How Can I Effectively Gather Insights on Employee Participation in Management for My Project?

Hi,

I am an MBA student and currently planning to do a small project on "Employee Participation in Management." I am planning to visit some organizations and circulate a questionnaire to collect the extent of participation prevailing and types of participation. Please help me by giving your valuable suggestions in this regard, like the type of questions that should be involved, and so on.

Waiting for a response.

Regards,
Renjusha Varma

Hi Verma,

It's a very interesting topic you've selected for your project. The key elements to be considered in your project on employee participation in management are:

- How many categories of employees are there, namely workers, supervisors, and executives (lower/middle/top level)?
- What is the nature of the industry?
- Number of employees
- Number of unions, number of recognized unions
- Status of issues of common interest such as employee benefits, career growth, welfare facilities, pension and other retirement/death-related issues, recreational facilities, etc.
- Hierarchical levels
- Literacy levels of workers (unskilled/semi-skilled/skilled)
- Status of industrial relations in the organization
- Status of motivational factors/triggers to employees by management
- The profile of representing bodies
- The status of the internal communication system within the organization and with other branches of the organization

The above is not an exhaustive list, and broadly these aspects can be taken as a base to prepare your questionnaire.

Please feel free to reach out for further queries.

Wishing you good luck.

Srinivas

Dear Srinivas,

Thanks a lot for the reply! It's been seen that in INDIA, the level of employee participation is low. I have identified a list of employee participation techniques such as:

- Joint councils
- Work teams/Cross-functional teams
- Quality Circles
- ESOPs
- Suggestion schemes

Can you please suggest any other techniques that I may have missed out on?

Regards,
Renjusha

Hi Renjusha,

In addition to the ones you had identified, the following can be added:

- Shop level/Plant Level Councils
- Productivity Councils
- Bipartite Committees (usually formed to discuss wage-related issues)
- Employee satisfaction Surveys
- Awards & Rewards Schemes
- Participative Fora viz. Partners in Progress
- Board Membership (Employee rep. on Board)

Hope to send further details on the issue.

Goodbye,
Srinivas

Hello! 😂 The real test of participation would lie in whether any permanent mechanism has been created or if it is an issue-based one (like wage revision/bonus settlement, etc.). Does the process encompass beyond monetary demands (like order book position, productivity concerns, benchmarking with competitors, etc.)?

Some of the enterprises that have succeeded in participation have made the participative fora a regular feature, holding at least 3-4 meetings at the apex level, with the process trickling down. The meetings, even at the lowest levels, are followed up. All such meetings must have an agenda, and after the meeting, action points need to be identified with specific deadlines. An important aspect is the formal mechanism evolved in some places for direct communication between the top executive and the lowest-level worker.

I hope the input is useful.

Regards, KK Nair 🙄

Participation in management has three important stages, namely:

Information sharing: Notice boards, house bulletins, etc.

Joint consultations: Where unions and management sit together and exchange views.

Participation: When both the union and management sit together to make consensus decisions.

Participation becomes possible when both the union and management are mature in their relationships and the level of trust is at its optimum. It takes a lot of preparation to reach the maturity stage. Normally, relationships remain at the information-sharing or consultation stage. Your study will reveal the stage at which the relationship exists. This aspect must be covered in your study.

Cyril

Thank you very much, Mr. Nair and Mr. Srinivas. The inputs were really useful! Today, I have an appointment with the Executive Director - H.R of one of the leading organizations here to discuss the topic. I will get back to you after that.

Regards, Renjusha

Dear Sirs,

Employees' participation in management is on the increase. Many of the policies, practices, and welfare measures are nowadays finalized after formal or informal discussions with the employees. Staff meetings are a common and regular feature in many organizations, where employees air their views on needed changes in the system, problems faced, means to combat competition, and perhaps even about quality improvement, profit maximization, expansion, economic efficiency, etc. Formally, some organizations conduct brainstorming, quality circle meetings, project review meetings, in which all who are considered capable of contributing, irrespective of hierarchical positions, get involved. Highly successful enterprises and perhaps even a few government institutions do practice the methodology of employees' participation in some key feasible areas, which may further get expanded to newer areas as well. EPM is catching up fast as an effective management practice.

With regards,

SACHI

Hi, this is Jey. I planned to do my project in HR and selected the topic "total employee involvement". So please provide me with some valuable information and guidance to prepare a questionnaire.

Regards,
Jeyapradha