Employee involvement: Its interaction with advanced manufacturing technologies, quality management, and inter-firm collaboration

The goal of this article is to assess empirically the connection between different operations management decisions and the use of practices aimed at promoting the involvement of workers in the company. More specifically, the three operations management issues considered are the use of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, the application of Quality Management tools, and the establishment of close relationships with customers and suppliers. Information relating to an initial sample of 965 Spanish manufacturing plants with at least fifty employees was used. Information was gathered through face-to-face interviews with a senior manager of each plant. To achieve the objective of the study, two different analyses were taken. First, the determinants of adoption of employee involvement practices were analyzed. Second, the interactive effects of employee involvement and operation management on firm performance were examined. Results show that Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Quality Management, and close relationships with other firms have positive effects on the number of employee involvement practices used. However, no interactive effect was detected on firm performance of the simultaneous application of participatory practices and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Quality Management, and the establishment of close connections with customers and suppliers. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.