The Participative Decision-Making Approach
Employees are the single most important but also underappreciated resource in a firm. Business leaders increasingly realize the need to reorient human service management strategies to guarantee competitiveness in modern dynamic business environments. Attaining human resource efficiency is one of the most sought-after objectives since it is behind organizational innovativeness and competitiveness. An organization culture that supports active employee involvement enhances productivity. Motivation plays a crucial role in establishing a participative decision-making culture within an entity. The ensuing discussion draws from the “The Supervisory Process” in Chapter Seven of the Management of Human Service Programs book, as well as other scholarly sources.
Overview of the Theories of Management
Lewis, Packard, and Lewis split “Theories of Motivation” into two major fields entailing content theories and process theories. Content theories happen to be the earliest concepts of motivation that have since undergone significant modifications. They have the greatest impact on leadership policy and practice in work environments, though the academic circles highly dispute them. They entail Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, and McClelland’s Needs theories, amongst others. For instance, the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs assesses human needs in a hierarchical approach, with higher sets of human needs coming to the fore after satisfying the lower class of needs. Process theories, on the other hand, attempt to appreciate how behaviors regarding the impact of motivation (Lewis, Packard, and Lewis, 2012). The trio discusses the expectancy theory of motivation in this regard. These concepts offer different perspectives to supervisors on ways structuring management policies to attain increased possession by workers, and thereby enhanced productivity.
The Role of a Supervisor
Human Service Supervisors, by their positions, are organizational leaders with a range of expectations and responsibilities. For example, they are educators, especially in creating awareness of organization policies and expectations. When workers or team members are new, when conditions or processes transform, or when assessing performance expectations, supervisors play crucial roles. They also serve as sponsors who offer opportunities for employees to display their strengths and talents by assuming that they have the right capabilities. They also coach team members while encouraging, explaining, correcting, or just interacting with them. During these endeavors, they collect information on personnel welfare, suggested areas of improvement, and team progress for further applications and enhancements. Supervisors, moreover, counsel their subordinates on personal issues that affect performance or threaten to induce disciplinary actions. Finally, they direct members by recommending alternatives, applying incentives on favored conduct, and chastising undesired behaviors.
The Selected Approach
The selection of a participative decision-making approach is based on how effective it performs in motivating employees and harnessing or employing their abilities. Unlike other mechanisms of motivation, the plan is less inclined on monetary sources, which results in less strain on organizational financial resources. Besides, the policy composes a natural source of motivation, satisfying the urge for recognition and belonging ranked higher on Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Often innate sources of inspiration are the most challenging to impart, yet the most effective. According to Ryan and Deci (2016), natural sources lead an employee to seek a “higher purpose,” which makes the incentive more sustainable. Still, intrinsic sources in themselves are inadequate for sustained productivity. In accomplishing immediate and urgent tasks, extrinsic sources of worker motivation that entail physiological needs become invaluable.
Benefits of the Strategy and impact on Organization Culture
Notably, participative decision-making enhances ownership by employees resulting in several organizational benefits. Studies by Lawler and Douglas (2017) show that engaged employees are more productive, as they take charge and responsibility for their engagements. Workers who are motivated are naturally more productive than those who are not. They are more tolerant of diversity, making the establishment of a participative organization culture possible. Employees are open and receptive to contributions from other quarters. They also tend to go the extra mile in their endeavors creating a boon for the organization. These workers are also more satisfied and inspired, resulting in less idling, decreased resource wastage, and increased performance. A happy and driven workforce increases service or commodity quality and competitiveness. Moreover, the resultant less need for supervision lessens management costs and frees time for focus on other value-generating operations.
Potential Drawbacks
Nevertheless, participative management is a slow, tiresome, and time-consuming process (Ryan & Deci, 2016). Supervisors must make adequate consultations before proceeding with consequential decisions. This necessity might be a threat in situations that require split-minute choices, such as in emergency cases. Moreover, the approach introduces security concerns due to the risk of the heavily involved workers disclosing confidential information to competing third-parties, including exposure of trade secrets. Instances of dissatisfied workers transferring company secrets to third parties are common. For example, Taiwanese companies in the competitive electronic microchip business have complained before of critical employees defecting to mainland China with crucial tech secrets.
Employing the Principles of Motivation in an Organization Culture
Employing the principles of motivation in an empowerment setting takes several approaches. Most importantly, it can take the form of management by objectives (MBO) in which employees participate with their supervisors in deriving objectives for their involvement in the attainment of corporate goals. Experts agree that approach works best when the supervisor and worker mutually develop objectives, not through imposition.
The tenets also support Organization Behavior Modification (OBM). Adjusting organizational behavior is not a comfortable fit, as it is often prone to rebellion from workers fearing the change of status quo. In such instances, OBM provides a mechanism in which organizations make positive reward or reinforcement that is contingent on enhancements in work-related performance. The supervisor takes into consideration the supervisee’s concerns, abilities, and interests in reinforcing behaviors selected as appropriate.
Moreover, they can apply to develop and manage reward systems. Both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards can impact behavioral change through motivation. Supervisors can design and employ these approaches selectively to achieve desired objectives.
Finally, business leaders can employ the values in projecting influence and power. They apply authority and power in their engagements in trying to persuade coworkers or enforcing the requirements of colleagues (Lawler & Douglas, 2017). For instance, if subordinate desires to succeed in a profession or job, the supervisor will have the power to influence conduct. Depending on how supervisors apply the tenets, some end up exuding more power and influence than others.
Overall, motivation is an indispensable aspect of actualizing collaborative decision-making in pursuit of optimized performance. Supervisors are coming to terms with the reality that the future of management in a competitive world will always demand active employee participation. Business leaders who manage to integrate and actualize this approach will benefit more through increased employee retention, performance, and innovativeness. The strategy will determine the organizations that succeed in the future and those that fail.
References
Lewis, J. A., Packard, T., & Lewis, M. D. (2012). Management of Human Service Programs,
Cengage Learning
Ryan R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2016). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and
new directions”, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67.
Lawler, E. & Douglas, H. (2017). Relationship of job characteristics to job involvement,
Satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation, Journal of Applied Psychology, 54(1), 305-312