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Abstract
The author analyses the process of direct participation in Poland compared with other European countries. The analysis includes a review of the subject literature and a new qualitative study carried out as part of the DIRECT project (2017–2018) co-financed by the European Commission. The article aims to examine new trends in direct participation and outline the various components of the process. The author defines direct participation (DP) as the conferral upon subordinates of tasks that they are expected to perform more or less autonomously. A complex picture is offered on the basis of data gathered from various research, although there is a concurrence between the results of quantitative research pursued to date and new data from qualitative research. Of note is the lack of continuity of direct participation in many dimensions, such as work organisation, instruments applied in practice, and differences between management ideas and actual day-to-day practice, including in terms of official and formal mechanisms versus unofficial and informal ones.