Employee participation within an organisation allows for employees to have some say in decisions. Participation generally comes from a pluralist view where everyone is considered an individual and have different interests and views, this is the view Taylor had. This was the view during the 1970’s in Margret Thatcher’s era where employees where working and participating with the company however it was the management initiative and board level decisions that were being made not as a collective group involving the whole company. More recently employees have become a lot more involved with decision making by management requesting their ideas and opinions. Employees should be able to make decisions as they are the ones doing the physical work and therefore will see problems, management don’t. Although many decisions such as redundancy or brand change should not be made by employees they should have their say when a schedule or hours change. There are trade unions which represent workers and the managers will have to listen to the trade union as they speak for everyone and not an individual on their therefore becoming a lot more effective. However sometimes what the majority and trade union is saying is not necessarily what every individual wants. There are many ways that organisation are making their staff more involved:
· Suggestion boxes- this method is private and anonymous which give introvert people the confidence to fill them out however many people are reluctant to complete them as more frequently than not nothing is done about the suggestions made, making the method pointless.
· Staff opinion surveys- this scheme is meant to be anonymous however often age and position is identified therefore allowing managers to work out which member of staff it was that filled out the survey. Also many employees see this as extra work which they are not being rewarded or paid for therefore giving them the impression it is a waste of time. From surveys like this though organisations may be categorised in a survey such as the best 100 companies to work for by the Sunday Times increasing the prestige of the company.
· Work committees- some individuals love being involved in committees where as others want to go to work do their job and go home however it is vital that people get involved in committees as it is how the staff’s voice is conveyed. The people on the committee are making the other employees work life better and therefore they should be very appreciative of them. The people involved in the committee need to be confident and good communicators to both employees and management.
Social networks are now very commonly being used within organisations to allow employees to communicate to one another more easily. As well as employees it can also be used for potential recruits and often online recruitment site post ‘for more information visit Facebook.’ The most common network sites that are used are ‘Facebook’ ‘Twitter’ and ‘Myspace’ when searching for supermarkets. However the most commercial social networks used by non-profits are: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn and Flickr.
Waitrose is a company that is very much involved in social networking; through Facebook you can find a group for almost every individual store which gives you a small bit of information and shows all its friends/employees. Tesco has one large page which allows people to write on the wall and view information and photos.
Some organisations will create internal social networks which are very beneficial if well managed; it can boost organisation morale, strengthen relationships and provide cheap advertising or marketing.
A really good advantage to employees using social networks is that it brings staff closer together and hopefully makes them work closer as a team. It allows events and socials to be organised efficiently and makes it easier to make staff aware of activities that are happening within the organisation. However being friends on social network sites with employees may cause conflict if someone wants to air their thoughts about work and there have been cases of employees complaining about managers and it resulting in them being fired. In June 2008 a Waitrose employee was sacked for insulting the supermarket on Facebook. ‘Mr Brennan thought his views were only visible to his online friends, but a colleague printed off the remark and showed it to his boss who fired him on the spot.’ (Rupert Neate, 2008). Social networks tend to bring work and social/ home life very close together and sometimes it is very difficult to find the line between both, for some individuals this may be ideal however for others they may feel suffocated and unable to escape from work.
All 15 posted well done!
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