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▪ Demonstrate responsible self-leadership
o Responsibilities of employees provide a balance to those of the manager:
▪ Identifying the issues to be addressed
▪ Specifying the level of involvement desired
▪ Providing relevant information
▪ Providing relevant information and training (in advance)
▪ Allocating fair rewards
Programs for Participation
• Some types of participative programs
o Suggestion programs
o Quality circles
o Total quality management
o Rapid cycle decision making
o Self-managing teams
o Employee ownership plans
o Flexible work arrangements
• One or more of these programs can be used within a single company.
• Programs can vary substantially in their
o Nature
o Formality
o Degree of direct or indirect involvement
o Opportunity to exert influence
o Time of involvement
• When a company uses either a very significant approach with widespread application or a
sufficient number of programs to develop a substantial sense of empowerment among its
employees, it is said to practice participative management.
Suggestion Programs
• Suggestion programs are formal plans to invite individual employees to recommend work
improvements.
o In most companies, the employee whose suggestion results in a cost savings may
receive a monetary award in proportion to the first year’s savings.
• Only a small fraction of employees are usually active participants who regularly make
suggestions in most firms.
• Delays in processing suggestions and rejections of seemingly good ideas can cause a
backlash among contributors.
• Some supervisors have difficulty looking constructively upon the suggestions and instead
view them as criticisms of their own ability and practices.
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Quality Emphasis
• Both union and nonunion firms have organized groups of workers and their managers into
committees to consider and solve job problems; these groups may be called:
o Work committees
o Labor-management committees
o Work-improvement task forces
o Involvement teams
• These groups of workers have broad usefulness for improving productivity and
communications because most of the employees can be involved.
• Popular approaches to problem solving are quality circles and total quality management.
• Quality Circles
o Quality circles are voluntary groups that receive training in process improvements and
problem-solving skills and then meet to produce ideas for improving productivity and
work conditions.
▪ They meet regularly, apply problem analysis/problem-solving skills and statistical
tools, and generate solutions for management to evaluate and implement.
o Quality circles gained utility as an involvement technique in the United States and
o To be successful, quality circles should follow these guidelines:
▪ Use them for measurable, short-term problems.
▪ Obtain continuous support from top management.
▪ Apply the group’s skills to problems within the circle’s work area.
▪ Train supervisors in facilitation skills.
▪ View quality circles as one starting point for other more participative approaches
to be used in the future.
• Total Quality Management
o Not all quality circles are successful; and some firms using quality circles experienced
a number problems with them including:
▪ Not all employees participate
▪ Trivial issues may be addressed first
▪ Some groups may feel isolated in their efforts
▪ An impact could not be seen on the larger organization
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o In response to this checkered experience, continued competitive pressures, and the
opportunity to compete for national recognition, some companies have initiated a total
quality management (TQM) program, in which:
▪ Every employee gets involved in the process of searching for continuous
improvements in their operation.
▪ Quality of products and services becomes a rallying cry for employees to focus
on.
▪ Every step in the firm’s processes is subjected to intense and regular scrutiny for
ways to improve it.
▪ Employees are trained extensively in problem solving, group decision making,
and statistical methods.
▪ The total quality management approach constitutes a formal program with direct
participation of all employees.
▪ Almost any issue is subject to exploration, and the process is a continuing one of
long duration.
Rapid-Cycle Decision Making
• Involving employees in participative processes typically takes time and draws them away
from immediately-productive tasks.
o One solution lies in the use of a rapid-cycle decision-making process. Its highlights
are these:
▪ Creation of a project steering committee
▪ Identification of a constituent group of possibly affected employees
▪ Framing of key issues and presentation via one-page overviews
▪ Distribution by email, with opportunity to comment and return votes cast for
approval/ disapproval
▪ Ruling that non-response on a timely basis implies lack of interest in that issue,
and hence willingness to support the collective decision
▪ Final judgments made by the steering committee where consensus could not be
achieved
o This participative process is time-efficient, inclusive, genuine, transparent, and yields
definitive outcomes.
Self-Managing Teams
• Some firms have moved beyond limited participation, allowing a number of major decisions
to be made by employee groups.
o This approach incorporates extensive use of group discussion, which makes full use of
group ideas and group influence.
• A more formal version of the group-decision approach is the self-managing team.
• They are sometimes called semi-autonomous work groups or sociotechnical teams, Self-
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managing teams are natural work groups that are given a large degree of decision-making
autonomy.
o They are expected to control their own behavior and results.
o The manager’s role is diminished (or dramatically changed) as team members acquire
new skills.
