Mitigating Climate Change Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mitigating Climate Change - Assignment Example ssion research is underway and it is believed that the goal of generating electricity by the help of fission power with much lesser carbon emission will be achieved in future. Energy Efficiency: Energy efficiency is considered to be the goal of producing products and services with minimum usage of energy. For example, insulated houses require much lesser cooling and heating energy and help in maintaining a comfortable temperature. No-till Farming: It is considered to be the way of growing crops each year without disturbing the characteristics of soil through tillage. No-till also have carbon sequestration potential, as they stores the organic matter in the soil of the crop field. Forest and Carbon Sequestration: It is considered to be the way of removing the carbon present in the environment and depositing it in some sort of reservoir. Forest sequestration takes into account restoration of the area by planting new trees, etc. Carbon Capture and Storage: It is considered to be the process of capturing excess or waste CO2 from some large point sources such as from fossil fuel power plants and depositing it somewhere, where it will not enter the environment again. In my opinion fuel switching, energy conservation and nuclear fission are the three most effective activities that would help in mitigating climate change. It is certain that CO2 emission can be reduced by using natural gases instead of coal for producing energy. By using natural gas as fuel in vehicles will help in reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and methane to a great extent, imposing minimum negative effect on the environment. Energy conservation takes into account the change in human behavior in order to save energy (Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, 2014). For example some people prefer walking instead of using vehicles for covering short distance which saves energy, and switching off lights and air conditions when not in use also saves an enormous amount of energy each

Design and Contemporary Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Design and Contemporary Culture - Essay Example The authors also highlight the importance of ideology in creating meaning by providing channels of interpretation for individual thought processes. The authors further define representation as â€Å"the social production of meaning through sign systems†. (p. 68) 2. Media interpretation is based on a plurality of values and perspectives. O’Brien and Szeman introduce an example of a discussion of media violence in Canada to illustrate the way facts and figures can be used to support multiple or conflicting viewpoints in popular media. (pp. 69-71) As media sources form the public dialogue through which meaning is created in modern society, the authors encourage questioning the effects of power, structure, and hierarchy on values that are disseminated in popular culture. 3. Signs are â€Å"the fundamental units of communication† (p.71). O’Brien and Szeman seek to expand the concept of language from alphabetical arrangements and linguistic terminologies to inco rporate the full range of images, symbols, and objects that are used to express meaning in society. This leads to the incorporation of music, fashion, and body language into a greater definition or understanding of language, that can also be related to cross-cultural differences in morals, values, and collective understanding. (p.71) 4. Structuralism and semiotics in theory. O’Brien and Szeman introduce the theoretical basis for structuralism and semiotics in linguistic analysis, stating that the implied meaning of words, signs, and language are less important than the grammatical relationships between terms and their position in hierarchies of social power that are created through personal and collective awareness of systems of meaning in social groups. (pp.71-72) 5.Sausserian Linguistics and Semiotics – a new discipline. The modern understanding of meaning in language is in debt to Ferdinand de Saussure who is credited with inventing the genre or discipline of  "semiotics† that is intended to study â€Å"the life of signs within a society† in a synchronic rather than diachronic or historical model of development. (p. 73) Similar theories were advanced by C.S. Pierce in America through psychological literature. (p. 73) 6. Mythological Interpretation in Barthes’ Cultural Theory. O’Brien and Szeman discuss the work of Roland Barthes in mythological understanding to show how meaning is created socially from â€Å"connotative† values. (p.74) The symbols of mythology combine to fuse the essential values or ethos of a culture through â€Å"chain(s) of associated concepts† linking meaning, memory, and tradition, as in racial or humanistic identity structures. (p. 74) 7. Barthes’ Critique of Humanism. Barthes’ work engages mythology from the perspective of pop culture, as in the instance of â€Å"The Great Family of Man† exhibit in France in the 1960s. (p. 74) While humanism posits a nat ural unity of cultures and races, semiotics contextualizes this popular understanding in the context of history and difference, which suggests that the meaning derived from the symbolic patterns in the exhibit resemble the cultural understanding derived from mythology which then becomes â€Å"fact† via a shared societal acceptance of the value system. 8.

