CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 Introduction
This chapter deals with the review of related literature; it is reviewed under the
following headings;
2.1 Concept of employee participation
2.2 Factors that influence employee participation in decision making
2.3 Forms of employee participation
2.4 Different Needs for Participation
2.5 Views expressed concerning Participation
2.6 Constraints to employee participation
2.1 The Concept of Employee Participation
Decision making permeates all aspects of the management process. To every
manager therefore, notwithstanding his/her level in the organization, the importance of
decision making can never be over emphasized. So also is the need for participation of
employees in such managerial decision. Employee participation may be thought of as
the growing and receiving of information, advice and suggestions and the sharing of
experience among members of an organization. In management, it particularly applies
toallowing employees to have a voice in shaping directly or indirectly what affects
them. It therefore can be seen as a sharing process among managers and employees.
However, in the process of sharing, employees must be able to display an upward
exertion of control over management decisions.
According to Salamon, M. (2002), points straight away to this difficulty and
acknowledges that employee participation is a term capable of at least three different
meanings. In one sense,
According to Salamon (2002:p5) employee participation can be seen as a socio-
political concept or philosophy of industrial organization, and in this sense it is more
appropriately termed "workers control" or "industrial democracy", since employee self-
management or control is the objective. A second use or meaning is as a generic term
encompassing all processes and institution. The widest interpretation of this includes
the whole spectrum of management - employee relationships from simple information
giving by management through to workers control. The third interpretation of the term
employee participation which Salamon identifies is one which seeks to distinguish it
from the traditional process of collective bargaining and the subject matter of that
bargaining. It is defined as a philosophy or style of management recognizing both the
need and right of employees to be involved with management in processes which
extend employee influence into, new” areas of organizational decision making and
which are less distributive" in their concerns and orientation, and more concerned with
the joint determination and resolution of problems.
There are four different perspectives or models of participation which
Includes:
i) One which emanates from a belief that participation enhances job
satisfaction.
ii) A second which believes that participation, or perhaps more specifically
involvement programmes will enhance committee and that commitment
leads to enhanced performance.
iii) A third approach links participation with enhanced co-operation and reduced
levels of conflict.
iv) The fourth approach links real participation to those situations in which there is
some actual transfer of control from management to labour and tends to dismiss
much ,,participation" as no more than cosmetic or a sham.
2.2 Factors that Influence Employee Participation in Decision Making
There are generally three (3) principal factors that influence the concept of
participation. These are:
1) The Organization: For effective participation to take place, the organization must
provide a psychological climate conducive for participation. This means first, that it
must initiate and encourage a two way flow of information. If information is directed
only one way down, there is no meaningful exchange between management and
employees that can take place. Secondly, the organization's attitude towards its
employees to participate effectively.
2) The Manager: As a way of encouraging effective employee participation in decision
making the manger must operate a two-way communication flow. His efforts to
encourage participation must be sincere and the freedom he can allow employees in
making decision concerning work in his department must not exceed the guidelines
established by the organization. He must always remember that participation does not
relieve, him of authority or his responsibility for making decisions. Also, the manager
must realize that he has a dual responsibility, one to his organization and the other to his
employees. Therefore, the desires and wishes of the employees must always be
considered but when a conflict exists, the manager is obliged to support the goal of an
organization.
3) The Employee: The degree at which an employee is allowed to participate in
decision making depends to a great extent on his background and training. If the
employee has no background on the subject being discussed, no knowledge and
competence with respect to the problem, his opinions and suggestions will have little
values. In spite of this, however, his advice can be used to identify area of concern and
collection of information. On the other hand, if the employee has considerate
experience and training, his advice may prove beneficial in making decision. Therefore,
by allowing the • experienced and inexperienced to participate, both will feel that they
have some control over their work.
2.3 Forms of Employee Participation
There are two notable different ways in which employees can take part in decisions that
affect them. These are; Direct participation and Indirect participation Direct
participation involves the individual himself relating to decision that concerns him
while indirect participation centre on people representing the employees in decisions
that affect them.

