Organizational Culture of Participation: Development and Validation of a Measure**/Beteiligungskultur: Entwicklung Und Validierung Eines Messinstruments

Zusammenfassung

---

This article specifies the concept of "Organizational Culture of Participation" (OCP) as that part of an organizational culture which is linked to employee participation. Three OCP-types are distinguished by the way participation is promoted and supported in an organizational culture: (1) leader promoted, (2) employee promoted, and (3) institution promoted OCPs - all types are considered to have different processes and outcomes of employee participation. The OCP concept's relevance for research on employee participation and a first validation of this concept is described. For this we developed a measure of OCP and conducted an empirical study to analyze construct, discriminant and incremental validity. After presenting this study implications for future research and of practical relevance are derived.

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

Auszug

---

Organizational Culture of Participation: Development and Validation of a Measure**/Beteiligungskultur: Entwicklung Und Validierung Eines Messinstruments

Introduction

The current economic situation is characterized by continuous change. Frequently, organizations are facing a variety of changes, for instance in their social, economic, political, technological, and ecological environment (Kobi 2008). Not only do organizations have to identify these changes as quickly as possible, they have to react adequately to them as well. An organization's readiness for adaptating inappropriate processes and structures as well as its flexibility and high strength in innovation are crucial for long-term success in extending and securing the company's market position. Here, loyal and motivated employees are required, who are willing to take charge of organizational matters and to invest their knowledge, skills and creative potential in their companies and their processes. We suppose that one way to induce and maintain high work motivation and a positive attitude towards the work and the organization is by employee participation. Material participation (financial participation in company's capital, profit or gain) and/or immaterial participation (participating in information, coordination, and decision processes) can help organizations to promote employees' motivation, attitude and performance, and therefore the organization's capacity for innovation, its performance and market position.

Current research of employee participation provides support for our supposition: Recent meta-analyses found evidence for moderately or small positive correlations on average, linking various aspects of material and immaterial participation on one hand to job performance, and satisfaction on the other (Wagner 1994, Wagner/LePine 1999, Wagner et al. 1997). By now, various comprehensive articles have been published, which, as a rule, found positive impacts of material and immaterial participation on employees' motivation, job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior (Kruse/Blasi 1995; Wagner et al. 1997; Kaarsemaker 2006; Frey/Fischer 2007; S2abo 2007), and recently on psychological ownership as the feeling of possession towards the organization; or a part of it (Pierce/Rubenfeld/Morgan 1991; Pierce/Kostova/Dirks 2001; Van Dyne/Pierce 2004; Martins et al. 2007). Even the link between workers' material and immaterial participation and organizational productivity has been researched for a long time. The majority of these studies show positive, but mostly small productivity effects (Höge 2006; Stracke et al. 2007; Szabo 2007). However, some shortcomings in research of employee participation...

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

---