Types of Employee Participation in Decision Making (PDM) amongst the Middle Management in the Malaysian Public Sector

Abstract

Over the years, there has been tremendous growth of interest in employee participation in decision-making or PDM from a various discipline of studies such as industrial relations, management, human resource management (HRM), organisational behaviour, and political economy. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify the types of employee"s direct participation particularly on delegative, consultative and non-participation in decision-making at the middle management in the six selected ministries in Putrajaya, Malaysia. To achieve the objective, a quantitative research design was used and 758 questionnaires were distributed and 454 (59.9%) were returned. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis by mean, standard deviation, percentage, and frequency. The results of the study showed that majority of the middle management employees were involved in consultative decision-making rather than delegative decision-making, and only a small percentage of employees experienced with non-participation in the workplace. It can be concluded that employees were encouraged to participate in the decision-making process, however, most of the important decisions are still made by the top management. Also, there is no serious issue of very low level or high level of nonparticipation among the middle management employees in the Malaysian public sector. Contribution/ Originality: This study enhances the existing body of knowledge by providing new empirical evidence to fill the gaps in the literature that might exist in previous studies of employee PDM in organisations and contributes to the limited number of studies on employee PDM, especially at the middle management level in the Malaysian public sector.

Do National Values of Culture and Sustainability Influence Direct Employee PDM Levels and Scope? The Search for a European Answer

“…In terms of political influence, a study by Shaed et al [5] reveals that the decision making of public organizations gives the power to decide to political forces, placing political concerns above economic issues. In addition, it states that wide levels of decision and bureaucracy exist, which makes it a slower and more time-consuming process.…”

“…Talib and Rahman [4] consider that PDM is concerned with how employers allow their employees to be involved in organizational decision making. Previous studies have focused on a type of PDM, such as consultative or delegative [5], direct or indirect [6,7], or active or passive [8], but only a few are based on the matter of decision making [9][10][11]. This paper aims to shed light on this issue, analyzing PDM from two different perspectives: operational, when employees decide on direct tasks (i.e., how to organize their work, time, and speed and how to set their own schedules and goals) [12], and organizational, in which they have a decision on organizational matters (i.e., vision, mission, organizational goals) [13].…”

Emerging Paradigm of Employees’ Involvement in Decision Making and Organizational Effectiveness: Further Evidence from Nigerian Manufacturing Firms

“…Employee involvement has been used in the literature interchangeably with employee participation, job involvement, job engagement, employee engagement, and employee voice (Appelbaum, Louis, Makarenko, Saluja, Meleshko & Kulbashian, 2013;Shaed, Zainol, Yusof & Bahrin, 2018). According to Nachiket (2014) employees' involvement is a series of activities planned out to elicit the support, encouragement, indulgence and optimum contribution of employees at all levels in an organization so as to bring about unceasing improvement towards the attainment of organizational goals.…”

“…Tizazu (2014) submits that employees' involvement can either be direct or indirect (advisory). In addition, Shaed et al (2018) indicated three mechanisms of EIDM to include (i) information sharing, (ii) consultative involvement, and (iii) democratic/delegative involvement. In the same vein, Asokk, Gudda, Bhati and Vanishree (2021) identified six ways through which management could involve employees.…”

Role of Human Resource Management Function on Implementation of Change Among County Governments: Case Study of Kakamega County

“…Because businesses are composed of individuals, an escalating need exists to develop organizational change communication strategies emphasizing employee participation (Shin, Taylor and Seo, 2012). Nordin (2014) According to Shaed and Ishak et al (2015) employee participation is distribution of power between employer and employee in decision making process, either through direct or indirect involvement. Consequently, Malek et al (2012) emphasizes that participation is regarded as a key success factor during organizational change.…”