics of cooperation by focusing on how cooperation develops over time.

Fourthly, the results and effects of cooperation have not been adequately addressed in previous studies. The effect of cooperation on the economic performance is difficult to isolate from other factors of importance. However, the paper will attempt to illustrate the value of good cooperation in a broader perspective by taking the players' subjective experience of the effect of cooperation and by evaluating the processes of cooperation.

Fifthly, the paper seeks to illustrate how cooperation functions under conditions that have not been present, when previous studies from the 90s and 00s were made. The economic crisis of the last couple of years provides an important framework for the study, as the industry as a whole has been affected in one way or another by the economic crisis. The paper will attempt to uncover whether the cooperation of the company has had an impact on the handling of the crisis - and perhaps its survival and whether the economic crisis has affected cooperation at the workplace.

Methodologically, the research project will rely on analyses of the answers on questionnaires from 226 HR mangers and the like and 614 shop stewards and other employee representatives at Danish companies in the manufacturing industry. In addition, the quantitative study has been supplemented by a qualitative study of eight firms to illustrate both paths and barriers to well-functioning cooperation, which have been found in the quantitative study.

The paper was presented at the the ILERA World Congress 2012, Philadelphia, USA, July 2-5, 2012.

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