The traditional organisational model is changing. There is a groundswell favouring more participative and meaningful organisational environments. An OECD study of governance concluded that a trend could be identified over a long period: ‘… a clear reduction in the absolute or unconstrained power of those in positions of power … both at the macro-political level … and at the micro level, where firms and families have experienced important changes in the exercise of authority’ (Michalski et al, 2001, p 9). In his major examination of democracy, John Keane suggests that its nature is changing. He argues that we are moving into an era focused on scrutiny and control of decision makers – that is, one of monitory democracy, which is about watching and challenging power wherever it exists. The seeds of greater public accountability, according to Keane, are being planted everywhere – bedroom, boardroom, battlefield – so that ‘all fields of social and political life come to be scrutinised’ (Keane, 2009, p 695). In the US, some kind of organisational democracy or employee empowerment is claimed to be adopted in some part of over 70% of organisations (Spreitzer and Doneson, 2005). The following is an example that conveys the optimism and enthusiasm behind much of the work, practice and study that make up this groundswell in organisational change: