Critically discuss the view that management`s current interest in employee involvement is based around organisational improvement and has little to do with extending employee decision making in the workplace.

Employee Involvement

2005

Employee Involvement

Employee involvement occurs is the type of organizational environment in which employees are given some sort of freedom in making decisions based on their skills , talents and level of experience . The concept of employee involvement is very closely connected with the concept of employee empowerment which has become very popular in the recent years When managers want employees in the company to get involved into the companies decision-making , it empowers them . In the empowered environment , employees are allowed to make decisions without asking top-management

about them . They are closely involved into the decision-making process in the company . The management gives limitations of the activities in which employees are allowed to take part , but only to the extent which is appropriate for their skills . There is no direct control of the employees ' performance , and in most cases they end up measuring their own performance . Even though employees do not actually own any property of the company , they still get a feeling of being owners because their opinion counts . They are very proud of their job because they do sufficient decision-making in it

However , employee involvement which is provided by the management of companies is usually done not for the benefit of employees themselves In most cases , managers try to involve employees in the process of decision-making in to make the organization function efficiently No manager will ever involve employees in the decision-making process if it is not going to make the organization more profitable . The primary goal of the management is the increase of wealth of shareholders . The interests of employees need to be considered of course , but they are very insignificant with the needs of increasing the performance of the organization . All of the actions taken by management serve the interests of the organization . Interests of employees will always be secondary after them

Many specialists argue that for the most part , employees do not really get empowered as much as the management tries to show . All the managers try to do is make the organization benefit . If during some period of time involvement of employees is going to bring more profit to the organization , managers will choose emphasize on involvement . However , if they see that this approach is not useful enough for the company , they will change the policy immediately . Besides , researchers argue that in most cases employees are not really involved in the decision-making process as much as management argues . The investigates the concept of employee involvement and its role in the organizational improvement It argues that for the most part , employee involvement is a myth Managers turn to employee involvement only if it is beneficial for the company . Even though many managers have stated that they empower their employees , in reality all of the decisions are carried out by managers only

Literature review

The concept of employee involvement has been discussed in the literature very widely in the recent years due to the new vision of companies- the major key to success of companies was found not in brand-new technologies but in people working for the companies . Without employees striving for the success of the company , it was destined to fail Employees are the ones who bring success to organizations . The now classic book by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman , In Search of Excellence provides us with keen insights into the principles and characteristics which defined excellence in the public-sector management of what , in 1982 , were the "best-run " and most successful American companies . In the introduction to the companion video to the book , Peters succinctly pinpoints the key element in the success of these companies when he says "It all comes from people (Denis , 1998 ,

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There are different points of views on the definition of employee involvement because it is a very complex concept . According to Grbac (1998 , Employee involvement in market-oriented activities includes providing employees with the necessary market information and empowering them to autonomously take action to devise the means to better satisfy customer needs (Grbac , 1998 ,

.485 . Darraugh (1991 ) describes employee involvement as getting workers to do what needs to be done rather than doing what they are told . This process often involves delegation of individual responsibility , autonomous decision making and developing workers with positive feelings of self-efficacy (Darraugh 1991 ,

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Conger and Kanungo (1988 ) mention that employee involvement is not only delegating or sharing of power with workers , but that can be a relational construct that includes resource sharing ' They argue that it is a process by which a leader shares his /her power with subordinates by sharing control over organizational resources (Conger Kanugo , 1998 ,

. 475 . Conger and Kanungo regard the concept of employee involvement as a combination of techniques such as Management by Objectives , Quality Circles and Goal Setting together as a category of tools that facilitate the sharing of resources ' and as a motivational construct where workers are motivated through enhancing their own self-efficacy (Conger , Kanugo , 1998 ,

. 477 . As long as employee involvement is being provided in the company , employees get an authority to carry out those activities which they consider necessary . Thomas and Velthouse (1990 ) regard employee involvement as a type of motivation which emphasizes the "pull of the task rather than the push of management (Thomas , Velthouse , 1990 ,

.667

Some researchers regard the concept of employee involvement in the close connection to the concept of empowerment . Empowerment is not a thing The people I have worked with in creating empowering organizations will state that empowerment is a state of being . In this state of being people know the boundaries within which they are free to work , and the boundaries are appropriate to their experience and maturity (Dew 1997 ,