Indirect Participation
The two ways that have been established as the dormant means of participation with the
enterprises are:
Collective Bargaining
Joint Consultation
A) Collective Bargaining: This form of indirect participation is usually carried out
between employers or their representative and the representatives of the employees (that
come in form of trade union). Its primary purpose is purely economic. According to
Ubeku (1983) it is a system of wage and condition of service determination in which the
employer (management) shares administrative decision making responsibility with the
union. The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity defined
it as; negotiations about working conditions and terms of employment between an
employer, and group of employees with one or more employers organization on the one
hand and one or more representative workers" organization, on the other hand with a
view to reaching an agreement.

B) Joint Consultation: Joint consultation is any method of establishing a two way

communication between management and it's employees in addition to those provided
by normal day today contact. It is a formal machinery for dealing with employees as a
group instead of dealing with them individually so as to avoid petitions and
demonstrations. The objectives of joint consultations principally are:
i) To enhance the achievement of increased productivity by involving the workers
through their representatives, in the planning of the production process.
ii) To set up a scheme for regular contact between management and workers as a means
of improving communication and thereby lessening the suspicious of the workers
towards management plans and objectives.

iii) To meet the workers" demand for better insight (and voice) into the management of
the organization for which they work. In this way, a moral right would be satisfied and
increased co-operation and efficiency would result.

Direct Participation
Writers agree that the aim of participation is to secure better, greater employee
involvement and thereby achieve a better use of manpower skills and abilities, many of
which are latent unless they are released by leadership and managerial effort. The
process of direct participation of employees in managerial decision, which seeks to
expose those skills and abilities, can take place in diverse ways.
1) Consultative Management: As the name implies, this type of direct
participation entails managers consulting with their employees in order to encourage
them to think about issues and contribute their own ideas before decisions are made.
Although managers do not consult on every issue, they do set a climate for consultation.
However, they must be genuinely receptive to employees" ideas so that employees do
not see that shallowness of any participative procedure that is not supported by a real
desire for employee ideas.
2) Group Discussion: This is form of democratic management in which the manager
refers a number of decisions to the employee group so that the group"s idea and
influence can be made use of. At times, especially in it"s extreme form, managers can
loose control of whatever decision, they refer to their group because it is based on
a ,,one person, one vote line".

