Participative Decision Making 4

In the last byte, we looked at the organizational prerequisites (foundations) that assist a participative decision making. In this byte, we look at the individual prerequisites for a participative decision making.

Research has indicated that there are three individual prerequisites for participation and empowerment at workplace these are:

1. the capability to become psychologically involved in participative activities
2. the motivation to act autonomously
3. the capacity to see the relevance of participating for one’s own well-being.

The first aspect of psychological involvement is extremely essential as a failure to be involved could be empowered could make them ineffective. Ex: Cultural aspects like having grown up in an authoritarian set up could hamper voluntary participation.
The participative decision making is driven by people who are open to work autonomously - have an internal drive. If the team has dependent people they wouldn’t be effective contributors to the effort.
The ability to look at a personal benefit (not short term alone but also long term) becomes important if one is to become an effective member of such a team.