Participatory Management

Types of Employee Involvement

Participatory management systems come in many shapes and sizes depending on the answers to the following four questions: (1) Who gets to participate? (2) What decisions do they get to participate in? (3) How much authority do they have over the final decision? [Page 1568](4) Are the participants financially rewarded for improved performance?

The most common form of participation is a suggestion system. Suggestion systems can be designed for a select group of employees or all employees. The employees may provide input on one particular issue or a wide range of issues. Some suggestion systems offer financial incentives for submitting the suggestion, and some offer bonuses based on the financial impact of the suggestion. Usually, the person offering the suggestion has very little authority over the final decision. Survey feedback is another common form of limited participation where nonmanagement employees provide input but have no decisionmaking authority.

Quality circles, a group of employees who meet regularly to discuss workplace improvements, typically have greater decisionmaking authority. Quality circles usually involve a limited number of employees chosen based on their particular expertise.

A few organizations allow nonmanagement employees to sit on their boards of directors. Although the number of nonmanagement employees participating is minimal, the range of decisions they can influence is very broad.

Scanlon-type gainsharing plans provide a broad range of participatory features, including a suggestion system, participation on department decisionmaking teams, voting privileges on a review board, and a groupbased performance bonus. All employees are encouraged to submit written suggestions that can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and increase revenue. These suggestions are examined by department teams composed of nonmanagement employees based on common job tasks. The teams may consist of every nonmanagement employee in the department or elected representatives and may meet monthly, weekly, or daily. The department teams are provided a limited budget to implement suggestions that affect only them. Expensive suggestions, or interdepartmental suggestions, are forwarded to a review board composed of management and nonmanagement employees for implementation consideration. Nonmanagement employees receive group-based bonuses by surpassing historical productivity benchmarks or reducing historical cost benchmarks.

Authoritarian Roots and Justifications

Authoritarian managerial power at the workplace has a long history that includes the institution of slavery in Greece, Rome, and the United States. As is evident in the writings of the Social Darwinians, authoritarianism is a deserving reward for successfully climbing the organizational ladder.

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