.2 . In such an environment , people know all the major aspects of their work and they are encouraged to develop them in any way they want People get some freedom of actions depending on their experience in the working field

Despite the fact that many specialists consider employee involvement as positive phenomenon for employees in the companies which enables them to make decisions , in reality this concept is more of a myth than of a real approach which can be applied in companies . Employees do not get involved into the decision-making process very much , no matter how much managers claim that they empower their employees . Despite the hype surrounding the concept of empowerment , its enduring coverage in management publications , and the considerable dollars spent on related training and consulting , employees are seldom given what they need to get their jobs done (Catlette , Harden , 2003 ,

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Specialists also point at the fact that there are many disadvantages of employee involvement . As Wendt mentions , (1 ) things like "empowerment and "involvement " are making today 's organizations better places to work , or so we are told (2 ) using postmodern social theory . we can disabuse ourselves of this myth and (3 ) we need to develop innovative strategies- the so-called "possibilities of resistance "- that counter the organizational arrangements associated with this spurious notion of empowerment (Sewell , 2002 ,

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Involvement in Organizations

There is plenty of evidence that nowadays many managers turn to employee involvement because it is considered an efficient way of improving the organization and making it function more efficiently . The interests of employee are not being considered much in this regard . Most managers realize that there are many risks with which employee involvement is connected therefore they use this instrument very carefully . Employee involvement is a practice used in many countries of the world . Most firms operating in Britain have some form of employee involvement (EI that is , an employee relations practice which management believes encourages employees ' commitment to managerial goals and the success of the enterprise . Recent empirical research indicates that different El practices have very different effects on performance , and that these effects can vary when El practices exist in combination (Bryson , 1999 br

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The level of employee involvement has a direct influence on the performance of the company . There is lots of evidence that companies which practice employee involvement are very competitive in the market The fact that employees make decisions in the company makes them get more information about the activities of the company , obtain new skills and , as the result , make the company function more efficiently

According to the level of employee involvement in marketing orientation activities , Grbac suggests to separate companies into three categories companies with no employee involvement in marketing information and activities companies with limited employee involvement in marketing information and activities companies with moderate to high employee involvement in marketing information and activities (Grbac , 1998 br

.486 . As the research of the author has shown , those companies which have moderate or high employee involvement have a much higher performance as the first two types

Managers of companies with no employee involvement have several reasons for choosing this type of policy . First of all , they might simply be against involving employees into the decision-making process because they consider it negative for the company . Second , they might have had problems due to the employee involvement in the past therefore they do not want to make the same mistake again . Third , managers of such companies might think that their company 's performance is at its maximum now , so there is no point to challenge it in any way . The limited involvement of employees was due to managers ' inability to motivate employees (typically lower-level managers ) to become marginally involved in cross-functional teams or because management was uncertain about how involved they wanted employees to become (Grbac , 1998 ,

.486

Managers of companies which practice employee involvement in many cases have shown very efficient performance in comparison with companies which do not practice this approach . These companies exhibited the use of cross-functional teams , and /or an informal system of empowerment for employees at all levels to make changes to better satisfy , customer needs and encouraged managers and employees to use the shared market related information (Grbac , 1998 ,

.486

Despite the fact that employee involvement has increased the performance of some companies , this practice has not been successful for all of them . Due to many disadvantages of employee involvement , managers of many companies turn to it only when they are completely sure the company is going to benefit from that . No manager is going to practice employee involvement in the company if the company might lose some money due to that practice . Therefore , this approach can be applied only when there is an economic sense for it . There are many issues for managers to consider when making a choice for employee involvement

First of all , employee involvement requires correct decisions of management regarding the boundaries which every employee in the company will have . It is often very hard to measure

Second , employees are often unable to make correct decisions themselves For example , it is not wise to train only those employees who have applied for that . It is management who has to determine what employees need the training . Third , many managers would not mind applying employee involvement in their companies in theory but when it comes to practice they do not give authority to their employees for anything what the concept of employee involvement includes . Therefore , employee involvement remains a myth for many companies , even if they declare this type of policy

