Semco

1. Introduction
The purpose of this report is to analyze the key management issue for the company
Semco within the case study ‘Radical Leadership’ (Cavanagh and Fisher 2010). The
overarching potential problem for Semco is that of participative management. For the
purpose of this report the sub issue of participative decision making will be focused on.
This report will compare and contrast the arguments that a) participative decision making
can be improved by developing a structured decision making process and b) participative
decision making can be improved by providing sufficient training and experience to staff
members so that they are able to make informed decisions. This report will then come to
a conclusion by providing recommendations based on the argument that best solves the
problem at hand.

2. Issue of Participative Management for Semco

The case study, ‘Radical Leadership’ (Cavanagh and Fisher 2010), discusses the
participative management style of ‘Semco’ a Brazilian

company that runs under the leadership of chief executive officer Ricardo Semler. Participative
management takes into account the importance of social norms such as communication, participation
and leadership (Marchant 1976), emphasized by Elton Mayo in the 1930’s (Rivera 2008). Problems
involved in participative decision making, as summarized from Riviera (2008 p3) and Greenfield (2004,)
can arise when employees do not want the responsibility of making decisions, are not educated in
decision making, aren’t experienced or knowledgeable enough to make effective choices or take
advantage of the participative decision making process to benefit themselves, not the company as a
whole.  

Supporters of participative decision making share the common belief that the extent to which
employees are able to participate in the decision making processes within a company, directly correlates
to their level of job satisfaction (McGregor 1960). Vroom (1964) describes the emphasis of job
satisfaction to...