Introduction

The concept of the workers contribution as well as their engagement has been growing steadily

with the development of Human resource administration. Most companies are seriously adopting

the current strategy of authorizing their workers to actively take part in the decision making for

handling the day to day affairs of the company. In the present chaotic economic condition, the

companies are in need of ingenious and pioneering workers who could initiate and accept the

changes, motivate innovation and deal with the ambiguities of the market. The majority of the

workers belonging to our new generation desires to work in organizations where the

managements keenly listen to them and also accepts their ideas. In order to oblige the request of

the workers, many organizations had abandoned their centralized regulatory administration with

the expectation that they will be able to encourage the suppleness and firmness along with

consequent improvement in the personal as well as the administrative performance.

The perception of the workers involvement has taken many shapes, developing the workers

contribution and their participation in the decision making views leading to the modern

authorization viewpoint. The plan of authorizing workers also includes that they should be given

the substantial amount of liberty and suppleness to make decisions pertaining to work without

any direct or indirect immersion of the higher administration. This new paradigm of

administration is quite different from the conventional administration methods which stressed on

hierarchy, influence and strictness. Hence, the workers contribution and their immersion add

enormously in the companys decision making and accordingly manage the affairs of their

companies. The workers contribution and their immersion influence both the company and their

workers in a positive way and also in the negative manner. In this literature review, the studies
related to the workers participation, empowerment, and their involvement are reviewed. The job

satisfaction of employees and the research on the productivity at work place are also discussed in

detail.

Employee Involvement and empowerment

Before we start reviewing the influence of the workers participation/involvement in the place of

work, it is very important that we delineate as to what we mean by the workers participation. As

Dundon et al (2006) stated that workers participation is a procedure through which a company

shares their decisions with those person who are not equal to their ranks or their categories. The

participating administration converses with their junior workers and their executives to share

information, the problems which are needed to be solved and the decision making ventures.

Besides, the workers participation had been described more extensively by Lewin and McCabe

(2000), which consists of two factors. The first one is the articulation of complaints or grievances

which the workers have with regard to their work which is being put up in front of the high

ranking administration of the company. The second factor is the involvement of the workers in

the practices of the decision making of the concern or the business. Hence the workers

participation not only implicates the decision making procedures but the whole wellbeing of the

workers. Many countries had made strategies and rules to protect the workers from persecution

and abuse. Since long the trade Unions had been advocating the workers in most of the countries

(Armstrong, 2001).

Many workers express their distresses and their maltreatment by means of their relevant trade

unions. With the efforts of the trade Unions considerable changes has taken place in the ways the

workers were being treated and take part in the day to day administration of the companies. As
per IPA (Industrial Participation Association), contended that the combined articulation of the

workers succeeds rather than a single effort which can never do it. Besides, the IPA contends that

representation can be said as a basis of collaboration which collectively brings optimistic

outcomes in the business, and improvements in the place of work (Grugulis & Dundon, 2007).

Furthermore, Forth et al (2000) contended that most of the organizations needed suitable means

in order to converse effectually with the workers. This had both the divergence and the

consenting influence in many organizations because the workers needed suitable devices to

articulate their complaints. Instead Marchington (2004) clarifies that the workers participation

can lead to an advantageous effect on the output, quality and avert the difficulties which could

otherwise blast. Thompson and Hyman elucidates that the deficiency of the effectual system to

solve the issues of the employees can lead to the formation of the trade unions. It had been

observed that the trade unions were the best platform from where effective voices could be raised

since they stay impartial with the employers. As per Millward et al (2000), various agencies of

the employees who articulate their complaints become more complicated and different.

Over the years employee participation has impacted the workplace both positively and

negatively. It is widely believed that employee involvement may affect employee productivity,

job sanctification and employee commitment to the organization. These factors significantly

affect the way an organization or company perform their businesses. Wilkinson et al (2004)

further explains that employee participation reduces the chances of industrial disputes resulting

from better communication between staffs and management. Improve decision making

processes, increase creativity, lowers employers stress and ensures better use of time and

resources. The next section will briefly discuss the impact of employee participation/involvement
in workplace. Ackers at al (2006) studies of HR management shows that workers get very much

dedicated in their routine tasks and put more creativity in their jobs.

Impact of employee participation/involvement in workplace

Organizations have to consider their organizational objective in order to create a workers

contribution scheme due to its multidimensional effects over the job and organization as a whole.

