Chapter 4

Employee
Involvement
 Chapter Objectives

• Understanding motivation
• Empowering employees
– Assessing current levels through surveys
– Basics of Empowerment
• Understanding functioning and effectiveness of teams
• Encouraging employee participation though suggestion
systems
• Understanding the concept of Gain sharing
• Brief overview of performance appraisals
• Overview of unions and employee involvement
 Motivation
Knowledge of motivation helps in understanding utilization
of employee involvement to achieve process
improvement. Some important concept in motivation are:
– Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
– Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory
– Employee wants
– Employee Empowerment
– Steps Towards Achieving Motivated Work Force
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
• Level 1: Survival
• Level 2: Security
• Level 3: Social
• Level 4: Esteem
• Level 5: Self-actualization
 Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
• Motivators:
– recognition, responsibility, achievement,
advancement, and the work itself.
• Dissatisfiers or Hygiene factors:
– (low) salary, (ill defined) policies, (poor) working
conditions, (mediocre) technical supervision

• Dissatisfiers must be taken care of before

motivators can be actuated.
• Herzberg’s dissatisfiers are roughly equivalent to
Maslow’s lower levels, and the motivators are
similar to the upper levels
Note that
good pay is
in the
middle, not
at the top!
 What the employees want
• The 2018 survey by Business today reveals that
there is no major change in what people want from
their workplace in the past five years.
• Some of the perquisites which were considered as
privileges in the past are now considered as
'standard'. For example, performance pay, paternity
leave, flexi-timings etc.
• The survey report further mentions that employees
want an organization that offers challenges in terms
of innovation and creativity and also engages and
communicates effectively with them.
 Employee Empowerment
• It is essential for the management to assess the current
level of employee empowerment. Employee Surveys
help in assessing employee relations, identification of
trends in improvement and increase in communication
effectiveness
• Empowerment should not be confused with delegation
or job enrichment. Empowerment is an environment in
which people have the ability, the confidence and
responsibility and ownership towards achieving
organizational values and goals
 Teams
Employee involvement is optimized by the use of Teams
Understanding Teams:
– Depending on the management, the names of teams may differ
but there are mainly 4 Types of Teams:
• Process improvement team
• Cross-functional team.
• Natural work teams
• Self-directed/self-managed work teams
– In order to be effective, teams should have certain Characteristics:
• Sponsor, Team Charter and Team Composition
• Ground rules and clear objectives
• Accountability, trust and open communication
• Well defined decision making process
• Resources
• Effective problem solving
• Appropriate leadership
• Balanced participation
• Cohesiveness
 Teams (Continued)
• Team Member Roles: A team will consist of a team leader,
facilitator, recorder, timekeeper, and members. All team
members have clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
• Decision Making Methods: Five types of decisions, as well
as no decision, occur during the team process.
– Non-decision
– Unilateral decision
– Handclasp decision
– Minority-rule decision
– Majority-rule decision
• Effective Team Meetings: If the participants know their
roles and utilize the characteristics of successful teams,
the probability of effective team meetings is enhanced.
 Teams (Continued)
• Organization should understand and recognize following
stages of Teams
• Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning

Forming Storming Norming Performing

 Teams (Continued)
• Teams demonstrate typical Behavioral Problems
and their solutions are founded by structured
methods
• Management should be aware of the common
barriers to team progress. With a knowledge of
these barriers, management can evaluate their
own performance and take the necessary
corrective action to support team progress.
• Training essential for an effective team. The
quality council must take an active role in
establishing training programs.
 Enhancing Employee Motivation
• Suggestion Schemes
Suggestion Schemes are designed to encourage individuals to
be involved by contributing to the organization. Suggestions
schemes often work in parallel to the Team Approach
• Recognition and Reward
Recognition is a form of employee motivation in which the
organization publically acknowledges positive contributions of
individuals or teams
• Gain sharing
Gain sharing is a financial reward and recognition scheme that
results from improved organizational performance
• Performance Appraisal
The purpose of performance appraisal is to assess and let
employees know how they are doing and provide a basis for
promotions, salary increases, counseling and other purposes
related to employee’s future
 Unions and Employee Involvement
Unions often support Quality Improvement Programs.
Unions express concerns when management exercises
too much control over employees. It is essential that
Union and management work with mutual trust.

Involving employees, empowering them and bringing

them into the decision making process provides
opportunity for continuous process improvement
 Summary
• Employee Involvement is an important approach to improve quality and productivity.
Involvement of employees is a crucial factor in achieving higher quality collective business
growth.
• Mature organizations should demonstrate increasing participation of employees at various
levels of business operations.
• There are several levels of motivation and its knowledge helps the organization understand its
workforce.
• Management should create an environment of trust among the employees and nurture the
ability of their workforce, their confidence and ownership of their processes. Employee
involvement is also optimized by the use of teams.
• Organization must also encourage individual efforts and ideas. Suggestion and schemes provide
an individual with an opportunity to get involved by contributing to the organization.
• Recognition of efforts should be done publicly acknowledging the positive contributions of an
individual or a team.
• Gain sharing is a financial reward and recognition system that results from improved
organizational performance. It is a measurement of an organization’s productivity and a method
to share the productivity gains.
• Performance appraisals of the individuals or teams should be done to let the employees know
that their performance is evaluated and should provide basis for promotions, counseling and
several other purposes.