made between the "workers control movement" and the "labor movement" in the United States. The differentiation is important, because of the attempts in the United States to control the content and process of work (McConnell, 1990, p. 114). In the conflict between "management rights" and "union rights," the concept of workers' control is often completely ignored.
An understanding of the concept of controlling work generally, and workers' control specifically is highly relevant for municipal management. Productivity gains in the public sector have been lackluster·at best. Management's answer to the problem in most instances has been to place the blame on the workers. As remedies, management has proposed (and, in some instances, has implemented) radical changes in the work environment and process. An increasing number of analysts, however, are citing management as the culprit in the productivity problem in the public sector.
The value of the concept of workers' control, thus, lies in its ability for the development of guidelines for use in the allocation of responsibilities for the implementation of change in the nature and process of work through the establishment of work standards and processes. Workers in all sectors of the economy are demanding (with varying degrees of success) some control over the process of work at work sites. The fire fighters in the City of Chicago view such participation in the control of the work process as vital to both their personal safety and to the ability of the Department to fulfill its mission.
To accommodate the rights of both management and fire fighters, some form of participative management is required at the Chicago Fire Department. Participation in the organizational leadership process is a complex and often divisive issue (Horton, 1992, pp. 58-61). Decision-making in organizations has been described as a process of behavior with the economic model (or total rationality) at one...