Employees are given tasks as per their education and training level. Many organizations use to

nurture employees in a way that create a sense of responsibility in those employees towards their

daily jobs. Many other organizations have to remunerate their employees as per their dedication

at works and have to provide proper recognition to them Webb & Webb (1999). Through these

ways companies can make their interaction with workers more effective. Further in this chapter

we will discuss other impacts of workers contribution like job happiness, their dedication and

their effectiveness in the company.

Benefits of Employee involvement

Some of the benefits of employee contribution can be detailed as follows:

Employees dont give resignation for better jobs elsewhere where they find job happiness

The workers will be provoked to perform their duties with more dedication and

innovations

As per study carried out by Wilkinson & Dundon (2006) in Britain, companies having

schemes of workers contribution have high degree of employees happiness

 Kruse (2004) stated that companies having workers contribution have more attendance

than other organization and dont have outage of workers.

Employee Involvement

As it is no surprise that the employee participation largely affects the output of establishments

and businesses. A study led by Workplace Representation and Participation Survey (WRPS)

proves that the businesses that have employee participation are 17% more probable to achieve

more than those companies that lack employee involvement. This research also concludes that

the workers that are working in companies with satisfactory employee involvement are more

content with their work, than those of them who work in companies who lack it. When Dundon

& Grugulis (2007) set work to a similar research, and worked with over 18 countries with the

influence of employee participation related to work efficiency, they also met the same results.

Many defendants also stated with certainty that these two relations are largely connected.

Employee commitment

On the other hand, many professors debate and say that it is the commitment of employees to the

job's aims that leads to a fruitful business. To further explain this, Guest (2001) says that when

there is workers' commitment, it equals to the worker's own aims along with the company's.

Hence, the worker strives and works harder to achieve success for the aims of the company.

Furthermore, Hoque (1994) reasons that when employee's take part in producing an aim for the

company, it automatically motivates them to try harder to complete it, too. This is because

employee's have the belief that since they had a part in the aim's production, so they be attached
to the goal, too. If the workers are permitted to make suggestions and produce ideas for their

company's aims, they commit themselves more to the task (Wagner, 1994). Employees are

inspired to work hard for the task, not just because they have to but because they feel an

attachment to the work, too. So, for best results, companies and businesses should let their

employees participate in making judgments, creating aims and tasks for betterment of the

company.

Another research made by Ackers, Wilkinson & Dundon (2006) in UK showed that it also says

the same thing that employees' that make decisions for the company and its aims are more

involved in their job aims. This report also states that those workers, who are not active in

decision making for the company, are less committed to their jobs and its aims. By this, it is quite

easy to say that employee involvement is necessary for a company and its success. If a company

doesn't work to get its workers committed to their work, they will find difficulties in achieving

success. As said by Yousef (1998), the concern of workers' getting involved in their jobs and

taking duties largely affects the business's productivity and progress.

Better use of time and resources

A lot of companies are met with the trial of handling their time along with their resources to get

the best results. Wagner (1994) says that resources inclusive of workers, physical material, and

economical skill of a company. A lot of businesses are given scanty resources to gain full profits

for the company. To handle these least resources is a task that needs to attend with creativity and

effectual interaction amid the workers and the organization. To obtain this, there needs to be a

great employee involvement system so that workers can take part in building decisions. It is the
workers that use up 90% of organizations properties and time (Yousef, 2000). The managers'

hands hold the command to demand their workers to consume their resources and time in the

most efficient way and produce best results along with profits. Vroom (1999) says that it is

because of employee involvement, that a company's resources are consumed to their best

advantage. A study done by Dundon et al (2004) on Bet.com Company concluded that a

company with best employee involvement can cut down a lot of money charges of doing their

work. Company managers had an amount of meetings with their employees on how to progress

their profit by taking customers opinions on the phone. Through the employees and their help,

the company saved a lot of profits because of the employees finding out the a few consumers

would place bets after the results were found out. The workers came up with ideas that halted

consumers from putting bets after the coming out of results.

Less industrial disputes

Business disagreements have lessened a lot because of employee participation (Hyman &

Thompson, 2003). This would be because of healthier interaction of managers and their workers.

