Our first example is that of the Glacier Metal Company which
employs about s,ooo people.l The organisational form that participation
takes at Glacier is an extension of the nonnal collective bargaining and
joint consultation machinery of British industry. Partial participation has
been institutionalised by formalising and extending, through representative
bodies, these usual procedures, while leaving the orthodox, hierarchical
management structure intact.2 Employee participation is based on the
'dear distinction between managerial authority to make decisions and give
instructions, and employee participation in formulating the policy frame..
work within which managers are sanctioned and freed to make those
decisions' Oaques, 1968, p. 1). Under the written constitution of the Company,
participation takes place through a system-the 'legislative' system
-of elected Works Councils in each of the Company's units. Their com-