Employee Involvement, Employee Programs in Organization Performance - Case Study Example

Employee involvement, employee programs in organization performance Employee Involvement According to Sridevi (2010) employee involvement is denoted as a philosophy of management and leadership that gives an explanation on how individuals are fully enabled to give their contribution towards the continuous improvement and success in their place of work. In a study conducted by Singh and Dixit (2011) employee involvement is an area that focuses more on human resource management facets that are mandated to address the needs of employees in an appropriate manner. Additionally, Dundon et al. (2004) argue that employee involvement is a strong concept that demonstrates a positive organizational performance built through a close relationship between a employer and employee, which is achieved through employee involvement programs. As such, Gual and Ricart (2001) point out that employee involvement should be a platform where employer and employee are anticipated play roles that are designed to improve the organization performance at all levels. In the study conducted by Podsakoff et al. ( 2000), the actual ideas in employee involvement revolves around getting individuals to contribute in most aspects of work decisions and planning since when involved, they feel emotionally attached to the organisation. As a result, when employee increases mental ownership and commitment, the employer is able to retain the handpicked performing employees and there is fostered environment where people prefer being motivated and contributing. Apparently, an investigation carried out by Dunlop and Lee (2014) illustrates the concept of employee involvement as one comprising of three sub concepts necessary in mending gaps that might exist between employee involvement and organization performance. These aspects comprise of employee commitment, employment satisfaction, and organizational citizen behavior. Firstly, it is worth noting that employment satisfaction is mostly influenced by what people expect from their work places such as pay, prestige, security and performance. In this regard, it is the employer’s mandate to guarantee that the employee receives both intrinsic and extrinsic employment satisfaction. Secondly, there should be employee commitment particularly in the work they have been assigned. Thomas (2003) argues that most high performing organizations take much responsibility in their employee commitment as an imperative factor that determines long term success and creates value for the organization. Similarly, committed employees display excitement while performing their work resulting to increased organizational interest. Thirdly, there should be organizational citizen behavior from employees that demonstrates that they not only deal with requirements of their employment satisfaction but also value the organization in terms of benefits. Of importance to note is that employee involvement must be sort after by any organization. In a study conducted by Tanaka (2004), any organization’s manager must be capable of creating a highly engaged work force through empowerment programs, promoting and encouraging teamwork and collaboration, assisting employees grow and develop, ascertaining that efforts are aligned with strategy. In addition, they should provide support and recognition where necessary. Employee involvement programs Representative program This kind of a program entails allowing employees to form small groups of representatives that aid the decision making of the organisation (Saks 2011). Matters that can be addressed using this program regard operational management and employee welfare. Soni 2013 noted that consultation of employees during important decision making is prioritised especially on matters concerning employee working conditions and organisation’s operations. Coca-cola serves as an example of companies with this kind of a program. The company engages its employees through constructive dialogue fostered by employee engagement representative groups to make them feel they are part of the company. Employee stock ownership programs This kind of a program involves allowing employees to be share holders of the organisation (Manonmani et al 2013). However, the percentages of the shares they can buy from the organisation are predetermined to control their participation in the decision making. This program makes employees to have a feeling of being part of the organisation and would do everything possible to improve organisation growth to safeguard the value of their shares (Singh and Panda 2010; Abraham 2012). In addition, when decisions on matters concerning employees are made, their welfare is represented since they are considered as a section of the organisation owners (Kumar and Swetha 2011). Starbucks stock investment plan allows employees opportunity to buy company stock. After 3 months of employment, employees can become eligible for the plan. A discount of 5% is given to employees in this program. Quality circle program This program entails forming a group of employees mandated to meet regularly to deliberate on the quality issues, causes evaluation, search for solutions, and take the initiative of executing correct actions (Zajkowska 2012). For example, Ram and Prabhakar 2011 noted that, when an organisation records a decline in sales, such a program can help the organisation in identifying the problem and offer solution to the same. In addition, the program create room for employees come up with proposals on how to better the operation of the organisation and new innovative ways of improving performance and quality of product or services offered (Macey and Schneider 2008). Apple introduced “Blue Sky” programs that allow its employees to spend some time outside their normal routine to enable them deliberate on areas of improvement in regard to their own performance. Work councils program This program allows nomination or election of employees who must be consulted when an organisation is making decisions pertaining employee management. Different grievances are conveyed by such representatives before the decision making panel (Lowe 2012). Equally, suggestions of how employees would want their matters handled are also put across by the representatives (Bhatla 2011). These representatives are at times allowed to sit on a company’s board of directors to represent the interests of fellow employees. General Motors has an open door policy where employees are allowed to air their grievances to the management. This gives them opportunities to express their views in regard to the operations of the company. Conclusion Organisations highly benefit from employee involvement. The overall benefit is that the organisation is able to retain competent employees while its performance improves. Employee involvement programs include representative program, employee stock ownership programs, quality circle program, and work councils program. Bibliography: Dundon, et al., 2004. The meanings and purpose of employee voice. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15, 6, 1149–1170. Dunlop, P and Lee, K., 2014. Workplace deviance, organizational citizenship behavior, and business unit performance: the bad apples do spoil the whole barrel. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25, 67-80 Gual, J. and Ricart, J., 2001. Strategy, Organization and the Changing Nature of Work. Camberley, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Podsakoff, P. et al., 2000 .Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Critical Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature and Suggestions for Future Research.. Journal of management, 26, 3,513-563. Singh, S and Dixit, P., 2011. Employee Involvement an Approach to Organizational Development & Change. VSRD international Journal of Business& Management Research, 1, 8,554-560 Sridevi, S., 2010. Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management, 5, 12, 89-96 Tanaka, K., 2004.Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Contemporary Workplaces in Japan. Japan Labor Review, 10, 3, 5-18 Thomas, A., 2003. Leading and Inspiring Teams. London, UK: Heinemann. Soni, B., 2013. Employee engagement - a key to organizational success in 21st century. Voice of Research, 1 (4), 51-55. Abraham, S., 2012. Development of Employee Engagement Programme on the basis of Employee Satisfaction Survey. Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance and Marketing, 4(1), 27-37. Singh, L. and Panda, B., 2010. Employee engagement in Indian scenario- a case study of Tata Tele services limited (ttsl). Driems. Business Review, 1 (1), 62-73. Kumar, P. and Swetha, G., 2011. A Prognostic Examination of Employee Engagement from its Historical Roots. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 2 (3), 232- 241. Ram, P. and Prabhakar, G., 2011. The role of employee engagement in work-related outcomes. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research in Business, 1 (3), 47-61. Bhatla, N., 2011. To study the Employee Engagement practices and its effect on employee performance with special reference to ICICI and HDFC Bank in Lucknow. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 2 (8), 1-7. (NA) Macey, W. and Schneider, B., 2008. The Meaning of Employee Engagement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1, 3–30. Lowe, G., 2012. How Employee Engagement Matters for Hospital Performance. Healthcare Quarterly, 15 (2), 29-39. Saks, A., 2011. Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21 (7), 600-619. (E) Manonmani, P., et al., 2013. A Study on Employee Engagement with special reference to Steel casting manufacturing company, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2 (1), 59-61. Zajkowska, M., 2012. Employee Engagement: how to improve it through internal communication. Human Resources Management & Ergonomics, 6, 104-117. Read More