Employee Involvement in Australia: Workplace Transformation or the Disposable Workplace?

Theory suggests Employee Involvement (EI) programs will appear either where 'workplace transformation' occurs or where worker bargaining power is low and firms create a 'disposable workplace.' This study explores a sample of Australian workplaces and finds disposable workplace settings have a low probability of EI, but are so common that they account for most EI programs. Workplace transformation settings, while rare, are more likely to exhibit EI. Tentative data suggest EI is more successful in human terms under workplace transformation but more economically successful in the disposable workplace.