Inclusiveness. The main difference that can distinguish a happy employee from disgruntled employee. As with all decisions that are made, there is always an audience that the decision will affect. When employees are privy and organizational decisions are inclusive to employees this can greatly increase their level of fulfillment. Whether or not the end user of the decision will be content with the outcome or not, there will always be critics. Which leads us to discuss key characteristics and the importance of involving employees in relative organizational decision making.
It is not uncommon to find that during strategic organizational planning that top-level management will include their employees to engage and provide their input on complex processes. Human capital, whether the organization is large or small, corporate ran or small business managed is key to an organization’s success. Employee satisfaction level drives productivity and is what increases revenue for the company. Happy employees equal happy customers.
What does it take to keep employees motivated? A critical and important element for employers to keep their employees happy and content is clear communication. It is critical that an organization’s objective and vision for future growth is communicated clearly throughout all levels. Top-level management must be skilled at delivering the company’s mission and values to every tier within their organization. Each tier within the organization with healthy communication should be able to open-mindedly accept the message and freely provide any feedback positive or negative without fear of repercussion. Keeping an open line of communication within an organization is key to building the foundation for success.
As we move away from the golden days of traditional office operations consisting of fax machines, telephones, paper, pencils, etc. and move towards a more technologically repertoire, we lose the personable face to face interaction with one another. We spend most of the day behind our computer screen at our desk. The need to sustain job satisfaction amongst employees could not be ever more present than now. To maintain the morale amongst employees, organizations should be able to keep them challenged and motivated. Take technology for example. If the increase of new technology isn’t daunting enough, consider the challenge to remain current with technology all the while maintaining a competitive advantage in the industry? Reach internally to our internal resource, human capital. Employees must be given the opportunity to share their knowledge, skills, and abilities. When empowered to provide input concerning highly visible organizational decisions, employee morale is boosted. Not only is this beneficial for employees but also the employer as they receive ideas and input that could possibly lead to the solution. Employee engagement boosts the overall welfare of the organization.
According to SHRM’s Employee and Job Satisfaction and Engagement survey results from 2015, “Nearly one-half (46%) of employees reported that meaningfulness of the job was very important to their job satisfaction.” (SHRM, 2015)
Why are some employees more excited to go to work and some absolutely dread the thought of going in to work? Appreciation. Sounds cliché, doesn’t it? According to Dan Kilmartin, Chief Operations Officer of United Way, “You could be offering everything under the sun, and that might be a short-term happiness; but in the long run, it doesn’t last.” (Enright, 2016) Encouraging employees to voice their opinions that matter within the organization allows them to feel valued within their organization. (Lin, 2007) When an employee feels viewed as an asset and are trusted in their abilities to make sound decisions, this positive reinforcement is inspiring and places their focus on making significant contributions to the organization.
Not all organizations are on board with this type of management style. Some find that their employee’s involvement should be suppressed when it comes to decision making within the organization. (Lin, 2007) The authoritative management style is neither nor positive, it simply is different. There are organizations where those in high level rankings are the deciders. Resulting in employees having to follow policies and direction laid out by their superiors. Feedback or criticism is not tolerated. (Achim, Dragolea & Balan, 2013) This can highly negate the morale and spirit of team building and de-motivate employees. When the authoritarian leadership style is taken, employer’s risk their chance of having high turn over in their human capital. Thus, leaving those in place overwhelmed and overworked.
Not to disregard and imply that authoritarian styles of leadership cannot work. They can and they must be able to as there are organizations that exist where they do not inclusiveness is not an option available. These organizations are requiring a more authoritarian style of management. Organization’s such as these are police departments, fire departments, Armed Forces, etc. may struggle with their levels of productivity. Unfortunately, this hierarchy of leadership is essential in their field. (Goiancola, 2011)
Involving employees in decision-making is much more common in organizations these days, but of course there are always some organizations that are structured differently. There will always be challenges within any organization even if employees are given the opportunity to provide their input. It is imperative that managers are engaged and really hone in on their leadership skills. Inolving employees during decision
Challenges that will arise. Some of the challenges and benefits include employee engagement, communication complexity and manager and employee boundaries. When companies involve employees in decision making that is the key to having engaged employees. Also, when employees are involved in decision making, they will be able to identify potential obstacles to implementing the decision as well as ways to avoid them which is major asset to management.
On the other hand, some of the challenges that managers might face is that it takes a lot of trust on behalf of the manager in their employees which can be hard for some managers. This will be easy for some managers but a lot harder for others. The managers also have to be forgiving to their employees because no one is perfect and mistakes will happen. This will take more time in the begging with involving employees because of extra training that may be done, but it is worth the risk. According to Sasikala and Anthonyraj (2015), today to meet the challenges and demands due to the globalization and westernization, organizations have to be dynamic and therefore, they need to adopt changes. When an organization is changing or trying to introduce a new model the employees start reacting to the situation. According to Meyer, et al (2004), most employees are more technical in their fields than most of their top-level management, as they work in their respective fields day in and day out. Why would they not want to include their employees in the organizational decision making? There are certain aspects of the job that cannot be targeted by those not working in the systems day in and day out.
Organizational Development is important to Human Resource Management because the Human Resource department is one of the key departments involved in an organizational development. They are the ones that help with implementing the change along with the department managers and making sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible. They are also the ones to help the employees involved with the transition.
References
Sasikala, S., & Victor Anthonyraj, S. (2015). Self-Efficacy, Emotional Intelligence And Organizational Commitment In Relation To Resistance To Change Among Employees. Annamalai International Journal Of Business Studies & Research, 30-35.
Radhakrishna, A., & Satya Raju, R. (2015). A Study on the Effect of Human Resource Development on Employment Relations. IUP Journal Of Management Research, 14(3), 28-42.