One of the best approaches to management, employee participation is literally the best method to get your company to become more bright and successful in the near future.
But like other style of decisions making, there could be other limitations as well. Such limitations may arise either internally or externally depending on the implementation.
In this post, we are going to discuss with you everything about employee participation, including its advantages and disadvantages.
Keep reading to find out what they are and how you can implement this plan in the future.
What is Employee Participation?
Employee participation, also known as participative management is an effective tool which can be used to motivate all employees.
When the subordinates have been involved in the process of decision making at all levels, it is also known as participation.
According to New Storm, the participation happens to be the emotional and mental involvement of people who happen to be in group situations which will encourage them to contribute towards group goals and also share some responsibility with them.
| Advantages of Employee Participation | Disadvantages of Employee Participation |
| It motivates the other person | Risks of security |
| Costs less and handles time | Objections may come from the union |
| Makes you more creative | Management authority that is traditional |
| Boosts influence and capacity | |
| Proper work environment |
Advantages of Employee Participation:
Here are the top seven advantages that come with employee participation! You will be surprised knowing the number of benefits that it comes with.
1. It motivates the other person:
With employee participation automatically comes motivation. When you are participating with a group of others in an environment, you will create an environment that is more positive.
The employees may also have the chances of showing more creativity as well as analytical ability.
Such opportunities shall make them all the more motivated.
If you are working in an environment that is motivated and enthusiastic, there are bigger chances of seeing positivity and changes. After all, that is what we want to see.
2. Costs less and handles time:
Another benefit of employee participation is that it costs less time and much lesser money.
In fact, it is one of the most simple and effective ways to handle money without having to waste too much time. After all, that is what participatory decisions do.
So you will have much lesser time in order to implement them. And at the cost of such participation, you will be able to benefit the case of entire success participation.
3. Makes you more creative:
The third benefit of employee participation is that it makes you more creative and innovative. In fact, these two happen to be some of the biggest and most essential benefits that come with participative management.
By simply allowing a diverse group of people to have input into making decisions, the organization benefits from the synergy come with a much wider range of options as well.
When all the employees instead of executives and managers have the opportunity to participate, the chances will also increase at the same time.
4. Boosts influence and capacity:
Employee participation also boosts mutual faith, cooperation, and understanding. In that way, the employees will hardly have any disagreements with the decisions of the manager.
It will indicate that the manager may easily influence the employees so that various other decisions can be implemented.
When people are participating together and work, they are able to boost capacity easily and influence each other in a much positive and better way.
5. Proper work environment:
With effective management and employee participation comes a proper working environment.
The manager will listen more to their staff, ask some of their friends for a few opinions and take them more seriously.
Apart from that, the employees will also consider getting themselves into a part of some organization. This will result in a better and much more positive environment at workplace.
6. Makes a more effective decision:
Finally, we come to the topic of a decision. With effective employee participation, you will also be able to make better decisions which help in creating and selecting the best alternatives.
For every single problem, different people will give you different kinds of solutions. And that will benefit the workplace that you are in drastically.
Therefore the participation shall facilitate the process of decision making.
7. Boosts productivity as well:
The best part of employee participation is that it will boost productivity in the working environment.
An increased say in decision making will always mean that there is a strong feeling of association now. There shall be employees who will take responsibility of their actions and take charge of what they have done.
The working hours shall be stretched out easily on its own and the force from the management shall also be handled easily. All of this shall easily lead to and boost productivity.
Other Benefits of Employee Participation:
1. To make use of human capital:
Co-operative management will not restrict the organizations to exploit the physical capital of such employees.
Instead of making the best use of human intelligence as well as emotional capital, it will also give all employees a good opportunity to contribute all of these ideas as well as suggestions which will improve the process of business and create an environment which is better.
2. Meeting the psychological needs of employees:
When the employees have some say in the decision-making process, it will give them some sort of psychological satisfaction.
It will also give a simple force that will drive them towards boosting and improving their performance, creating a good channel and communication and coming up with a practical and better solution that can design even better organizational processes.
3. Retaining the best talents:
Also, another benefit of employee participation is that it will become the most effective strategies to find talent within the industry.
It will also give the employees a sense of pride to have some say in the process of decision making. Others have been valued by the seniors.
They will stick towards the organization and become much better management partners in meeting a few goals and achieve better success. Finally, it is the best when it comes to boosting productivity inside the industry.
In the competitive world that we live in, the job security, as well as high pay packages, are not good enough for boosting the productivity of the industry. What also matters alongside is industrial democracy and authority.
Disadvantages of Employee Participation:
Unlike the advantages, the disadvantages of employee participation are plenty. Keep reading to find out what they are!
Despite being one of the best methods of management in companies, it also comes with several disadvantages you must learn about.
1. Risks of security:
The sad part of employee participation is that it comes with security risks. Typically, this also means that sharing critical data and information with a larger chunk of employees.
Most of the information is needed to make bigger decisions and is always of a sensitive nature and the company may have some concerns about the employees that are speaking about it outside the organization as well.
The more people who know about sensitive information, the higher there will be a risk of getting out.
2. Objections may come from the union:
There could be a few objections from the union as well. There are some labor representatives who are concerned that the organization shall use the participation of employees or program of involvement that may deter the employees from using the independent union representation.
The law must also continue to stop companies from setting up labor organizations.
It must also be a proper labor practice for employees to be able to establish programs that can use or even manipulate an existing one with the whole idea of frustrating the efforts of the employees so that they may obtain independent representation.
3. Management authority that is traditional:
Another huge disadvantage that comes with participative management is that all employees end up having a hard time when it comes to finding the distinction between employment levels and management.
While removing the defined barrier between the management as well as the employees, it happens to be a part of the management and purpose, the company will have to designate the leaders to avoid the potential for uncertainty and chaos of command when the situations are challenging.
Conclusion:
This brings the post to an end. If you have enjoyed reading the article and found some benefit from it, do let us know in the form of comments.
We always love to hear from you. But if you go by our suggestion, we would recommend you to have a proper and thorough discussion with your colleagues before you come to a final decision.
Plus do remember that employee participation can never work in isolation. It also involves every member of the organization. Plus no single member from the employee group shall be left out.
A few limitations could arise when one group is left out, there shall be some communication gap indeed.
