Employee participation

http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory--employee-
participation--310.php

Employee participation is the process whereby employees are involved in decision making
processes, rather than simply acting on orders. Employee participation is part of a process of
empowerment in the workplace.

Empowerment involves decentralising power within the organisation to individual decision

makers further down the line. Team working is a key part of the empowerment process. Team
members are encouraged to make decisions for themselves in line with guidelines and
frameworks established in self managing teams.

Employee participation is in part a response to the quality movement within organisations.

Individual employees are encouraged to take responsibility for quality in terms of carrying out
activities, which meet the requirements of their customers. The internal customer is someone
within the organisation that receives the 'product of service' provided by their 'supplier' within
the organisation. External customers are buyers and users outside of the organisation.
Employee participation is also part of the move towards human resource development in
modern organisations. Employees are trusted to make decisions for themselves and the
organisation. This is a key motivational tool.

Employee participation is also referred to as employee involvement (EI)

Examples of employee participation include:

i. Project teams or quality circles in which employees work on projects or tasks with
considerable responsibility being delegated to the team.

ii. Suggestion schemes - where employees are given channels whereby they can suggest new
ideas to managers within the organisation. Often they will receive rewards for making
appropriate suggestions.

iii. Consultation exercises and meetings whereby employees are encouraged to share ideas.

iv. Delegation of responsibility within the organisation. In modern organisations ground level
employees have to be given considerable responsibility because they are dealing with
customers on a day-to-day basis often in novel situations. Such employees need to be trusted
to make decisions for themselves.

v. Multi-channel decision making processes. In such situations decisions are not only made in
a downward direction, they also result from communications upwards, sideways, and in many
other directions within the organisation.
Basic Overview of Supervision
http://managementhelp.org/suprvise/suprvise.htm

Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-
2008.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision.

There are several interpretations of the term "supervision", but typically supervision is the
activity carried out by supervisors to oversee the productivity and progress of employees who
report directly to the supervisors. For example, first-level supervisors supervise entry-level
employees. Depending on the size of the organization, middle-managers supervise first-level
supervisors, chief executives supervise middle-managers, etc. Supervision is a management
activity and supervisors have a management role in the organization.

Occasionally, writers will interchange "leadership" and "supervision". Both activities are
closely related. Supervision requires leadership. Leadership does not necessarily have to
involve supervision.

Facilitation

http://www.textweaver.org/facilitation.htm

Facilitation is the art of leadership in group communication. A facilitator is one who fulfills
this leadership role. In online settings, these terms are often employed interchangeably with
"moderating" and "moderator."

Facilitation in both online and face to face settings aims to promote a congenial social
atmosphere and a lively exchange of views. The online facilitator resembles his or her face-
to-face equivalent in important respects. Here is how facilitation is described in one classic
account (Hiltz and Turoff: 1978, pp 23-24):

In order for a computerized conference to be successful the moderator has to work very hard
at both the 'social host' and the 'meeting chairperson' roles. As social host she/he has to issue
warm invitations to people; send encouraging private messages to people complimenting
them or at least commenting on their entries, or suggesting what they may be uniquely
qualified to contribute. As meeting chairperson, she/he must prepare an enticing-sounding
initial agenda; frequently summarize or clarify what has been going on; try to express the
emerging consensus or call for a formal vote; sense and announce when it is time to move on
to a new topic. Without this kind of active moderator role, a conference is not apt to get off
the ground.

Classifications of Facilitating Activities

Zane Berge (1995) has proposed a widely used classification of facilitating activities under
four categories: pedagogical, social, managerial, and technical. According to Berge, the