Food-Service-Manual-for-Health-Care-Institutions

• Building a team mind-set
• Compensating and rewarding employee achievement
• Removing obstacles to employee advancement
• Communicating effectively
These responsibilities, summarized in the following subsections, require greater emphasis on
the managerial function of leading.
Training and Development
Managers must assess employee development levels so as to appropriately match capabilities
to work situations. One key to ensuring a participative culture is to provide the right mix of
information, power, and incentive that will positively influence departmental performance.
A positive work environment is fueled by the development of employee potential. This is
accomplished through new employee orientation, continuing education and in-service training,
cross-training across jobs and across department lines, skill enhancement programs both inside
and outside the organization, and daily coaching from managers. In addition, successful
empowerment ensures that roles, relationships, job duties, and performance expectations are
clearly defined up front for new employees. Further discussion on the manager’s training
responsibility can be found in Chapter 8.
Shared Decision Making
As mentioned earlier, shared power and decision-making authority between managers and
employees enables employees to influence their day-to-day work life, which enhances job ownership
and commitment. Therefore, when job descriptions are written or revised, when work
processes are designed or reviewed, or when procedures are changed, employees should be
polled for their input. This can be done by using questionnaires that disclose how the work is
done, suggestion forms for how the job should be done, or group meetings in which managers
and employees brainstorm new methods. Brainstorming is an idea- and information-sharing
session at which everyone is allowed to give input without being judged. Authority can be
shared in employee performance appraisals, at which employees can participate in rating the
quality and quantity of their work and in setting goals to improve or enhance their performance.
Empowerment is discussed further in a later subsection.
Team Building
Participative management appreciates the benefits of having employees work in teams to influence
quality improvement, customer satisfaction, and job performance. Managers must be part
of the team, not above it, providing the information and training needed to foster team success.
Once employees become accustomed to working in groups to influence job design or to solve
problems, they will be capable of meeting with less input or guidance from the manager. This
does not mean a manager should abdicate responsibility for ensuring that meeting time is
scheduled, recommendations are considered fully, and resources are available to implement
team recommendations.
Compensation and Rewards
Employee incentives, either formal (compensation) or informal (rewards), are key to nurturing a
participative work environment. Formal rewards encompass pay policies, employee benefits, and
career paths, all of which usually are set up and administered by the human resource department.
Some organizations have implemented formal employee profit-sharing and gain-sharing programs.
Informal rewards can include anything from verbal praise and positive feedback for a job
well done to outside training programs or celebrations (at the work site or elsewhere) on reaching
a specific goal or goals. Team and group performance as well as individual performance
should be rewarded. It should be remembered that in a participative environment, improvement
and innovation cannot take place without mistakes. Employees should be rewarded for effort and
Leadership: Managing for Change
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