Meribeni Ngullie
Asst. Prof., Dept. of English, St. Joseph’s College, Jakhama
Organization uses a variety of programs aimed at increasing employee participation. All the different program/task have one major objective and that is to increase employee participation. Participative management is the type of management in which employees at all levels are encouraged to contribute ideas towards identifying and setting organizational goals, problem solving, and other decisions that may directly affect them. It is also called consultative management. It increases performance, job enrichment, motivation and total quality management and empowerment. According to Davis, “it is mental and emotional involvement of a person in a group situation which encourages him to contribute to goals and share responsibilities in them.”
Participative management facilitates meaningful communication and ensures cordial relations. It is beneficial to both the parties i.e., the employers and the employees. Its main function is to make an organization more effective as well as more efficient. Effectiveness of management can be conceived in terms of six main aspects: interest and concern; communication, particularly listening; self-control; negotiation, and conflict resolution. If personnel are engaged in work which they find interesting, challenging and worthwhile, they feel proud to be associated with such work. One of the main functions of management may be to create such a sense of challenge and worthwhileness in the work that people are engaged in. Similarly, work should be regarded as a joy and not drudgery. The feeling of growth comes when work becomes increasing more challenging and socially relevant and people are required to stretch their energies in order to cope with such positive challenges. If work ceases to grow, develop, and motivate, an individual’s commitment to it goes down. The employees feel motivated if given an opportunity to express his views and given due importance by the management while framing policies since they are engaged in management. This leads to self-esteem, job satisfaction and cooperation of employees with management. It reduces conflicts and stress, resulting in commitment to goals and better acceptance to change. It results in better communication as work problems are mutually discussed.
Effective decision making correct identification of a problem, designing alternative methods to solve the problems or even collection of information, evaluating the alternative methods and also collected information providing choice of alternative decision and follow up the decisions to generate feedback. Several factors influence the process of decision making, such as the nature of the decision itself, nature of task, time limitation, availability of information and resources, the personality of the decision maker, etc. Effectiveness of a decision depends not only on how good a decision is, but also on how it is taken. Many good decisions sometimes do not yield the results that are expected because the decisions have been taken without involvement of people who are to implement them. Such involvement helps in improving the quality of decision making process and increases commitment of the employees for implementing decisions in which they have contributed. The style of decision making is determined to a large extend by the leader’s personality and the belief and attitude the leader has towards his subordinates. Decisions making styles influence the development of the subordinate to a great extent. For instance, an authoritarian leader may arouse strong negative reaction if he/she attempts to constantly dictate to his/her subordinates. The same authoritarian leader may do well with subordinates who are dependent or are just beginning to learn the role assigned to them. Similarly, a democratic leader may be respected by both capable and incompetent subordinates. It is also necessary to have certain dynamic characteristics in the behavior of the leader. Most of the employees are satisfied with their jobs and the level of satisfaction increase when they see their suggestions and recommendations being implemented or put to practice. This tells that he is an integral component of the organization and not mere worker.
While working together to accomplish certain tasks, it is possible and natural to come across many conflicting situations. In order to manage such conflicts and ensure team work, it is desirable to understand the dynamics of collaboration in such conflicts. Such collaborative climate is characterized by a culture of openness, mutuality, trust, empathy and interpersonal sensitivity in the organization.
Ultimately, the purpose of management model is to maximize efficiency by adopting it. It not only renders management more effective, but it provides the entire staff with a greater understanding of leadership, which they can transfer to other roles within the organization or even take with them to new settings. Poor implementation of participative management models can cause serious resentment among employees. Participative management is not weakness, it takes character to apply. It does not mean giving up authority but delegate authority with suitable amount of responsibility and accountability. It does not mean giving up decision making but delegate the amount of decision making which is appropriate under the circumstances. Therefore, the relevance of participative management is so enormous which can lead to motivation, innovation, growth and enjoyment, etc. Hence, organization can prosper to a greater level if participative management is adopted open heartedly.
