Participation, Organisational Commitment and Employee Well-Being: A Longitudinal Analysis

The paper examines the implications of participation for employees’ organizational commitment and well-being, using new data that is both longitudinal and representative of the British workforce. It focuses both on task discretion (or control of the immediate job task) and organisational participation. It assesses more rigorously claims for the effects of participation, previously  based on cross-sectional evidence, that were unable to take account of the possibility that associations reflected unobserved individual differences. Further it examines more closely the mechanisms by which participation may influence employee attitudes. It shows that task discretion has positive effects on organisational commitment, job satisfaction and affective psychological well-being, while organisational participation was related to both job satisfaction and affective psychological well-being. The effects of participation were partly direct, but (particularly in the case of organisational participation) partly accountable for by its implications for improved work conditions.