Employee direct participation in Britain and Australia: evidence from AWIRS95 and WERS98

Assess the extent to which the various forms of employee direct participation are used in Australia and the UK, looking specifically at the use of employee attitude surveys, suggestion schemes, newsletters, problem-solving groups, regular meeting between employees and managers, employee briefings and teams/work groups. Uses data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey 1995 and the UK Workplace Industrial Relations Survey 1998 to analyse the use of these forms of participation by workplace size, sector, age of firm, ownership, union density and production sector. Also analyses the link between workplace participation schemes and levels of employee autonomy. Finds that the practices are widespread in both countries, although with different patterns in their use. However, concludes there is little substantive association between participation schemes and employee autonomy.