Employee participation encompasses the range of mechanisms used to involve the workforce in decisions at all levels of the organization - whether direct or indirect - conducted with employees or through their representatives. In its various guises, the topic of employee participation has been a recurring theme in industrial relations and human resource management. One of the problems in trying to develop any analysis of participation is that there is potentially limited overlap between these different disciplinary traditions, and scholars from diverse traditions may know relatively little of the research that has been done elsewhere. Accordingly in this book, a number of the more significant disciplinary areas are analysed in greater depth in order to ensure that readers gain a better appreciation of what participation means from these quite different contextual perspectives.

Not only is there a range of different traditions contributing to the research and literature on the subject, there is also an extremely diverse sets of practices that congregate under the banner of participation. The handbook discusses various arguments and schools of thought about employee participation, analyzes the range of forms that participation can take in practice, and examines the way in which it meets objectives that are set for it, either by employers, trade unions, individual workers, or, indeed, the state.

In doing so, the Handbook brings together leading scholars from around the world who present and discuss fundamental theories and approaches to participation in organization as well as their connection to broader political forces. These selections address the changing contexts of employee participation, different cultural/ institutional models, old/'new' economy models, shifting social and political patterns, and the correspondence between industrial and political democracy and participation.

About the Author:
Adrian Wilkinson is Professor of Employment Relations at Griffith University and Director of the Centre for Work, Organization, and Wellbeing. He is also a Visiting Professor at Loughborough University Business School. His books include Making Quality Critical (1995), Managing Quality and Human Resource (1997), Managing through TQM: Theory and Practice (1998), Understanding Work and Employment: Industrial Relations in Transition (2003), Human Resource Management at Work (2008), Contemporary Human Resource Management (2009), and the Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management (2009). He has written over 100 articles in refereed journals and many book chapters. He is a Fellow and Accredited Examiner of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He is chief editor of the International Journal of Management Reviews and associate editor of the Human Resource Management Journal.

Paul J. Gollan is also Associate Fellow in the Employment Relations and Organizational Behaviour Group in the Department of Management, and Research Associate at the London School of Economics. He is also a Fellow of the Labour-Management Studies Foundation at Macquarie University which is jointly hosted by the Division of Economic and Financial Studies and the Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM). Paul has authored, co-authored, and co-edited a number of books in the fields of human resources and industrial relations including Employee Relations in the Press (1997) and Models of Employee Participation in a Changing Global Environment-Diversity and Interaction (2001), Employee Representation in Non-Union Firms (2007), and Strategic Human Resource Management: A Critical Review (2009). He is a co-editor of Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations and consulting editor for the International Journal of Management Reviews.

Mick Marchington has been Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of Manchester since 1995. He previously worked at the Universities of Aston and Central Lancashire and has been a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Sydney, Auckland, and Paris. He moved into HRM after gaining a first class honours degree in Chemical Engineering. During his employment at Manchester, he has occupied a wide range of managerial roles, including Dean of Management Studies and Divisional Research Co-ordinator. He has published widely on HRM, including twenty books and monographs, and nearly 150 book chapters and papers in refereed journals. He is also editor of the Human Resource Management Journal and has been joint chair of the HRM Study Group of the International Industrial Relations Association since 2003. He has been active in the CIPD since the late 1980s, as Chief Examiner until 2002 and as Chief Moderator, Standards up to 2008. He is a Chartered Companion of the CIPD.

David Lewin's recent books include Human Resource Management: An Economic Approach, The Human Resource Management Handbook, and Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations. Professor Lewin serves on the editorial boards of Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, and California Management Review, is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, a member of the board of directors of K-Swiss, and a Director of the Law and Economics Consulting Group (LECG). Professor Lewin has consulted widely with business, government, and voluntary organizations in the United States and abroad, and serves as an employment litigation expert. He is also Faculty Director of the UCLA Anderson School's Advanced Program in Human Resource Management, Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) Management Seminar, and Strategic Leadership Institute (SLI).