Revisiting the Impact of Participative Decision Making on Public Employee Retention

Abstract

A large body of management research has linked participation by employees in organizational decision making to employee-level outcomes such as job satisfaction, with nearly all studies finding positive associations. This study questions whether the impact of employee policy influence on employee-level outcomes is contingent on management effectiveness, hypothesizing that employee outcomes may be negatively affected by the exercise of influence if participation is facilitated poorly or comes in response to a void created by inadequate organizational management. Focusing specifically on employee turnover in a nationwide sample of 6,300 public schools, the study finds strong evidence of an interactive effect. While employees are less likely to turn over under effective managers regardless of their degree of organizational policy influence, under ineffective managers turnover increases as employees’ perceived influence increases. Results suggest that investment in management competence may be a necessary precondition for some public organizations to benefit from increasing participation.