Participative Behaviour: A Social Psychological Approach

Abstract

From a social psychological standpoint ‘participation’ has tended to be defined in terms of concepts like ‘involvement’ and ‘influence’ (Wan and Wall, 1975). For example, Vroom considered the amount of psychological participation to be defined as the ‘amount of influence that an individual feels he has in decision-making’ (Vroom, 1960, p. 1). Whilst Wall and Lischeron point out that

Participation is not a unitary concept, but consists of interrelated elements which may be manifested in the decision-making processes of an organization in a wide variety of ways. Three elements central to the concept of participation are influence, interaction and information-sharing and these require consideration. (Wall and Lischeron, 1977, pp. 36–7)