Human Right to a Safe Environment & Planetary Rights Essay

Human Right to a Safe Environment & Planetary Rights - Essay Example This can be explained within the concept of planetary rights, which suggests that the current generation needs to work together to ensure the interests of future generations. Protecting the planet for the future is more than a charitable goal, if we do not do so we are violating the rights of future generations. The environment is directly influenced by the collective action of humankind, giving mankind the ability to improve, keep constant or degrade the environment. This means that regardless of intent, the actions that occur in the present have an impact on future generations, forming a relationship between the two groups of people that are distanced by time. This relationship means that humankind cannot argue that future generations are arbitrary, because both action and non-action will impact them. Take for example the notion of power plants. A power plant causes considerable pollution to the air around it and the atmosphere. Furthermore, it can also be the source of polluted wa ter downstream. These factors influence the current generation, but can also have long-standing impacts on the environment for the future. Who is it that creates these effects? Directly, it is the company or person involved in the pollution, but this is not a fair assessment. The pollution from power plants and technology throughout the globe comes from a consumption driven society that demands convenience and large amount of electricity (Hiskes 1352-1353). As such, the collective behavior of humans as a race is destroying the environment, and this creates the responsibility to attempt to minimize this damage for the generations that will follow us. Arguments often consider that an environmental or planetary approach cannot effectively fall within rights language, as the language itself implies certain legalisms. Nevertheless, environmental rights is a realistic and plausible use of rights language that passes justificatory tests. The term rights is often used within environmental r hetoric and political statements so often that it risks losing its meaning. Yet, the right to a safe environment is more than rhetoric, and is distinct from other applications of the phrase within environmentalism. The right for a safe environment is focused on humans, and does not consider the rights of organisms or of the planet itself, and this gives the term legitimacy (Nickel 282-283). However, steps are involved to move environmental rights away from being broad concept that is mostly rhetoric based and into a defined and practicable right. One of these aspects is to narrowly define what is meant by the term. For example, what does the right to a safe environment mean? This depends on how the word safe is defined. Safe could mean that there is no crime, that the air is breathable or that the level of diversity is close to what it was for the previous generation. One definition is that the environment provides safety from environmental risks. However, this term also needs defin ing, as there needs to be a determination of what is considered to be safe and what the ranges are (Nickel 284-285). This shows that there is the potential for the right to a safe environment to be defined in narrow terms to ensure that it can effectively be treated as a right, and that it is not an arbitrary phrase used in

Essay on Law and Politics. Can the United Nations meet the key

On Law and Politics. Can the United Nations meet the key challenges facing the international community today - Essay Example Along with this evolution of humans and territories, the political setup, which ruled villages, also evolved and new political setups came into being, to rule cities, provinces or states and importantly countries. So, this evolution and establishment of different countries and their government setups have necessitated the formation of a single, omnipresent overseeing organization. The organization that will look after, how the various countries ‘interact’ in sensitive issues, collude in issues which are detrimental to the third country, their internal affairs etc, etc- the list is an lengthy one. In total, a global government to govern the entire globe or world was the need of the hour and so United Nations (UN) was established in 1945. But, the image of ‘global government’ was compromised by the unilateral actions of few countries. So, this paper will discuss how UN despite this contemporary challenge of unilateralism by some countries is still relevant and optimally functioning with the tag of global government UN was started or raised from the ruins of the Second War mainly as an international organization that can prevent any further occurrence of World wars and to look after the basic issues concerning the world population. On 25 April 1945, the ‘seeding’ for the UN was ‘laid’ in San Francisco, when the UN Conference on International Organizations was held with representatives of national governments, non-governmental organizations and important leaders of the world countries participating in it. They were involved in the drafting the UN charter. That charter and thereby the United Nation Organization came into being two months later on June 26, 1945. Around 50 nations who attended the conference and provided their inputs for the drafting of the charter signed the charter, becoming UN members. In course of time, more countries joined it, raising its strength to over 200 countries, giving

Diffusion, Dialysis Essay Example for Free

Diffusion, Dialysis Essay In Diffusion, Dialysis And Osmosis lab, we discovered that we were going to observe and understand the conditions under which diffusion, dialysis, and osmosis occur. Then we constructed models of diffusion, dialysis, and osmosis. We predicted that the direction of change would be from the membrane to the beaker. We understood how these processes affected the selectivity of the cell membrane. The second part of the lab was dealing with dialysis. In this part we studied starch and sodium chloride for dialysis activity. In Part A We hypothesized that NaCl existed in 1-3 and AgNO existed 2-4. In Part B We hypothesized that there will be more changes in the cell then outside the cell. In Part C We hypothesized that there will be a difference due to the different environments that are provide to help change the appearance of a molecule. Procedure A. Qualitative testing for sodium chloride and starch We got 6 clean test tubes and number them 1-6. Test tubes 12 had 5ml of 10% sodium chloride (NaCl). Test tubes 34 had 5ml of starch. Test tubes 56 had 5ml of distilled water. We added 2-3 drops of silver nitrate (AgNO )to 1,3,5. We added 2-3 drops of iodine solution to 2,4,6. B. Dialysis of a starch/sodium chloride mixture Get one dialysis tube and tie one end. Fill the bag with 5ml of 10% Sodium chloride solution and 5ml of starch solution from Part A. then tie the tube and place it in a beaker of distilled water. Leave the tube for 30 minutes. Afterwards test for the presence of starch and sodium chloride. Then split the solution into to test tubes and 2-3 drops of iodine into one test tube and 2-3 drops of AgNO in the other test tube. C. Osmosis using dialysis tubing as a model of the cell membrane Obtain 5 beakers and label them 1-5. Fill beakers 1-4 halfway with distilled water. And beaker 5 with 30% sucrose halfway. Obtain 5 dialysis tubes that will be filled with 10ml of different solutions. Tube 1 has distilled water, Tube 2 has 10% sucrose, Tube 3 has 20% sucrose, Tube 4 has 30% sucrose, and Tube 5 has distilled water. Tie the tubes and weigh each of them before placing them in there respected beakers. Every 15 minutes weigh the tubes to record the change. In Part B we found that outside test tube; salt existed and not sugar. But inside the test tubes both the starch and the salt existed in the two different tubes. In this part there weren’t any problems and we were successful in gathering the necessary results to move to the next section. This helping prove our hypothesis right because it meant that there would be more changes inside the cell than outside the cell. In Part C we found that Beaker 1 had no changes in weight. In Beaker 2 there were changes that ranged from 0-1. 1. In Beaker 3 there were changes that ranged from 0-2. 1. In Beaker 4 there were changes that ranged from 0-4. 8. In Beaker 5 there were changes that ranged from -2. 7-0. This is the results that my group gathered from another group that did well because our results were way off and inconsistent. So we were forced to use better results to find better explanations. We understood that the conditions under which osmosis is possible and to what degree it occurs. There were three different types of temperate environments. This helping prove our hypothesis right because it meant that different environments help change the appearance of a molecule.

