Role of Employee Participation in Managing Conflicts at the Workplace

, Poole). The subject of employee satisfaction at the workplace and productivity is anchored on the premise that work should and must be fulfilling to the employee with respect to the actual duties and the suitability of the working condition (Poole). At all times, the workplace should accord the employee a means of building their personality and their participation is a sure way of meeting these conditions. Thus, the management decisions made in a participative environment produces an end result that is both acceptable and workable, thereby increasing the efficiency of the workers making the realization of targets more achievable compared to environments where management decisions are made unilaterally without the input of employees. However, different firms and countries deploy various forms of employee participation to suite their unique environments.

Collective Bargaining In many countries and firms, collective bargaining is one of the most acceptable, vigorous, and most common form of employee participation. Collective bargaining is mostly involved in setting the terms of employment and involve discussions on issues of direct interests of relevant employees. Collective bargains are the basic tool for the involvement of workers in decision making and binds both the management and the individual employees to various agreements whose breach results to stipulated outcomes. Therefore, as a form of employee participation, decisions that were traditionally made unilaterally transform to deliberated compromises between the managers and employees. Also, by the nature of the use of representatives, collective bargaining is in itself a form of indirect employee participation (Jules). These representatives yield similar duties and rights as other members of the board and therefore represent the interests of employees in decision making minimizing conflicts of labor and management at the workplace (Neurosearch).

In the UK, proponents of employee representation attribute it to the corporate economic success the model has brought in other European countries lie Germany and Denmark in averting labor conflicts. Additionally, the proponents argue that the arrangement has fostered corporative workplaces through effective communication and involvement of the concerns of workers in higher levels of managerial decision making producing a consensus in corporate strategies thereby minimizing workplace conflicts (Campbell and Waring). Work Councils or Joint Committees Work councils are a group of employees who are elected by their colleagues and charged with the responsibility of holding frequent meetings with management on purposes of representing their interest in decision making. Usually, the member of these work councils are elected by all employees in the company irrespective of whether they are unionized or not.

In conclusion, although the extent of employee participation in decision making incorporate entities is relatively low, particularly with concern to the use of work councils and employee representation in company boards, its role in conflict resolution is gaining momentum in workplaces. Thus, it is critical that employees be involved more directly in decision making process through increased interest, initiative, and support by managers towards involving employees in policy making process particularly in regard to operational concerns. Works Cited Adams, Roy J. Should Works Councils Be Used As Industrial Relations Policy? Monthly Labor Review 108. Campbell, Greg, and Asa Waring. P. Retrieved from: https://www. pon. harvard. edu/daily/dispute-resolution/dispute-resolution-and-the-chicago-teachers-union-strike/ [21 July 2018]. Valizade, Danat, et al. A Mutual Gains Perspective on Workplace Partnership: Employee Outcomes and the Mediating Role of the Employment Relations Climate.