What is employee involvement and why is it important? What are the two major forms of employee involvement?
Employee involvement is defined as a participative process that uses the entire capacity of employees and is designed to encourage increased commitment to the organization's success. The underlying logic is that by involving workers in those decisions that affect them and by increasing their autonomy and control over their work lives, employees will become more motivated, more committed to the organization, more productive, and more satisfied with their jobs. The two major forms of employee involvement are:
a) Participative management. Participative management programs use joint decision making. Subordinates actually share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.
b) Representative participation. Representative participation refers to worker representation by a small group of employees who actually participate on the board. The goal is to redistribute power within an organization, putting labor on a more equal footing with the interests of management and stockholders.