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Question 37
The potential value of participatory management is fairly easy to see and tends to get a great deal of attention. What potential downside(s) do you see to this approach? Why? [3 Marks]
Expert Answer
For some reasons, the participatory management style may come out with potential downsides. First, the managers of the organizations, especially who are seniors, may not feel comfortable in “allowing” this subordinate participation. If they are not comfortable, how will they and their team perform? Second, the employees themselves may not be agreed to take such responsibility for participation as, to them, it could be an “other people’s job”. So, in summary, it is the organizational culture that will determine whether the participatory management approach will do good or not. To get a positive outcome of this approach, there must be trust in the relationship between the management and the employees and the employees must understand the value of their participation in achieving the organizational objective.
Furthermore, too much reliance on the participative approach may bring out feelings that leaders are turning their own responsibilities to their subordinates and that they want to represent the organization as “one big, happy, democratic family”. In such a situation, there will, in fact, be no leadership, the organization would lose its path towards the goal, decisions would not be taken by anyone in a timely manner, and competitive advantage of the organization will erode.
