The “E” Word Resivited
For at least fifty years, management literature has acknowledged the merits of “employee involvement” and input in decision making. In
the 1980s and 1990s, employee empowerment became a watchword. Today, most leaders would say they believe in the virtues of including employees, if only indirectly, in the planning process. They also express support of employees coming up with their own ideas and questions. Yet employee surveys conducted by organizations we know continue to document that in reality, employee input for strategy development is not regularly or systematically sought.
To be fair to leadership, employee involvement can be difficult to manage and may deliver uneven results. Employees may lack contextual information and fail to appreciate big-picture erspectives.
They may often seem ambivalent about wanting to be included in the conversation, or they might want to give input to decision-making but not share responsibility for carrying decisions out. Or they simply might not believe speaking their mind is a safe and smart thing to do. In a way, managing such a dialogue is like running a three-legged race with the seven-foot-one NBA star Shaquille O’Neal: Allowances have to be made for the conversation to get anywhere.
Taken from : The Leader As Communicator
