“This policy brief looks at the empirical evidence demonstrating that workplaces where employee involvement is high are more successful in developing the capacity for high performance in workers than workplaces with lower levels of involvement. To do so, it examines the influence of work organisation on two factors contributing to performance: work engagement and skill development”.

Employees’ involvement is defined in the paper as “the opportunities employees have to take part in decisions that affect their work as an activity” considering the two dimensions of task discretion and participation in the decision of the organisation.

The empirical evidence is based on data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 2015, that put together information from 44.000 workers in 35 countries.

A brief summary of findings are as follows:

“29% of employees in the EU, Norway and the UK work in forms of work organisation that provide a high level of employee involvement – meaning that employees are able to exercise their own initiative in carrying out tasks and have substantial input, either individually or collectively, in decisions that affect the wider organisation. However, 35% of employees work in low-involvement forms of work organisation, where they have limited task autonomy and little influence on decisions affecting their work and the wider organisation. High-involvement forms of work organisation offer a better work environment. The greater scope for decision-making in high-involvement organisation is intrinsically motivating. […]”
”These findings together suggest that it is particularly important to raise the decision-making latitude of less-skilled workers if employers are to optimise the performance of their workforce as a whole”. 


Eurofound is a tripartite European Union Agency established in 1975 to deal with labour issues and it is undoubtedly a comprehensive source of information regarding the labour markets reality and legislations from the countries of the European Union.

The policy brief and accompanying paper are built on the idea that managers can create the conditions to get the best performance from their employees by introducing the best organisational conditions. However, the paper could have deepened more on the effects on productivity;  the references to increased motivation or decreased absence from work are undoubtedly interesting but remain too general in content. For instance, understanding that “overall, high-involvement organisation stands out in this analysis because of the wide range of positive work environment characteristics associated with it: better physical working conditions, lower work intensity, a more employee-oriented organisational climate, more supportive and egalitarian forms of supervision, less direct supervisory control over work pace, and less exposure to multiple forms of control” is critical and highly positive but lacks the empirical evidence the papers aimed at providing.

With regards to skills development, the paper indicated “employees of workplaces where employee involvement is inherent in job design are more likely to be highly engaged and have access to training and skill development opportunities. Research has established that employers who succeed in maintaining a workforce that is highly engaged, well trained and competent can have a competitive advantage”. In order for companies to be able to use this data, it would be interesting to further deepen on this “competitive advantage”: how important is it? What is the business case for skills development?

The policy recommendations linked to the research advise: “Employer organisations, sector organisations, development agencies, or relevant departments of regional and local authorities are well placed to provide the organisational hub and backbone for connecting organisations at national level. Such support is particularly important for small companies, which are likely to need assistance in introducing organisational change. The longer-term benefits of introducing organisational change may not be visible to managers, particularly of small businesses, and can be seen as costly (for instance, time investment by managers to engage with employees). Therefore, understanding the transformative effect of implementing key bundles of work practices would be highly beneficial for such companies”. Employers’ organisations, including the IOE, stand ready to assist companies and SMEs in upgrading their organisational change, including programmes for skills development.