The Importance Of Employee Involvement

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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UNIT

MAN2120 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR II

CODE TITLE

NAME OF STUDENT

Tim Elias, Jimmy Dorji & Vu Ong

FAMILY NAME FIRST NAME

STUDENT ID NO.

10228400

10192561

10112165

NAME OF LECTURER Maryam Omari

DUE DATE

17/04/13

Topic of assignment Assessment TASK 2 (RePORT)

Group or tutorial (if applicable)

Wednesday (Group A), 10:30-12:30

Course Bachelor of Business

Campus

JO

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EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

FACILTY OF BUSINESS & LAW

MAN2120 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR II

EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

Prepared By: Tim Elias, Jimmy Dorji & Vu Ong (10112165)

Due Date: Wednesday, April 17 2013

Lecturer: Maryam Omari

Tutor: Jalleh Sharafizad

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Section One…………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Section Two............................................................................................................................ 4

Section Three………………………………………………………………………………. 6

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………… 9

References………………………………………………………………………………… 10

Introduction

"Employee involvement means that every employee is regarded as a unique human being, not just a cog in a machine, and each employee is involved in helping the organization meet its goals. Each employee’s input is solicited and valued by his/her management. Employees and management recognize that each employee is involved in running the business" (Apostolou, 2000, p.3).

Having said that employee involvement is very important for the growth of business, therefore organization should provide a positive working environment which reflects mutual trust, team working skills, leadership, being motivated and being responsible to represent the organization (Wood & Menezes, 2011). Moreover if the employee involvement is lacking in an organization it may result into poor business performance and employee turnover.

This report will provide us with clear understanding of how employee’s involvements can contribute to organization growth and provide maturity to their business; and describe how employee involvement at work place has taken place in different forms as well. The report also demonstrate the positive and negative impact at work place which affect decision making process and the liberty to make decision with no top level management.

The importance of employee involvement

The study of Looise, Woerkom, Marianne, and Torka (2008) stated that employee involvement is often a serious need of improvement. It is important to realize that employee should actively participate in decision making of company. In fact employees become more knowledgeable about the environment and in long run employees are much more focused and highly motivated.

"We miss Steve jobs. We worked with him and learned a lot from him. We won’t just miss seeing him on the world stage, we will miss the human being who looked us in our eyes and challenged us to do better" (Erickson, Hoddie & Wasko, p.2, 2011). The magic of working with Steve job demonstrated employees getting involved with the team members and working with effective combination of core competencies. It was about the uniqueness in his idea that made Apple different from any smart phone. Steve job was the leader; he would never question your team’s capabilities. In fact Steve Job always trusts his employee, giving them opportunity to do more than what we would on an ordinary day.

To be able to understand the success and the failure of any organization eventually depends upon the people and how focused they are towards meeting their goals and objectives. It is important however to assume the applicability on behalf of company to examine the strength and weakness of their employees. "Organizations that can tap the strengths of their people will be stronger and more competitive than those that cannot. Organizations that regard people as automatons or mere cogs in a wheel will never realize their full potential. In the long run, such companies inefficiencies attract competition, and unless the management philosophy changes, they will disappear" (Apostolou, 2000, p.3).

Since employee involvement can contribute to the improvement of products and processes, we believe that employers want all individuals to be involved. As Benjamin Franklin quoted once "You tell me, and I forget, you teach me, and I remember, you involve me, and I learn" (Schrebier, p.46, 2001).This statement by famous author Benjamin Franklin emphasize company to engross employee in the success and failure of the company. The organization can help employee achieve this by putting through various training which will help employees gain experience in terms of communicating effectively at all levels of organization and making it equally important for the employee to know their roles in the operation of the company.

Traditional forms of Employee Involvement and challenges for Managers

Heathfield suggests that "Involvement of employees in organsational decision making creates essential value in many companies however how much or at what level employees should participate in organisational decision making is controversial with some employers for employee involvement and some against it" (Heathfield, 2010). The factors below discuss the various ways an employee can participate in decision making outcomes of any organisation.

Participation at Board Level: : Idal suggests this factor involves employees participating in top level management board meetings on a variety of issues, were it can play a vital role in protecting the wealth and interests of the employee (Idal, 2006). This would assume that an employee representative can present all the problems, concerns and issues of the employees to all levels of management and encourage board members to create incentives, changes and opportunities for employees.

Participation through Ownership: Management of an organisation can create and maintain employee participation in organizational decision making by encouraging them to become shareholders of the business along with other incentives such as loans at a low interest rate, financial assistance is available when needed. Place believes this approach will motivate employees to participate in decision making as they have a co owner role and will push them to work hard in an organisation they have a part in (Place, 2002). Australian telephone company Telstra have indicated in a variety of strategic management plans they use this approach to encourage employee involvement and to produce overall motivation within the organisation.

Involvement through Suggestion Schemes: Place has also found Managers that encourage employees come up innovative and creative ideas can have a variety of positive outcome for the business such as reducing costs, energy and waste consumption, occupational health and safety procedures, reward systems etc (Place, 2002). Hearing the employee’s voice can add extreme amounts of value to the organizational and produce a healthy internal environment and work culture. For instance Satyam, a United Kingdom information, communications and technology company have been known to have introduced a countrywide suggestion scheme named the "Idea Junction", where it receives over five thousand ideas per year from its employees where the company accepts around one fifth of them.

