Employee involvement is known as the direct involvement of the organizational staffs in the growth, development and benefits of the company. This involvement can be with voice, participation, engagement and in democracy. These factors help the organization to improve its decision-making, improve the attitude of the employees towards work, increase the job satisfaction, and empower their employees with facilities for better health and life. To engage the employee in the organization, they should be given with the authority to become effective to take participate in substantive decisions, providing the training for appropriate decision-making skills and provide them rewards or incentives with successful participation.
On the other hand, the organizational change is a process that refers to the modification or transformation of the organizations structure, work culture and goods. It has impact on the working of the employees and can also affect the work culture, infrastructure or to the process of the system. This change can be continuous or episodic; it is a common thread that goes through every kind of businesses.
Engagement of employees in the organization is the asset for any successful organization as the involved employee is devoted to the success of the organization. Therefore in any change management process every employee has to have a voice or point of view, as it is beneficiary for the betterment of the organization. Having no voice or point of view affects the workflow or the output of the process. Therefore, involvement of the employees in the organizational change is beneficiary as the employees are aware of the reason of the change and the outcome. This helps them to tolerate the few days or weeks problem that occurs due to the change implemented in the organization. Secondly, if the employees are aware of the change process or are communicated by the manager about the change that is going to be occurring, then they feel important of the organization. They feel that they are important for the organization and hence, supports the organization and the manager with every possible supports. For example, if the manager discuses about the change that is going to be implemented within the organization, the employee should help the manager by pointing out the weaknesses of the proposed change, as they are the one, who will be working in the process 24X7 for the betterment of the organization. Further, they feel motivated, as the higher authorities are concerned about their valuable feedbacks. Therefore, the managers should implement strategies, to involve the employees in the organizational change management process. The strategies to involve the employees in the organizational change plan should include a plan, where the change team along with the manager and higher authorities decides upon the particular employee who will describe the process to other employees. Listening to proposed change from another colleague will help the other workers to understand the complexity of the process and authorities will win the health of employees. Secondly, all the employees should involve in meetings so that every kind of suggestions to overcome the shock period of change management can be taken into consideration. The organization should provide time to the employees to overcome the implemented change shock, as they will take some time to adapt to the change. For the implementation of the strategic change there is a need to understand the behavior of the complex variables such as employee resistance, middle manager resistance and support.
Creating a plan to involve the employees in the implemented change process is important. However, early involvement of the employees is seemingly more important. The planning, learning, research and implementation level need to be inclusive of the employees. This process is important as this will help in removing any resistance that can occur in the process. Encouraging employees to be a part of the change management team or force will help to motivate the entire range of employees to do better for the organization. Other than that, the employees, who has provided suggestions which can be helpful for the organization in implementing the change will be rewarded. They should be provided with opportunities to join higher positions, as their success story can inspire others to come up with ideas that can change the company’s status and increase the revenue. This is important in an organizational structure, as peer structure in the organization affects the decision making of employees and employees trust their peers more than anything else. Hence, picking up change leaders or conveyers from these groups will help the other employees to understand the process and lead the changes in a positive way. Employees not necessarily should be provided a post in the change management team. However, it is necessary to encourage them to provide meaningful insights related to work. Therefore, the employees, who take active part in the change management process and helps others to become a part of the same, should be recognized. The management should take charge that the employees feel dependable and important for the organization, as it will be beneficial for both the organization and for the employee. The application of greater democracy and power equalization by the manager within each step of the organizational process can help in the generation of positive and cooperative work culture, where the feedbacks provided by the employees are valued and taken into consideration. Self organization at the team and the group level can help in bringing about long and short term radical changes.
The management needs to ensure that the employees are honest and devoted to their work for betterment of the company through implementation of employee benefit programs. Therefore, their involvement will increase their sense of responsibility and they will be able to perform their work accurately. Not involving employee will increase the level of mistrust and anger in them, which will create resistance among them and ultimately the organizational change process will become a failure.