Managers Encouragement of Employees Voice - Term Paper Example

Lee Hang Hin(Harry) number: S5016616 Due 6th May Miss Paula Mowbray (p.mowbray@griffith.edu.au) Introduction Every organization operates with the motive of earning profit and this is only possible if the employees and the organizational members are satisfied with their work, which will ultimately lead to the growth of the organization in the most sustainable manner. Prosperity and long term sustainability of an organization is only possible if the employees devote their best for the well-being of the organization in carrying out their respective activities. Thus, it is very essential for the managers and higher-level authorities to be concerned for the satisfaction of the organizational members that would serve beneficial for the organization as a whole (Spooner & Haidar, 2006). It has correspondingly been argued that employees should be provided with the opportunity to take part in the decision making process of the organization through supportive ideas, emphasising more on group decision-making systems (Townsend & et. al., 2012). This would result in delivering higher performance in the workplace along with the well-being of the employees and other organizational members, although subjected to various limitations identifiable in terms of time and complexities. In addition, such measures are also criticised to increase chances of team conflicts, owing to which, there has been various limitations in employee participation in organizational decision-making (Townsend & Wilkinson, 2014). However, the essay will critically analyze and provide an argumentative discussion regarding “Managers’ Encouragement of Employee Voice Can Lift Well-Being and Productivity”. Discussion It has often been considered that encouraging employee’s voice or allowing the employees to participate in the decision making process can lead to a high performance working environment and successful implementation of business activities within modern organisations. In support of this notion, Wilkinson & et. al. (2015) argue that various psychosocial aspects of the organisational environment along with physical elements of the employees can be encouraged through such measures ensuring that they are able to align their personal objectives better with the organisational goals. These psychosocial aspects may include job security, workload, stress, workload balance and job satisfaction while the physical elements may include health and safety of the employees. Contextually, employee voice can be either formal or informal depending upon the situation as well as the type of regulations being adopted by the organisation (Markey & Townsend, 2015). Formally, employees can participate in the decision making process of the organisations through committees or board meetings and informally through open door policies or managers of the organisation. According to Spooner & Haidar (2006), employees are considered as the main success drivers of any company and therefore, involving the employees in the decision making process of the organisation would result in the transfer of knowledge and ideas possessed by them for the success of the organisation. This would result in the most effective and efficient utilisation of the organisational resources, thereby saving time and money along with an increased productivity, which supports managers’ encouraging such involvement from their employees (Wilkinson & et. al., 2015). It is generally found that the organisations which allow its employees to participate in the decision making process are more successful in an effective decision-making as compared to others. Employees and workers often possess the information and ideas that the higher-level management fails to possess. According to Townsend & et. al. (2012), employee participation also widens the scope for the organisation to acquire different ideas and views regarding a particular issue to be solved more effectively. The productivity of the individual employees as well as the organisations increases if the ideas, viewpoints and knowledge possessed by the employees are considered in important decision-making processes through managers’ encouraging the employees’ voice. Involving the employees also affects their psychological aspects and thus, motivates them to perform better with their respective jobs that ultimately lead to organisational success (Markey & Townsend, 2015). When the employees realise that their decisions are also being concerned for the organisational benefits, they are likely to become more responsible towards the organisation and thus, will try to devote their best for the same. In addition to organisational growth, increase in responsibility will also improve the skills possessed by the employees that will prepare them for taking additional responsibilities for the organisation (Han & et. al., 2010). However, the management and the managers of the organisations should create such organisational culture that would allow the employees the scope to freely participate in the important decision-making of the organisation. According to Barney & Wright (1997), managers should encourage a friendly working environment in the organisation that would help the employees to communicate freely with the management to suggest their opinions regarding organisational success. The organisations following such concept are found to provide proper counselling sessions to the employees so that they can overcome their introvert nature and participate in the decision-making process of the organisation more actively (Batt & Applebaum, 1995). According to Markey & Townsend (2015), employee participation also saves time for the management by involving in the matters that can be resolved by the employees themselves. Through participation, communication and cooperation among the organisational members improve gradually and thus, they can communicate regarding any issue and solve them without involving the management, which in turn saves time. Moreover, it is found among the participative workers the tendency to supervise themselves. This also helps in saving the time of the management as well as cut down the overhead cost of labour (Han & et. al., 2010). Employee’s sense of dignity and power is also enhanced through participation in the decision-making process and therefore, the risk of dissatisfaction among the employees decreases that further increases performance of the organisational activities and eliminates conflict with the management. Barney & Wright (1997) also stated that involving the employees in the decision making process of the organisation enhances their commitment and loyalty towards the organisation. Markey & Townsend (2015), further noted that if the management and the employees jointly coordinate with each other in solving problems, the issues would be resolved in an effective manner. Moreover, the conflict will also not