Participation through Job Enrichment: Job enrichment offers hard working, motivated and dedicated employees to expand of their knowledge and use their judgment and decision making skills to more affect while handling day to day business problems. Shay has suggested "when the organisation conducts job reviews of its employees and expands job content while creating additional motivators and incentives to an existing job profile has proven to be a successful way to keep employees involved in organisational decision making (Shay, 1995). From our personal work experience, large retail giants such as Coles and Woolworths offer a variety of Job Enrichment schemes to various employees across the organisation to advance their skills and advance their careers with the company if they wish. This has lead to enthusiastic team members who produce high levels of communication skills with top level management.

Involvement through Quality Circles: Nation and Media have quoted that "A quality circle is a group of five to ten people who are experts in a particular work area that meet regularly to identify, analyse and solve the problems arising in their area of operation" (Nation and Media, 2012). This would assume any stakeholder within the organisation, who is a master with high amounts of experience in a specific field, can become a member of the quality circle. This would be a successful strategy for the organisation as it is an ideal way to identify potential issues and develop strategies to improve working the overall conditions of the organisation. Richard Goyder, who is the Wesfarmers CEO has indicated the corporate giant uses this as one of its strategies in performance management meetings which has been an essential tool in improving the quality and function of Microsoft ("Leadership, (Performance Management)" 2012)

Impacts of Employee Involvement in the Workplace

The impacts of employee involvement to an organization have numerous positive and negative outcomes. Managers must determine the most effective employee involvement strategy(s) by specific having clear and concise organisational goals. Managers from different organisations at all levels must work effectively with their employees to carry out specific responsibilities while showing some degree of independence to the employee; however some managers train their employees to accept various responsibilities and duties assigned to them. Walter and supports this by stating "some organisations present their employees with rewards, acknowledgment and recognition for performing tasks effectively and with high standards" (Walter, 2005). Listed below are factors that have been outlined by relevant researchers, scientists and doctors in this field that are potential positive and negative impacts of Employee Involvement to all stakeholders within an organization.

Positive Impacts

Teamwork: McKenna has argued that "employee involvement or participation in the decision making process gives every employee an opportunity to express their opinions, and to share their experience knowledge with other employees or employers" (McKenna, 2002). This would improve the relationship between a manager and the employee; while it encourages a feel of teamwork among other employees. Expressing various views enables effective communication between co-workers, with each worker bringing individual strengths to a specific project or task and ultimately an increase in good teamwork and performance. This demonstrates to employers successful team players within the company creating a positive workplace environment.

Employee Commitment: With the degree of employee involvement increasing in a number of organisations across the country, it is primarily due to and increase employee commitment to the company in which they are employed by. McKenna also says that "managers that actively involve employees in decision making, results in deeper commitments from the employee to organisational and job responsibilities, producing high levels of success for the manager and the organisation overall" (McKenna, 2002).

Innovative and Creative Ideas: Heathfield’s text has expressed that an organisations customers benefit when companies seek employee input. Motivated senior employees that interact with customers or clients on a day to day basis often have more insight into what the customer wants from the organisation, concerns and feedback. When a boss creates a workplace environment that encourages employees to collaborate creative, innovative and logical ideas through various meetings or discussions, get a clear grasp to what customers want (Heathfield, 2010). Managers that make critical decisions without employee involvement limit their ideas and may result in poor outcomes, if the manager had of considered the employee’s voice. Retail giants such as Coles and Woolworths use this factor as a part of their strategic management plans to produce a successful shopping experience for their customers.

Negative Impacts

Manager-Employee Boundaries: Probst has stated through is findings, having high levels of employee involvement is a risk as the line of authority between the management level and employee level can result in blur (Probst, 2005). Managers may appreciate the value of employee involvement, however a disciplined structure with clear reporting responsibilities are vital to stability in organisations. A company that allows its employees to attempt to produce ideas and carry out major tasks or responsibilities without having the authentication from the manager attempting duties that are specifically assigned for employers at management levels is a risk, no knowledge and experience with managerial skills.

Miscommunication: Non-effective use of communication, inexperience and poor decision making skills is a major disadvantage with employee involvement. The more employees that have input and into managerial decision making tasks, higher levels of communication is essential to ensure that decisions are consistent across sectors of the workplace to ensure consistency. Managers may find it a challenge monitoring decisions and activities with employee involvement, such as ensuring negative consequences and restricting the potential for chaos via miscommunication, rumors ect resulting in a waste of time on dealing with employee conflicts and discipline instead of using the time to carry out tasks and responsibilities.

Insufficient Knowledge: An employee that has the potential to make more decisions is commending to managers, however it can result in negative effects. Hodgkinson explains that employees who don't have sufficient knowledge, qualifications, experience or competence on specific business decisions can misunderstand the organisations success or create internal conflicts in the business (Hodgkinson, 1999). That is why some decision making roles cannot by undertaken by an employees as it requires skills from a trained and developed manager. For example, an employee who works in the sales and marketing section of the organisation who feels the need to collaborate and contribute to how the accounting section of the organisation operates will make poor decisions in that arena and will result in various conflicts with managers and other employees within the company.

Conclusion

In conclusion, employee involvement is a system which employees are encouraged to use their expertise and knowledge to suggest methods for improvements in their work area. Thus employee involvements play a very important role in the success of any organisations. Moreover, even though employee involvement have various of negative impact on the organisation, it shows that under certain conditions employees are more committed to decisions and that better decisions are made if they are involved. Employee involvement also increase teamwork and produce better performances.