Encouraging employee participation: the final, frightening frontier for eastern europe’s managers

The evidence is incontrovertible – empowered workers are more productive,reduce costs to lower limits, make more profit for their employers, and are more likelyto stay with the company when other offers come. It is also beyond doubt that theempowered workforce cannot develop without the encouragement and active support ofmanagement. But management practice in this part of the world is rooted in traditionsof authority, of social distance between bosses and workers, and in which workers arenot encouraged to make suggestions about improving work practices. Until managerspermit and encourage participation thoughtful contributions by workers, economicresults will always be marginal and prohibit regional industries from competingeffectively in global markets.