Participatory management (participatory management, management or administration) is a management model in which employees share responsibility for decision-making with managers. The foundations of participatory management were established by the respected Mary Parker Follet, who claimed that management was "the art of doing things through people," its "power with" rather than "power over" was the foundation of the theory.
Valero-Hernández (p.28) highlights that trust is one of the unifying keys of participatory management that eliminates many prejudices and destroys the fictitious borders between people, me and you; you and him; we and them.
According to Amorós (p.96), participatory management is the process in which decisions are made jointly between subordinates and immediate superiors. It is promoted in many cases because it is believed that it optimizes the climate of the organization, possibly damaged by various factors, as well as its low productivity. It also points out that:
However, for participatory management to work, there must be an adequate period of time to participate, the issues must be important to subordinates, as well as it is necessary that employees have sufficient capacity to participate and also the organizational culture must support this. participation.
Participatory management occurs due to the fact that as work becomes more complex, this participation allows those who know the most to contribute, thus obtaining better quality decision-making. Interdependence in the tasks of employees requires consultation with people from other departments and work elements, thus creating the need to form teams or groups to try to find solutions to problems that affect everyone together.. This participation increases the commitment of employees in decisions, and also provides intrinsic rewards for them; as well as has an impact not yet proven in some variables such as productivity, job satisfaction, among others. Its use may well be favorable for the organization,depending on your application, and therefore not sure to improve employee performance.
Para Velázquez (p.382) la gerencia participativa es un estilo gerencial que hace hincapié en la participación de los empleados en los procesos de evaluación y toma de decisiones. También asegura que:
Rensis Likert postulated participatory management as an organizational system in which there is: total mutual trust between manager and employee, total freedom, constant use of employee ideas, total employee participation in decisions, employee self-control, a lot of cooperative teamwork, influence, and decisions that flow up, down, and sideways. Likert argued that this organizational system, which incorporates the highest levels of employee participation and self-direction, is more likely to produce the highest levels of organizational effectiveness and productivity.
If participatory management styles, such as those recommended in different ways by McGregor, Miles, and Likert, really make organizations more effective and productive, then, according to utilitarian principles, managers would have a moral obligation to find ways to implement them.. However, research that has been done on whether participatory management is more effective and productive has not reached firm conclusions. In some cases, it has been spectacularly successful, allowing entire plants to go from being unproductive “disasters” to highly efficient dynamos.
In other cases, participatory management has not had very positive effects on performance or productivity. In addition, critics of the participatory approach have argued that people are different and that not all want or participate in managerial decision-making, that organizations and organizational tasks are different, and not all are suitable for participatory management. If this is true, then the utilitarian argument for participatory management shows, at best, that managers have an obligation to use participation with the right people and in the right contexts.
Through the following video-course, from the Universitat Politècnica de València - UPV, you will be able to obtain more information about what participatory management is, its main characteristics and implementation models in the organization.
Bibliography
- LOVE, Eduardo. Organizational behavior. USAT, 2007.VALERO-HERNÁNDEZ, Carlos. The Management of mistrust. Palibrio, 2012.VELÁSQUEZ, Manuel. Ethics in business: concepts and cases. Pearson Education, 2006.
