models of organizational behavior
Content
CHAPTER 2 MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
AN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR SYSTEM
The primary purpose of organizational behavior system (OBS) is to identify
and then help manipulate the major human and organizational variables that affect the
results organizations are trying to achieve. The outcomes are measured in various
forms of three basic criteria: Performance, employee satisfaction and personal
growth and development.
• Elements of the system
The philosophy of organizational behavior held by managers stems from two
sources, they are fact and value premises:
Fact Premises
Represent our descriptive view of how the world behaves. They are drawn
from both behavior al science research and our personal experiences.
Value Premises
On the other hand, Value premises represent our view of desirability of certain
goals and activities. Manager also has primary responsibility for instilling three other
elements into the OBS they are:
Vision, represent a challenging OBS and its members can be a possible and desirable
future.
Mission, it’s identifies the business it is in, the types of customers it is likely to have,
and the reasons for its existence.
Goal is relatively concrete formulations of achievements the organization.
MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Douglas McGregor was one of the first writers to call attention to managerial
models. The model calls as Theory X and Y.
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
Theory X
Theory Y
It is a traditional set of assumptions
It implies a more humanistic and
about people
supportive approach to managing
people it assumes that people are not
The typical person dislikes work
and will avoid it if possible.
The typical person lacks
responsibility, has little ambition,
and sees security above all.
Most people must be coerced,
controlled, and threatened with
punishment to get them to work
lazy.
Work is as natural as play or rest
People aren’t inherently lazy, they
have become that way as a result of
experience.
People will exercise self-direction
and self-control in the service of
objectives to which they are
committed
People have potential. They have
imagination, ingenuity, and
creativity that can be applied to
work.
With these assumptions the
With these assumptions the
managerial role is to coerce and
managerial role is to develop the
control employees
potential in employees and help
them release that potential towards
common objectives.
There are five models of Organizational Behavior, they are:
Basic of
Autocratic
Power
Model
Managerial
Authority
Custodial
Economic
Supportive
Leadership
Collegial
Partnership
System
Trust,
Resources
Community,
Money
Teamwork
meaning
Caring,
Support
Orientation
Employee
Obedience
Security and
Job
Responsible
compassion
Psychological
Orientation
Employee
Dependence
benefits
Dependence
Performance
Participation
behavior
Self discipline
ownership
Self motivation
psychological on boss
on
result
Employee
organization
Security
Status and
Self
Wide range
Passive
recognition
Awakened
actualization
Moderate
Passion and
needs met
Performance
Subsistence
Minimum
result
security
drives
enthusiasm
cooperation
commitment to
organizational
goals
• The Autocratic Model
Autocratic Model depends on Power. Those who are in command must have the
power to demand “you do this – or else,” meaning that an employee who doesn’t
follow orders will be panelized. In autocratic environment, the managerial orientation
is formal official authority. Authority is delegated by right of command over people to
whom it applies.
The autocratic model was an acceptable approach to guide managerial behavior when
there were no well-known alternatives, and it still can useful under some extreme
conditions, such as organizational crises.
• The Custodial Model
The custodial approach leads to employee dependence on the organization.
Rather than being dependent on their employer for just their weekly paycheck,
employees now depend on organizations for their security and welfare. Employees
working in a custodial environment become psychologically preoccupied with their
economic rewards and benefits.
The custodial model is described in its extreme in order to show its emphasis
on material rewards, security and organizational dependence. The search for a better
way is not a condemnation of the custodial model as a whole but rather a
condemnation of the assumption that this is “the final answer”—the one best way to
motivate employees.
• The Supportive Model
The supportive model depends on leadership instead of power or money.
Through leadership, management provides a climate to help employees grow and
accomplish in the interests of the organization the things of which they are capable.
Management’s orientation is to support the employee’s job performance rather than
simply support employee benefit payments as in the custodial approach. Since
management supports employees in their work, the psychological result is a feeling of
participation and task involvement in he organization.
