Oral Presentation by Annette Kluge¹, Manfred Wannöffel¹
¹ Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
TIME: Thursday, 16 July, 10:30 – 12:00
Location: Room 3
Session: 19
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between democracy at the workplace and the overall societal and political development. We will outline the so far isolated research streams in industrial sociology, organizational, and social psychology as well as leadership research which should be integrated for a comprehensive understanding of the interplay of contributing factors at work that affect individual and collective democratic values at work an beyond. The initial thesis is that the relationship between market and democracy in social and political life cannot be sustainable in the long term without the establishment of social institutions and democratic practices at the workplace. The experiences of employees with relative powerlessness in economic decisions in companies, with a lack of participation in the organisation of work and employment, and with declining participation in social and cultural life have finally an impact on the political sphere of societies. Following arguments from German labour and industrial sociologists, a stable democratic order in a society is only possible if working people not only determine their representatives as voters in parliaments, governments and administrations, but also have a say in their specific working and employment conditions in companies and organizations in their everyday work as economic citizens. However, since the implementation of neoliberal economic policies in the working world from the mid-1980s onwards, a creeping erosion of social institutions in the workplace and democratic practices has been observed in Western European countries (Aglietta, 1986). For now 40 years these practices of deregulation pose long-term risks to the political order of western societies, as they in turn have an accelerating impact on social institutions at the workplace and in companies. From a work- and organisational psychology and socio-technical perspective, the quote „„The product of work is people“ (Herbst, 1975) expresses that also workplace design and managerial behavior experiences crucially impact human democratic values development inside and also outside the workplace. Organisation produce more than goods and services. Organisation produce more than goods and services. Organizations, through leadership processes and factors influencing justive perceptions at work, also influence the proactivity of employees outside the organization, their active desire for societal contribution and participation.