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Many managements have responded to the problem of decreasing control in the work situation by implementing participative schemes. Such schemes involve a change from the more traditional confrontation or pure conflict process of bargaining to an approach based on joint problem‐solving and the enhancement of common interest. In the terminology of Walton and McKersie, there is a move from ‘distributive’ to ‘integrative’ bargaining. This paper is concerned with the fact that, in many cases, the approach to participation has tended to ignore the pluralistic nature of organizations. Often, the problem of loss of control in organizations is seen in global terms and the considered solution is deemed to lie in some generalized form of participation.

Introduction One of the major problems facing work organisations in contemporary society is that of employee involvement in decisions taken within the organisation. The extensive debate on industrial democracy in the United Kingdom has received impetus through the Directives and Statutes of the European Economic Community urging the various parties to reach some form of agreement. Some behavioural scientists seem to have little difficulty in documenting the benefits derived by both the employee and the organisation emanating from the experience of a more participatory organisational style in many British and foreign organisations. More recently the cudgels for increased participation have been wielded by members of all three major political parties in the UK, clearly none to be outwitted by the others when it comes to offering a “better” package to the electorate. The late 80s are likely to be a time when election time pronouncements and commitments are put to the test. Trade unionists and industrialists, through their respective representative bodies, are naturally enough taking a lively, though somewhat more guarded, interest in the subject. Whether the issue is regarded as political, moral or ideological there is a strong climate of opinion, from all of these bodies, in favour of an increase of employee influence over organisations' decision‐making structures. This concern is reflected in legislation both at national and EEC level.

Introduction Consider a hi‐fi loudspeaker manufacturing company acquired on the brink of insolvency by an American multinational. The new owners discover with growing concern that the product range is obsolete, that manufacturing facilities are totally inadequate and that there is a complete absence of any real management substance or structure. They decide on the need to relocate urgently so as to provide continuity of supply at the very high — a market about to shrink at a rate unprecedented in its history.

One of the most contentious issues in management is participatory decision‐making (PDM). While studies abound centred on hypothetical benefits, characteristics of involved individuals, its moral foundation and other aspects, few have investigated the pattern of utilization of avenues for PDM. This study investigates the relationship between nine avenues for teacher involvement, and the degree of actual and desired participation, plus decisional deprivation experienced by the respondents on a 30 item Critical Decision Inventory. Teachers' biographical characteristics; level of instruction, sex, teaching experience, academic qualifications and size of district of employment were also correlated with the utilization of avenues for participation. The major findings were (i) a high correlation between sex, level of instruction and avenues used; (ii) teaching experience was not supportive of earlier research; (iii) district size did not support previous studies; (iv) academic qualifications did not produce conclusive results.

Physical inactivity has a considerable negative impact on health. Physical activity has reduced partly due to workplace and lifestyle changes, causing people to spend more time in buildings and increasing sedentary behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to address a largely untapped opportunity for designers and managers to improve building users’ health by designing buildings that raise users’ Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) levels. In this research a conceptual model was developed to assess buildings’ performance in providing NEAT-promoting opportunities through building design features and management, in relation to building users’ propensity for NEAT behaviours.

The conceptual model was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and data to populate the model was obtained through a survey of 75 buildings in Jakarta (Indonesia).

The presented proof-of-concept shows that the model’s “meso-scale” approach to study physical activity and building design can lead to potential improvements of NEAT levels and physical activity in buildings.

The review of precedent models shows that this subject has been researched at micro-scale (i.e. detailed monitoring of individuals’ movement) and macro-scale (i.e. epidemiological studies of populations’ health). The presented model is original, as it explores a “meso-scale”(i.e. building scale) that is unique.