The supportive model works well with both employees and managers and it
has been widely accepted—at least philosophically—by many managers in the United
States and elsewhere. The supportive model organization behavior tends to be
especially effective in affluent nations because it responds to employee drives toward
a wide array of emerging needs. It has less immediate application in the developing
nations, where employees’ current needs and social conditions are often quite
different.
• The Collegial Model
A useful extension of the supportive model is the collegial model. The term
“collegial” relates to a body of people working together cooperatively.
The managerial orientation is toward teamwork. Management is the coach that
builds a better team. The employee response to this situation is responsibility. The
psychological result of the collegial approach for the employee is self-discipline.
• The System Model
An emerging model of organization behavior is the system model. The system
model reflects the values underlying positive organizational behavior, which focuses
on identifying, developing and managing psychological strengths within employees.
Under this approach, managers focus their attention on helping employees develop
feelings of hope, optimism, self-confidence, empathy, trustworthiness, esteem,
courage, efficacy and resiliency.
Individuals at all levels need to acquire and display social intelligence, which
has five dimensions:
1. Empathy — appreciation for and connectedness with others
2. Presence — projecting self-worth in one’s bearing.
3. Situational radar — ability to read social situations and respond appropriately.
4. Clarity — using language effectively to explain and persuade.
5. Authenticity — being “real” and transparent, while projecting honesty.
• Conclusion about the Models
• They are subject to evolutionary change.
• They are a function of prevailing employee needs.
• There is a trend toward the newer models.
• Any of the models can be successfully applied in some situations.
The models can be modified and extended in a variety of ways.
1. Evolving usage: Managerial and organizational use of these models tends
to evolve over time. The primary challenge for management is to identify
the model it is actually using and then assess its current effectiveness.
2. Relation of Models to Human Needs: Five models are closely related to
human needs. New models have been developed to serve the different
needs that became important at the time. A comparison suggests that each
newer model is built upon the accomplishment of the other.
3. Increasing Use of Some Models: The trend toward the supportive,
collegial and system models will undoubtedly continue. Only the newer
models can offer the satisfaction of their needs for esteem, autonomy and
self-actualization.
4. Contingent Use of All Models: Although one model may be most used at
any given time, some appropriate uses will remain for other models.
Probably all five models will continue to be used, but the more advanced
models will have growing use as progress is made and employee
expectation will rise.
5. Managerial Flexibility: Managers not only need to identify their current
behavioral model but also must keep it flexible and current. Managers
need to read, to reflect, to interact with others and to be receptive to
challenges to their thinking from their colleagues and employees.
CHAPTER 8 EMPOWERMENT AND PARTICIPATION
THE NATURE OF EMPOWERMENT AND PARTICIPATION
• What is Empowerment?
Empowerment is any process that provides greater autonomy to employees
through the sharing of relevant information and the provision of control over factors
affecting job performance.
Five broad approaches to empowerment:
1. Helping employees achieve job mastery (proper training, coaching and
experience guidance).
2. Allowing more control (giving them discretion over job performance).
3. Providing successful role models (allowing them to observe peers who already
perform successfully on the job).
4. Using social reinforcement and persuasion (giving praise, encouragement and
verbal feedback).
5. Giving emotional support (better role definition, task assistance and honest
expression of caring).
When managers use these approaches, employees begin believing they are
competent and valued, that they truly have some autonomy, that their jobs have
meaning and impact, and that they have opportunities to use their talents.
• What is Participation?
Participation is the mental and emotional involvement of people in group
situations that encourages them to contribute to group goals and share responsibility
for them. This definition entails three important ideas:
1. Involvement: Participation means meaningful involvement rather than mere
muscular activity. A person who participate is ego-involved instead of merely
task involved.
2. Motivation to Contribute: Participation stimulates people to contribute. They
are empowered to release their own resources of initiative and creativity
toward the objectives of the organization.
3. Acceptance of Responsibility: Participation encourages people to accept
responsibility in their group’s activities. It is a social process by which people
become self-involved in an organization, committed to it and truly want to see
it work successfully.
• Why is Participation Popular?
