NCJ Number
112980
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 50 Issue: 5 Dated: (August 1988) Pages: 126,128-130
Date Published
1988
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Participatory management provides a means for organizations to focus on problems related to goals, structure, leadership, decisionmaking, and other critical facets of organizational effectiveness.
Abstract
Increasing employee participation also offers a chance to discover what employees think of their work and what areas they are willing to improve. Employee participation at all levels taps employees' creative capacity and intelligence, opens channels of communication, and increases employee loyalty and commitment to attaining work-related goals. Many organizations, including corrections departments, have developed methods for involving staff in training, task forces, committees, and study groups. Such practices can facilitate the identification and remediation of problems and inefficiencies in policies and procedures, including safety and security hazards. Management may object to employee participation on the grounds that it is too costly, threatens conventional authority and decisionmaking, takes too long to produce results, or requires special expertise to implement. Unions may view participatory management as a tool that will adversely alter labor-management relations, infringe on the collective bargaining process, and create problems for the members. Until both address their attitudinal problems, the correctional environment may not be well suited to the growth of employee participation. However, it is an attractive option for those concerned with improving organizational communication, problemsolving, morale, decisionmaking, and leadership.