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Contradictions of Employee Involvement, Information Sharing and Expectations: A Case Study of an Indian Worker Cooperative

Cornell University

Rahul Varman

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Employee involvement is an evolving process replete with uncertainties even given the best of preconditions–worker ownership. This case study of the largest Indian worker cooperative focuses on the processes of employee involvement over a decade. The authors argue that employee involvement is contingent upon the feeling that the information that the employees consider critical is shared with them. While for the management, information sharing is an instrument in eliciting involvement, for the employees it is a matter of trust. The authors propose that as the management expectation of information sharing goes through an instrumental loop, the worker expectation of information sharing goes through an institutional, trust-based loop. This mismatch in expectations around information critically influences employee involvement.

Key Words: employee involvement • information sharing • trust • worker ownership • worker participation

Economic and Industrial Democracy, Vol. 28, No. 1, 140-174 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0143831X07073033


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