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Employee Involvement in Decision Making

In general, involving employees in making decisions seems like it would be a wise approach to managing. Often, involvement results in better decisions and positive employee outcomes, such as increased motivation and satisfaction, and lower turnover. However, involving employees isn't the answer in all situations.

In this exercise, you'll review what are referred to as the "contingencies of employee involvement." These are factors that determine whether involving employees is a good idea. In this activity, you'll try to correctly apply the model of employee involvement in decision making. As you complete this exercise, reflect on times when you've been invited to participate in decisions. Have those who requested your involvement correctly followed the prescribed approach? If so$,$ did the predicted benefits follow?

Employee involvement $($also known as participative management$)$ refers to the degree to which employees influence how their work is organized and carried out. Employee involvement can create benefits such as better problem identification, more and better choices generated, a greater likelihood of selecting the best alternative, and stronger employee commitment to the decision. Whether these benefits occur depends on the structure of the decision, the source of decision knowledge, the level of commitment to the decision, and the risk of conflict.

Read the following scenario and then determine whether to involve employees in making the decision. Your correct understanding of employee involvement will generate a strategy with the appropriate level of participation by your employees.

You are an assistant manager at a large manufacturing facility. You supervise $14$ employees who assemble large electric motors that are used in everything from amusement park roller coasters to airport luggage conveyor systems. Recently, you received some good news. The general plant manager has authorized you to replace some of the assembly machinery in your work area. Since your employees have been complaining about the old machinery for months, you are very excited about this development. At the same time, you are a little concerned. Opportunities to replace machinery come only every few years, so the choice you make now will have an impact on your work for some time.

One dilemma you have is whether to involve your employees in selecting the new machinery. Your intuition tells you it would probably be a good idea, but you've seen employee involvement seriously backfire in other places in the company. For instance, two years ago a human resources manager asked workers to help design a new benefits plan. The plan they came up with was admittedly unreasonable, probably because they had no expertise in the area and created a "luxury" plan for themselves that no company could afford. Still, asking for their input and then completely dismissing it when it came had a lasting negative effect on morale. In contrast, employees in the shipping department were never consulted before construction of the new receiving dock began, and the costly revisions that eventually had to be made could have been avoided with input from the people who actually worked there.

In each of the following questions, you'll learn a little bit more about the decision you need to make. Use the model of employee involvement in decision making to determine your answers. Answering the questions correctly will allow you to determine the appropriate level of employee involvement in this situation.

In replacing the machine, there are numerous features to consider, many of which did not exist when the original was purchased. Given this complexity, the manager should

Multiple Choice

involve employees in the decision.

not involve employees in the decision.

involve the general manager, but not the employees in the decision.