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This study examines worker voice in the development and implementation of safety plans or protocols for COVID-19 prevention among hospital workers, long-term care workers, and education workers in the Canadian province of Ontario. Although Ontario occupational health and safety law and official public health policy appear to recognize the need for active consultation with workers and labour unions, there were limited--and in some cases no--efforts by employers to meaningfully involve workers, worker representatives (reps), or union officials in assessing COVID-19 risks and planning protection and prevention measures. The political and legal efforts of workers and unions to assert their right to participate and the outcomes of those efforts are also documented through archival evidence and interviews with worker reps and union officials. The article concludes with an assessment of weaknesses in the government promotion and protection of worker health and safety rights and calls for greater labour attention to the critical importance of worker health and safety representation. Keywords: COVID-19, worker voice, worker representation, occupational health and safety, joint committees, labour unions, public health, long-term care, health care, public schools Cette etude examine la voix des travailleurs dans l'elaboration et la mise en oeuvre de plans ou de protocoles de securite pour la prevention du COVID-19 chez les travailleurs hospitaliers, les travailleurs de soins de longue duree et les travailleurs de l'education dans la province canadienne de l'Ontario. Bien que la loi ontarienne sur la sante et la securite au travail et la politique officielle de la sante publique semblent reconnaitre la necessite d'une consultation active avec les travailleurs et les syndicats, il y a eu des efforts limites--et dans certains cas aucuns efforts--deployes par les employeurs pour impliquer de maniere significative les travailleurs, les representants des travailleurs (delegues), ou des responsables syndicaux pour evaluer les risques lies au COVID-19 et planifier les mesures de protection et de prevention. Les efforts politiques et juridiques des travailleurs et des syndicats pour affirmer leur droit de participer et les resultats de ces efforts sont egalement documentes par des preuves d'archives et des entretiens avec des delegues et des responsables syndicaux. L'article se termine par une evaluation des faiblesses de la promotion et de la protection par le gouvernement des droits des travailleurs en matiere de sante et de securite et appelle a une plus grande attention des travailleurs a l'importance cruciale de la representation en matiere de sante et de securite des travailleurs. Mots clefs : COVID-19, voix des travailleurs et travailleuses, representation des travailleurs et travailleuses, sante et securite du travail, comites paritaires, syndicats, sante publique, soins de longue duree, soins de sante, ecoles publiques, THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPOSED an unwelcome stress test on our institutions and social arrangements, often revealing their underlying weaknesses and flaws. Regimes of occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation are [...]

Participatory management in the US and Hong Kong branches of a particular firm is examined. US employees were more individualistic while Hong Kong employees were more group-oriented.

The implementation of participatory management techniques at the Ralston Foods plant in Sparks, NV, is discussed.

The article examines the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, which emphasizes collectivism over individualism, employee empowerment, and their effects on management practices in three Swedish corporations. Approaching labor as an ethically embedded concept, rather than a perception of power, provides insight on how management practices manifest themselves in the workplace.

Corporate reorganizations are examined within a social framework, focusing on consent, negotiation and resistance between employers and employees. A case study from the petroleum industry is used for illustration.

This paper explores the experiences of staff working under a business process reengineering (BPR) work regime. We examine the nature of work within a team-based, multi-skilled and empowered environment within financial services. Despite mixed responses our case study indicates that for those employees who remain in employment after 're-engineering', working conditions may become more stressful and intensive. Although some staff may welcome those elements of a BPR work regime that facilitate a more varied work experience, the possibilities for satisfaction are often curtailed due to management's preoccupation with productivity and 'bottom line' results. In practice BPR is neither as simple to implement nor as 'rational' in its content as the gurus would have us believe. Partly for these reasons it is also not as coercive in its control over labour as some critics fear. While managers may only want to encourage employee autonomy that is productive to its ends, we identify a number of occasions where autonomy is disruptive of corporate goals. The paper seeks to add to our understanding of 'stress', 'resistance' and management 'control' by considering the ways in which staff engage in the operation of BPR so as to maintain and reproduce these conditions. This dynamic cannot be understood, however, outside of the relations of power and inequality that characterize society and employment. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The authors examine participatory management, using a case example drawn from their experience as consultants to a public child welfare agency. The approach to consultation called for the formation of an interdisciplinary task force, comprising agency staff, foster parents, court personnel, and community service providers, with the aim to improve the agency's performance in reuniting children and families separated by foster care placement. A case example is used to illustrate successful planning and implementing of participatory approaches, especially in large bureaucratic organizations.

