Working Life Barometer in the Baltic Countries 2002 (pdf) - mol.fi

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the individuals are allowed to participate in the decision-making concerning
themselves. They understand and feel the responsibility related to these decisions
and commit themselves more to the activities. Then the 'waste' or underutilisation
of human resources decreases and the enterprise grows more competitive
(see Kevätsalo 1999). In the private sector, delegation of responsibility
to the executive level is important also because it gives the enterprise more
speed and flexibility in the market to turn in whatever direction is needed
(NUTEK 1996). Our studies showed, too, that it is vital - especially in the private
sector - to share responsibility and give independence to the workers in
order to enable the company to meet the ever-changing challenges. In fact,
even such a simple indicator as the responsibility index gives a fairly good
forecast of the company's success in the long run. This applies at least to
Finland (see Antila & Ylöstalo 1999, 2002).
Responsibility index, mean
(employees only)
LATVIA ESTONIA LITHUANIA
1998 -0.71 -1.03 -2.74
2002 0.25 -0.75 -0.78
The mean value figures for the responsibility index show that in all the Baltic
countries, the wage earners' possibilities of exerting influence in the planning
and quality control of their own work have increased during recent years. In
this survey, as also in the previous one, it was Latvia where employees had
these possibilities the most. The situation has changed the most in Lithuania;
but, on average, such powers of decision are still less prevalent there than
elsewhere. It is indeed true that the gap between Lithuania and Estonia as regards
the responsibility index is nowadays very small.
An examination of the percentages at the extreme ends of the variation scale
(values –6 and +6) revealed that in Latvia, only 6 % of the wage earners said
that all three of the aspects connected with the employee's work were decided
on by the management alone (i.e. that the employee him/herself had no say in
the matter and the decision-making power had been removed as far from the
worker as possible). In Estonia, over twice as great a proportion of wage earners
(13 %) responded that way, and in Lithuania as many as one in five (20
%). The differences between the countries here are thus considerable. At the
other end of the responsibility index scale - that is, full empowerment of the