Many businesses have encouraged its workers to share any kind of troubles they may be facing,

may it be at home or at their work. A few other companies have gotten hold of psychologists to

help their employees handle their burden of work. By doing so, companies all around the world

have cut down the number of leaves their employees take. Many companies consume the tactic

of interacting openly with their workers without having the interruption of trade unions in

between. The company World Call also used a scheme of partnership where the managers made a

strategy of shared opinions without being dependent of trade unions. This was done so to offer a

source of interaction without union channels in between through a release of partnership and
cooperative work. It also brought up a system that permitted its management to interact

effectually with its workers directly without the use of the union. This also concluded in low

rates of absence of employees, improved staff maintenance, and manufacturing betterment

(Dundon et al 2004).

Obstacles to effective employee involvement

Researches in HR management concluded that many businesses are afraid of replacing their

customary autocratic system to independent self-ruled system. This is because they view

democratic system as a system that is a risk of weakening their power over their workers. It is

this fear of replacement that has stopped many organizations from adapting the democratic rule

(Patterson, 1997; Hyman & Thompson, 2003). One more fundament that stops employee

participation is that managements fail to react to employee suggestions. This is just one more

way to reduce a level of employee involvement. This factor was explained my Towers (1997),

that if managements continue to show lack of interest in employee ideas, the employees will

think that the management doesn't care about their well-being. Thus, it is necessary that the

management take part in observing employee's betterments, even if they are minute.

Employee Involvement and empowerment

The impacts of rewards based on self-respect and confidence were observed by Hechler and

Wiener (1974). Their result was that these rewards were mostly related to factors like worker's

insights, excellence, and authority. According to Eisenberger, Rhoades, and Cameron (1999)

they all set to work for distinguishing supposed independence from supposed capability as

possible relations of participation and empowerment. This was argued by Deci and Ryan (1985)

that rewards don't give any better standard for empowerment than responses or information do.

In some cases, performance rewards does in fact, have some characteristics that may be linked

with fundamentals of empowerment, or self-effectualness (Bandura, 1997; Zimmerman, 1985).

It was in faith of Eisenberger, Rhoades, and Cameron (1999) that reward insights of authority

might be variable depending of the kind of performance level gained. By smoothing down

many problems, was to be the finest performance level, which was very different from a normal

performance level. This again was disagreed upon by Deci and Ryan (1985) that exceeding

levels of performance might lead towards competition, which is another feature of

empowerment. Meanwhile, Burger (1992) stated that the workers who had a passion for

management, the impacts of rewards concerning employee participation and authority, would

affect these passionate employees more. But, Thompson, Chaiken and Hazelwood yet argued

that if rewards were given without aims of performance, it would bring out a negative reaction

of encouragement on the employees who had a longing for authority. Suls & Wills (1991) said

that since single workers have their own competitions about work going on anyway, by

comparing their work with others, the information about single performance being grander than

those with their own tests might show a feature of skill. Because of this, in any normal

situation, rewards might have led to competency or authority as they are normally amid

individuals already and may give a positive response in feedback.

Definition of Empowerment

To provide a normal dictionary definition of this would be "to be given supervisory authority:

provide legal power to: commission, authorize" - This is the definition that is usually

understood by people. To give an example, Gandz (1990) states that empowerment is the

management to make decisions or approve power to those workers who had, by custom, such

power as a decision-making right. But, this is not the proper definition of employee

empowerment. When come across with the term "employee empowerment", many people don't

just refer to it as a handing over of power, but it means a lot more to them. And just for this

particular reason, a lot of writers give their own meanings and definitions.

Benefits of Empowerment

There are many profits of empowerment which affect the company, as so it is largely seen

everywhere. Writing in Inc. about applying Marine Corps, Freeman (1998) treasured the

developing business environment supporters which had training and teaching as a first step and

among some tasks, they were rewarded by getting the opportunity to take risks.

Though, he said that a bunch of authors jumping on a bandwagon wasnt good enough for him

to believe that empowerment had its benefits. He said he wanted proof and hard facts and he

found just exactly that. The proof was a group of authors named Kanter (1979) and they were the

basis of information; information about the effectualness of employee empowerment. Individuals

that have the right characteristics such as information, skill and support can make more

knowledgeable judgments, react and take decisions really swiftly and can achieve a lot more

success." (Kanter, 1979, p. 73).

A Culture of Empowerment

Culture of an organization is quite difficult and cannot be explained simply. Up till now it is

based on the built empowerment. The companies which effectively execute the employee

empowerment, they are assured to have standards on their base by which the method of

empowerment runs. These standards are based on the admiration and pleasure for the worth they

brought for the organization and individuals. Only standards are not framed up as a culture of an

organization, and admiration for the individuals rather it is the only the external symbol of an

authorized culture.