Impacts of Sun Damage and Benefits of Sunscreen

Impacts of Sun Damage and Benefits of Sunscreen Abstract Sun damage is a cumulative process, meaning that every moment of exposure has a long-term impact. Overexposure to the suns harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause burns, diseases, and cancers-substantially contributing to mortality rates in fair-skinned populations. The severity of skin cancer is real; there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined figures for lung, breast, prostate, and colon cancers each year (Bell, 97). Helping to protect against sunburn and skin cancer, sunscreen is a topical product that absorbs or reflects the suns UV light. This article will address the global impact of sunscreens, while focusing on the scientific/engineering principles of the sun-care product and its effects. It will review some of the recent advances in photoprotection, including the development of broad-spectrum sunscreen and the sun protection factor. Although sunscreens have been around for over 70 years, its health applications are still being explored. Author Biography: Hieu Nguyen is a junior studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California. After receiving his B.S. degree, he hopes to continue his education in graduate school-in pursuit of a challenging engineering career. From Hawaii, he enjoys riding the oceans waves and basking in sunny, tropical climate. Keywords: sunscreen, sunblock, ultraviolet, radiation, sunburn Rubbing It In: Modern sun-protection Introduction Our sun-the most powerful entity in our corner of the universe-is dangerous. Just about everyone comes into contact with its rays every day. Whether youre outside walking your dog or in a sports arena watching a 3-hour college football game, your skin is at risk. It is well-known that solar radiation is harmful; youve probably taken a few precautions in the past to protect yourself from the suns intensity by wearing brimmed hats, polarized sunglasses, or high-SPF sunscreens (Figure 2). For many, lathering on sunscreen lotion may seem like a chore. But what exactly are you applying liberally to your body? How much protection does sunscreen really have to offer against sunburn and skin cancer, and how long will these safeguards last? The answers to these questions can be understood when you consider the scientific/engineering aspects behind the $1.9 billion industry skin-care product: Sunscreen. A Harmful Sun Natural sunlight contains, among other things, ultraviolet photon particles of light. These photons are shorter in wavelength and have a much higher energy than visible light, giving it the ability to directly cause DNA damage in skin cells. Ultraviolet radiation is broken down into the following three types of wavelengths: Ultraviolet, Type A (UVA) Ultraviolet, Type C (UVC) UVC (wavelength 100-280 nm) rays are completely absorbed by the atmosphere and never reach us on the Earths surface. The UV rays that we are exposed to consist of UVB (280-315 nm) and UVA (315-400 nm) photons. The shorter wavelength UVB rays cause significant damage to DNA and are the primary cause of sunburn and skin cancer. The longer wavelength UVA rays cause tanning and penetrate the deeper layers of skin. Because UV light falls outside of the visible spectrum (400-700 nm), the human eye cannot perceive them. Humans are also unable to feel UV radiation, and thus, your body has no mechanism to warn itself against overexposure. The Suns Effects on Our Skin Our skin is highly susceptible to critical damage from the suns ultraviolet rays. Any exposure to UVA or UVB light can alter or damage the skin. Without protection, long-term exposure to natural sunlight inflicts the skin cells, causing them to tan, burn, and peel. Although a suntan is often considered an emblem of good health, tanning for its own sake has no health benefit and is actually a health hazard (MacNeal). Tanning is your skins defense mechanism against the sun, and any change to your natural skin color is a sign of skin damage. When exposed to moderate levels of radiation, a chemical reaction in your skins cell system occurs. Your skin protects its complex structure of sensitive cells by producing a brownish pigment, melanin, which absorbs and reflects UV rays, dissipating the energy as harmless heat. This is one of the reasons you heat up in the sun. Special pigment-producing cells called melanocytes (depicted in Figure 3) manufacture color capsules and send them to the surface of your skin, thus acquiring a tanned color. Dark-skinned people tan quicker because they already have more melanin in their skin. Fair-skinned people burn easier because they have less melanin in their skin to protect against the burning rays of the sun (Kuhta, 6). Although tanning triggers your bodys manufacture of melanin, this process takes time-days to weeks-for your body to build up its supply, and if you are in the sun for an extended period of time, burning may occur. As anyone who has had sunburn knows, this localized skin injury leaves your skin red and extremely painful. When you get sunburn, what you are really getting is cellular damage caused by overexposure to the suns ultraviolet rays. When you stay out too long, you get burned and your skin gets damaged. To attempt to cool the heated skin area, your blood flow increases. The body sends blood to the surface of the skin so that it can be cooled by evaporation and returned to cool the organs-similar to the way a car radiator system works. Sometimes so much blood is pumped to the surface of the skin that it pushes right through the thin walls of your blood vessels to permeate the other tissues and your skin takes on a reddish color. Your skins immune system then releases chemicals like histamine and serotonin, which trigger inflammation and additional chemical production. And within twelve hours, skin cells begin to die, and inflammation turns the skin a darker red (Readers Digest). Peeling after sunburn is your bodys way of getting rid of damaged cells. This abrupt acceleration of the natural cycle of cell replacement causes gobs of dry skin to curl up and flake off (as shown in Figure 4). This process is necessary because the damaged skin cells are at risk of losing control and becoming cancerous. Due to this danger, all damaged cells are instructed to commit cell-suicide. This mass suicide of skin cells results in whole layers of damaged skin peeling off, to be replaced by other cells underneath those layers. Sometimes, the repair mechanisms themselves