Extended Version of a contribution for the International Conference "Participation Between Markets and Organizational Democracy",

I would like to discuss the following hypotheses:- the threats posed to organizational democracy and its future prospects and organizational democracy research are closely interlinked.- up to a point, organizational behaviour researchers and practitioners will have a role in deciding whether organizational democracy continues to exist or disappears from view, on account of practical man-made political and economic constraints. I now would like to examine the prospects for organizational democracy research, chiefly from the standpoint of my own scientific discipline. It appears from discussion that certain representatives of scientific research are surprised to discover that organizational democracy should be one of the areas of research in W & O psychology. As far as I am concerned, this subject is obvious. In all democratic societies with constitutions in which freedom, equality and fraternity are treated as fundamental values, a large part of citizens ' time is spent in the work place and in organizations. Why therefore should W & O psychology confine itself largely to questions of organizational "productivity", "performance", "effectiveness " or "best practice"? Should it not be equally concerned with issues like the effect of protecting or infringing democratic principles such as democratic decision making and human dignity on a company's employees? At a time when employers, financiers, scientists and politicians are actively promoting globalisation, by no means everyone seems to be concerned with protecting democratic rights