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 machinery, there are numerous features to consider, many of which did not exist when the original machinery was purchased.

Given this complexity, the manager should