The Effects of Changes in Participation and Group Size of Gainsharing Success

The recent diversity in the types of productivity gainsharing programs has led to the question of whether such programs are affected by moderators such as employee participation and group size. The present research reviews the literature on gainsharing and describes a study which examined productivity changes for 179 direct production employees in the six departments of a unionized manufacturing plant where gainsharing was implemented. The longitudinal time series analysis of the first twenty-nine months of the gainsharing program utilized trend analysis and hierarchical regression analysis to assess productivity changes as the program was changed from a group plan to a plantwide plan. Changes in productivity also were examined when the plan was changed from nonparticipative to participative. The results suggest that employee participation in decision making is a significant factor in productivity improvement but group size does not play a critical role in successful gainsharing programs.