When industrial democracy and empowerment go hand-in-hand: A co-power approach

There is a growing debate between mainstream and critical empowerment theorists; the latter criticize empowerment interventions that could be disempowering when the real power continues to reside with management. To draw upon the tension between these dualistic views, this study investigates whether organizations with formal power structures of collective bargaining as represented by union density and employee representation provide a facilitative social environment for empowerment to grow. Based on two combined sets of secondary data collected for the ETUI in 2006 and EWCS in 2005 from 27 European countries, this study found that countries with a stronger union tradition demonstrated higher workplace empowerment and job satisfaction for individual workers than countries with a weaker union tradition. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.