hello my friends

I want some information about the Participative management or system

for example :

- What it really means?
- can it work ?
-is it effective in quality?
and ...

best regards:thanx:

I found this participative management.pdf (http://elsmar.com/pdf_files/participative management.pdf) that describes the practice.

I am surely biased, but I support the method.

However, I should caution that the method may not fit everyone. A mature system may perform better with PM than a developing system. In a developing system or young company, I expect personnel might need more direction and less consultation.

Levels of participation should correspond with degrees in which responsibility and authority are shared as a group.

I found this .pdf (http://www.spendloveresearch.org/files/participativem.pdf)that describes the practice.

I am surely biased, but I support the method.

However, I should caution that the method may not fit everyone. A mature system may perform better with PM than a developing system. In a developing system or young company, I expect personnel might need more direction and less consultation.

Levels of participation should correspond with degrees in which responsibility and authority are shared as a group.

Ah, one more blast from the past...I'd forgotten how we'd used the term before we moved on to "self-directed work teams".:bonk: I agree with you on all your points, Jennifer. When we started our team journey, there was a set of defined topics and a choosing of authority-centered decision making: example would be job rotation schedule. It was a management-centered decision that there would be said rotation, but the actual scheduling was team-centered. These topics were initially listed hand-written on a sheet intitled " Dave's Burning Issues". The 80's were so much fun...:smokin:

This sounds similar to Chaordic leadership principles. Here's an excerpt from an article on the subject I found a couple of years ago:


On Chaordic Leadership
Many convictions about leadership have served me well over the years. Although each of these few examples could benefit from pages of explication, a few words may provide insight to chaordic leadership.

Power: True power is never used. If you use power, you never really had it.
Human Relations: First, last, and only principle -- when dealing with subordinates, repeat silently to yourself, "You are as great to you as I am to me, therefore, we are equal." When dealing with superiors, repeat silently to yourself, "I am as great to me as you are to you, therefore we are equal."
Criticism: Active critics are a great asset. Without the slightest expenditure of time or effort, we have our weakness and error made apparent and alternatives proposed. We need only listen carefully, dismiss that which arises from ignorance, ignore that which arises from envy or malice, and embrace that which has merit.
Compensation: Money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can rent the body and influence the mind but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and ethics.
Ego, Envy, Avarice, and Ambition: Four beasts that inevitably devour their keeper. Harbor them at your peril, for although you expect to ride on their back, you will end up in their belly.
Position: Subordinates may owe a measure of obedience by virtue of your position, but they owe no respect save that which you earn by your daily conduct. Without their respect, your authority is destructive.
Mistakes: Toothless little things, providing you can recognize them, admit them, correct them, learn from them, and rise above them. If not, they grow fangs and strike.
Accomplishment: Never confuse activity with productivity. It is not what goes in your end of the pipe that matters, but what comes out the other end. Everything but intense thought, judgment, and action is infected to some degree with meaningless activity. Think! Judge! Act! Free others to do the same!
Hiring: Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength. It is stupid to replicate your weakness. Employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability and judgment are radically different from your own and recognize that it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
Creativity: The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.
Listening: While you can learn much by listening carefully to what people say, a great deal more is revealed by what they do not say. Listen as carefully to silence as to sound.
Judgment: Judgment is a muscle of the mind developed by use. You lose nothing by trusting it. If you trust it and it is bad, you will know quickly and can improve it. If you trust it and it is consistently good, you will succeed, and the sooner the better. If it is consistently good and you don't trust it, you will become the saddest of all creatures; one who could have succeeded but followed the poor judgment of others to failure.
Leadership: Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia.

A quick google on 'chaordic' will pull in a wealth of information on Chaordic principles.

Regards -John

thanks for your great help

I have another question

-after this management system what is the next step ??
-what you think about virtual management when we develop this systems?

when we establish participative management in organisation , I think we can change the method of management to e-mangement.our mangement team change to some person such as advisors or they can manage their duty with communication tools and we don't need physical manager.
is this true or not?

Hashemi,

In some cases (with some projects, with some people) e-management can work.

I find that a certain balance is optimal, and depends on the individuals. Who can best "carry the ball"? What is the plan if things don't go as expected? How will you know that the plan is being followed as it was designed?

Skill levels are critical, but work habits and communication styles are also important. Who best collects, explores and delivers information over the media? I can do it to a point, but I still find weekly in-person meetings very important. The key to making this meeting effective is to have a good agenda and take notes.

I find that e-communication can work in mature systems, where personnel know just what to do and where "reaction paths" are well developed and functioning for when things go wrong.

The matter should be handled with utmost care.

Hashemi,

In some cases (with some projects, with some people) e-management can work.

I find that a certain balance is optimal, and depends on the individuals. Who can best "carry the ball"? What is the plan if things don't go as expected? How will you know that the plan is being followed as it was designed?

Skill levels are critical, but work habits and communication styles are also important. Who best collects, explores and delivers information over the media? I can do it to a point, but I still find weekly in-person meetings very important. The key to making this meeting effective is to have a good agenda and take notes.

I find that e-communication can work in mature systems, where personnel know just what to do and where "reaction paths" are well developed and functioning for when things go wrong.

The matter should be handled with utmost care.

Amen, Jennifer. :thanx: We were taught that once we committed to this course there was pretty much no going backwards; once you (as Management) enlist the trust of your workers that you are going to change the enviornment of the workplace, and empower employees to participate...and then you blow it and give up because it's too hard or "doesn't work" then you have damaged your business severely, perhaps irreparably and you got real trouble...so, cavet emptor, hashemi.

What seems like a great overhead reducing :magic: trick of management innovation can be a neutron bomb for your organization. How comfortable is your organization with ambiguity (gray zone)? Do you really trust employees? :mg: Can you see your managers living those Chaordic principles???? Will you just flip the switch and begin the new "Way Forward"? :cfingers:

Don't get me going, its sound good in theory but can be abused in application. We did this many years back and it has resulted in siloed groups with no corporate authority and huge process disconnects between functional areas. No one owns any high level crossfunctional processes or for lack of a better term corporate governance (with the exception of legal and regulatory compliance). It turned the glass ceiling into a concrete ceiling with top management only managing the company strategies/long term roadmaps, they are displaced from any tactical systems and process issues (armchair generals). In a nutshell mid level management is doing the job for them and not successfully because of the abscence of authority. Actually I think I like micromanagement better than anarchy. :mad:

dear jennifer,john ,fuzzy and chaosweary
Thank you for your hints and cautions

At first I must run some Infrastructure for communication tools


And I don't forget this critical point "The matter should be handled with utmost care"