Participative Management in a Developing Country : ATTITUDES AND PERCEIVED BARRIERS

Investigates the attitudes of managers, supervisors and workers to participative management and identifies obstacles to implement it in Bangladesh: 306 employees, 181 workers, 73 supervisors, and 52 managers, from eight medium‐sized industrial plants were interviewed by using a questionnaire. The results showed that workers expressed more positive attitudes than managers and supervisors. Supervisors expressed more favourable attitudes than managers. Managers expressed a lukewarm support to participation. Both workers and supervisors perceived certain organizational situations as barriers to participation. Managers did not perceive these situations as barriers. The implication is that a participative management system is likely to meet with resistance from managers, while workers and supervisors will support it. It is therefore suggested that training and educational interventional programmes should be introduced to change the attitudes of managers.