Employee Involvement

Employee Involvement

Michael Martin

Organizational Theory and Behavior BBA 3451-13L

Professor Flores

December 18, 2014

Article Summary

An article written by Simone Phipps, Leon Prieto, and Erastus Ndinguri recently published in the Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications, and Conflict reviews the results of a study the authors performed on employee involvement’s impact on organizational productivity, and how they are tied together by the employees’ commitment to the organization. This research was performed solely through the review of dozens of published works on the topics of organizational culture, employee empowerment, and commitment, among others. They looked at numerous elements within an organization’s culture, including the extent to which the organization’s employees are given opportunities to get involved in the direction of their organization.

The Employee Involvement (EI) researched is broken into four distinct elements: power, information, knowledge/skill, and rewards (Phipps, Prieto, & Ndinguri, 2013). Through their research, the authors show a direct correlation between increased productivity and a combination of EI and commitment to their organization.

Schneider states (as cited by Phipps, et al., 2013, p.108) “Organizational productivity is crucial as it is directly tied to an organization’s formula for success.” Productivity can be generally defined as increased value over time, and the authors acknowledge organizational performance is often measured by an increase or decrease in productivity. With that said, the importance of identifying the factors which influence productivity was a primary goal of the study.

The article acknowledges that an increase in productivity can be augmented through an increase in employee involvement. Organizational commitment is another established factor. Consequently, according to Phipps, et al., (2013), the main purpose of their study was “to explore the possible...