Analyse the development of mechanisms for achieving employee involvement and empowerment.

Question

Analyse the development of mechanisms for achieving employee involvement and empowerment.

Answer

As Pabico (2015) notes, in a bid to remain competitive in the current VUCA (Volatile-Uncertain-Complex-Ambiguous) business world, many organisations are actively involved in endeavours seeking to enhance their employee involvement and empowerment. Employee involvement focuses on an incremental inclusion of the worker input in organisational decision-making processes (Vanichchinchai, 2012). On the other hand, as Elloy (2012) posits, employee empowerment does not just involve employee input in business decision-making processes but also allows the non-managerial workforce to decide and act independently, and particularly, in tasks related to their respective organisational roles. Accordingly, because of the considerable responsibility that is passed from the management to the workforce through employee involvement and empowerment, there is a need for employee strategic mechanisms when developing employee involvement and empowerment. A balance between achieving employee involvement and empowerment, and the risks involved in allowing autonomous decision-making among the workforce must exist (Sahoo & Das, 2011). Therefore, a critical examination of the decision-making power of the employee, and the possible related outcomes as well as their implications to business operations must be determined. While employees should be empowered and involved, autonomy in decision-making should be limited to inconsequential activities (Sahoo & Das, 2011), which Men (2011) opposes by pointing out that it undermines the purpose of employee empowerment and involvement. Equally, Men (2011) notes that when developing mechanisms for achieving employee empowerment and involvement, organisations must factor aspects such as the need for training and involved costs. Training workers empowers them to not only make positive contributions to the organisation but also make effective and appropriate autonomous decisions. Moreover, a deliberate development and modelling to the organisational culture to allow employee input to company processes, regardless of their work levels within the corporate structures, helps achieve an effective employee involvement and empowerment framework (Cummings & Worley, 2014).

References

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Massachusetts: Cengage learning. Elloy, D. (2012). Effects of ability utilization, job influence and organization commitment on employee empowerment: an empirical study. International Journal of Management, 29(2), 627-632. Men, L. R. (2011). How employee empowerment influences organization–employee relationship in China. Public Relations Review, 37(4), 435-437. Pabico, C. (2015). Creating Supportive Environments and Thriving in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous World. Journal of Nursing Administration, 45(10), 471-473. Sahoo, C. K., & Das, S. (2011). Employee empowerment: A strategy towards workplace commitment. European journal of business and management, 3(11), 46-54. Vanichchinchai, A. (2012). The relationship between employee involvement, partnership management and supply performance: Findings from a developing country. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 61(2), 157-172.