What Participative Decision-Making Can Bring to Your Organization

Increasing Job Satisfaction

Promoting participative decision-making has benefits at an individual level. Among other factors, job satisfaction has been consistently considered crucial for performance. A  person  with  a  high  level  of  job  satisfaction  holds  positive  attitudes towards  his  or  her  job,  while  a  person  who  is  dissatisfied  with  his  or  her  job  holds negative  attitudes  about  the  job.

Several studies have shown that happy employees are more productive, and that employees that have a say in important decisions are more satisfied with their work (see, for instance, Teng et al. 2017). Therefore, that also means they’re more performant. 

Promoting Knowledge Sharing 

Knowledge sharing is described as the exchanging of information, advice, and experience to support others and cooperate with others in carrying out everyday tasks, solving problems and developing new ideas (Ahmad et al., 2017)

For an organization to be functional, its members need to be able to share their knowledge. To do so, employees need to have the space and time to voice their thoughts and opinions, and one of the most effective ways to achieve this is through participative decision-making.

Reducing Turnover

Organizations invest a lot of resources to reduce employee turnover, as the costs associated with hiring, training, developing, and retaining workers are high. In their annual report of 2020, the Work Institute showed that the average cost of turnover of a worker is 33% of his/her annual salary. For highly qualified positions, the amount can go up to 200%!

Even if there are multiple factors that can explain an employee’s intention to leave a company (including some that escape the organization’s control), there are certainly ways to reduce turnover. And that includes giving employees recognition for their work. In a study published in 2018, Atouba showed that when workers feel recognized by the organization their commitment increases, eliminating their intention to leave (Atouba, 2018). These kinds of incentives can be a great motivational boost, and work even better than monetary rewards. 

Also read: 52 Ideas to Improve Your Company's Employee Retention Rate

A collaborative culture

Organizational culture (as well as general culture) impacts employees’ attitudes in the workplace. For example, organizations that foster a participative climate will naturally have more PDM. On the contrary, companies that rely heavily on hierarchy and have a paternalistic style encounter greater difficulties to engage in PDM (Van der Westhuizen et al., 2012). Thus, organizations may want to understand their culture and create a more open and collaborative climate to foster participative decision-making. 

A safe space for employees 

Some people do not feel comfortable speaking up and voicing their ideas or questions without fear of ridicule or punishment. For others, this may come more naturally. As the goal of PDM is to have as many people involved as possible, it is important that everyone is willing to participate. To do so, they all need to feel safe. 

The term “Psychological Safety“ in the workplace refers to  one in which employees feel safe to voice ideas, willingly seek and provide feedback, collaborate, take risks and experiment (Edmondson, 1999). Several studies have shown that managers and leaders play a very important role in creating psychological safety. For instance, a Gallup survey in 2017 showed that 63% of employees that declared they could approach their managers with trust had higher psychological safety ratings. Open-minded leaders will naturally provide a safe space for employees to take risks and voice their ideas. 

In some cases, the lack of psychological safety is not always obvious to managers. Some behaviors that are generally considered positive (like working independently) can underline poor psychological safety and prevent participation in decision making (Edmondson and Lei, 2014). For instance, a manager can think that a very independent worker really excels in his/her tasks, and therefore does not ask for help. But perhaps it is fear (or low psychological safety) that is stopping this employee from asking for support. 

Without the peace of mind that there will be no negative consequences for sharing one’s opinions, PDM cannot thrive. It is, therefore, crucial that managers understand how safe employees feel and work together to increase or maintain that level of psychological safety.

Appropriate Decision-Making Tools

It may sound obvious, but organizations that want to promote PDM should implement tools that facilitate it. Questionnaires can be used to directly ask for employees’ opinions on different matters in a fast and cost-effective way. Additionally, providing suggestion boxes can help employees express themselves in an anonymous and safe manner.

To move one step further, action plans can be designed to ensure that important decisions involve employees. For instance, this can be achieved by including time to discuss specific decisions in meeting agendas, ensuring everyone involved is aware and there is sufficient time for discussion.

Finally, tools like Holaspirit can also help promote participative decision-making, as they are specifically designed to improve transparency and give employees the right space to voice their opinions. This can be achieved through features such as:

• Proposals: A structured process for submitting, discussing, and voting for proposals enables all team members to contribute ideas and participate in decisions.
• Meeting Management: Structured meeting templates, minutes, and follow-up action items streamline the decision-making process and ensure that meetings are productive and outcomes are clear.
• Task Management: Tools for assigning, tracking, and managing tasks help teams stay organized and ensure that decisions are followed through with actionable steps.
• Publications: Centralized documentation of decisions, processes, and policies makes it easy for everyone to stay informed and aligned with the organization’s goals.
• Roles: Clearly defined roles and responsibilities ensure everyone knows who is responsible for what, and who should be involved for which decisions.

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