EMPOWERMENT AND THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS

In recent years, groups have become increasingly important in the American workplace as companies move toward fewer managers, more empowered workers and away from hierarchical organizational structures. Many who support downsizing efforts hold that empowering workers and encouraging participative decision making is good for the individual employee as well as for the organization. With the emergence of groups, many of which form and are re-formed over the course of years within an organization, the way in which individuals interact within those groups has become important to managers and workers alike. Of particular importance is the way that groups arrive at decisions. This research explores the various phases of the decision making process and how participative decision making by empowered employees brings about the many benefits that its proponents suggest.

Participative decision making by empowered employees carries significant benefit to organizations, including better decisions and decreased resistance to implementing those decisions.

Although this step can be dismissed as "obvious," it is perhaps the most important step in the decision making process. If an organization does not recognize that there is a decision to made or a problem to be solved, the situation cannot be resolved. In traditional organizations with hierarchical structures, the responsibilit

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in order to implement the selected alternative. The many decisions and plans associated with the implementation must be clearly communicated to all who are involved in the process in order to ensure that implementation proceeds smoothly. With participative decision making, this is made easier because individuals involved in the implementation are also involved in the selecting the alternative. This decreases the resistance to change that otherwise often jeopardizes implementation (Graham, 2001). The implementation plan should also include a method for monitoring the success of the program. A solution needs to be measured to ensure that it is producing the desired objective, and to monitor whether any unintended results (either positive or negative) are being introduced into the organization because of the solution. Careful monitoring makes it possible to take remedial action before unintended consequences get out of hand. If action is not taken early enough, an otherwise successful plan might well be unsuccessful. Some groups perform the monitoring process themselves; others form subgroups or otherwise designate monitoring individuals. The participative decision making process eliminates having to depend on the observati

Category: Psychology - E