According to the collective results of a study by skillful social scientists,
participation tends to improve performance and job satisfaction. Later research in
organizations has repeatedly supported this proposition. Participation can have
statistically significant effects on performance and satisfaction.
Participation practices may also provide power opportunities to minority
workers in an increasingly diverse workforce, since such workers need not wait
until reaching higher organizational levels before being allowed to contribute
meaningfully.
Participation also seems to help satisfy the awakening employee need for
meaning and fulfillment at work. Organizations have found that employees are
searching for a sense of significance, the opportunity to use their minds and a chance
to devote their efforts to a higher purpose in their work. Meaningful participation can
help satisfy those needs.
Participation practices are noteworthy. The educational level of the
workforce often provides workers with unique capacities that can be applied
creatively to work problems. These employees have also acquired both a desire for
influencing work-related decisions and an expectation that they will be allowed to
participate in these decisions.
Below are the forces affecting the greater use of participation:
1. Research results
2. Productivity-improvement pressures
3. Utilization of workforce diversity
4. Employee desires for meaning
5. Employee desire and expectations
6. Ethical Arguments.
HOW PARTICIPATION WORKS
• The Participation Process
Situation
Participation
programs
Involvement (Mental &
Emotional)
Outcomes for Organization (higher output, higher quality, innovation etc) and
Employees (Acceptance, Self-efficacy, less stress and satfaction).
The figure 8.3 indicates that in many situations participative programs result in
mental and emotional involvement that produces generally favorable outcomes for
both the employees and the organization.
• The Impact on Managerial Power
Leader-Member Exchange. Participation is a sharing process between managers and
employees which is built upon the leader-member exchange 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, the employee contributes various
degrees of task performance, loyalty and respect to the manager.
Two Views of Power. Participation may increase the power of both managers and
their employees. See table FIGURE 8.4 below:
Autocratic View Power
1. Is a fixed amount
2. Comes from the authority
structure
3. Is applied by management
4. Flows downward
Participative View Power
1. Is a variable amount
2. Comes from people through both
official and unofficial channels
3. Is applied by shared ideas and
activities in a group
4. Flows in all directions
• Prerequisites for Participation
Major prerequisites are as follows (can refer to FIGURE 8.5):
1. Employees must have enough time to participate before action is required.
2. The potential benefits of participation should be greater than the cots.
3. The subject of participation must be relevant and interesting to the employees.
4. The participants should have the mental capacity such as intelligence and
technical knowledge to participate.
5. The participants must be mutually able to participate and communicate.
6. Neither party should feel that its position is threatened by participation.
7. Participation for deciding a course of action in an organization can take place
only within the group’s area of job freedom.
• Contingency Factors
Several contingency factors influence the success of participative programs that
can be found in the environment, the organization, its leadership, the nature of tasks
performed, or the employees.
1. Emotional Intelligence: Leader’s emotional intelligence, which is a
combination of two personal abilities—self-awareness and self-management—
and two social competencies—social awareness and relationship management.
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 benefits of all.
2. Differing Employee Needs for Participation: Some employees desire more
participation than others. Educated and higher-level workers often seek more
participation because they feel more prepared to make useful contributions.
And some other employees desire only a minimum of participation and are not
upset if they are not actively involved. When employees want more
participation than they have, there is “underparticipation”. In opposite
situation, when they have more participation than they want, there is
“overparticipation”.
3. Responsibilities of Employees and Managers: A degree to which all
employees recognize that the opportunities provided are accompanied by a set
of responsibilities. Ideally, all employees would agree to:
1. Be fully responsible for their actions and their consequences.
2. Operate within the relevant organizational policies.
3. Be contributing team members.
4. Respect and seek to use the perspectives of others.
5. Be dependable and ethical in their empowered actions.
6. Demonstrate responsible self-leadership.
These responsibilities of employees provide a balance to those of the manager:
1. Identifying the issues to be addressed.
2. Specifying the level of involvement desired.
3. Providing relevant information and training (in advance).
4. Allocating fair rewards.
PROGRAMS FOR PARTICIPATION
An array of programs, ranging roughly from modest to more substantial in
their degree of participation: Suggestion programs, quality circles, total quality
management, self-managing teams and employee ownership plans.
