10.2190/Q338-5PUU-BB90-VDK4 Q3385PUUBB90VDK4 6 The Efficacy of U.S. Employee Participation Programs 71 85 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 Q3385PUUBB90VDK4.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=Q3385PUUBB90VDK4 1 Marvin J. Levine June M. L. Poon University of Maryland, College Park Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Cooperation between management and unions to improve productivity in the American workplace was one of the most popular topics in the industrial relations literature of the 1970s. Interest in such cooperative efforts continued to increase in the 1980s and early 1990s. During this period considerable experimentation in labor-management cooperation and employee participation in both union and nonunion firms took place. The wider use of employee participation programs seems to have been triggered by the need to respond to environmental forces such as increased domestic and foreign competition, technological advances, and changing labor force demographics. The growth of these programs has led to considerable interest among researchers regarding their effects on the existing system of industrial relations. This article reviews the recent literature on employee participation programs to assess their impact on outcomes for employers, employees, and unions. Several issues for the study and practice of employee participation are raised and future research directions are suggested.