LESSON 8.

BENEFITS OF
PARTICIPATION

docmar
In various types of organizations
under many different operating
conditions, participation has
contributed to a variety of
benefits.

Some of these are direct; others

are less tangible.
Participation typically brings
higher output and a better quality
output which alone is worth the
time invested in participation.

Employees often make

suggestions for both quality and
quantity improvements.
Participation tends to improve
motivation because employees
feel more accepted and involved
in the situation.

Their self-esteem, job

satisfaction, and cooperation with
management may also improve.
The result often are reduced
conflict and stress, more
commitment to goals, and better
acceptance of change.

Turnovers and absences may be

reduced because employees feel
they have a better place to work
and that they are being more
successful in their jobs.
 The Impact on Managerial Power

• Leader-Member Exchange
– Participation is a sharing
process between managers
and employees.
 The Impact on Managerial Power
• It is built upon the leader-member model
of leadership.
• This model suggests that leaders and their
followers develop a unique reciprocal
relationship, with the leader selectively
delegating, informing, consulting,
mentoring, praising, or rewarding each
employee.
• In exchange, each subordinate contributes
various degrees of task performance.
 Two Views of Power and Influence
Autocratic View Participative View
Power Power

• Is a fixed amount • Is a variable amount

• Comes from the authority
structure
• Is applied by management
• Flows downward
• Comes from people through
both official and unofficial
channels
• Is applied by shared ideas
and activities in a group

• Flows in all directions

 Prerequisites of Participation
• Employees must have time to
participate before action is required.
Participation is hardly appropriate in
emergency situations.
• The potential benefits of participation
should be greater that the cost. For
example, employees cannot spend
so much time participating that they
ignore their work.
 Prerequisites of Participation
• The subject of participation must
be relevant and interesting to the
employees; otherwise employees
will look upon it merely as
busywork.
• The participants should have the
ability, such as intelligence and
knowledge to participate.
 Prerequisites of Participation
• The participants must be mutually able t
communicate-to talk each other’s
language-in order to be able to exchange
ideas.
• Neither party should feel that its position
is threatened by participation.
• If workers think their status will be
adversely affected, they will not
participate.
• If managers feel that their authority is
threatened, they will refuse participation
or will be defensive.
 Prerequisites of Participation
• Participation for deciding a curse
of action in an organization can
take place only within the group’s
area of job freedom.
• Some degree of restriction is
required with regard to the parts
of an organization in order to
maintain unity for the whole.
 Prerequisites of Participation
• Each separate subunit cannot make
decisions with violate policy,
collective-bargaining agreements,
legal requirements, and similar
restraints.
• Similarly, the physical environment (a
flood that results in the closing of a
plant is an extreme example) and
personal limitations (such as an
employee’s not understanding
electronics) impose restraints.
 Prerequisites of Participation
• The area of job freedom for
any department is its area of
discretion after all restraints
have been applied.
• In no organization is there
complete freedom, even for
top executive.
 Contingency Factors
• As with the use of many behavioral ideas,
several contingency factors influence the
success of participating programs. These may
be found in the environment, the organization,
its leadership, the nature of tasks performed, or
the employees. Organizational practices also
need to be adapted to the pace of change in
their environments, which can range from stable
ton turbulent.

• Employees can be involved in a variety of tasks,

including goal setting, decision making, problem
solving, and planning major organizational
changes.
• Emotional Intelligence -one important
contingency factor that affects the use of
participation is leader’s emotional intelligence.
This is a combination of abilities – to be aware of
and understand one’s own feelings, to realize
why one is feeling that way, and to manage
one’s emotions effectively. A parallel set of skills
deals with the leader’s ability to assess and
manage the emotions of his or her employees.
Emotionally intelligent leaders use their
empathy, compassion, optimism, humor,
integrity, caring, and persuasiveness to build the
kind of relationship; with employees that ensures
them that their talents and inputs will be used
effectively for the benefit of all.
Differing Needs for Participation Some
employees desire more participation
than others. As indicated earlier,
educated and high-level workers often
seek more participation, because they
feel more prepared to make useful
contributions. When they not allowed to
contribute, they tend to have lower
performance, less satisfaction, lower
self-esteem, and more stress.
When employees want more participation
than they have, they are “anticipatively
deprived” and there is under participation.
In the opposite situation, when they more
participation than they want, they are
“participatively saturated” and there is over
participation.
 Responsibilities of Employees and
Managers

Expectations for Employees

• Be fully responsible for their actions and their
consequences
• Operate within the relevant organizational
policies
• Be contributing team member
• Respect and seek to use the perspectives of
others
• Be dependable and ethical in their empowered
actions
• Demonstrate responsible self- leadership
 Expectations for Managers

• Identifying the issues to be addressed

• Specifying the level of involvement
desired
• Providing relevant information and
training
• Allocating fair rewards 8,00,000-
12,00,000
 TYPES OF PARTICIPATIVE
PROGRAMS
• SUGGESTION PROGRAMS- Are formal plans to invite
individual employees to recommend work improvements.
Although many suggestions programs provide useful
ideas, they are a limited form of participation that accent
individual initiative instead of group problem, solving and
teamwork.

• QUALITY CIRCLES – Voluntary groups that receive

training in statistical techniques and problem-solving skill
and then meet to produce ideas for improving
productivity and working conditions are known as
QUALITY CIRCLES. They meet regularly—often on
company time—and generate solution for management
to evaluate and implement.
 GUIDELINES ON QUALITY
CIRCLES
• Use them for measurable, short-term problems
• Obtain continues support from top management
• Apply the group’s skills to problems within the
circle work area.
• Train supervisors in facilitation skills
• View quality circle as one starting point for other
more participative approaches to be used in the
future.
 TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
The Total Quality Management Approach gets
every employee involved in the process of
searching for continues improvements in their
operations. Quality of product and service
becomes a rallying cry for employees to focus
on, and every step in the firm’s processes is
subjected to intense and regular scrutiny for
ways to improve it. Employees are provided with
extensive training in problem-solving, group
decision making and statistical method. The
TQM Approach constitute a formal program with
direct participation of all employees.

TQM= ID + OD
 SELF-MANAGING TEAMS
A more formal version of the group- decision
approach is the self-managing team. Sometimes
called semi-autonomous work groups or socio-
technical teams, self-managing teams are
natural work groups that are given a large
degree of decision- making autonomy; they are
expected to control their own behavior and
result. A key feature is the diminished role of the
manager as the team members learn to acquire
new skills.
EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP PLANS
Employees have often been urged to “buy the
product you make”; today, that slogan has
occasionally been replaced with “buy the
company you work for”. Employee of a firm
emerges when employees provide the capital to
purchase control of an existing operation. The
stimulus often comes from threatened closings
of marginally profitable plants, where workers
see little hope of other employment in a
devastated local economy.
Limitations of Participation
D
Theory X beliefs by managers E
C
R
Lack of support from higher levels E
A
S
Managerial fear of lost E
• Power D
• Status
P
• Control A
R
Lack of adequate training for T
• Managers I
C
• Employees I
P
A
Problems encountered in early stages T
I
O
Substantial efforts needed to implement N