COMPANY LEVEL
6.2 CONCLUSION
historically thought to be beyond the scope of employees influence, are now accepted by management as forming part of the issues which at the least, workers must be consulted on or at the most, joint decision making must be sought for businesses 'to succeed'.
On another level, the conciliatory and collaborative mentality can be deduced from the fact that between 1993 to December 1998, the company has not experienced any form of industrial action in any significant way as was the case in the period between 1985 to
1992. This period of 'peace' in the workplace is however, not in any way, signifying the absence of conflict and disputes between workers and management. What it shows though, is the degree to which, unlike in the past, the parties are now prepared to sit down around the negotiating table and resolve their differences through dialogue.
This preparedness to resolve differences around the negotiating table is indicative of the kind of mentality which has entered the political and ideological domain driving not only the South African but also the global public discussion and debate. The notion of the respect of human rights, the respect of the right of minorities, multi party liberal
democracies and other versions of the noe-liberal ideology, has contributed immensely to a labour relations of compromise and consensus building instead of a win-all situation of the 1980s.
and ideological context. It is therefore on the basis of this ongoing struggle that worker participation is at one point, regarded as a logical and viable mechanism of interaction between labour and capital and at another point it is not.
The study had also undoubtedly shown that the notion seeking to distinguish between collective bargaining and 'worker participation' as conceptually, practically and
qualitatively different processes, is superficial and over-simplistic and lacks insight into the dynamics and complexity of the concept of worker participation. The mentality that collective bargaining is inherently adversarial and worker participation essentially co- operative has been exposed with all its conceptual and practical inadequacies. What has been shown by this study is that collective bargaining and worker participation are just two facets of the same phenomenon, utilized either separately or jointly, at any particular point in time depending on various other factors which are part of the equation in the relationship between labour and capital.
This has clearly been demonstrated in the company under investigation, ~here there had been sudden shifts in strategy and tactics, with the parties sometimes employing
conflictual approaches and at other times using collaborative strategies, depending more often than not on the issues in question and the strength of each party at any point in time.
To present an argument therefore that there is a bound correlation between either worker participation and worker control, or worker participation and management control, is to oversimplify the complex nature of relations between labour and capital. However, what appears to have been shown by this study is that the extent to which worker participation
as both a concept and process, becomes the tool at the hands of either the workers to open up spaces for further encroachment into the territory historically regarded as
management prerogative for their empowerment and control of the production process; or management to push further back the frontiers of control in order to ensure a sustainable and deeper control of the production process, is dependent on the class balance of forces at any point in time and each party's strategic position within that balance coupled with its capacity to calculate with some clarity and seize every moment presenting itself as an opportunity for the advancement of its strategic goals and interests.
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