Employee Ownership Plans
• Employee ownership of a firm emerges when employees provide the capital to purchase
control of an existing operation.
o The stimulus often comes from threatened closings of marginally profitable plants,
where workers see little hope of other employment in a devastated local economy.
• On the surface, these plans appear to offer the highest degree of participative decision
Flexible Work Arrangements
• Employees today value autonomy, choice, empowerment, and control.
• A parallel need is for an increasingly greater (and healthier) balance between the demands of
work and family life.
o One broad response to these pressures is to grant employees more flexibility
(independent choice) in determining how, when, and where work gets done.
• A variety of flexible work arrangements are now offered by a majority of U.S. employers.
The primary forms include:
o Telecommuting—working part or full time off-site, often at home, using electronic
technology to communicate with coworkers and receive/submit work products.
o Compressed workweeks—adding hours to some days of work so as to have lessened
work—or no work—on other days.
o Job sharing—two persons sharing one full-time position by dividing up the tasks and
hours of work to provide the equivalent of full coverage.
o Flexible schedules—employees are allowed to choose their starting and ending times of
work, provided that they are present for an employer-defined set of core hours.
o Part-time work—employees contract for a limited number of hours per week.
o Time away from work—employees are allowed to take personal time off [PTO] for a
wide variety of reasons such as military service, volunteerism, maternity/paternity,
family illness, or stress relief.
Important Considerations in Participation
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Benefits of Participation
• Participative programs in various types of organizations under many different operating
conditions, participation has contributed to a variety of benefits, such as:
o Higher output
o Better quality of output
o Lead to ideas that produce genuine long-run improvements
o Improved motivation
Limitations of Participation
• The strong push toward participation is partially offset by other factors pushing in the
opposite direction.
• Some managers have difficulty adjusting to their new roles in a high-involvement system
o They may cling to Theory X beliefs and assumptions
o They may fear losing status as decision makers
o They may believe that they will have less power and control than previously
• Other impediments to success:
o An organization’s failure to properly prepare either managers or employees for new
roles.
o Lack of support for, or even resistance to, participative programs by top management.
A New Role for Managers
• In order for participative programs to work best, managers need to start relinquishing their
roles of judge and critic and begin viewing themselves as partners with employees.
o Their new role invites them to view themselves as stewards (caretakers, guardians, and
developers) of a broad range of human and technical resources.
o This stewardship paradigm shifts their emphasis from exclusively direction and control
to that of servant leadership, where their challenge is to help others attain relevant
goals while developing their skills and abilities.
• The essence of servant leadership is placing the needs of others above one’s own self–
interest.
o The goal is to help others develop their talents fully, make meaningful contributions,
and succeed.
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o To accomplish this, servant leaders typically exhibit several key behaviors:
▪ Listen actively and empathetically
▪ Engage in introspection to understand better their own attitudes and feelings
▪ Treat others with respect, as equals
▪ Admit to mistakes, confess their own vulnerability, and ask for help from others
▪ Seek to engage in dialogue and often paraphrase to ensure understanding
▪ Affirm the worth and contributions of each participant
▪ Willing to admit mistakes and ask for help
▪ Build trust by articulating their values and acting consistently with them
▪ Place great emphasis on helping other people succeed
Concluding Thoughts
• In spite of limitations, participation generally has achieved substantial success and popularity.
• The demand of younger employees to gain more power and use their talents is neither a
passing fancy nor a competitive advantage to be ignored.
• The need for participation is a basic drive in human beings.
• Employees want some control over things that affect them and some meaning in their work.
• Leaders must devote long-range efforts and continuing discussion toward promoting
participation as a means of building some of the human values needed at work.
Suggested Answers to Discussion Questions
1. Explain what empowerment means to you. Give an illustration of a time when you truly
felt empowered.
Students’ answers may vary. Empowerment definitions should revolve around the notion that
2. Ask several persons outside of class what “participation” means. If their answers differ,
explain why you think they do.
Students’ answers may vary. Many people might respond that “participation” means belonging
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3. How is it possible for participation to increase the power and influence of both manager
and employee?
Students’ answers may vary. A manager’s power and influence are dependent upon employee
4. Discuss the prerequisites for effective participation. Which of these are more difficult to
fulfill? Do the more difficult prerequisites help explain why some managers are still
relatively autocratic?
