Communication and Involvement

The involvement of employees in the company decision and activities is a direct consequence of the changes and events happened during these last 20 years, from the absence of the influence of employees in the main aspects of an organization, companies developed and evolved to the current situation, nowadays, because of the effort of trade unions, which are organizations that protect workers and employees right, staff contribute in decisions making is more considerable and is seen as a fundamental feature to improve performance in modern organizations. The way that managers nowadays chose for integrate every function of the company in the decisional aspect are mainly two: employee involvement and employee participation; employee involvement is a more a unitarist approach, employees are seen as an unique group that shares the same values and wants to achieve the same targets, the intent is to create a staff strictly related among members in order to create shareable ideals and culture; managers integrate employees in financial, strategical and organizational decision, staff is allowed to provide new ideas, to recommend suggestions and sometimes participate financially in the company. Differently, employee participation, is more a pluralist approach, staff members are seen as members are seen as part of groups which have different values and interests, the involvement of employees is assured by internal legislation and maintained by trade unions establishment, workers have the right to participate in decision which involve employment status, conflicts are seen as part of the working environment and as an opportunity of evolvement, legislation guarantee the participation of staff members in main decisional aspects of the company.

Seven Oaks District Council, is an organization direct involving their employees in decision aspects such as budget savings and communication; adopting an employee involvement way, this company creates a task force of people who share same values and interest, and who feel really proud of the work they are doing. Broadland District Council is also involving his employees, this organization follow an employee participation system, employees have the right to establish a debate where to discuss about some decision that are involving their employment status and members of teams have different interests and targets. Iceland frozen food is an other example of an employee involvement system, managers encourage staff to participate in the decisional aspect of the company by organizing meetings between retail staff representation and regional shop managers in order to discuss and set out decision according to the benefit of the company.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming more and more important in order to guarantee enough staff involvement in the decision-making aspect of a company, a lot of organization already have their own group on these social networks, this because it represent an useful way to directly interact with every aspect of a company and staff members are motivated to provide their suggestions, recommendations and opinion joining groups on these websites. The profile of a company contemplate a discussion section where employees can express their opinion about a theme that concern a decisional aspect of the organization, and the profile itself is managed by members of the company, normally members of the HR sector. Every theme is discussed in these social networks, work conditions, salary, financial choices and organizational aspects; in this way managers are able to control and receive feedback by employees and they can increase the sense of belonging to the company of the staff, even more important is the communicational factor, interacting by these tools, new relationship are continually builded among staff members, this represent an useful to create a group that shares same ideals and interests.

References

-Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

-Thetimes100 (2009) case studies [online]. Available from: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/ [Accessed 23 April 2010].

-CIPD (2009) Employee Communication [online]. Available from:http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/comconslt/empcomm.htm [Accessed 23 April 2010].