Achieving Worker Participation in Technological Change: The Case of the Flashing Cursor

Abstract

The Union Research Centre on Organisation and Technology (URCOT) is a product of, and part of the ongoing pursuit of, industrial democracy in Australia. URCOT has implemented a variant of praxis research through setting up Investigative Work Groups (IWGs) among workers affected by technological change processes. This paper examines the experience of one IWG which set out to identify ways in which their computer systems could be improved. The paths along which their investigation took them shed light on the opportunities and difficulties involved in achieving participatory design in large organisations, and illustrates the dependence of successful improvement of business processes on workers' knowledge.