Participatory management approaches are increasingly recognized as an effective strategy for enabling the sustainable use of natural resources. The southeast coast of St. Lucia is one of the sites where a particular form of participatory management, a co-management regime, was recently developed to control the sea urchin fishery. The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), a NGO based in Vieux-Fort, St. Lucia, played a key role in the development of this co-management arrangement. This case study of the sea urchin fishery in Vieux-Fort examines the extent of the devolution of authority to locally-based sea urchin harvesters, explores the potential contribution of local knowledge to the understanding of sea urchin behavior, and points to elements of a strategy aimed at strengthening the organizational capacity of the core group of sea urchin harvesters. The study addresses both present practice and future possibilities in response to concrete questions raised by participants in the study. KEY WORDS: co-management; fisheries management; sea urchin; St. Lucia; Caribbean; participatory development.

About a quarter of the total workforce in the US work in shift systems, which are implemented to recover investments faster in capital-intensive industries and to maintain continuous customer service in vital industries. However, shift systems often result in higher incidence of industrial accidents, higher turnover, low productivity and other problems. The experience of a glass factory is presented to show how a participatively designed shift system reduced turnover and improved productivity., Organizations that seek the advantages of 24-hour operations frequently experience personnel problems related to the demands of shiftwork. Common difficulties include excessive turnover, poor productivity, and increased incidence of industrial [...]

Social service practitioners are challenged by serving target populations that are increasingly diverse ethnically. The challenge is compounded by budget and program cuts that limit resources for multiculturalism staff and training. This case study of perinatal outreach and education program targeting low-income women from diverse ethnic backgrounds speaks to program planners and practitioners faced with these issues. The study invites a critical assessment of how 'empowerment' is conceptualized and operationalized in program objectives. The impact of the social organization of an agency-driven program on the interaction between the educator and the client is examined. An alternative approach, decentralized in the diverse target communities, is suggested for future projects. This perspective requires critical consciousness on the part of planners and change agents as mediators of an empowerment process. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher. )

A short-run labor-managed firm (LMF) game of participation is presented to establish that, in the short run, the equilibrium employment in the LMF is non-decreasing in the price of output. The determination of membership size in the long run is analyzed, and static results are compared, for the short run and the long run, with the result obtained in the traditional LMF model. It is shown that the expected income maximization of a potential member determines optimal LMF membership in the long run, and that short-run employment is not inversely related to the price of output.

This paper presents the evolution of employee involvement programs into empowered Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWTs) to drive continuous improvement methodologies. With the primary goal of increased manufacturing performance and customer satisfaction, SDWTs are responsible for the day-to-day operations and directions of existing Wafer Fabs at Harris Semiconductor in Palm Bay, Florida. The SDWTs were formed to improve key Fab performance indices such as throughput yield (TPY), cycle time, performance-to-schedule and reduction of costs. The specific methodologies which will be discussed are: * Designing in quality. * Developing and building the 'team' philosophy. * Forming work teams. * Analyzing skills. * Training work-in-process management, activity planning and work scheduling. * Developing and implementing gainsharing. The results described in this paper will include, but are not limited to, the following: * 10% improvement in TPY over 7 quarters. * 70% reduction in cycle time over 7 quarters. * 30% improvement in die yield over 7 quarters. * 7.3% budget savings realized from gainshare program during first 2 quarters of implementation.

The inclusion of farmers in the decision-making process of management of irrigation systems is now accepted as necessary to increase productivity and income among the poor in the Third World. Hence, farmer participation is not simply a call for empowerment and mobilization of a hitherto powerless group but, more fundamentally, a development strategy. The author evaluates the experience of participatory management in Sri Lanka and arrives at general conclusions, taking into account the size and complexity of the irrigation system, objectives, and capacity of agencies and farmers for participatory management as key aspects in a sustainable development strategy.

This article compares the case histories off our Canadian organizations that have conducted employee involvement programs for more than four years. Three of these firms achieved considerable improvements in employee [...]

Imagine.- Tomorrow is a big day-not only for you, but for your staff and the entire company as well. The CEO will be arriving in the morning to hear an [...]

Teamwork Breeds Quality at Hearing Technology, Inc. It is quite common for a young, entrepreneurial company to rely on one or two key managers to develop a plan for organizational [...]