Reflexiones en torno al constructo de la participación en las organizaciones

Abstract

Both in the scientific literature and in popular opinion, there is a great deal of confusion about the concepts of work participation and participative management. It is very often found that the same concept has different meanings, or, alternatively, that different tems are sometimes used to say the same thing. This ambiguity needs to be clarified by means of a thorough study of the subject. In the first place, we propose a global definition of this process as the different ways in which the distribution of power in one organization is or could be shared. Secondly, we describe a classification of the main characteristics of work participation; formal/informal, direct/indirect, the degree of influence, and diferent kinds of tasks, content, duration and social environment. These are the objectives of this paper.