Abstract
Six hundred and six employees in 33 enterprises (Austria, Germany, Israel, and Italy) that represent different levels of structurally anchored organizational democracy were examined in a multi-method, cross-level study. Based on a typology of democratic enterprises, we investigated the extent to which democratic structures impact employees’ individually perceived participation, affective commitment, and humanitarian ethical orientation. We found support for the expected relationships. Whereas cross-level mediation tests suggest that individually perceived participation fully mediates the positive relationship between democratic structures and affective commitment, they provide no support to our prediction that the influence of democratic structures on humanitarian ethic will be mediated by individually perceived participation.
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