may be damaged by the UV rays, which prevent the cells from committing suicide in the future and allowing cancerous cells to replicate. Cancer Risks Skin cancer, the uncontrolled growth of skin cells, is the most common cancer in the world today, and the number of cases worldwide is growing each year. This year alone, over 1.3 million Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer, and one of every five Americans will be afflicted with skin cancer at least once during their lifetime (Bell, 97). Repeated exposure to UV rays can cause cancerous mutations such as malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Some parent cells replicate through cell division repeatedly and the inordinate mass they produce is called a tumor. Once started, tumors keep growing in an irregular, shapeless way (Kuhta, 30). Melanoma is a skin tumor that develops in the melanocytes- pigment producing cells in the skin-and has a very high tendency to spread to other parts of the body. A study at the Anerson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas concluded that about one in 105 Americans will develop melanoma, and 20 percent of them will die from it (T. Adler). Interestingly, malignant melanoma has been found more frequently in sunscreen users than in non-users in some studies. This is because some sunscreens block the natural warnings and adaptations mediated by UVB, but allow damage from UVA to go unchecked. By preventing the pain and redness of sunburn, sunscreen may enable people to stay longer in skin-scorching sunlight, putting them at higher risk for developing melanoma. Prevention: How Sunscreen Works Sunscreens with broad-spectrum protection are most effective to protect against sunburn and skin cancer. Many of the sunscreens available in the U.S. today combine several different active chemical sunscreen ingredients in order to provide broad-spectrum protection, which block both UVA and UVB rays. Sunscreens work by absorbing the UV radiation in the chemical bonds of their ingredients. Different brands of sunscreen contain different combinations of active ingredients that work together to minimize the impact of harmful rays of light from the sun. Some of these ingredients will deflect the UV light while others will absorb it. Most sunscreens work by containing either an organic chemical compound that absorbs ultraviolet light (such as oxybenzone) or an opaque material that reflects light (such as zinc oxide), or a combination of both. This general structure of the principal ingredients allows the molecules to absorb high-energy ultraviolet rays and release the energy as lower-energy rays, thereby preventing the skin-damaging radiation from reaching the skin (Zenitech, 46). Like a screen door, sunscreen filters the light from the sun so that less of it reaches the deeper layers of your skin. The principal ingredients in sunscreens are usually aromatic molecules conjugated with carbonyl groups, which prevent significant chemical change and allow the ingredients to retain their UV-absorbing potency without significant photo-degradation (Zenitech, 48). As its ingredients absorb UV energy, sunscreens begin to deteriorate and lose effectiveness. Sunscreen must be applied early enough before sun exposure to bind to the skin. In order to be effective in preventing skin cancer and sunburn, sunscreen must be reapplied every two hours regardless of their assigned SPF (PrincetonOL). Sunblock, on the other hand, remains on the surface of the skin to reflect the UV radiation. Its sunblock agents-titanium oxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) -reflect the light away so that it doesnt reach the skin at all. Since they do not need time to bind to the skin, they are very effective in blocking all types of UV immediately upon application. However, because they remain on the surface, they are subject to removal by perspiration and friction from towels, clothing, or usual daily activities. The term SPF that appears on sunscreen labels stands for Sun Protection Factor, and is a worldwide standard for measuring the effectiveness of a sunscreens ability to prevent UVB radiation from damaging the skin. The higher the SPF, the more protection a sunscreen will provide against UVB radiation and sunburn. For example, if it takes 20 minutes for your unprotected skin to start turning red, using an SPF 15 sunscreen theoretically prevents reddening 15 times longer-about five hours. SPF 15 blocks 93% of all incoming UVB rays, SPF 30 blocks 97% and SPF 50 blocks 99% (The Skin Cancer Foundation). As you can see, no sunscreen can block all UV rays. Because the SPF only accounts for UVB rays, certain sunscreens may not protect against UVA rays which are known to cause photoaging, wrinkles, brownspots, and melanoma. This curtailed protection is why protecting against sunburn does not necessarily protect against skin cancer. To deliver true broad-spectrum protection, products must also protect against UVA radiation in addition to UVB radiation. Conclusion Despite its dangers to skin cells, the sun is an important ally when it comes to good health. Optimal physical and mental wellbeing requires some exposure to the sun. Ultraviolet light enables the body to produce Vitamin D, a vital substance that works against the formation of tumors and aids in the absorption of calcium. Some scientists have suggested that short periods of unprotected sun exposure are beneficial, as they will enhance the bodys Vitamin-D-production capabilities (Kuhta, 40). Not only does sunlight strengthen our physical defenses against disease, but it also enhances our mental/emotional defenses against depression and fatigue. Bell Labs, Inc. has demonstrated sunlight to be a significant factor in maintaining a healthy mood and energy level (Bell, 101). The scientific/engineering aspects of sunscreen illustrate an impactful solution on a global scale, prolonging the lives of many by rejuvenating dead skin cells to deter skin cancer development. Utilizing chemical properties, sunscreen protects the skin by absorbing harmful UV radiation, effectively screening out the suns rays. And with new, emerging sun-care technologies such as the Sun Pillà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢, a convenient daily-dose tablet that has been developed to offer medicinal protection from the sun, we can minimize the suns harmful effects easily. By practicing routine skin protection, one can aim for a healthy level of sun exposure. Because like most things in life, sunlight is best enjoyed in moderation.

Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry

Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry INTRODUCTION The paper will discuss employee involvement and participation in the service industry with reference to Canary Wharf GBK. The paper starts with the objective of the research and ends with the conclusion and recommendation of the research. Employee involvement is a very important programme to utilize the tacit knowledge of the employees to increase commitment and performance with a limited cost. This paper will discuss different types and models of employees involvement and their benefit and limitations. The research start with the secondary research through collected theories to write the literature reviews to build the base of the research. In the literature reviews, it has explained views of different writer on employees involvement. The literature reviews includes types of involvement, models of employees involvement and management support for employees involvement Further, this research includes a methodology where the research strategy, approach, data collection and sample of the research are outline. Research methodology is crucial, as it is giving the researcher ways to conduct the primary research. The research is base on a case study and the data collection methods are interviews and a survey. In the third section the researcher, outline the finding of interviews and survey. In this research, there are three interviews and one survey conducted by the researcher. The participants in the interviews are the managers and the respondent in the survey are the employees of the organisation. Finally, in the last section the researcher presented analysis and conclusion of the research. In the analysis, the data collected from the research has been tested with the theories of literature. The research concludes with a brief conclusion where the result of the research has discussed. In the end, the researcher gives recommendation and discusses the scope, limitation, and interesting issue of the research. Research objectives are Critically analyse the importance of employee involvement as outlined in the literature review that includes its importance in recession. Evaluate Gourmet Burger Kitchen employee involvement strategy in the light of the research finding and theoretical literature. Discuss the benefits and limitations of Employee involvement. Benchmark the GBK canary wharf case study with other restaurant. Reason for choosing this topic The purpose of this study is to investigate the methods of effective involvement of the employees in a company where the researcher is working. Employees are the most valuable assets of a company. Employee involvement is important as it can result in empowerment and democracy in the organisation. This may result in increased motivation to take more responsibility (Judge and Gennard (2005). In this current economic situationwhen the confidence of the employees is low, EIP can motivate the employees to deliver good customer services, which can eventually result in improved profitability. The researcher aims to explore the role of employee involvement in the hospitality industry where the employees turn over is highest. The researcher is presently working at GBK and has accessto conduct interviews and surveys. Furthermore, the researcher is interested in opening a business in India that is why the researcher has chosen this topic. PART ONE LITRETURE REVIEW Definition of employee involvement Employees, the strongest pillar of the organization are the most valuable asset that contributes significantly to its success and prosperity. According to Price (2004), the involvement of employees in the organizational operation not only motivates them but also enables them to contribute more effectively and efficiently. Further, he explains employee involvement as a process involving participation, communication, decision making which leads to industrial democracy and employee motivation. Further CIPD (2009) explain employee involvement as a commitment of the employees towards the values of the organisation and willingness to help each other to achieve the organisational goal. The results are not only to increase job satisfaction, or motivation but the increasing performance of that organisation. In short, employee involvement is creating an environment where people have a continuous impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement Vs participation Understanding and defining the concept Employee involvement and employee participation are like two sides of a coin. Both are supplementary to each other and existence of one depends on the other. There is not any significant difference between the two terms. Participation is an act of sharing information and the meaning of involvement is the day-to-day activity of the organization. Many writers have contributed towards the development of this thought of employee involvement or participation. For example Delaney (1996) had used the term participation as a voice of the employee in the decision making process and to describe different types of involvement of employee in the organizations affair. But very few writers tried to find the difference between the two concepts. Kale (1999) argues that participation is any organizational arrangement under which employees have some sort of share in some aspect of the business which is not specific types of employee involvement. Furthermore Ang (2002) has contributed towards the development of the difference between the two terms and concluded that, Employee involvement calls for participation which is all about sharing information, training, mutual decision making process whereas traditional participative managementviews participation as a part of other organizational process. Marching ton et al. (1993) have used employee participation in a different context and as an umbrella term covering all forms of employee influence in the organization. Employee involvement is used to describe managerially inspired initiatives aimed at winning employee commitment, as part of the practices of industrial democracy, whose aim is to increase the rights of employees to participate in management decisions. This not only results in enhanced employee morale but also retaining the potential manpower resulting in lower attrition rate. Many writers have contributed differently and each one of them has different approach to the concept and the context. Employee involvement was and is still known and referred to by different writers under such headings as participative management, employee participation, and worker involvement. Employee involvement and empowerment The concept of employee involvement is incomplete without it being associated with employee empowerment. According to Cunningham and Hyman (1999) there cannot be a single or simple definition of empowerment as some writers see empowerment as a recent development after increase employee involvement. Further Apostolouain (2000) explains that empowerment is the next step of employee involvement means where the employees have the power to take decisions. Blanchard et al. (1999) has defined its scope referring it as a means for involving team members as business partners in determining company success or failure. The real essence of which comes from releasing the knowledge, experience, and motivational power that is already in people but is being severely underutilized. In short it can be said that employee involvement leads to empowerment of the employees in different management decision process. Importance of Employee involvement The increasing competition and technological changes in the last 20 years have demanded higher skills and flexibility from the employees for the organisation. Walton (1985) stated that the highly competitive environment needs a different strategic approach to manage the employees. He further stated that in order to achieve that the jobs needs to be broader. The jobs structure