Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

First Advisor

Claire Halverson

Abstract

Implementation of participative management requires commitment, communication, planning and willingness to change an organization's culture and systems. This participative, decision-making strategy is especially important these days because of increased competition and an unstable economy.Some of the current trends in participative management include: Total Quality Management (TQM); Participation, Objectives, Quality (POQ); Open Book; and Managing as Volunteers (MAV). Because participative management is an integrated systems that effects all components of an organization, the failure rate is high, somewhere between 25 and 36 percent. There is a need for management to be committed to the principles of participation. Then management must start the process of changing the culture. There are some specific stages that an organization must go through in order to implement participative management. The first stage is planning. At this stage management needs to internalize the concepts of participation and address the organization with as many answers as possible. Communication and openness are important to successful implementation. The second stage, pre-implementation, involves introducing the concepts of participative management to the staff. Staff and management can then work together to develop a participative plan that would suit the organization. This is best done through trainings. The last stage, implementation is where the changes have to occur. Management needs to change their style of managing. The culture needs to adopt new symbols and processes. I look at what is needed to implement participative management by looking at a case study of a non-profit organization implementing a participatory strategy.

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations

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