Abstract
M.Inf.
Enterprises are in the midst of some revolutionary changes in how people are managed in work situations. The major premise underlying work-force management traditionally has been that efficiency can be achieved best by imposing management control over workers' behaviour. Today, in response to massive evidence that control-oriented management models can produce outcomes that subvert the interest of both enterprises and the people who work in them, a new work-force
management model is appearing - that of participative management.
The premise of the emerging model is that enterprises must elicit the commitment of their
employees if they are to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in contemporary markets.
Rather than relying on a "retain and control" management, enterprises in the future will apply a "share and learn" management where they will heavily rely of member self-management in pursuing collective objectives.
This study intends to stress the fact that employee potential needs to be mobilised by management and can only show up as performance when employees are given opportunity to contribute to decision-making with the minimum interference of management. This study calls for a transformation of leadership willing to empower staff to participate fully and freely in the creation
of the future.
The time has come to transform the way in which leaders work with and provide leadership to staff
in academic information services. Leaders in academic information services need to realise that
employee participation will enhance commitment and performance for both employees and management.
A review of literature revealed that participative management is more than only a willingness to share influence - formal patterns of participation need to be truely implemented where employees have a right to contribute on all levels of decision-making. Participation is not an absolute term -
there are various degrees of participation and types of involvement programmes to apply.
Participative management is more complex than simply allowing employees to make some of the decisions. It involves formal programmes which need to be effectively implemented. The empirical survey which was done through a twenty-item questionnaire distributed to seven academic information services in Gauteng, revealed that participative management is applied at these institutions but more in low-level decisions. This indicated that participation is still limited
and controlled by management and is not yet experienced as a right by employees.
This study also clearly showed that self-regulation occurs most effectively through self-managed
work-teams. These teams offer the highest degree of decision-making autonomy to all levels of
staff and are a unique and viable alternative to traditional forms of work design in academic
information services.
Directors and leaders of modern academic information services need to encourage and facilitate
self-regulation among employees of all levels. This will help to cope more effectively with future
challenges of rapid change and technological complexity that now threaten efforts to create more
responsive academic information services.