Participatory Approach In Motivation
Kedar Prasad Bhandari
In human resource management, the participatory approach has been considered an important tool in motivating employees. The participatory approach, also known as participative management, is a process in which the subordinates involve in the decision-making function with their immediate superior. Complex jobsIn the recent decades, there has been a paradigm shift in the management of human resource. In Nepal, participatory approach can be said to have begun with the financial sector reforms in the mid-1980s. Propelled by liberalisation and globalisation, the participatory approach received more prominence in an institutional manner after 1990.
The Local Self-Governance Act can also be taken as an initiative for promoting participatory management at the government level. Today, jobs have become extremely complex. So it is difficult for managers to know everything what their employees do. In fact, participative management empowers the subordinates who know the actual problem and can contribute to make better decisions. Decision-making is not an easy job for managers. They have to win the confidence of all the employees working in their organisations. It is necessary to consult the employees of different inter-dependent departments to bring uniformity in their performance.
This helps develop the concept of team, committee and group meetings to resolve complex problems. Employees do not undermine a decision during implementation as they have been involved in making that decision. Participation provides intrinsic rewards for the employees, and it makes their jobs more interesting and meaningful. Broadly, there are two means of motivating employees through their participation: Quality of Work Life and Self-managed Work Team. Quality of work life is defined as an attempt to develop a formal programme to integrate the employees' needs and well-being with the intention of improving productivity, greater worker empowerment and higher level of job satisfaction. It supports a highly democratic treatment of employees at all levels and encourages them in the decision-making process. Its emphasis is on maintaining a quality working environment for the employees. A quality working environment includes financial incentives, opportunity to develop personal skills and ability, safety working conditions, and the opportunity to participate in problem solving and decision-making.
In essence, there are three means through which Quality of Work Life (QWL) can be improved. The Quality Circle (QC) is a concept first started in Japan in the early 1960s to improve the quality of products. Quality circles consist of work teams composed of 8-10 employees from the same work area who meet regularly to define, analyse and solve quality and work-related problems in their specific area of operation. The membership is strictly voluntary, and meetings are usually held once a week, normally for an hour before or after the job is over.
An organisation may have several Quality Circles operating at a time to deal with different people in different areas. The members are given some form of training in problem solving to work effectively. The Quality Circle is designed to improve the working conditions and enable self-development of the employees. The focus of the Quality Circle is to encourage the employees to accept responsibility for improving quality. The Quality Circle is effective in bringing about a short-term improvement in the quality of work life, but it is less effective in creating more permanent changes. Sharing of ownership by the employees is another emerging concept in participatory management. It is a plan in which the employees are offered ownership of the organisation as a benefit package. This may be done by stimulating them to buy equity shares.
It has become an important tool in motivating the employees.It is believed that if the employees own the shares of an organisation, they would be motivated to work effectively to increase the value of their shares. Similarly, as both owner and employees can participate in meetings, they can put forward their views, ideas, and opinions while making decisions. Business organisations in Nepal are also adopting the concept of employee ownership. Most of the joint stock companies offer 5 per cent of their public issued shares to the employees. Moreover, the concept of a flexible work schedule has developed in the recent years. In this plan, employees are allowed to choose their own arrival and departure times within specified limits fixed by the organisation.
Basically, the work time is divided into two groups: 'core time' and 'flexitime'. During the core time, all the employees must be present in the office, but in flexitime, the employees are free to select their own starting and departure time based on their convenience. Flexitime is popular in the USA. In flexitime, employees may involve in personal works like payment of utility bills, visiting children's schools and banks. This system is helpful in reducing absenteeism, overtime payment, employees' turnover and provides convenience to the employees. Another concept that has emerged in the recent years is Self-managed Work Team. It is also known as self-directed autonomous work groups consisting of 5-15 members. It is a formal group of employees that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process.
All the members of the team are skilled in their own area of profession. The team members are jointly responsible for performing the task. They are responsible for planning and scheduling works, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions and taking action on problems.Team members perform their work independently through mutual participation so it provides a higher level of job satisfaction. In such team work, the role of the supervisor decreases and may even be eliminated. It allows sufficient time to the manager to involve in creative managerial functions. Today the Self-managed Work Team concept is popular in most of the business organisations.Participatory approach in new context In fact, participatory approach is based on democratic norms. Given the changed context, Nepalese entrepreneurs and managers should try to include all the employees working in an organisation. The participatory approach should be given focus in the changed context in order to democratise the entire organisational system and accelerate productivity for faster economic development through wider participation.
No comments:
Post a Comment