Should We Consider a “Contingency” Approach to Participative Management?

Although many studies contend that there are few advantages to using participation among organisation members, consideration should be given to the contingency approach to participation. The management practitioner should address such issues as value attributed to participation by employees, skill level, the practitioner's willingness to relinquish some power, time required for a decision to be reached, and nature of the task being performed. The manager can thus discriminate between situations in which participation has a motivating potential, and those in which it would be detrimental.