should be made with proper planning and implementation to improve the performance unless just to maintain it. This situation leads to formation of teams, which are accountable for the performance. Employee involvement not only maintained the standard of the operation process but gives emphasis on continuous improvement and it is reflecting the requirement of the market place. Further Marchington (2001) argues that the employee involvement come into focus in the early 90s when the employer looking for a participative way to manage the work force. Judge and Gennard (2005) further outline the other important aspect of employee involvement is the increases job security of the employees by offering them priority in training and retraining. The training equipped them with the skill and knowledge that the job demands. Greater employee commitment leads a growing expectancy to better job satisfaction and performance. It is difficult for the organisation in current business scenario to improve the performance without employee commitment towards the organizations mission and objective. Employee involvement allows the employee to input their views and ideas on performance and the quality of the service. This will lead the development where the employees want to be part of successful organisation, which provides them a good income and opportunity to enhance their skills for a secure employment. Grates (2009) stated that the engaged employees significantly contributes to the success of the organisation to achieve the goal and objective. H e further said that employee involvement could give competitive advantage in the market. It can help to reduce turnover and increase the productivity. An industrial services survey conducted in 1999 on 49 organisations experiences on employee involvement over the period of 1991-1999 has reported that more then 33% people believe that it enhanced employee commitment and motivation. The same number of people believes that it is really help to improve the relationship between the employee and the employer. Approximately 60% people said that the quality of the product and the services has improved. More then 50% believe that their job satisfaction had increased and the organisational profit has increased. Importance of employee involvement in recession The world has seen its worst recession since 1930s and most of the world economies are fighting against it. The economic crisis forces the employers to introduce cost-cutting measure and one of them is redundancies. According to an article HR focus (2009) most of companies in the world complete the lay offs of employees. Now the big question is how this organisation can use the most of the remaining employees. The other important question is how the company survive and can increase their performance in this difficult time. One of the measures that the organisation uses to give confidence to their employees is greater emphasis on employee involvement and participation scheme. According to Frauenheim (2009) the importance of employee involvement is more crucial in this difficult environment of economic trouble. As it is revels by many experts that worker commitment is more important then before as the confidence of the employees are badly hit by the lay offs. Haters stated that its the employees help that improving the situation during this economic turmoil as employee involvement can give the sense of value to the employees and can increase the job security. Juile Gebauer managing director of Towers Perrin believe that the company must give more attention to employee involvement to survive and performing good in recession as his organization found there is direct link between performance and involvement. Low employee satisfaction or confidence may results poor customer services and in recession where customers are very reluctant to spend, companies can not afford bad customer service. In this difficult time companies have to be more efficient to attract more customers to surviveand customer service isof the tool to do that. It is found that EIP can increase employee satisfaction which can lead better performance Types of employee involvement Employee involvement practices/ approaches According to Ang (2002) the idea of employee involvement is still developing although there is large amount of research done in the last decade still there is not any developed ways to use employee involvement as a management approach. The management approach depends how the employer wants to involve their employee in different operation. According to Lawler et al (1998) the most important factor of employee involvement approaches is how it can represent comprehensively in the process of problem solving, sharing information, rewards for performance and developing knowledge and ideas. He further says that in order to implement these practices the organization needs a particular employee involvement program. Traditional versus current perspective There is a significant difference between the current and the traditional way of employee involvement and participation. According to Gary and Sisson (1994) the traditional way is mostly indirect participation and limited direct participation. Further indirect participation includes trade union and work council and direct participation was limited to improve the quality of the work to counter turnover and absenteeism. He further explains that current employee participation is more direct as it concern with improve the performance of the organization that can be linked with the objective of the organization like customer satisfaction. The types of jobs in the current environment is changing as more and more company recruiting part time employees and they need to adopt different strategy to involve them in the process. Representative participation According to Apostolou (2000) one of the main ways to achieve representative participation is joint consultation where employees elected representative to discuss with the management on various issues which concern them. These processes give the employees an opportunity to influence the proposal before it is finally made. Further Judge and Generd (2004) explain that, joint consolation involves seeking acceptable solutions to problem through a genuine exchange of views and information .Employee communication is concerned with the interchange of information and ideas within an organization. Direct, indirect and financial participation In 1999 Oosthuizen and du Toit classify the employee involvement and participation practice as direct, indirect and financial. Direct participation is the communication between the management and the employees regarding different function of the organization like decision making process to problem solving. Whereas in indirect participation the employees are involve through their representatives who are elected leaders. Financial participation is the economic participation of the employees in the success or failure of the organization through share ownership, profit sharing scheme. Marchington et al (1992) talk of direct and indirect employee participation practices the direct participation consist of downward communication from management to employees which includes team briefing, workplace wide meeting ,staff newsletters and cascading of information down via the management chain. Downward Communication from Managers to Employees According to Marchington et al (1992) the downward involvement technique is used to inform employees of management plans. The management can use different ways to do that. Regular and continuous distribution of the company reports, journal, company publication and videos are the effective way to inform employees about the development of the company. Team briefing and regular team meeting is another ways for the top management to aware the employees about the organization news and development. Upward involvement Marchington et al (1992) explain the other way of direct communication which