Solution
| Employee involvement and employee participation are complementary concepts where one cannot exist outside of the other. Both are highly useful in effective people management. They foster environment where employees exert continual influence on actions as well as decisions affecting their work. However, the two differ in that employee participation entails teamwork as employees co-work towards a common goal while employee involvement is less about team work and more about direct communication between management and workers (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022). Employee involvement plays a huge role in building and maintaining healthy workplace relationships. Suggestion boxes, which are an example of employee involvement, foster healthy relationships in a number of ways. Such boxes offer employees a voice, hence making them feel valued by their employer. The sense of ownership created by suggestion boxes promotes good workplace relationships because employees feel that managers care about them. It builds trust together with transparency, which are essential ingredients for healthy relationships (HR Tech News, 2021). Nevertheless, suggestion boxes may not be 100% effective in maintaining healthy relationships in the workplace if managers do not respond promptly to employee suggestions or if approval of suggestions is done in a biased manner. An example of employee participation is membership to a works committee in a given organisation (Chand, n.d.). Supported by the 1947 Industrial Disputes Act, works committees/councils exist to articulate employees’ issues at a local level. Specifically, they are meant to discuss work conditions and amenities such as sanitation, water supply, and medical services among others (Chand, n.d). Works committees help in building healthy workplace relationships by facilitating better communication between employees and employers, thereby reducing misunderstandings together with conflict (Wicek, 2020). The effectiveness of works committees is only realised when there is genuineness among both parties and where all people understand the value of good relationships in the workplace. Again, unless managers provide requisite resources for the fulfilment of roles entrusted to the works committee, the committees may not be very helpful. |
| An assessment of a range of employee voice tools and approaches to drive employee engagement. (1.3) Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the Reference box provided at the end of this section. |
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