Participative Management

Participative Management refers to the process of involving employees or employee representatives at all levels of the decision-making process.

Also called industrial democracy, co-determination

Techniques/ Methods of Participation

Participation at the board level

Representation of employees at the board level

Put problems in front of the management and guide the board member to invest in an employee benefit scheme

Participation through ownership

Making them shareholder

Participation through Collective Bargaining

Participation of workers through collective agreements and by deciding and following rules

Participation through Suggestion Scheme

Encouraging workers to come up with unique ideas such as cost-cutting, waste management, safety measures, reward system, etc.

Participation through complete control

System of self-management

Workers union (Trade union acts as management)

Participation through Job Enrichment

Expanding the job content and adding additional motivators and rewards to the existing job profile

Participation through Quality Circles

Quality circles: Groups of 5 – 10 people who are experts in particular work areas.

Other measures

• Financial Participation
• Total quality management
• Empowered teams
• Participation through joint council, committees
• Participation through staff or work councils

Advantages of Participative Management

1. Increase in productivity

• The strong feeling of association now
• The employee now assumes responsibility and takes charges
• Working hours may stretch on own

2. Job satisfaction

• The level of satisfaction is high as the individual has a say n decision making and he too is an integral component of the organization and not a mere worker

3. Motivation

• Increased productivity and job satisfaction cannot exist unless there is a high level of motivation in the employee

4. Improved Quality

• Since inputs and feedback comes from people who are part of the process at the lowest or execution level
• Quality control thus begins from the lower level

5. Reduced Cost

• Lesser need for supervision
• More emphasis is given to widening skills, self-management

6. Improvement in labor-management relations

Disadvantages of Participative Management

1 Decision-making slows down

• Since many people are involved in decision-making, it will slow down

2. Security Issues

• Security issues arise, in the early stages too many people are known to lot of facts and information

Limitation of Participation Management

1. The complexity of Technology and organization

• Since organizations are so complex these days, there are specialized workers for each field
• People cannot participate in a matter, which is outside the understanding of the reach

2. Employee’s right of not participation

• The employee has the right to not participate
• Some worker thinks: Participation offers management deep sight into the workers and then use it against the latter

3. Manipulation

• Managers may sometimes use participation to manipulate employees
• This may be both conscious or unconsciously

4. Worker’s Psychology

• The existing psyche of the employee is they are the workers and their primary purpose is to serve the masters
• This prevents them from actively participating

5. General Bias

• Resistance to change inside the organization as mentioned earlier is the biggest hurdle to participative management
• Managers decline to share power thinking they will lose the power of authority

6. Trade Union

• Politically engaged trade unions may hamper the active participation of employee

See also: Collective Bargaining

See also: Management