PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

Some organisations exist where the central makes hefty and key decisions that affect their day to day running. Employees are put in the loop when such decisions have been made.

The role of a human resource officer in every organisation is to ensure that employees are kept in a constant loop of the various functions and happenings in the organisation and always ensuring that they bridge the gap in terms of communication between them and the management of the organisation.

One way this can be effective is when the employee is put in charge of making decisions for the organisation which would improve its output and productivity.

Participative management is not a new terminology to a human resource manager or  human resource management. However, not many apply this method of management in their organisations especially Multi-National Companies (MNC) where modes of governance are centralized; and when de-centralized, they are put in the charge of the heads of departments.

Participative management can be considered as one of the key elements of effectiveness of an employee and an organisation as a whole.

An organisation would get more from an employee if such a person is at the helm of affairs in respect to decision making. Now, this works in two ways:

1. The employee feels a sense of dignity and honour to be a part of the organisations decision making process, as it provides a sense of fulfilment , increases the moral of the employee and enhances growth in regards to organisations policies and strategies
2. The organisation sees an improvement in terms of better policies, increased outputs , better productivity and co-operation, quick enforcement in regards to decision making

Organisations are to ensure that employees get the best from them while they manage their (Organisation) resources effectively and vice-versa.

This level of effectiveness can be achieved if Participative management is adopted. This style of management style is vital, it strengthens the commitment of the team at every level to make it efficient.

Participative Management is therefore a process in which subordinates share significant degree of decision making power with their immediate superiors.

There are key steps to participative management, they are:

• Willingness to relinquish some sort of control to the employees for effectiveness
• Deliberate planning in order to make quick strategies
• Open mindedness from management and staffs
• Employees willingness to participate in decision making processes
• Integration of employees’ suggestions into final decisions without an employee seeing it as a futile effort in participating in this process.

BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

• Job satisfaction
• Organisational commitment
• Perceived organisational support
• Organisational citizenship behaviour
• Labour-management relations
• Job performance and organisational performance
• Task productivity
• Organisational profits
• Employee absenteeism

           CHALLENGES THAT WOULD ARISE USING PARTCIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

•  Decisions would be made at a slow rate if one party is resistant to change either from the employee or members of management.
• It could create a hostile working environment if there is a disagreement in areas of interest to each employee.
• It is not cost-effective in bringing all employees together in making decisions especially decisions that would lead to the company’s growth and strategies of breaking into the global market.
• It can be used as a means of management manipulating employees either consciously or unconsciously.

Participative management might take a long time to be applied in respect to Multi-National Companies (MNC), as this would result in dividing employees into various teams or groups that would further lead to loss of capital for the organisations.

However, start-ups or companies with a staff number of less than 20 can adopt this approach as it would lead to an accelerated growth plan for the organisation and employees as a whole.

Participative management has a lot to offer, the end goal of an organisation is to make profit. Every company wants to break into the globalized market world, and what better way than putting multi heads together than a select elite few who would lead the company into getting its capital margin and even breaking it.