Research has so far brought no final answers to questions on how employee participation affects workplace performance. Theories based on Human Resource Management dominate the field. Efficiency approaches seem to suppress democratic oriented ones. Chosen approaches influence concepts, measures and methods applied in research activities. What are the scopes and issues that prevail or disappear? What conceptualisations are needed to develop research on participation effects on performance? The question to be asked is not whether employee participation contributes to productivity or not. But how will different kinds of participation affect productivity? The relation between employee participation and work place performance is focused in this paper. Studies reviewed2 on the topic reveal problems of conceptualisations and methods.