• Suggestion Programs
They are formal plans to invite individual employees to recommend work
improvements. 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. The
suggestions are screened for applicability and cost-benefit ratio, resulting in an
acceptance rate of about 25% in most organizations.
• Quality Emphasis: Quality Circles and Total Quality Management
1. Quality Circles: Voluntary groups will receive training in process
improvements and problem-solving skills and then meet to produce ideas for
improving productivity and working conditions. Quality circles provide
opportunities for personal growth, achievement and recognition.
To be successful, quality circles should be used according to these guidelines:
1. Use them for measureable, short-term problems.
2. Obtain continuous support from top management.\
3. Apply the group’s skills to problems within the circle’s work area.
4. Train supervisors in facilitation skills.
5. View quality circles as one starting point for other more participative
approaches to be used in the future.
2. Total Quality Management:
Some quality-circle groups felt isolated in their efforts, and they could not see
their impact on the larger groups. In response to this checkered experience and
continued competitive pressures, several firms have initiated a total quality
management (TQM). The TQM approach gets every employee involved in the
process of searching for continuous improvements in their operations. Quality
of product and service becomes a rallying cry for employees to focus on.
• Self Managing Teams
Self-managing team works are natural work groups that are given a large
degree of decision-making autonomy; they are expected to control their own behavior
and results. A key feature is the diminished role of a manager as the team members
learn to acquire new skills.
• Employee Ownership Plans
Employee ownership of a firm emerges when employees provide the capital to
purchase control of an existing operation. The stimulus comes from threatened
closings of marginally profitable plants where workers see little hope of other
employment in a devastated local economy.
Employee ownership has been tried in diverse industries, such as plywood,
meat packing, steel and furniture manufacturing. This plan appears to offer the highest
degree of participative decision making, as employees take control. Better
management, heightened morale and improved productivity have all been predicted to
follow.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION IN PARTICIPATION
• Benefits of Participation
1. Participation typically brings higher output and a better quality of output.
2. Participation tends to improve motivation because employees feel more
accepted by their employer and more actively involved in the situation.
3. The results often are reduced stress and conflicts, more commitment to
goals and better acceptance of change.
4. Organizational changes can often be implemented more rapidly.
5. Participation establishes better communication as people mutually discuss
work problems.
• Limitations of Participation
These are the forces affecting the lesser use of participation:
1. Theory X beliefs by managers.
2. Lack of support from higher levels.
3. Managerial fear of lost: power, status, control
4. Lack of adequate training for managers and employees.
5. Problems encountered in early stages.
6. Substantial efforts needed to implement.
• Managerial Concerns about Participation
Some managers have difficulty adjusting to their new roles in a highinvolvement system. They may fear losing their former stats as key decision makers
or they may be concerned they will have less power and control than previously.
Managers need to start relinquishing their roles of judge and critic and begin
viewing themselves as partners with employees. Their new role invites them to view
themselves as stewards (caretakers, guardians and developers) of a broad range of
human and technical resources. 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 goal of servant leadership is to help others develop their talents fully,
make meaningful contributions and succeed. To accomplish this, servant leaders
typically exhibit several key behaviors which they:
1. Listen actively and empathetically.
2. Engage in introspection to understand better their own attitudes and feelings.
3. Treat others with respect as equals.
4. Admit mistakes, confess their own vulnerability, and ask for help from others.
5. Seek to engage in dialogue and often paraphrase to ensure understanding.
6. Affirm the worth and contributions of each participant.
7. Build trust by articulating their values and acting consistently with them.
8. Place great emphasis on helping other people succeed.
• Concluding Thoughts
Despite its limitations, participation generally has achieved substantial success
and popularity. It is not the answer to all organization problems, but experience does
show its general usefulness. Participation has been so successful in practice that it has
become widely accepted in more advanced nations and will become an important tool
in the progress of developing nations.
