Workplace democratic practices and industrial relations climate: a study on large scale Apparel company in Western Province, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Workplace democracy is often associated with increased employee engagement and involvement, innovation and increased employee commitment. It is one of the important concepts in today’s business world and through our research we have find out its impact on industrial relations climate. The research was carried out in a large scale apparel manufacturing organization of Sri Lanka, which is further known as a major player in the apparel manufacturing industry. This study empirically evaluated five workplace democratic practices (open communication, improved trust and less fear, employee empowerment, freedom of association and meaningful work) and their likely impact on the industrial relation climate in the Sri Lankan large scale apparel manufacturing organization. Non-executives of the selected organization were investigated by using a sample of 200 employees. Data collection was done by using a self-administrated structured questionnaire. The study confirmed that workplace democratic practices are significantly correlated with industrial relations climate. The findings of the study indicate that open communication, improved trust and less fear, employee empowerment, freedom of association variables were positively and significantly correlated with industrial relation climate whereas the meaningful work was negatively correlated with industrial relation climate.