Trust and justice in the formation of joint consultative committees.

Abstract

The paper identifies six phases in the creation of new joint staff-management consultative arrangements such as works councils or staff forums. Trust and justice theories are used to analyse the processes involved in initiating, designing, setting up and maintaining such a forum. The resulting framework considers both institutional and interpersonal aspects, and is intended to present researchers with a structure and an agenda for investigating the nature and consequences of the processes involved. The framework also provides initial guidelines to practitioners involved with establishing new consultative arrangements.