According to Morgan, (1980) group discussion is useful to gather/give

information, praise or command workers, develop understanding of common work goal,
work requirements and production standards, solve problems and assist in decision
making. However, for it to be effective there must be a free exchange of information
between employees and the management in the discussion among the leaders and
employees involved.
3) Briefing Groups: These are shift and systematic means of transmitting information
throughout an organization. Information of any kind is transmitted through the
management system, and this is done by holding regular meetings of fairly short
duration. Also, special meetings to communicate particular and vital piece of
information can be called. The advantage of briefing groups is that information is
communicated through formal management channels; in this way, effective supervision
which can be posed by other means of communication can be bolstered. Also, morale
and satisfaction is enhanced, as there is face-to-face communication between the
manager and his subordinates. Some people have criticized briefing groups as nothing
more than a device for managerial control of information.
4) Individual Contact: This involves a day-to-day and face-to-face exchange
of opinions, information and experience between the manger and his employees on an
individual basis. There are not formal preparations required and the employee is made
to feel that he is valued both as an employee and as a person. In spite of this advantage
however, there are certain inherent disadvantages. Some mangers are reluctant to
encourage employees to express themselves concerning their jobs probably due to fear
of loosing control of their groups and the work situation. Also, some managers feel that
asking the advice of their employees show, weakness of their leadership ability.
2.4 Different Needs For Participation
Although we have stated the different forms of participation, it must not be assumed
that employees in general love participation. In fact, the amount and character of
participation need to be geared to the values, the skills and the expectations of the
people involved if productive results are to be obtained. According to Davis (2000),
some employees desire more participation because they tend to have lower
performance, low satisfaction, lower self-esteem, more stress and other symptoms of
tension and dissatisfaction. However, some people desire a minimum participation and
are not upset because they lack it. He added that the difference between one’s desire
and actual participating gives a measure of the match between a company"s practices
and individual desire, that when employees want more participation than they have,
they are anticipatively deprived and there is under participation.
2.5 Views Expressed Concerning Participation
Miner (2008) stated that the major reasons for sharing decision when sharing does occur
is to improve the technical quality of the decision. To him, diversity brings varied
knowledge, abilities, approaches and viewpoints to bear and these are what creative
decision require. He defined creative decision as decision that embody something new
and also have a redeeming value.
Donnelly (2006) concurred by saying that if the manager relies on his position all
the time for the quality of the decision, the quality will suffer. It has also been stated
that manager vary their approach in terms of decision sharing with their subordinates. In
crisis or emergency situation when time for decision making is short, managers
naturally make the decision alone. Therefore, participation does vary with
circumstances like job pressure. Exuberance of the economic climate and the existence
of experience or skill in the work-force. Some writers have argued that participation
programmes should not based alone on relatively "trival" decision like the changing of
operating procedures of immediate subordinates. In some advanced countries,
employees are involved in the selection, design or purchase of new equipment. They
can also have a significant though not final say in fundamental issues as site location,
building design, internal plant.
Heller and Wilpert (2001) in their own research on employee participation
concluded that skill is one of the most important reason for using participation methods.
Where the decision making is surrounded by people who have extensive experience or
relevant job skills, he uses more power sharing methods (for instance joint decision
making or delegation). According to them, in the absence of skill and trust, participation
becomes an empty gesture and is seen by subordinates in this light. This conclusion
therefore, has important consequences for training and skill development.
2.6 Constraints to Employee Participation
Constraints have been defined as all those element or features of an organization which
impinge on employees to decide or limit the behavioural contents of their work. They
come in various dimensions; the preconditions for effectiveness mentioned earlier, to
some extent are limitations but there are others.
The views and tradition of an organization can pose a constraint to a new
manager in an organization. Those views and traditional influence the19
behaviour of the people who work in them and the manager may discover that to
deviate radically from them is likely to create problems for him, some organization for
example, insists that their managers must be dynamic, decisive and persuasive. Other
organizations emphasize on the importance of the manager's ability to work with others.
Therefore, the idea of organizational members especially the idea of manager's
superiority of who the desirable executive should be, will push the manager towards
one end or the other of the participation continuum. The size of the working units of the
organization including the geographical distribution is another constraint to
participation. Some managers have very limited subordinates, which in some cases,
make participation impracticable.
The pressure of time is another constraint. The more the manager feels the urge
for immediate discussion, the more difficult it becomes for him to involve his
subordinates in the decision making. In organizations where the pressure is less intense,
the opposite is the case. Although the pressure of time is the mostly felt presence on the
manager, it can easily be managed at times. The existing and potential legislation in
some countries may require participation to develop in certain ways.
 CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter examines the research design and methodology adopted to carry out the
study. It present the research design, population of the study, sample and sampling
procedure, instrumentation procedure/method of data collection , techniques for data
analysis and problems of data collection.
3.2 Research Design
Basically, this study will use survey method as a suitable method, survey approach
method afforded the researcher to use questionnaire to gather data from the respondents.
3.3 Population of the Study
The researcher population for this study comprised of 100 staff in the ministry of works
Uyo. This is adopted as the population of the study.

3.4 Sample and Sampling Techniques

The convenience sampling technique was used in selecting a sample size of 50
respondents. This sampling technique was chosen so as to eliminate bias and help
increase the representative of the sample chosen.

3.5 Instrumentation
The research instrument for this study was a self developed questionnaire which
was is two parts. As this is the most commonly used tool in survey research. The first
part was on personal data of the respondents while the second part was on questions for
which answer was sought in keeping with the objective of the study. Data used for
study was obtained from two main source, primary and secondary source. Primary
source of data collection was that first-hand information obtained from questionnaire
administration, personal observation and oral interviews. Secondary source were
obtained from existing materials such as textbooks, journals, articles, unpublished
research works etc.
3.6 Techniques for Data Analysis
All completed questionnaire forms were collected, coded and analyzed using
descriptive statistics involving the use of simple percentages and frequency tables.
3.7 Problems of Data Collection
Since the questionnaire was the principal sources of data collection, the researcher faced
the following problems, constant postponement of visit by respondents for reason of
being busy, limited time to complete the study and some refused making personal
contribution for fear of being quoted.