EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION 
PROMOTING EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATIVES 
If the employees are to be properly represented and the plan is to 
be fully effective, the office of employee representative must be such 
as to appeal to the more capable employees. In most organizations, 
it entails considerable work and no little worry and annoyance. 
These disadvantages must be compensated for in some manner. 
Prestige and a feeling that capacities other than the technical ones 
of his regular occupation are being called forth are adequate compen- 
sation for many. In one company whose forces are scattered over a 
wide territory and whose committee meetings are held at company 
headquarters, it is the lure of the “big city” which is sufficient to 
induce many to run for office. They get a day off once a month and 
have an opportunity to dress up in their best clothes and spend the 
day in the city. This motive was frankly admitted by several whom 
we questioned. For some the thrill of meeting and talking with some 
of the higher executives who hitherto have been but names to them 
is ample reward. 
Danger may arise in this connection because of the inclination of 
employee representatives to hope for promotion as the result of their 
contact with executives. If representatives “play up” to the manage- 
ment in joint conferences, promotions which may result are likely 
to be based upon a one-sided view of the men’s qualifications. They 
may render lip service to ideas which they do not wholly believe; 
and as talkers they may be far more impressive than as thinkers and 
doers. From the standpoint of employees, their interests are likely 
to be forgotten by their representatives if the latter are too deeply 
engrossed in securing their own advancement. 
In one instance} it appears that a serious strike lasting several 
weeks was in part attributable to the fact that the management had 
promoted several employee representatives to positions as foremen. 
This action, while the individuals affected may have merited pro- 
motion, seemed to turn the heads of the other representatives to 
such a degree that they were reluctant to present to the management 
5 Two somewhat similar instances are mentioned by E. J. Miller, “Workmen’s 
Representation in Industrial Government,” University of Illinois Studies in Social 
Sciences, Vol. X, p. 106 (September—December, 1922). 
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