AN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR SYSTEM
The primary purpose of organizational behavior system (OBS) is to identify
and then help manipulate the major human and organizational variables that affect the
results organizations are trying to achieve. The outcomes are measured in various
forms of three basic criteria: Performance, employee satisfaction and personal
growth and development.
• Elements of the system
The philosophy of organizational behavior held by managers stems from two
sources, they are fact and value premises:
Fact Premises
Represent our descriptive view of how the world behaves. They are drawn
from both behavior al science research and our personal experiences.
Value Premises
On the other hand, Value premises represent our view of desirability of certain
goals and activities. Manager also has primary responsibility for instilling three other
elements into the OBS they are:
Vision, represent a challenging OBS and its members can be a possible and desirable
future.
Mission, it’s identifies the business it is in, the types of customers it is likely to have,
and the reasons for its existence.
Goal is relatively concrete formulations of achievements the organization.
MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Douglas McGregor was one of the first writers to call attention to managerial
models. The model calls as Theory X and Y.
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
Theory X
Theory Y
It is a traditional set of assumptions
It implies a more humanistic and
about people
supportive approach to managing
people it assumes that people are not
The typical person dislikes work
and will avoid it if possible.
The typical person lacks
responsibility, has little ambition,
and sees security above all.
Most people must be coerced,
controlled, and threatened with
punishment to get them to work
lazy.
Work is as natural as play or rest
People aren’t inherently lazy, they
have become that way as a result of
experience.
People will exercise self-direction
and self-control in the service of
objectives to which they are
committed
People have potential. They have
imagination, ingenuity, and
creativity that can be applied to
work.
With these assumptions the
With these assumptions the
managerial role is to coerce and
managerial role is to develop the
control employees
potential in employees and help
them release that potential towards
common objectives.
There are five models of Organizational Behavior, they are:
Basic of
Autocratic
Power
Model
Managerial
Authority
Custodial
Economic
Supportive
Leadership
Collegial
Partnership
System
Trust,
Resources
Community,
Money
Teamwork
meaning
Caring,
Support
Orientation
Employee
Obedience
Security and
Job
Responsible
compassion
Psychological
Orientation
Employee
Dependence
benefits
Dependence
Performance
Participation
behavior
Self discipline
ownership
Self motivation
psychological on boss
on
result
Employee
organization
Security
Status and
Self
Wide range
Passive
recognition
Awakened
actualization
Moderate
Passion and
needs met
Performance
Subsistence
Minimum
result
security
drives
enthusiasm
cooperation
commitment to
organizational
goals
• The Autocratic Model
Autocratic Model depends on Power. Those who are in command must have the
power to demand “you do this – or else,” meaning that an employee who doesn’t
follow orders will be panelized. In autocratic environment, the managerial orientation
is formal official authority. Authority is delegated by right of command over people to
whom it applies.
The autocratic model was an acceptable approach to guide managerial behavior when
there were no well-known alternatives, and it still can useful under some extreme
conditions, such as organizational crises.
• The Custodial Model
The custodial approach leads to employee dependence on the organization.
Rather than being dependent on their employer for just their weekly paycheck,
employees now depend on organizations for their security and welfare. Employees
working in a custodial environment become psychologically preoccupied with their
economic rewards and benefits.
The custodial model is described in its extreme in order to show its emphasis
on material rewards, security and organizational dependence. The search for a better
way is not a condemnation of the custodial model as a whole but rather a
condemnation of the assumption that this is “the final answer”—the one best way to
motivate employees.
• The Supportive Model
The supportive model depends on leadership instead of power or money.
Through leadership, management provides a climate to help employees grow and
accomplish in the interests of the organization the things of which they are capable.
Management’s orientation is to support the employee’s job performance rather than
simply support employee benefit payments as in the custodial approach. Since
management supports employees in their work, the psychological result is a feeling of
participation and task involvement in he organization.
