Leading the Change Process

Employee Involvement and Work Design

Leading the Change Process by Shah M Saad Husain 1

 Employee Involvement: What is it?
Seeks to increase members input into decisions that affect organization
performance and employee well-being
Broad term for diverse approaches to gain greater participation in
relevant workplace decisions
Four key elements:
1) Power
2) Information
3) Knowledge and skills
4) Rewards
2
Employee Involvement (EI) and Productivity

The relationship between EI and productivity can be

oversimplified
Productivity can be increased through improved employee
communication, motivations, and skills and abilities
It can also be affected through increased worker satisfaction,
which in turn results in productive employees joining and
remaining with the organization

3
 Employee Involvement Applications

Major EI interventions:
1) Parallel Structures, including cooperative union-management
projects and quality circles
2) Total Quality Management
3) High-Involvement Designs

4
 Parallel Structures Application Stages

1) Define the purpose and scope

2) Form a steering committee
3) Communication with organization members
4) Create forums for employee problem solving
5) Address the problems and issues
6) Implement and evaluate the changes

5
 Total Quality Management Application
Stages

1) Gain long-term senior management commitment

2) Train members in quality methods
3) Start quality improvement projects
4) Measure progress
5) Rewarding accomplishment

6
 High Involvement Organizations - Features

1) Flat, Lean Organization Structures

2) Job Designs
3) Open Information Systems
4) Career Systems
5) Selection
6) Training
7) Reward Systems
8) Personnel Policies
9) Physical Layouts
7
 Work Design - Approaches

1) The Engineering Approach

Produces traditional jobs and traditional work groups
2) The Motivational Approach
Produces enriched jobs
3) The Sociotechnical Systems Approach
Produces self-managed teams

8
 Traditional Jobs and Work Groups
Traditional Jobs
Highly simplified
Involve routine and repetitive
forms of work
Achieve high productivity and
worker satisfaction in situations
characterized by low technical
uncertainty and
interdependence and low
growth and social needs
Traditional Work Groups
Composed of members who
perform routine yet inter-
related tasks
Member interactions are
controlled externally
Best suited to conditions of low
technical uncertainty but high
technical interdependence
9
 Enriched Jobs

Involve high level of skill variety, task identity, task

significance, autonomy, and feedback
Achieve good results when the technology is uncertain but does
not require high levels of coordination and when employees
have high growth needs and low social needs

10
Self-managed Teams

11
 Designing Work for Technical and Personal
Needs
Technical Factors
Technical interdependence: the extent to which cooperation among
workers is required
Technical Uncertainty: the amount of information processing and
decision making among workers necessary to do the work
Personal Need Factors
Social Needs: the desire for significant social relationships
Growth Needs: the desire for personal accomplishment, learning, and
development.
12