EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION, a term used (es pecially in the United States) to designate a plan whereby manage ment seeks to establish a point of contact with its employees on matters of mutual interest to secure greater co-operation, mutual confidence and good-will. The term "employee representation" plan has been used interchangeably with the terms "company union," "employee association," "joint conference," "works coun cil," "industrial democracy," "good-will plan," "joint conference committee," "industrial council," "co-operative association," or "shop committee." Employee representation plans fall into two groups according to the basis on which employees participate in the affairs of the organization. More often the right to partici pate follows automatically from employment by the company. This is technically no association but simply an agency for repre sentation of employees in their relations with management. The second type, less frequent, operates on a membership basis. The employee must go through the formal procedure of applying for and being accepted into membership. The latter type has ap peared more frequently since Employee representation plans may be functionally classified so: (I) those having limited power, usually advisory only; (2) those which have definite provision for settling disputes, and where the representatives take some actual part in settling the point at issue; (3) those which either directly or indirectly give the em ployees representation on the board of directors of the company; and (4) those which maintain some direct affiliation with labour unions. Another way to classify employee representation plans would be to separate them into those which maintain some direct connection with a trade union or are non-conflicting, and those which have been organized as a substitute for a union organiza tion, either because the employer wished it so or because no union existed. The structure of the plans is either a joint commit tee type of organization wherein representatives of the employee and the management meet in committee or it is imitative of the so-called Federal form of Government. This latter type usually provides for such bodies as a house of representatives made up of employee representatives, a senate made up of supervisory em ployees, and a cabinet made up of executive officers. The details of arbitration machinery, powers and procedure vary widely. In common with nearly all of the so-called industrial relations activi ties, the success of employee representation rests upon the mo tives underlying the inauguration and continuance of the particu lar plan in question. Properly carried out, it provides an opportu nity for managers to learn much about men and these to learn much about management. (O. G. S. ; X.)