Participatory Management Case Study

The article “Participatory management. Methods to increase staff output in organizational decision making” was written by Phil Bartle, PhD. The epigraph of the article is identical to its central point: “Management is far too important to be left only to managers”. The author emphasizes the importance of staff participation in management and creates a guideline to make the business more participatory.

Indeed, unless we discuss military activities, where the steadfastness of orders execution is a driving force, all the kinds of management constitute the process of human interaction. As author believes, the replacement of the usual “Decision-execution” administration model by the alternative “Discussion-common decision-execution” one will dramatically

Firstly, it takes time to implement the PM to the usual activity of the company and to find out staff’s point of view in each case of decision-making. Secondly, participatory management does not mean plebiscitary one, thus conflicts on particular questions will eventually arise. If the controversial issue is solved against the voice of the staff, the workers will obviously be disappointed. This situation would require additional managerial efforts to be settled. Thirdly, disagreements within the staff may possibly harm the work efficiency and nullify the teambuilding

All the points of a guideline are confirmed with properly made arguments, which leave no space to argue on the efficiency of the PM. He complied with the task of creating a managers’ manual, which can help in making the work of organization more efficient and atmosphere in its labor collective more friendly and transparent. Nevertheless, there are several points, which would further develop the topic of the article. Firstly, the author describes the scope of the personnel’s participation in management and decision-making as “maximum possible”. It is necessary to admit that this level is different for the different collectives. The highly qualified personnel of a law or accounting firm deserves a possibility to shape company’s future on the equal basis with its managers, while the unskilled workers (of course, being equally respected) have to delegate more decisional capacity to the management bodies. There is one more advantage of PM the author has not described. Being a manager is not a profession – it is a talent. Thus, PM can help finding gifted managers in the crowd of workers. The one, whose propositions helped to increase the efficiency of the company and to establish mutual understanding between the governing bodies and simple workers deserves promotion regardless of his qualification and a post he