EMPLOYEE RIGHTS AND PARTICIPATION IN THE DESIGN OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE UNITED STATES: CODETERMINATION LAWS AND VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION

Business organizations have exploited the innovations enabled by information and communications technologies to modify their modes of operation in order to improve their effectiveness and strategic positioning. However, this continuous stream of new technologies and their applications have affected (sometimes negatively) the work life of employees, who must make the adjustments necessary to accommodate technology-induced changes. Old fears about the potentially adverse impact of the proliferation of applications of information technology (IT) linger while newer concerns have emerged. In this article we undertake a critical analysis based on our legal and IT perspectives and a thorough review of the relevant literature to examine this “creative destruction.” We examine different motivations for including employees in the design of information systems and how such inclusion may help to co-generate features that are both important for business success and responsive to the human impacts of employee/IT interaction. Except in European Union (EU) countries that endorse codetermination, there is very little legislation elsewhere that addresses individual participation in information systems design decisions as an employment right. This EU experience is compared with other voluntary approaches.