Empowerment &

Participation

Human Behavior in Organization

Explain the nature of empowerment and its
prerequisites

Illustrate participative process

Evaluate the benefits of participation

Examine the benefits of participation

LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
 Most organizations have employees who are dependent on others and that their
own efforts will have little impact on performance

The feeling of powerlessness contributes to the experience of low self- efficacy

Rationale
--Low self- efficacy is the feeling of people that they cannot successfully perform
their jobs or make meaningful contributions
 Causes of
Major organizational changes
Low Self-
Authoritarian leader
Efficacy
Ineffective reward system

Lack of job variety

 EMPOWERING PEOPLE
 EMPOWERMENT is any process that
provides greater autonomy to employees
through the sharing of relevant in formation
and the provision of control over factors
affecting job performance
 It helps remove the conditions that cause
powerlessness while enhancing employees
feeling of self-efficacy
 Authorizes employees to cope with situations
and enables them to take control of problems
as they arise
1. Helping employees achieve job
mastery
2. Allowing more control
3. Providing successful role models
4. Using social reinforcement and Five
persuasion broad
5. Giving emotional support approaches
to empowerment
 Process of Empowerment

Remove conditions of
powerlessness
• Changes
• Leadership
• Reward system Perception of
• job Empowerment EFFECTIVESNESS
• Competence
• Autonomy
Enhance job- related self • Job meaning
efficacy • Sense of impact SATISFACTION
• Job mastery
• Control &accountability
• Role models
• Reinforcement
• Support
 What Does Participation Mean?

3 Elements:
-is the mental and emotional
involvement of people in group  Involvement
situations that encourages them  Contribution
to contribute to group goals and  Responsibility
share responsibility for them
 3 Important Ideas

 Involvement Participation means meaningful (ego) involvement rather

than mere muscular activity

 Contribution Employees are empowered to release their own resources of

initiative and creativity toward the objectives of organization

 Responsibility Participation encourages people to accept responsibility in

their group’s activities
Factors affecting Greater use of
PARTICIPATION

Research results P
A
Productivity Improvement R
Measures T
I
Utilization of Workplace
C
Diversity
I
Employee desires for P
Meaning A
Employees desire and T
expectation I
O
Ethical Arguments
N
 How participation works

SITUATION
OUTCOMES
*ORGANIZATION:
-HIGHER OUTPUT
-BETTER QUALITY
-CREATIVITY
INVOLVEMENT
PARTICIPARTIVE -INNOVATION
*MENTAL
PROGRAMS
*EMOTIONAL *EMPLOYEES:
-ACCEPTANCE
-SELF – EFFICACY
-LESS STRESS
-SATISFACTION
 
 I M P A C T OF M A N A G E R I A L P O W E R
*Leader- member exchange
- participation is a sharing process between managers and employees
-built upon leader- member exchange model of leadership
-leader selectively delegates, informs and consult while subordinates contributes to task performance

TWO VIEWS OF POWER AND INFLUENCE

-increased power of both managers and their employees
 PREREQUISITES FOR EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION

*Adequate time to participate

*Potential benefits greater than cost

*Relevance to employee interest

*Adequate employee abilities to deal with the subject

*Mutual ability to communicate

*No feeling of threat to either party

*Restriction to the area of a job problem

 Contingency factors
influence the success of Participative programs

Emotional Intelligence Needs Responsibilities

 Contingency factors

1. Leader’s Emotional intelligence

 combination of abilities – to be aware of and

understand one’s own feelings, to realize why one is
feeling that way, and to manage one’s emotions
effectively

 it uses leader’s empathy, compassion, optimism,

humor, integrity, caring, and persuasiveness to build
the kind of relationship with employees
 Contingency factors
2. Differing Employee needs for Participation
► Some employees desire more participation than others

►Educated and higher level workers often seek more participation

► The difference between an employee’s desire and actual participation

gives measures of the potential effectiveness of participation..

*”participatively deprived”- underparticipation

* participatively saturated”- overparticipation
Contingency factors
 Contingency factors
3. Responsibilities of Employees and Managers
 The degree to which all employees recognize that the opportunities provided are
accompanied by set of responsibilities
 Benefits of participation
 Brings higher output and a better quality of output

 Participation tends to improve motivation because employees feel more

accepted by their employer and more actively involved in the situation

 Participation establishes better communication as a people mutually

discuss work problems

 Once the organizational culture is changed, then the systems as a

whole becomes more effective

 **the benefits may be slow but…once company adopted participative management, it

predicted 10 years would be needed to achieve the full effect
 Programs for participation

 Some organizations give their managers some discretion to choose which program to
use; other organizations mandate a particular approach throughout the company

 Participative management is used when a company uses either an approach with

widespread application or as sufficient number of programs
 SELECTIVE TYPES OF
PARTICIPATIVE PROGRAMS

SUGGESTION QUALITY TOTAL QUALITY

PROGRAMS CIRCLES MANAGEMENT

SELF- MANAGING EMPLOYEE

TEAMS OWNERSHIP PLANS
 SELECTIVE TYPES OF
PARTICIPATIVE PROGRAMS

Suggestion programs

 are formal plans to invite individual

employees to recommend work
improvements (e.g. cost- savings)

 Limited to individual initiative

instead of group problem solving
 Quality Emphasis: Quality circles and TQM
Quality circles- voluntary groups that
receive training in statistical techniques and
improve problem solving skills to improve
productivity and working conditions
- meet regularly and generate solutions

Key to successful quality circles

 Use them for measurable, short term problems
 Obtain continuous support from management
 Apply the group’s skills to problems
 Train supervisors in facilitating skills
Quality Emphasis: Quality circles and TQM

 An approach which gets employees involved

in the process of searching for continuous
improvements

 Employees are provided with extensive

training in problem solving, group decision
making, and statistical method
 Quality Emphasis: Quality circles and TQM
Importance of Total Quality
Total quality performance that is directly related to health care safety, security, attitude of staff, role of doctors in
terms of “time” includes appointment, delay time, serviced time, timing with regards to treatment and surgery
-Quality of administration and management
-Quality of doctors and supporting staff
-Quality of hospital care
 Self-Managing Teams

 Natural work groups that are

given a large degree of
decision making autonomy;
expected to control their own
behaviour and results
 Employee Ownership Plans

 Employees provides the

capital to purchase control of
an existing operation
 Limitations of Participation

DECREASED PARTICIPATION

Theory x Managerial fear of lost Problems

belief of power, control and encountered in early
status stages
Lack of Support
from higher Lack of adequate training
for managers and Substantial effort
levels needed to
employees
implement
 Managerial Concerns about Participation
Servant Leader’s Key Behaviours

-They listen actively

-They treat others with respect

-They seek to engage in dialogue and often paraphrase to ensure

understanding

-They affirm the worth and contributions of each participant

-They are willing to admit mistakes and ask for help

-They place a great emphasis on helping other people succeed

 Managerial Concerns about Participation

 Difficulty of some managers to adjust to their new roles in a high involvement system

 Lack of preparation either managers or employees

 Shift managers role from judge and critic to partners and

employees
 Essence of servant leadership places the need of others above one’s
own self
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