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• Dickson, J. W. (1981). 'Participation as a Means of Organizational Control'. The Journal of Management Studies 18(2):159-177

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Participation is a process which can increase the influence of the general organizational membership upon decisions. Participation also allows managers to control movement towards certain goals. Thirty-one randomly selected manufacturing organizations in Glasgow, Scotland participated in this study. Data were gathered in comprehensive interviews with key personnel. Structural measures included organization size, functional specialization, formalization of role definition, autonomy, staff density, representative participation, process participation and total participation. Total participation was inversely related to the organization's autonomy, directly related to formalization and specialization, and unrelated to staff density.
Process participation was inversely related to autonomy and directly related to specialization.
The more formalized organizations permit participation on a wider range and scope of decisions, while more specialized and autonomous firms tend to favor process participation. Appendices.