Sociomoral atmosphere and prosocial and democratic value orientations in enterprises with different levels of structurally anchored participation

This study examines effects of structurally anchored organisational democracy on perceived sociomoral atmosphere and on employees' prosocial, democratic behavioural orientations. Data result from the ODEM research project. Beside a description of the concept of sociomoral atmosphere, within this project, 30 small and medium sized enterprises from Austria, North Italy, South Germany, and Liechtenstein (542 participants) were surveyed with questionnaires, interviews, and document analyses. Based on organisational science criteria, several types of enterprises were derived and pooled into three groups of structurally anchored organisational democracy (no, medium, and high democracy). Multivariate group analyses show significant differences between those groups in parts of their prosocial and democratic behavioural orientations and in their sociomoral atmosphere.