The supportive model works well with both employees and managers and it
has been widely accepted—at least philosophically—by many managers in the United
States and elsewhere. The supportive model organization behavior tends to be
especially effective in affluent nations because it responds to employee drives toward
a wide array of emerging needs. It has less immediate application in the developing
nations, where employees’ current needs and social conditions are often quite
different.
• The Collegial Model
A useful extension of the supportive model is the collegial model. The term
“collegial” relates to a body of people working together cooperatively.
The managerial orientation is toward teamwork. Management is the coach that
builds a better team. The employee response to this situation is responsibility. The
psychological result of the collegial approach for the employee is self-discipline.
• The System Model
An emerging model of organization behavior is the system model. The system
model reflects the values underlying positive organizational behavior, which focuses
on identifying, developing and managing psychological strengths within employees.
Under this approach, managers focus their attention on helping employees develop
feelings of hope, optimism, self-confidence, empathy, trustworthiness, esteem,
courage, efficacy and resiliency.
Individuals at all levels need to acquire and display social intelligence, which
has five dimensions:
1. Empathy — appreciation for and connectedness with others
2. Presence — projecting self-worth in one’s bearing.
3. Situational radar — ability to read social situations and respond appropriately.
4. Clarity — using language effectively to explain and persuade.
5. Authenticity — being “real” and transparent, while projecting honesty.
• Conclusion about the Models
• They are subject to evolutionary change.
• They are a function of prevailing employee needs.
• There is a trend toward the newer models.
• Any of the models can be successfully applied in some situations.
The models can be modified and extended in a variety of ways.
1. Evolving usage: Managerial and organizational use of these models tends
to evolve over time. The primary challenge for management is to identify
the model it is actually using and then assess its current effectiveness.
2. Relation of Models to Human Needs: Five models are closely related to
human needs. New models have been developed to serve the different
needs that became important at the time. A comparison suggests that each
newer model is built upon the accomplishment of the other.
3. Increasing Use of Some Models: The trend toward the supportive,
collegial and system models will undoubtedly continue. Only the newer
models can offer the satisfaction of their needs for esteem, autonomy and
self-actualization.
4. Contingent Use of All Models: Although one model may be most used at
any given time, some appropriate uses will remain for other models.
Probably all five models will continue to be used, but the more advanced
models will have growing use as progress is made and employee
expectation will rise.
5. Managerial Flexibility: Managers not only need to identify their current
behavioral model but also must keep it flexible and current. Managers
need to read, to reflect, to interact with others and to be receptive to
challenges to their thinking from their colleagues and employees.
CHAPTER 8 EMPOWERMENT AND PARTICIPATION
THE NATURE OF EMPOWERMENT AND PARTICIPATION
• What is Empowerment?
Empowerment is any process that provides greater autonomy to employees
through the sharing of relevant information and the provision of control over factors
affecting job performance.
Five broad approaches to empowerment:
1. Helping employees achieve job mastery (proper training, coaching and
experience guidance).
2. Allowing more control (giving them discretion over job performance).
3. Providing successful role models (allowing them to observe peers who already
perform successfully on the job).
4. Using social reinforcement and persuasion (giving praise, encouragement and
verbal feedback).
5. Giving emotional support (better role definition, task assistance and honest
expression of caring).
When managers use these approaches, employees begin believing they are
competent and valued, that they truly have some autonomy, that their jobs have
meaning and impact, and that they have opportunities to use their talents.
• What is Participation?
Participation is the mental and emotional involvement of people in group
situations that encourages them to contribute to group goals and share responsibility
for them. This definition entails three important ideas:
1. Involvement: Participation means meaningful involvement rather than mere
muscular activity. A person who participate is ego-involved instead of merely
task involved.
2. Motivation to Contribute: Participation stimulates people to contribute. They
are empowered to release their own resources of initiative and creativity
toward the objectives of the organization.
3. Acceptance of Responsibility: Participation encourages people to accept
responsibility in their group’s activities. It is a social process by which people
become self-involved in an organization, committed to it and truly want to see
it work successfully.
• Why is Participation Popular?
