بررسی پیشین و پیامدهای دموکراسی سازمانی Exploring the antecedents and consequences of organizational democracy

Introduction In recent years, the increased complexity of organizational problems has changed the work processes (Morrow et al., 2012). The highly competitive situation has abolished the traditional models and methods such as hierarchical command and control models of business (Johnson, 2006), fear-based structures, and short-term motivators, and forced organizations to use strategic decisions and collective wisdom. To deal with this complexity a freedom-centered organization is more efficient. Designing the workplaces based on freedom builds world-class organizations, unleashes human greatness, and changes the world for the better. Successfully building a freedomcentered workplace requires adopting a mind-set based on freedom rather than control and creating the appropriate democratic design framework (Fenton, 2012). According to Feldberg and Glenn (1983), organizational democracy is a system of work organization based on a more equitable distribution of the power. In a democratic workplace, people have more interaction with each other, express their ideas and discuss about the workplace problems. This helps employees to gain strong insights about the complex organizational processes and obtain extensive and long-term visions required for decision making, which in the end will improve the employees’ abilities (Weber et al., 2009). Democratic vision in the workplace supports the gathering, choosing and deploying the majority opinions in order to control the activities through redistribution of power and establishing the justice and equality (Rahnavard, 2001). Organizational democracy is an approach in which all people’s rights are respected according to the work principals. Some researchers believed, people are the key factors in the democratic system, so, organizational democracy can be defined as a set of participatory decision-makings (De Jong and Van Witteloostuijn, 2004; Gunn, 2011). In many studies participatory management and workplace democracy have frequently been used interchangeably (Holtzhausen, 2002), but they are different (Foley and Polanyi, 2006). Participatory management is mainly applied for psychological motivational, rather than ethical democratic reasons (Cameron et al., 2003).