Democracy in the workplace : a case study of four companies

Abstract

Hypothesis: As organization become bigger they tend to become inflexible. their company structure would inevitably lengthen. so would do bureaucracy. The result would be an inflexible organization unable to cope with the changing environment of today's economy. With industrial democracy the company can flatten its structure thus reduce bureaucracy but not only empowerment results in more job satisfaction and commitment thus the company would perform better. This thesis considers a range of issues related to workplace democracy in the contemporary Maltese work environment. Although drawing from abroad of multidisciplinary literature, this thesis emphasizes on the actual Maltese work practices in the public and private sector. The essay essentially argues for the widespread democratization of work but not without considering realistic limitations to that ideal. It also aims to analyze the existing work practices, so that to able to assess the worthiness of the ideal. Great emphasis would put on change and how employee democracy can help the company making the needed changes in the organization. This is very relevant nowadays as we face the globalisation of the world market and the possible entry in the E.U. This research aims to look how workplace democracy actually works in practice, and what are benefits reached with labour empowerment thru the analysis of four case study. Also there would be the comparison of the results obtained by the public and private sector using this method. The main aim of this research is to analyse the actual methods used in practice so that the advantages of the various systems used can be merged to improve current methods.