Employee Involvement and Participation - Essay Example

For organizations to create a positive working environment, which is based on collaborative teamwork, creative problem solving, operational excellence, exceptional customer service, and high trust, the leadership team must understand, be responsive, and invest in the needs of employees who represent the most valuable assets in the company (Marchington and Suter, 2013). Such investments come in the form of employee motivation, commitment, productivity, and creativity, which will move the company to greater organizational performance and productivity. An important Total Quality Management perceives that employees must be empowered and involved. Employee involvement and participation means creating an environment where employees have an impact on decision-making and actions, which influence their jobs (Wilkinson, Townsend, and Burgess, 2013). Employees input must be valued and solicited by the management. Involving employees in completion of a companys goal by suggesting ideas is critical. This paper review how employee involvement and participation operates, evaluate how effective it is in practice regarding contributing to organizational objectives and suggest ways in which employee involvement and participation could be improved.

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Employee involvement and participation occur in different forms in my company. The company involves employees in policy changes and decision-making that influence their job directly while empowering them to be more autonomous. This significantly improves employees morale because they feel they are an asset to the company. The company has a suggestion box that is critical in involving employees throughout the company. The suggestion box also foster a better relationship between employees and managers and cultivate innovation. Most employees also have stakes in the company, which give them a say in both problems solving and decision-making process in the company. The company also allows employees to buy equity shares and give financial assistance to enable them to buy equity shares as a way of keeping employees involves in decision-making. Through independence, employees have become more efficient in navigating their responsibilities with less interference.

Employee involvement and participation is a significant contribution to company objectives. Participative management does not constrain companies to exploit the physical capital of employees. Instead, it makes the use of human emotional and intellectual capital. It provides employees with an opportunity to contribute their suggestions and ideas to create a better working environment and improve organizational processes (Marchington and Kynighou, 2012). Whenever employees are involved in decision-making processes, it provides them with psychological satisfaction that drives them in improving their performance and finding practical solutions for designing better organizational processes (Timming, 2012). Employee involvement and participation is also an essential way of retaining the best talent in the company. This gives works a sense of pride by having a say in decision-making processes. The moment employees are valued; they stick to the company and try to meet specific goals of the company (Markey and Townsend, 2013). This increases the industrial productivity. Maintaining a two-way flow communication is essential in increasing success of a company. Employee involvement and participation in decision-making allows for the efficient flow of communication, which enable employees to contribute their best in improving business processes. Employees who are more satisfied offer additional brainpower, support, and enthusiasm (Baird and Wang, 2010). Through transparency and keeping employees abreast of what happens in the company, their attitudes towards work increases, which in turn improve productivity at lower cost.

There are various ways of improving employee involvement and participation. Fundamental to most employee involvement processes is training in team communication, effectiveness, problem-solving, and developing recognition and reward systems (Marchington, 2015). Combining both employee management and participation styles can yield a workforce with more motivated employees who enjoy their jobs to feel part of their process. Sharing ownership and profit distribution plans may be important in fostering an interest in company affairs at the competitive level that is often hard in a workplace activity (Wilkinson, Dundon, and Marchington, 2013). A participatory form of management is also critical in creating and maintaining good relationships with employees. The success of the company is based on human resources. Empowering employees is a strong force to bind employees and motivate them to perform at their level best in increase organization success and productivity (Wilkinson, Dundon, and Marchington, 2013). Through industrial democracy (the representation of employees at the board level), the critical interests of employees can be protected to motivate them and increase their performance towards the organization success (Timming, 2012). It is critical to consider that job security, motivation and high pay packages are not enough to increase productivity, industrial democracy, a delegation of authority, leadership, flexibility, and employee say in decision-making processes are critical in increasing annual turnover of an organization (Markey and Townsend, 2013). Encouraging employees to develop unique ideas can work wonders that can add value to the company functions and develop a work culture and the best working environment.

In summary, employee involvement and participation means creating an environment where employees have an impact on decision-making and actions, which influence their jobs. Involving employees in completion of a companys goal by suggesting ideas is critical. It provides employees with an opportunity to contribute their suggestions and ideas to create a better working environment and improve organizational processes. Involving employees in decision-making processes provides them with psychological satisfaction that drives them in improving their performance and finding practical solutions for designing better organizational processes. Empowering and training employees is a strong force to bind employees and motivate them to perform at their level best in increase organization success and productivity.

Bibliography

Baird, K. and Wang, H., 2010. Employee empowerment: Extent of adoption and influential factors. Personnel Review, 39(5), pp.574-599.

Marchington, M., 2015. The role of institutional and intermediary forces in shaping patterns of employee involvement and participation (EIP) in Anglo-American countries. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(20), pp.2594-2616.

Marchington, M. and Suter, J., 2013. Where Informality Really Matters: Patterns of Employee Involvement and Participation (EIP) in a NonUnion Firm. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 52(s1), pp.284-313.

Marchington, M. and Kynighou, A., 2012. The dynamics of employee involvement and participation during turbulent times. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(16), pp.3336-3354.

Markey, R. and Townsend, K., 2013. Contemporary trends in employee involvement and participation. Journal of Industrial Relations, 55(4), pp.475-487.

Timming, A.R., 2012. Tracing the effects of employee involvement and participation on trust in managers: an analysis of covariance structures. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(15), pp.3243-3257.

Wilkinson, A., Townsend, K. and Burgess, J., 2013. Reassessing employee involvement and participation: Atrophy, reinvigoration and patchwork in Australian workplaces. Journal of Industrial Relations, 55(4), pp.583-600.

Wilkinson, A., Dundon, T. and Marchington, M., 2013. Employee involvement and voice. Managing Human Resources, 5th ed., Chichester, Wiley, pp.268-288.