Increased involvement of other managers drives productivity and determines sustainability. File
By Scott Bellows
In Summary
Motivation is translated into improved performance when people have the necessary skills and knowledge.
Lengoko grew up in an area of Kenya that suffered
from chronic food shortages. Mainly a deeply rural pastoralist area
where food variety often lacked. When the rains failed, the people
waited for outside assistance. Lengoko’s family suffered; he lost a
sibling during one of the droughts.
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Lengoko grew determined never to let his people suffer once
he reached adulthood. He studied hard and secured a scholarship at USIU.
A few years after completing his undergraduate studies, Lengoko started
an agriculture project to deal with food security in and around Lake
Magadi in Kenya.
Donors streamed in and he grew his team to 200
employees in only four years. The team developed drought-resistant crops
and new livestock rearing techniques. Lengoko estimated that he and his
team impacted the lives of 10,000 Kenyans through better nutrition.
However, given Lengoko’s excitement and passion for
the organisational mission, he tended to make every decision, lead
every meeting, give every instruction, and dominate internal and
external communications. While he had good intentions, he did not
realise the effects that his actions had on the project.
A sub-group of his management team came to him with
concerns. Employees desired more involvement, they told him. Shocked to
hear such feedback, Lengoko took it very seriously and hired an
organisational development consultant.
The consultancy confirmed what Lengoko’s managers
had told him. Enabling higher employee involvement leads to increased
employee productivity. The higher productivity then leads to higher
organisational performance, which would mean more sustainability for his
project.
A growing body of research supports the linkage
that employee involvement leads to higher productivity. The studies
found consistent relationships between employee involvement and higher
productivity as discussed above, better financial performance, greater
customer satisfaction, employees working voluntarily longer labour
hours, and lower wastage rates with supplies, inventory, among others.
So, how should Lengoko act? Improve the
quality-of-work-life. Employee involvement seeks to increase members’
input into decisions that affect organisation performance and employee
well-being. It can be described in terms of four key elements that
promote worker involvement.
First, give power. Provide employees with enough
authority to make work-related decisions covering various issues,
including work methods, customer service, task assignments, performance
outcomes, and employee selection.
As the manager, you could simply ask staff for
input into decisions that managers subsequently make, all the way to
managers and workers jointly making decisions together, to employees
making decisions entirely themselves. The further you move along the
continuum, the greater results you should see.
Second, give information. Timely access to relevant
information proves vital to making effective decisions. Firms often
withhold information from employees and think of information only
provided on a “need-to-know” basis.
However, such a view is not helpful and yields poor
results. Information may include data about operating results,
competitive conditions, business plans, new technologies, new work
methods, and ideas for organisational improvement.
Third, give knowledge and skills. Employee
involvement contributes to organisational effectiveness only to the
extent that the workers have the requisite skills and knowledge to make
good decisions.
Organisations can facilitate employee involvement
by providing training and development programmes for improving members’
knowledge and skills. Now, do not provide training just for the sake of
training. The knowledge and skills must be directly relevant to
employees’ positions.
Fourth, give rewards. However, rewards can often be
misused. Meaningful opportunities for involvement can provide employees
with internal rewards, such as feelings of self-worth and
accomplishment. External rewards, such as pay and promotions, can
reinforce involvement when linked to performance.
Some people think that giving people more involvement raises their job satisfaction and, in turn, their productivity. But, such thinking is too simple and can be wrong.
Some people think that giving people more involvement raises their job satisfaction and, in turn, their productivity. But, such thinking is too simple and can be wrong.
Employee involvement practices, such as participation in
workplace decisions, can improve productivity in at least three ways.
First, such interventions can improve communication and co-ordination
among employees and departments.
Second, improved employee motivation comes particularly when
they satisfy important individual needs. Motivation is translated into
improved performance when people have the necessary skills and
knowledge. Third, improved capabilities of employees enable them to
perform better.
Share your experiences at #KenyaEconomics on Twitter. Next week, Business Talk explores “Sustain Change in Your Business”.
Prof Scott is the Director of the New Economy
Venture Accelerator at USIU’s Chandaria School of Business and Colorado
State University, www.ScottProfessor.com; info@scottprofessor.com or
@ScottProfessor.
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