Workers Participation in Management (WPM)

WPM refers to intellectual and emotional involvement of the workers in solving different issues of the organization. In WPM, if the union members keep themselves busy with only wages and job conditions of the workers, they may be deprived of the main strategic issues of the organization. In a recent visit at the Haldia Dock Complex (23-24.2.05), I find that union leaders talk about productivity and quality of the organization. It is amazing to me when I find that one leader opposes overtime for the workers.
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Is OB useful in Trade union understanding ?

I have been thinking very deeply for few days that whether principles of OB are applicable in TU or not ? Finally, I find that if we consider TU as a tool for only collective bargaining, very few principles of OB may work here. In that case we can limit our understanding on basic concept of leadership, work motivation etc. But to me TU can not be considered in terms of power metaphor it is more than that. Can we consider it as open system like the biological system ?