Knowing the difference between employee involvement and employee participation becomes important as they are two important concepts related with human resource management in organizations and appear to be similar in meaning, but they are not. Employee involvement expresses the level of employee contribution towards the organization. Employee participation is an opportunity given to the employees, to participate in the decision-making process. In this article, the difference between employee involvement and employee participation is analyzed in detail.
What is Employee Involvement?
Employee involvement is a kind of a responsibility of the employer to provide opportunities for the employees to get involved in the activities performed in the organization. Organizational success heavily depends upon the level of the contribution of the employees. Human resource is considered as an important asset for any organization as they are the driving force towards achieving goals.
In most organizations, employees are allocated with specific tasks to be completed within a specified time frame. Usually, the employees contribution is evaluated annually or twice in a year by conducting performance appraisals by the human resource management department.
What is Employee Participation?
Employee participation is the process of providing opportunity for the employees to participate in the decision-making process and it is a part of the process of empowerment in the workplace. Therefore, the individual employees are encouraged to take responsibility in carrying out certain activities, in order to meet the requirements of their customers. It is a kind of a motivational technique used by the management to encourage their employees and to get the maximum contribution towards the organizational success.
Employee participation can also be referred as a kind of an opportunity given to the employees to express their ideas. Meanwhile, the management is expecting and appreciating their views in making crucial decisions on behalf of the organization.
Following examples are used to illustrate more about the tasks they are involved in.
• Provide opportunities to work in project teams or quality circles in which tasks are delegated among the team members.
• Use of suggestion schemes, where employees are given channels to suggest new ideas for the managers within the organization.
• Consultation exercises and meetings whereby employees are encouraged to share ideas.
• Delegation of responsibility within the organization, where the employees are given authority and responsibility to deal with customers on a daily basis.
What is the difference between Employee Involvement and Employee Participation?
• Employee participation is an opportunity provided for the employees to participate in the decision-making process and employee involvement is a process of getting the contribution of the employees for various activities.
• In employee participation, employee’s ideas and attitudes are concerned in the decision-making process. In employee involvement, all the employees contribution is taken together in achieving a particular objective on behalf of the organization.
• Employee involvement is a one-on-one approach between the employee and management as the tasks are assigned by the superiors or the management. Employee participation, employees’ ideas and attitudes are expected and appreciated by the management in making crucial decisions on behalf of the organization.