La dirección participativa como elemento dinamizador en los cambios organizativos

Abstract

It is habitual in literature to find references to a positive influence of participative management style on organizational change. Our work tries to contribute to the study of this field, in essence analysing the effect of participative management style on resistance to change and its effects on change performance. To this end, starting with a revision of literature on participative management and organizational change, the main considerations are exposed that admit a relationship between both concepts. Later on, an empirical research made on Spanish firms is presented, to verify the existence and signs of such relationship. The first success that our research presents is the design of a tool to measure participative management. Our investigation has thrown light on the consideration of the sources of resistance to change, from the observation that the great majority of the coefficients of correlation between participation and resistance are positive. We believe that this positive correlation does not mean that participative management will cause more obstacles, but that it brings to light areas or subjects that should be kept in mind and because of this could improve the final result. Also, the performance indicators influenced by participative management at a global level are the time that it takes to fulfill the tasks and absenteeism. On the other hand, other components of participation have an effect on the quality of the finished product and labour conflict. In any case, we should bear in mind the low value of the coefficients of correlation between all these variables. In this way, the two basic conclusions in which the results of our investigation can be summarized, and which answer our global objective are: ?? The sources of resistance in a change process is a question that needs to be especially considered and one should always be on the alert so as to prevent resorting to simple explanations. ?? Taking into account the effect of participation on resistance to change and on its results, our investigation shows a positive albeit weak relationship between participative management and the process of change.