In to bring success for organizations , it is much more useful for managers to apply instruments other than involvement . The leaders need to motivate their employees in the most efficient ways . They have to analyze the needs and capabilities of employees and give them appropriate tasks . It is also very important to build trust in the company so that all the employees know their opinion matters and every step of theirs is not being controlled by the management . As Catlette and Harden state , trust is one of the key factors differentiating winning businesses from the also-rans . What really distinguishes trusting from distrusting relationships- there is no middle ground--is the ability of those involved to make a leap of faith . They believe that each employee is interested in and committed to the company 's welfare and that neither employee nor manager will act without first considering the action 's impact on the other (Catlette , Harden , 2003 ,

. 26 They argue that for the company 's efficient functioning , it is very important to build trust in it . It is much more important than involvement and others similar methods

Employee Involvement as a Myth

One of the arguments for the fact that managers are not really concerned about empowering their employees in the company for their own sake but with the performance of the company can be demonstrated with the following example

Catlette and Harden traveled to Connecticut in to deliver a keynote speech for the information technology division of a large corporation . The CEO bombarded the speakers with tales of the various measures this particular firm was taking in the interest of empowering its employees , including spending more than 400 ,000 on empowerment training (Catlette , Harden , 2003 ,

. 26 . However , after the presentation was over , the authors decided to investigate the actual state of employee involvement in the company . The next day they interviewed the lady who was earning about 100 ,000 a year and asked her about her participation in the decision-making process in the company The question was how large a sum of money she was allowed to spend on different activities connected with her work without asking the management . The authors were surprised to hear that she was not allowed to spend any money without notifying the management at all

All of the talk of the company 's management about employee involvement in decision-making in the company turned out nothing but a myth . The management only considered it fashionable that they use the concept of employee involvement and empowerment . However , it did not aim to make employees ' work more important in the company . There was also no aim to give some responsibilities to employees which required their participation without notification of management . There are many other companies which regard the concept of employee involvement in the same way . Even though they argue for employee involvement as an important issue in corporate culture , they do not really want to give any more power to employees . Managers empower employees only in the case when this can improve the performance of the organization . In all other cases , they do not make a decision to give any additional power to employees

As Catlette and Harden argue , it is very important for companies nowadays to concentrate their efforts on employee involvement as a means of employee decision making in the workplace . The interests of the company itself will be met in such a case , too . The company 's efforts would have been much better spent relentlessly searching for ways to remove barriers to employee progress . For example , most companies have policies and procedures that frustrate rather than enable peak performance , leadership practices that obscure individual responsibility for anything , and destructive attitudes these must all he addressed . To do this , managers must train employees well , give them the tools they need to get the job done , and then trust them to do it . (Catlette Harden , 2003 ,

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Conclusion

Employee involvement plays an important role in increasing the company 's performance . Researchers suggest different points of view on the problem of democratizing the working environment . Some of them state that it is very important to create a democratic environment in the company and follow principles of employee involvement . They emphasize that as long as people in the company are motivated to think creatively , influence their own schedule , provide the monitoring of their own performance and participate in the activities of the company , they have much higher performance . They argue that it is very important to empower employees

However , there are different points of view on the employee involvement in companies . Some researchers mark that the policy of empowering employees is not very beneficial for companies because it has many disadvantages . Besides , many specialists have come to a conclusion that employee involvement is nothing more than a myth . In reality , no employees are involved in decision-making in the company

Investigations have led us to the conclusion that employee involvement in companies is always aimed at the increase of the company 's performance . Companies practice any kind of employee involvement in the process of decision making in to enable the employees to get a full view of the company 's operations and participate in different important activities . As employees get more informed about the activities of the company and get tasks with great responsibility , they are going to perform at a higher level . Due to the increase of the employees ' performance , the performance of the company will also increase

Managers of different companies apply some of the concepts of employee involvement . However , they do not involve employees in the decision-making process in to increase the satisfaction of employees from the job which they are doing . This might be the consequence of the actions taken by the management though . Nevertheless managers are going to deny employees of all of the decision-making power if it is going to contradict with the successful performance of the company . Since the major goal of the management of the company is the increase of shareholders ' wealth , they are going to involve employees in the decision-making process only as long as it helps the organization to reach the highest level of performance

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