HOW TO GET TRUE EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION

It's estimated that at least one-third of U.S. organizations have empl oyee involvement or participation programs. But, according to the auth ors, only about. 10 percent of employees work in a truly participative environment. They say that the mark of a genuinely participative orga nization is that a significant amount of decision making is delegated ro nonmanagerial employees. They have considerable influence in decisi ons regarding how work is done and how work systems should be changed. Hickey and Casner-Lotto describe what some leading companies-such as Ford Motor and Miller Brewing-have done to achieve high employee invol vement, continuous improvement, and high work performance. For example , at Miller Brewing, self-directed work teams are responsible for the day-to-day management of the business units. Starting at one plant, Fo rd Motor established a joint ; steering committee for employee involve ment and joint union-management programs to address such areas as qual ity, training, and fair practices. The authors' own work in this area is based on the PAR model-participation, achievement, and reward. The underlying factors supporting the model are team-based work, labor-man agement partnerships: the integration of technology and people, and co mmunication and information sharing. Overall, communication must be tw o-way-lop-down and bottom-up. The article concludes with several tips for establishing a participative culture.