DATA COLLECTION

The main sources of information were through interviews and
minutes of the Workers’ Council meetings. Both formal and in-
formal interviews were used. I used random samples whereby a
number of people representing a certain category of workers was
chosen. In each enterprise 25 workers were interviewed. The first
group interviewed was the management. By the management here
I mean those at the top of the enterprise who form the cream of
decision makers in the enterprise. Those interviewed were the
General Managers, the Executive Chairmen, the Personnel
Managers and at least one head representative from the technical
or production divisions. This was aimed at giving me the
management’s views and attitudes towards workers’ participation.
Also interviewed were the workers’ representatives in the
Workers’ Council of each section represented. In the case of
TANESCO, the representatives come from different regions and
as such I could talk with only one representative at the Head Of-
fice. Members of the Workers’ Committee were also interviewed
and so was the TANU Branch Chairman of each enterprise in or-
der to know the role of these institutions. Lastly, some workers
were also interviewed. Their selection was random.

The methodology used falls short of several points. First of all, I
did not have a chance to attend any of the Workers’ Councils’
meetings which might have given me a better picture of the actual
functioning of the Workers' Councils. However, the interviews
and the minutes of the Workers’ Councils have been useful in
throwing light on the question. Secondly, it was difficult to get
genuine answers from interviews of the management. There was a
tendency by some of the management to take me as a spy on
management and so were a bit reluctant to give out information.
However, I tried to be as informal as possible in order to ward off
their fear and I have all the confidence that what they eventually
told me was true. The short time I had for the research con-
sidering the big size of the enterprises, which both have more
than 2,000 workers, made me unable to hold as many interviews
as I had planned. In spite of these limitations, I believe what has
come out of this paper is a true picture of how workers' par-
ticipation is being implemented in Friendship Textile Mill and
TENESCO.

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