A Framework for Employee Participation

One of the truly perplexing problems we face as we go through life is that we cannot always prove, with facts and figures, all of our opinions and ideas.

Many things in life we have to accept at face value or on the basis of sheer faith alone. For example, what about the advantages to be derived from going to college? Can we actually prove conclusively that one will have a better life if he obtains an academic degree and becomes a lawyer, businessman or politician? The answer is fairly and squarely a simple-no, he cannot. But he can obviously assume that a college education will help him to achieve goals that will make him a more satisfied and happy person since research indicates that this does happen for many college graduates.

The same thing can be said of quite a few of the practices and procedures that one uses as a manager or executive in the business world. Everything cannot simply be measured in terms of dollars and cents, in inches and feet, or in terms of absolute cost. In short, the benefits to be derived from many practices and policies have to be assumed and taken for granted. Certain indirect measurements are frequently utilized, but exclusive reliance upon them is not feasible.

Employee fringe benefits are a good example for this. Although management assumes that benefits contribute to productivity and morale, the extent of their contribution cannot be directly and exactly ascertained. The theory behind securing employee participation in group endeavor is of the same nature. It remains an impossibility to measure or calculate exactly the benefits attained by running an organization on a participative-democratic basis rather than on a highly autocratic basis.

Because the best measurement we have to date is accomplishment, it is along these lines that leading enterprises of today's economy, utilizing participative management rank first and foremost in terms of profits, assets, research and development, and so on. These companies have devised ways and means for achieving ego-involvement on the part of workers within the organization.

In summary, the psychologists have proven most conclusively that people are more creative, exhibit greater degrees of initiative, and become more responsible when given the opportunity to express themselves and share in the decision affecting them. Not only is this true of our society as a whole, but also of industry as well. Industry will be the bigger beneficiary, if they allow employees to participate actively.