Employee participation

Employee participation and Teamwork

Mr Ahern

Objectives

• Do not annoy Mr Ahern• To stay awake• To Stay Alive• To be able to answer questions at the end,

pay attention now

1. Participation in Practice

Pioneers of teamwork

• As early as 1918 Cadbury pioneered elected work councils at its Bourneville factory

Elton Mayo

• The Hawthorne Studies of the 1930’s proved that morale and productivity could be boosted if workers felt that they belonged to a group.

• Read the Hawthorne Effect

So if Mayo was right....

• Developing more effective employee participation may mean– Business success– Less labour turnover– Higher productivity– Higher motivation– Higher innovation (creation of ideas)

Win / win / win / win ...etc you get the idea

Must be a downside surely to all this employee participation....

• Too many cooks spoil the broth

• Crisis may require a quick decision• May cause irritation when people have

different agendas and expectations• Managers resent being challenged• Employees expect more power than they get

2. How do employee participate in decisions?

Kaizen Groups

• Devised in Japan by companies such as Toyota and Nissan, means improvement in Japanese

• Read Kaizen

Works Councils

• a council composed of both employer and employees convened to discuss matters of common interest concerning a factory, plant, business policy, etc., not covered by regular trade union agreements (not pay)

• Read the Personnel today article

Autonomous Work Groups

• Consists of a team of people who are given a high level of responsibility for their work

The concept of an autonomous work group was developed by Eric Trist at the Tavistock Institute in London, England after the end of World War II. Involving the working team to decide for itself how the work should be carried out, and distributed among members.

Employee Shareholder

• To develop a common sense of purpose, some companies give employees a share in the business

• They should become more interested in the overall performance of the firm

• “their” company

Other methods

• Employees suggestion schemes

• More democratic style of management

3. European directives

EU Works Council Directive

• Forcing some large UK forms to change approach and introduce works councils

• The 1994 European Works Council directive applies to all companies with 1,000 or more workers and at least 150 employees in each of the EU member states.

• The aim of the directive is to ensure that workers are able to consult with their colleagues in other EU based operations of the same company so that they can respond more effectively and efficiently to management decisions that are made beyond national level.

• The success of the directive has, however, been limited. Only a third of companies which are legally obliged to set up an EWC have done so.

4. Team work

Team working

• Many organisations now expect employees to undertake their work in teams– More efficient production– People respond well to working with others

because this satisfies their social needs (Mayo, Maslow)

The Ups and Downs of teamwork

• Social needs• Gain from the strength

of others• Fun to share a task• May be able to change

job roles• Work to own strengths

• Some people do not like to work in a team – are you one of them?

• Decision making can be slow

• May be disagreements with the rest of the group

5. Business Success

Evaluation

• Needs to be managed effectively

• Greater participation can lead to competitive advantage

• Read: Strategy – competitive advantage

Key terms

• Industrial democracy – what does it mean?

• Teamwork – what’s your definition? Would the examiner agree with you??

• Works Council? What’s that all about?

• Answers on next slide

Answers to key terms

• Industrial democracy– When the employees have the opportunity to be

involved in decision making.• Teamwork– Individuals work in groups

• Works council– A committee of management and workers that

meets to discuss company – wide issues such as training, investment and expansion.

Discuss

•Explain the possible benefits to a firm of greater employee

participation.

Discuss

•Why do some workers resist greater participation?

Discuss

• Examine the possible impact on a firm’s profit of a move towards the use of work groups in the workplace.