are upward problem solving communication practices and that includes suggestion schemes, employee attitude surveys, and employee groups established to solve specific problems or discuss aspect of performance or quality and suggestion scheme. Further Taily et al (2003) outline the importance of employees attitude survey and it can be done through questionnaire to a sample of employees to find out their views about different factors of the work. He further explain that formal processes like suggestion scheme can be put forward to find out employees thinking on different issues like quality improvement to enhance performance. Financial participation Financial participation is one of the best direct and tangible forms of employee involvement. The financial participation allows the employee to be a part of the financial success and failure of the organization. This will encourage the employees to show greater commitment and encourage them to take extra responsibility.Further, it is argued that a financial stake gives employees increased enthusiasm for the success of the organization. In its most developed form employee share ownership means that employees become significant shareholders in the business or even their own employer (Judge and Gennard, 2005). Financial employee involvement scheme can be carried out in three ways and that is profit sharing, profit related pay and share ownership. Profit sharing According to Judge al (2004) profit sharing methods can help to build a motivated and committed workforce. Further Taily et al (2004) explains that these schemes encourage employees to work as a team rather then individual as the rewards for working together is more then working individually. Profit sharing scheme ensure that employees benefit from an organization that makes profits. Profit related pay Taily et al (2003) explains that profit related pay scheme where employer rewards the employees for their contribution to the business. Further he outlines that it works where a group of people get pay to the profit of the business for their work. This kind of scheme generally found in the sales business where there is bonus for achieving the target. This scheme can increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. Share ownership Judge et al (2004) stated that latest way of financial participation of the employees is share ownership where the employees are owner of some part of the company through share. It means that they have shareholders right. Further Apostolou (2000) stated that it produces interest among the employees about the company matters. In UK one of 5 employees have share ownership in their company .This kind of schemes seeks long term commitment from the employees and its take the employee involvement in a new stage where employees are promoting to some part of the ownership of the company. Owing share makes the employees more motivated and committed as the loss or the profit directly have an impact on them. Task based participation Task based participation is mainly to the job and an integral part of day-to-day life. It is all about perform the task in the same level or higher level, which can be managers or supervisor. Team working and self management Teamwork one of the important ways of employee involvement described by Pfeiffers (1998) as it is one of the seven key HRM practise. It allows employees to take extra responsibility for the task, without direct supervision, to have discretion over work method and time, to multi skill and to recruit team members. Managerial control is at it most subversive and effective when employees take on responsibility for peer surveillance (Marchington and Wilkinson (1998 Benefit of Team working Team meeting benefit both the employer and the employees. Through introducing team working the employer can improve productivity, customer service, cost cutting. In addition the employers can spread the ideas and be competitive in the market by improving the performance. Further its increase the employees motivation to extra responsibility and care for the organization. Team working is benefited for the employees as well as the outcome of team working are greater job satisfaction and motivation. Service industry characteristics and customer driven attitude or orientation is suits team working (Wilkinson et al 1998).Cully et al (1999) claim that team working participation is used in two third of the British industries. In order to introduce team working the organization needs skillful management and resources. Employee Involvement Model Psychological contracts First used in 1960s the psychological contract became very popular following the development in the world economy like globalization and economic crisis in 1990s.It is described as mutual obligations without any written contract between the employee and the employer. As it is not a written contract these obligations are informal and imprecise and are made in the requirement process or in the performance appraisal. Some obligation is seen as a promise whereas others are term as an expectation. The important part of that is the belief by the employees to be part of good relationship with the employer (CIPD, 2009). The difference between the legal contract and psychological contract can be easily distinguished. Legal contract is a paper sign contract between the employee and the employer which represent the limited reality of the employment. The nature and importance of that can be found in an employment tribunal. On the other hand Psychological contract is more influential than the formal contract as it is affecting the employee behavior. This contract helps the employee to understand the requirement to represent their side and bargain and what they can expect from the job. The contract is based on mutual trust and understanding and cant be enforceable as it is not a legal one (CIPD2009). Professor David Guest (2002) of Kings College London outlines the importance of psychological contracts and what it can offer to the employee and the employer. The model suggests that the importance of employer to adopt people management as it is directly influence the psychological contract .The contract is based on mutual trust and fairness of the employee and the belief that the employer is respecting the deal between them. Further he explains that positive psychological contract increase employee commitment and satisfaction which results increase performance. Limitation of psychological contract The main problem with Psychological contract arises when it is broken by management by not delivering the promises. This can leads to low job satisfaction, low morale and dispute between the employee and management. The employees are feeling cheated if the promise like rewards, training is not fulfilled or negative feedback from the managers about the work. Another limitation could be emerging when the company merges or restructure and the employees concerns are not listened to, this can raise dissatisfaction among the employees. What Psychological contract is important? The nature of the jobs changed dramatically in the last 20 years and there are more temporary and part time jobs available and the people do not have a permanent future in that company, they need to build a relationship with the management to secure their future. The cost of labor is increasing and most of the organization wants to work more with less employees makes the jobs more hectic stressful. Human resources are becoming more critical to get competitive advantage by their tacit and explicit knowledge. Team work culture is increasing. Finally positive psychological can result in high efficiency. Black box model People, Performance link In order to understand the importance or significance of employee involvement and participation it is really important to understand the people and performance link. A research team lead by Professor John Purcell (2003) at Bath University carried out an investigation on people and performance