According to the collective results of a study by skillful social scientists,
participation tends to improve performance and job satisfaction. Later research in
organizations has repeatedly supported this proposition. Participation can have
statistically significant effects on performance and satisfaction.
Participation practices may also provide power opportunities to minority
workers in an increasingly diverse workforce, since such workers need not wait
until reaching higher organizational levels before being allowed to contribute
meaningfully.
Participation also seems to help satisfy the awakening employee need for
meaning and fulfillment at work. Organizations have found that employees are
searching for a sense of significance, the opportunity to use their minds and a chance
to devote their efforts to a higher purpose in their work. Meaningful participation can
help satisfy those needs.
Participation practices are noteworthy. The educational level of the
workforce often provides workers with unique capacities that can be applied
creatively to work problems. These employees have also acquired both a desire for
influencing work-related decisions and an expectation that they will be allowed to
participate in these decisions.
Below are the forces affecting the greater use of participation:
1. Research results
2. Productivity-improvement pressures
3. Utilization of workforce diversity
4. Employee desires for meaning
5. Employee desire and expectations
6. Ethical Arguments.
HOW PARTICIPATION WORKS
• The Participation Process
Situation
Participation
programs
Involvement (Mental &
Emotional)
Outcomes for Organization (higher output, higher quality, innovation etc) and
Employees (Acceptance, Self-efficacy, less stress and satfaction).
The figure 8.3 indicates that in many situations participative programs result in
mental and emotional involvement that produces generally favorable outcomes for
both the employees and the organization.
• The Impact on Managerial Power
Leader-Member Exchange. Participation is a sharing process between managers and
employees which is built upon the leader-member exchange 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, the employee contributes various
degrees of task performance, loyalty and respect to the manager.
Two Views of Power. Participation may increase the power of both managers and
their employees. See table FIGURE 8.4 below:
Autocratic View Power
1. Is a fixed amount
2. Comes from the authority
structure
3. Is applied by management
4. Flows downward
Participative View Power
1. Is a variable amount
2. Comes from people through both
official and unofficial channels
3. Is applied by shared ideas and
activities in a group
4. Flows in all directions
• Prerequisites for Participation
Major prerequisites are as follows (can refer to FIGURE 8.5):
1. Employees must have enough time to participate before action is required.
2. The potential benefits of participation should be greater than the cots.
3. The subject of participation must be relevant and interesting to the employees.
4. The participants should have the mental capacity such as intelligence and
technical knowledge to participate.
5. The participants must be mutually able to participate and communicate.
6. Neither party should feel that its position is threatened by participation.
7. Participation for deciding a course of action in an organization can take place
only within the group’s area of job freedom.
• Contingency Factors
Several contingency factors influence the success of participative programs that
can be found in the environment, the organization, its leadership, the nature of tasks
performed, or the employees.
1. Emotional Intelligence: Leader’s emotional intelligence, which is a
combination of two personal abilities—self-awareness and self-management—
and two social competencies—social awareness and relationship management.
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 benefits of all.
2. Differing Employee Needs for Participation: Some employees desire more
participation than others. Educated and higher-level workers often seek more
participation because they feel more prepared to make useful contributions.
And some other employees desire only a minimum of participation and are not
upset if they are not actively involved. When employees want more
participation than they have, there is “underparticipation”. In opposite
situation, when they have more participation than they want, there is
“overparticipation”.
3. Responsibilities of Employees and Managers: A degree to which all
employees recognize that the opportunities provided are accompanied by a set
of responsibilities. Ideally, all employees would agree to:
1. Be fully responsible for their actions and their consequences.
2. Operate within the relevant organizational policies.
3. Be contributing team members.
4. Respect and seek to use the perspectives of others.
5. Be dependable and ethical in their empowered actions.
6. Demonstrate responsible self-leadership.
These responsibilities of employees provide a balance to those of the manager:
1. Identifying the issues to be addressed.
2. Specifying the level of involvement desired.
3. Providing relevant information and training (in advance).
4. Allocating fair rewards.
PROGRAMS FOR PARTICIPATION
An array of programs, ranging roughly from modest to more substantial in
their degree of participation: Suggestion programs, quality circles, total quality
management, self-managing teams and employee ownership plans.
