Enablers of democratic participation in the work life

Aristotle once asked, “What is each member of society able to do and be?” This question is just as relevant in workplaces where everyone has the potential to contribute and shape their environment to reflect a truly democratic culture. Every workplace undergoes transformation in response to things like technical developments, climate change, or a response to a customer’s request. It is important to ask how each individual can partake in the transformation of their workplace and how democratic those processes can be? Or as Aristotle might have put it, what can each member of the workplace do and be.

Enablers of democratic participation in the work life can be divided into three categories: ‘confidence’, ‘belonging’, and ‘capacity to act’ (Rosvall & Nylund, 2024).

Confidence

Confidence refers to having knowledge that is important to the issues being discussed. This can be about the structures of the workplace or about a collaborative or competing organisation. It is also important to have knowledge of how arguments about key points are valued in different contexts and arenas that are important platforms for discussion. Gaining confidence also involves understanding sociological phenomena such as norms in relation to harassment and discrimination by gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, etc.. Furthermore, confidence refers to practical skills such as writing a protocol.

Belonging

Belonging refers to being socially, intellectually and culturally included and having personal integrity. Enablers of belonging, and therefore democratic participation at the workplace, are characterised by their inclusive practices which are free from discrimination or derogatory language.

Capacity to act

The capacity to act refers to the capacity to participate in the construction, maintenance and transformation of the workplace. Capacity to act can be seen as being a result of the previous two categories: confidence and belonging. If the individual through previous encounters in education and experience at the workplace has confidence and if the individual is invited to social dialogues at the workplace, then it can enable their democratic participation.

It is important to recognise that supporting democratic participation benefits not only the individual but also strengthens the entire socio-cultural structure and democratic structures in working life.