Students’ answers may vary. The success of participation is directly related to how well certain
prerequisite conditions are met. Major prerequisites for effective participation are as follows:
It may be difficult when technology of the process involved may make it impossible for
employees not familiar with that technology to participate in the process planning. It is hardly
advisable, for example, to ask custodians in a pharmaceutical laboratory to participate in
deciding which of five chemical formulas deserve research priority; but they might participate
in helping resolve other problems related to their work. Students may also mention the
participation continuum shown in Figure 8.6.
5. Many employees desire a higher level of participation than they are currently allowed.
Why is it that managers do not provide more opportunities for participation now?
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Students’ answers may vary. However, student suggestions may include the following points.
6. List the several benefits that can flow from participation. Compare the various programs
on the basis of the degree to which they are likely to provide those benefits.
Students’ answers may vary. Following are benefits of participation:
• Higher output
• Better quality of output
Benefits peculiar to participation programs are:
• Suggestion programs—accenting individual initiative.
7. Apply the leader-member exchange model to the professor-student relationship. What
does each party have to give to the other?
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Students’ answers may vary. All parties in a participative program must recognize their
responsibilities and must agree to meet their respective obligations. Assuming that the students
are filling the role of employees in the relationship with the professor, they must agree to:
• Be fully responsible for their actions and their consequences
Professors, to meet their obligations, should:
• Identify the issues to be addressed
Students have several things to give to the professor: enthusiasm for the issues to be addressed,
8. What was the area of freedom in your last job? Was it adequate for your needs? What
groups or institutions restricted this freedom? In what ways was it too large an area?
Students’ answers may vary. Some students will report under-participation, some will say
9. Consider the use of self-managing teams. What possible negative consequences can you
predict once they are begun?
Students’ answers may vary. Self-managing teams may take years to actually achieve true
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10. Consider your instructor’s fulfillment of the stewardship role. In what ways does she or
he demonstrate partnership building, service, and empowerment?
Assess Your Own Skills
Students should honestly circle the number on the response scale that most closely reflects the
degree to which each statement accurately describes them. This section will help them understand
how well they exhibit good reward and empowerment skills.
Incident
Joe Adams
Certain points need to be made in favor of Adams’ desire to try participation in his department. The
text reports that even authoritarian supervisors can practice participation effectively; so even if
employees have the autocratic role expectation that management claims, Adams should be able to
begin some participative efforts effectively. Furthermore, management’s claim that the schedule
does not allow time off for participation is invalid, because it is not necessary to shut down the
assembly line in order to build participation. Adams may develop participation by working
individually with his people in regular daily contacts or with small groups during breaks.
Furthermore, even though much of the production process is determined by engineers, there are
surely other departmental affairs in which the employees can participate genuinely.
Another point is that if the minority groups in the department have had a less-advantaged
background, they particularly may welcome participation because it will give them more control
over their own affairs and better integration into the full group working as a whole social system.
Along this same line, although most employees have only a high school education, they still can
participate. Higher education is not necessary for effective participation, particularly in the kind of
work involved in this case.
If we look at this situation from McGregor’s Theories X and Y, McGregor supports the idea that if
Adams’ philosophy has changed more toward Theory Y, his behavior will reflect more consideration
and use of participation. Behavior results from philosophy. Similarly Herzberg’s research suggests
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that some motivators can be built into the situation without having to change the assembly line. An
example is recognition. Further, maintenance factors such as company procedure may be improved.
Considering all the factors favorable to participation, it seems appropriate to encourage Adams to
make limited efforts toward participation. If he succeeds, this will build his experience and
confidence, and then he can take further participative steps. Adams should be warned that,
considering the organizational climate and working conditions, certain fancy participation schemes
are likely to backfire, and he should be cautious not to become mired in useless procedures. A slow
beginning is probably best in his situation, but he can move forward toward a more participative,
supportive model of organizational behavior.
Experiential Exercise
Empowerment through Participation
Empowerment fully occurs when employees: feel competent, valued, and have opportunities to use
their talents. Students are asked to work in groups of three or four, and rate (1 = low, 10 = high) the
degree to which the group feels each of the participative program would produce these feelings of
empowerment. The exercise will help students understand how empowerment can be achieved
through participation, as implied by their assessments of the different participative programs.
Generating OB Insights
Students’ responses will vary for this exercise. They should however, highlight several of the major
topics discussed in the chapter such as the nature of empowerment and its prerequisites, the
participative process, benefits of participation, types of participative programs, etc.