arise with the union leaders, which tend to highly affect the organisational environment as well as the working process (Wilkinson & et. al., 2015). The above arguments were in support for the manager’s encouragement of the employee voice that can lift the well-being of the employees as well as the productivity of an organisation. However, according to Ladd & et. al. (2006), there are also certain limitations or drawbacks if the employees are being highly involved in various strategic and important decision-making processes of an organisation, which is much contradictory to the theoretical viewpoint. The important decisions of an organisation are generally made by the top level management along with collaboration with other higher level authorities. The decisions being formulated by them consist of various strategic elements that should be confined with the management itself, as its disclosure might result in bigger conflicts within teams and raise miscommunication issues within the working environment besides increasing complexities (Ladd & Chan, 2004). Leakage of the information to the employees and the organisational members would hamper the organisational process and thus, it would not be a wise idea to involve the employees in specific decision-making processes. It can be asserted thus that involving more employees in the key decision making process, increases the security risks of the organisations. Sharing the confidential information and data with various organisational members involves a high risk of misusing the data and information for unethical practices. It is not possible to understand the intention or motive of each organisational member. An employee with ill intention may misuse the information, which may negatively hamper the sustainability of the particular organisation (Markey & Townsend, 2015). In addition, Ladd & et. al. (2006) also found that some employees are unaware regarding the knowledge that is necessary for running an organisation. Employees always possess less information regarding the management and the organisation as compared to the managers and other higher authorities. Therefore, involving these employees in the decision making process would not serve effective for the organisation. There are also certain organisational members who might have grudges against the management and therefore, involving them in the decision-making activities of the organisation would hamper the entire process increasing costs, time required and complexities (Ladd & Chan, 2004). Moreover, involving the employees and the workers in decision-making would also enhance the risk of conspiracy of the employee unions against the management that would ultimately restrict the final conduct of normal organisational activities and thereby, prevent changes in the organisation. Moreover, encouraging the employees to raise their voice in the decision-making process of the organisation minimises the barrier between the employees and management, which might become a potential challenge for the organisation in its most practical sense of daily managerial activities. According to Markey & Townsend (2015), even though the managers value employee involvement, there should be a structured reporting line that should be followed by the employees while communicating to the management. There also exists a risk of communication complexity due to higher involvement of the employees in the decision-making process of the organisation. Arguably, managers also have to spend higher time in analysing the consistency of the decisions made by employees that would negatively impact upon the organisation (Batt & Applebaum, 1995). Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that manager’s encouragement of employee’s voice can lift the well-being of employees as well as the productivity in the workplace, however, subjected to certain considerations. Arguably, involving employees in the organisational decision-making process may lead to an increased performance of the organisation and ensure its long term sustainability. However, this effectiveness may be yield when workers and the employees possess better idea and knowledge about the market and various organisational factors and therefore, involving them in the decision-making would lead to the transfer of important information, which is only observable in the theoretical accounts and are much scare in the practical scenario. Besides such encouragements motivate employees to become loyal towards the organisation, there are some negative consequences of involving the employees in the decision making process in the practical environment. At the onset, increased chances of team conflicts, risks to higher costs and time consumed for decision-making and compromising of organisational goals are few of the major causes those limit the application of the statement into theoretical contexts, with seldom occurrences of its practical application. References Barney, J. B. & Wright, P. M., 1997. On Becoming a Strategic Partner: The Role of Human Resources in Gaining Competitive Advantage. Centre for Advanced Human Resource Studies, pp. 1-25. Batt, R. & Applebaum, E., 1995. Worker Participation In Diverse Settings: Does The Form Affect The Outcome, And If So, Who Benefits? Centre for Advanced Human Resource Studies, pp. 1-46. Han, T. S. & et. al., 2010. Employee Participation in Decision Making, Psychological Ownership and Knowledge Sharing: Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment in Taiwanese High-Tech Organizations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 21, No. 12, pp. 2218-2233. Ladd, B. S. & et. al., 2006. Causal Inferences Between Participation In Decision Making, Task Attributes, Work Effort, Rewards, Job Satisfaction And Commitment. Journal, Vol. 27, No.5, pp. 399-414. Ladd, S. & Chan, C. C. A., 2004. Emotional Intelligence and Participation in Decision-Making: Strategies for Promoting Organizational Learning and Change. Strategic Change, pp. 95-105. Markey, R. & Townsend, K., 2015. Contemporary Trends In Employee Involvement And Participation. Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 475-487. Spooner, K. & Haidar, A., 2006. Defining the Employment Relationship. International Journal of Employment Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 63-82. Townsend, K. & et.al., 2012. Filling the Gaps: Patterns of Formal and Informal Participation. Economic and Industrial Democracy, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 337-354. Townsend, K. & Wilkinson, A., 2014. Guest Editors’ Note: Time to Reconnect the Silos? Similarities and Differences in Employment Relations and Human Resources. Human Resource Management, Vol. 53, No. 2. pp. 203–210. Wilkinson, A. & et. al., 2015. Reassessing Employee Involvement and Participation: Atrophy, Reinvigoration and Patchwork in Australian Workplaces. Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 583-600. Read More