Advocates of participative management in academic libraries point to increased job satisfaction and performance as benefits, while opponents favor less participative means such as consultive management, with librarians having input and the directors making the decisions. A survey of reference librarians in the Texas community colleges was conducted to ascertain their views on the effectiveness of shared decision making or participatory management, and the extent to which such practices were employed in their libraries. The survey employed a statement format, with respondents indicating their agreement on a 2- to 5-point scale. Usable surveys were returned by 64 librarians for an 81% response rate. Among respondents, two-thirds were female, 25% had over 10 years experience, 64% had faculty status, and 73% had reference as their primary duty. Survey results included the following: (1) 81% agreed that participation in management increased job satisfaction, while 75% indicated that participation improved performance; (2) 69% of the respondents felt their administrator encouraged participation in decision making; (3) 70% reported that their administrators shared authority at least occasionally; (4) 51% of the respondents advocated more committees allowing librarians to participate in decisions which affected them; and (4) communication from the library administrator to the librarians and staff was considered good by 67%. Appendixes include the study survey and selected comments from the open-ended portion of the survey. (GFW)