Participatory Practices in Organizations

Abstract

The literature on participatory practices in organizations has been less coherent and more limited to subspecialties than the literature on bureaucracy in organizations -despite a number of celebrated studies of participation in 20th century American sociology. Due to the practical nature of participatory reforms and the ambiguity of participation as a concept, attempts to review participatory knowledge have a tendency to focus on refining definitions and clarifying frameworks within subfields. This article instead provides a broad thematic overview of three different types of research on participation in organizations, all critical to an understanding of today's dramatic expansion of participatory practices across a variety of organizations. Classic research studied participation as dynamic and central to organizational legitimacy. Institutional design research has focused on participation as a stand-alone governance reform with promising empowerment potential, but mixed results in domains such as health care, environmental politics, and urban planning. Finally, recent research seeks to place participatory practices in the context of shifting relationships between authority, voice, and inequality in the contemporary era. The article concludes with suggestions for building on all three categories of research by exploring what is old and new in the 21st century's changing participatory landscape.

Designing Public Participation: Managing Problem Settings and Social Equity

“…For example, across all designers, the framing of inequity rests on individual barriers and individual choice instead of structural barriers and the current design of opportunities. This could be a result of the way questions were asked, or it may tie into broader cultural shifts related to neoliberalization and the focus on individuals and individual responsibility (Lee ). A majority of the strategies for addressing inequity rest on local government, but the majority of the suggested strategies are based on existing public participation designs or adjusting existing designs, despite evidence that current designs are not equitable.…”

“…This may be because Potential Partners have not faced structural barriers or that were able to use their efficacy and access to leap over the barriers when facing them. Conversely, it may be that those steering committee members recruited through professional networks operate within professional norms that emphasize neoliberal explanations and solutions (Lee ). Finally, another explanation is that if Potential Partners do understand structural barriers, they may not have been trained in public participation tactics aimed at breaking down those barriers, signaling a lack of training rather than a lack of desire to engage others.…”

“…A notable line of research by Lee () and Lee, McQuarrie, and Walker () emphasizes the point about designing opportunities within inequitable political economic structures. A lack of attention to these structures (and the dismantling of them) means that even robust participation can exacerbate inequity, leading to an environment in which participation as an abstract good can be empowering and disempowering at the same time (Lee ; Lee, McQuarrie, and Walker ). Lee, McQuarrie, and Walker () illustrate this issue by examining what they term “new public participation.” This occurs when elite actors facilitate and channel community members' voices in support of particular interests to both validate the work of an institution and develop better solutions that are within the vision of the institution in the first place.…”

“…A notable line of research by Lee ( 2015 ) and Lee, McQuarrie, and Walker ( 2015 ) emphasizes the point about designing opportunities within inequitable political economic structures. A lack of attention to these structures (and the dismantling of them) means that even robust participation can exacerbate inequity, leading to an environment in which participation as an abstract good can be empowering and disempowering at the same time (Lee 2015 ;Lee, McQuarrie, and Walker 2015 ). Lee, McQuarrie, and Walker ( 2015 ) illustrate this issue by examining what they term "new public participation."…”

“…In today's governance structures, designers may come from a variety of organizations or sectors (Getha‐Taylor et al ; Lee ). Food policy councils (FPCs), after which the steering committees are partly modeled, purposefully are composed of public and private for‐profit and nonprofit actors that are part of broader food system networks in a community; the purpose of FPCs is to provide a forum for community engagement to identify problem in the food system, design policy solutions, and identify implementation resources (Scherb et al ; Siddiki et al ).…”