Comparing the usual managers of most of the organizations, the supervisors and managers of the

empowered organizations plays different role. At this point this text is proved to be agreed. It

might be clear that one feature of this changed role is the distribution of authority and power.

Moreover vigorously or submissively, up till now many supervisors and managers are already

doing the same, in the course of resignation or designation, neither of that is for the

empowerment of people.

It is authorization that is involved a lot more. The bosses and superintendents are highly active

and energetic. An employee undergoes many various steps until he/she reaches the level of

being granted power of authority. Even if the employee is all set to receive authority in one

aspect, he/she may not be ready to be empowered of other aspects (Blanchard, Zigarmi &

Zigarmi, 2005). The first step to make up an establishment is to gain information, as

information is the doorway that opens up to authorization. Literature requires a lot of

information too and every writer there is requires excessive information. Every author had a

changed definition of the significance of swapping information; Blanchard, Carlos & Randolph

(1996) say that for empowerment, the first step to take is to share information, as people who
do not have information, cannot work accordingly; Bowen & Lawler (1995) define that if the

share of information is none, there will be no empowerment; Ginnodo (1997) believes

information sharing to be the "lifeblood" of empowerment; If employees are lacking

information, they are not to be blamed about any kind of consequences as without information,

they cannot know.

"How to get the best from employees[in Eastern European countries]", while explaining

about this quote, Caudron (1995) showed that, "managers gave employees information about

the business, invested in new skills training, set goals for employees and gave them ongoing

feedback on how they were meeting those goals." (p. 28). The writer of this report states that

case studies are "nothing short of amazing", he says its because the job contentment is at a

high rate, many of the workers find the managers reliable and then he says, referring to the

director of human resources, Berry, that if Berry is asked if he thinks that workers have become

authorized, then Berry always answers in the affirmative.(Caudron, 1995) Even though the

employees have never been taught to experience this kind of encompassing management, and

maybe have never learnt to rely on management before, they still saw that the trial was

successful. The reason for this success was all because of the rule of information sharing. In

many of today's establishment's, all the management staffs are in control of the company's

resources. But, to apply employee empowerment, these funds and possessions must also be in

control of other non-supervisory workers. Ward (1996) says that the referred resources are

mainly of items like finance, admittance to backing supporters, or maybe scholars who have a

lot of information which can be taken by workers. The basic reason for not letting employees

access to the resources is to escape any chances of employee exploitation. Still, if employees

are well aware of the data of prices and bottom line gaining is shared equally with employees,
then they are not probable to misuse the resources Cauldron (1995) says that when the point

comes in which both, the workers and the managers have received full and professional

teaching, the next thing they need is to be given to handle the resources which need

development. To Cauldron, what exasperates and discourages a person is when he is stopped

from doing some work just because he lacks the required skills or doesn't have the necessary

talents to complete the work. A company which decides to give out authority, it must first make

sure that proper amount of encouragement is being given out too in order to keep it developing.

As Blanchard and Bowles (1998) say accordingly that a person cannot be in control of power

until and unless the rest of the company is backing him and not trying to destroy him or the

work he is doing. While Zimmerman (1990) says that empowerment is not a line, which, when

crossed by a person, the person will be empowered. Empowerment is actually a type of

communication with individuals and surroundings, after which is achieved, it can be socially

and officially defined as empowerment. The logic and ideas of a society are a large impact on

the establishment of private mechanism and involvement. Briefly, the surroundings and its

people must always be supportive and encouraging.

Job satisfaction

There are workers who just quit their job just because they dont find happiness in their current

job. Job happiness is now becoming vital in todays job culture and continuation. Many authors

studied that employee find job happiness when his hopes from the job environment equates the

actual job environment, while Walton (1995) took it as a sentimental level of workers where he

find joy and happiness in the praises receives from his works either from the colleagues or from

immediate boss. Some consider it as the degree of exposure an employee has in the day to day
activities of the organization and to the degree he is being recognized in the company. According

to Wood (1999), managers are considering both workers contribution and job happiness as

interrelated phenomenon and develop their strategies accordingly to enhance the workers

effectiveness and to increase overall produce. Companies recognition of employees ideas in the

daily routine jobs enhance the employee happiness and their self-belief which ultimately result in

positive bottom line. Employee shows not only their creativity and ideas about the decision but

it also provides them a mean to depict their grievances. It also provides a pleasure to the workers

in their job and recognition of their ideas in the business. According to Kalmi, Pendleton &

Poutsma (2005) happy employees utilize every means and resources that are available in the

companies for betterment of the company and demonstrate their dedication, innovation and

effectiveness which finally affect the bottom line. As per Kruse & Blasi (1997), many workers

wish that they can do some extra work apart from the duties assigned to them by their seniors

and as per a HR manager at World Call, without employee contribution it is not possible for the

organization to bring a significant change.