• Suggestion Programs
They are formal plans to invite individual employees to recommend work
improvements. 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. The
suggestions are screened for applicability and cost-benefit ratio, resulting in an
acceptance rate of about 25% in most organizations.
• Quality Emphasis: Quality Circles and Total Quality Management
1. Quality Circles: Voluntary groups will receive training in process
improvements and problem-solving skills and then meet to produce ideas for
improving productivity and working conditions. Quality circles provide
opportunities for personal growth, achievement and recognition.
To be successful, quality circles should be used according to these guidelines:
1. Use them for measureable, short-term problems.
2. Obtain continuous support from top management.\
3. Apply the group’s skills to problems within the circle’s work area.
4. Train supervisors in facilitation skills.
5. View quality circles as one starting point for other more participative
approaches to be used in the future.
2. Total Quality Management:
Some quality-circle groups felt isolated in their efforts, and they could not see
their impact on the larger groups. In response to this checkered experience and
continued competitive pressures, several firms have initiated a total quality
management (TQM). The TQM approach gets every employee involved in the
process of searching for continuous improvements in their operations. Quality
of product and service becomes a rallying cry for employees to focus on.
• Self Managing Teams
Self-managing team works are natural work groups that are given a large
degree of decision-making autonomy; they are expected to control their own behavior
and results. A key feature is the diminished role of a manager as the team members
learn to acquire new skills.
• Employee Ownership Plans
Employee ownership of a firm emerges when employees provide the capital to
purchase control of an existing operation. The stimulus comes from threatened
closings of marginally profitable plants where workers see little hope of other
employment in a devastated local economy.
Employee ownership has been tried in diverse industries, such as plywood,
meat packing, steel and furniture manufacturing. This plan appears to offer the highest
degree of participative decision making, as employees take control. Better
management, heightened morale and improved productivity have all been predicted to
follow.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION IN PARTICIPATION
• Benefits of Participation
1. Participation typically brings higher output and a better quality of output.
2. Participation tends to improve motivation because employees feel more
accepted by their employer and more actively involved in the situation.
3. The results often are reduced stress and conflicts, more commitment to
goals and better acceptance of change.
4. Organizational changes can often be implemented more rapidly.
5. Participation establishes better communication as people mutually discuss
work problems.
• Limitations of Participation
These are the forces affecting the lesser use of participation:
1. Theory X beliefs by managers.
2. Lack of support from higher levels.
3. Managerial fear of lost: power, status, control
4. Lack of adequate training for managers and employees.
5. Problems encountered in early stages.
6. Substantial efforts needed to implement.
• Managerial Concerns about Participation
Some managers have difficulty adjusting to their new roles in a highinvolvement system. They may fear losing their former stats as key decision makers
or they may be concerned they will have less power and control than previously.
Managers need to start relinquishing their roles of judge and critic and begin
viewing themselves as partners with employees. Their new role invites them to view
themselves as stewards (caretakers, guardians and developers) of a broad range of
human and technical resources. 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 goal of servant leadership is to help others develop their talents fully,
make meaningful contributions and succeed. To accomplish this, servant leaders
typically exhibit several key behaviors which they:
1. Listen actively and empathetically.
2. Engage in introspection to understand better their own attitudes and feelings.
3. Treat others with respect as equals.
4. Admit mistakes, confess their own vulnerability, and ask for help from others.
5. Seek to engage in dialogue and often paraphrase to ensure understanding.
6. Affirm the worth and contributions of each participant.
7. Build trust by articulating their values and acting consistently with them.
8. Place great emphasis on helping other people succeed.
• Concluding Thoughts
Despite its limitations, participation generally has achieved substantial success
and popularity. It is not the answer to all organization problems, but experience does
show its general usefulness. Participation has been so successful in practice that it has
become widely accepted in more advanced nations and will become an important tool
in the progress of developing nations.
