PARTICIPATION PROCESSES

Organisations and companies increasingly rely on involving their employees in decision-making processes. Flat hierarchies and co-determination have proven to be a recipe for success and replace old models of leadership and management. This development is called governance instead of government. It not only promotes motivation and identification, but actually also the success of the company. Numerous studies have shown that giving employees a say in decisions increases their job satisfaction and efficiency.

However, many mistakes are made when trying to initiate participation processes. The most common of these are:

* Ostracized participation: Employees are obliged to participate even though they do not want to.
* Alibi-participation: Employees are told that they can participate – but then only to legitimize management decisions. Deviating or critical contributions are not allowed or ignored.
* False expectations: Poor communication leads to false expectations in participation processes, whose disappointment leads to frustration and withdrawal and thus to the exact opposite of what was intended.

To avoid such and other mistakes, participation processes need preparation, monitoring and evaluation. EURODEMPA offers support and scientific guidance in the different phases and at different levels of the participation. It is important that participation is not misunderstood as an end in itself. It does not make sense to set up broad participation processes in every context and for every decision. There are different ways of involving employees. In order to select the best variant, the status quo and willingness to participate must be analyzed in advance. Only then can a promising process begin.