Employee productivity

Majority of companies tend to hire creative employees and those who can contribute to their

overall productivity as these employees help them to be survived in this extremely confusing and

robust business environment involving intense competition. Efficiency and effectiveness are two

major parts through which organizational operations outcome is normally gauged (Robinson,

2004). Companies having high degree of effectiveness and whose bottom line are strong tend to

motivate their employee to contribute much in objective decision and tactical decision making of

the organization (Robinson, 2004, 47). Modern theories of employee contribution ensure that
organization can manage contribution by its employees more effectively and simultaneously

lessen its human resource costs. Moreover, employee contribution also ensures job happiness

which escalates companies profits as they results in high level of employee loyalty toward the

companies. As per Gall (2004) instead of employee contribution in specific decision,

organizations should encourage contribution atmosphere at organization level. Gollan (2002)

also identified other benefit that employee can get due to their contribution toward their task

including, increase in work capability, authority to work as per personal desire and to provide

input in decision making.

Theories of Productivity and job satisfaction

Equity Theory

Adams (1963) states that employees are assess and evaluated in relation with their job

contributions to the job results like attempts and abilities. This theory says that, if a manager is

not recognizing its employees subconsciously or intentionally and evaluates their remuneration

and incentives inside and outside the organization this could be measured immature. According

to (Hackman & Suttle, 1977) asserted that this relation is further compared by the other

employees inside and outside the organization in order to know that the incentive he/she is

getting is relatively impartial.

Cappelli and Sherer (1988) observed that this theory is on the basis of extrinsic incentives, for

extrinsic assessment is not limited to justice and impartiality. As Lawler (1986) described his

arguments on a more fundamental vision. (Vandenberg, 1996) He has suggested a behavioural

feature of this where the incentives are attained appreciated by employees. If the distributed

incentives are unmerited, imprecise or unachievable, they can be treated as they are not offered.
Cognitive evaluation theory

According to Deci and Ryan (1985, 1987) believes that, the motivation f employee is based on

acting on the options and making it as cognition evaluation theory, the employee to be self

governing and the evasion of being pressured. Incentives are unspecified as an aversive kind of

social control; as a result it can decline the self-government of the employees. Cognitive

evaluation theory has given these ideas. Basically they observed that by giving the incentives

that are touchable decreases the possible excitement or essential motivation that is acquired by

the employees through out the achievements of aims and objectives. Essentially they stated that

incentives are likely to be skilled as scheming, that is certainly logical, as incentives are used to

pressurize and persuade people to work differently comparing with their act they do liberally.

(1987, p. 1026).

While discussing about rational calculation concepts, Eisenberger, Rhoades, and Cameron

(1999) concluded that the resulting possible consequences could be affected by solitary or

cluster reward systems. They suggested that just like the rewarded groups, individuals

should also be given like aims and responses. If this was not adapted, the feeling of equal

encouragement would not be found among individuals.

Implication for Organization Management

From all the above mentioned points, it can be seen that employee participation has a huge part

in handling businesses. The business officials should grasp the advantage and take steps to

encourage their employees to participate in decision-making progresses of their business. The

points also suggest that management should easily be able to increase their rate of employee

involvement by developing easy rules and directions, better payment and better work system.

This can be done by the administration by developing the ways of communication with their

employees in conferences and by setting field trips for the workers to debate about the

fundamentals that help in better progress of the company, all in an enjoyable environment. Also,

the management can take time out to talk with their employees about their problems and keep

updating the company's variables like working environment so that it would be supple for the

workers. The management can also give out extra rewards for those employees who work hard to

achieve betterment for the company and come up with creative suggestions.

Conclusion

As stated above, it is not hard to note that employee participation and interest effects the

organization very heavily. The companies are usually meeting with tasks that require them to

think of such ideas that will induce employee involvement for the workers to work hard, as the

world around us is constantly changing. Even though a lot of companies encourage their workers

to take part in making judgments, still there are companies that are dead set upon playing with

tactical rules, taking lawmaking measures and law advices. Therefore, there is a need of yet more

researches and studies to be done to improve the system of employee involvement all over the

world, for better profits of businesses.