link called as black box model. In that they have carried out interviews in 18 organizations which lasted over three years. In the interview with the managers the aim is to collect the information regarding their attitudes, level commitment, views about the job, team and reporting relationship. There information had been investigating in depth the relationships between practice and performance to develop understanding of the nature and mechanics of the relationship. After analyzing the data the team develops the people and performance model famously called as black box model. These models found that the people management creates the building blocks of performance and that are ability, motivation and opportunity. As in the figure shows Purcell make four pillars to describe the people performance link. The first pillar is the human resources; the second is the AMO factors which is with the help of the line management in pillar three can result in employee commitment, job satisfaction and motivation which can finally lead to discretionary behavior. Further he explains that ability is the willing to learn new skill and apply and recognized, motivation assume that the use of ability in an effective way and finally opportunity assume the involvement of the employees in different operation like problem solving and the decision making process. These factors like ability, motivation and opportunity are very important as they are directly related to job satisfaction and commitment of the employees. It will encourage the employee to exhibit discretionary behavior which means the way doing the job like in speed, care and innovation. These activities are the heart of the employment relationship as it is very difficult for the employer to monitor all the activities in an organization. This behavior makes the performance of the organization to a next level with greater job satisfaction and better performance. (CIPD, 2009). Role of line managers According to Judge and Gennard (2005) the main reason of the failure of employees involvement is the attitude of the middle and lower management. The middle and lower management fail to support the scheme as they think they will lose power to control employees Further a research done by CIPD the role of line managers are the most important to implement the employee involvement and practice. Line managers are constantly in the communication with the employees. The line managers are the best person in explaining the variation in both job satisfaction and discretionary behavior as it one of the most important factors in order to developing commitment in the organization .The managers can encages employees towards their jobs and make them responsible for their jobs. The line managers can evaluate the performance through performance appraisal and motivates them by introducing more bonuses for better performance (CIPD, 2009). Organization culture According to CIPD (2009) it is found that the practice and performance is highly influenced by the organization environment. The practice performance link depends on the origination goal mission statement which must influence by the values the organizations stands for. And want to achieve in the future. The goal or the mission is very important for employee commitment. The goals or the mission should be spread throughout the organization to embed that in the policies of the organization. These values encourage employees to achieve new height in their jobs. This will motivate them as they are feeling valued and that eventually result in better performance. Comparison between Psychological contract and black box model Black box model is a medium for creating the atmosphere that reinforces psychological contract through the power of line managers. While psychological contract is a state of mind that already exists between the management and the employees. Implementation of employee involvement schemes Different organization operates differently so it is very important to understand that the schemes good for one organization may be not appropriate for the other one. There are few factors that are really important in order to successfully implement the schemes. The factors are good employee relations, the organization culture and the top management support, monitoring and reviewing and resources. Good employee relation Judge and Gennard (2005) explains that good employee relation is the basic need in order to implement employee involvement scheme as it is very important to motivate the employees and the management to take part in the process. The management and the employees must be open in their attitude and behavior. The scheme cant be successful in a case of dispute between them. Employee involvement can gain and develop in the background of trust and motivation among the management and the employees. Commitment by the top management The most importance factor regarding the success of employee involvement is the support of the top management. It is the top management who can encourage employee involvement and participation. According to Lawler et al (1995) it is essential, as employee involvement needs the management support to develop and smooth implementation without any obstacle. It is the management responsibility to introduce EI through suggestion programs and problem solving teams. The management can give more training to the employees to increase their skills and when they believe that the employees are knowledgeable and more skilled they can involve them in different organization function through EIP. This can leads to introduce reward and recognition for better performance to encourage employee involvement. Further Judge et al (2005) explain that the management must be keeping the momentum after the introduction of the scheme. This will develop trust and motivation among the employees and the employees feel the seriousness of the management about the scheme. Any inconstant management behavior in the workforce involvement can put the scheme in trouble as the employees will de motivates and questioning the management commitment about the scheme. According to Apostolou(2000) there are four important actions the management needs to take to run the scheme successfully and those are trust the employees and give them more responsibility, always updating the training programme to train the employees about the recent change in the business and technology the third action is effective communication and regular feedback of the work. This is the most crucial one as its shows the management seriousness about the scheme and that can motivate the workforce. Finally introducing of rewards and recognition for good work really helps to increase the commitment of the employees. Free flow of information is another important aspect of employee involvement. The management must provide information about the company through different sources to their employees .But the management should be careful to provide too much or too little information as it may create confusion among the employees. The role of leader is even more crucial in the time of recession and economic turmoil where the environment is not conducive for employee involvement because of lay offs. According to Day(2009) the roles of leader is more important then before as it is not possible for them to maintain the same employee involvement scheme if the company is not getting profit. The leadership should be aware the workforce the reason behind the lay off and must use the most remaining talent. The leadership must regain the confidence of the employee by regular informing about the company progress and make them understand about the difficult time. By giving more seriousness on employee involvement the management can help the organizat Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry INTRODUCTION The paper will discuss employee involvement and participation in the service industry with reference to Canary Wharf GBK. The paper starts with the objective of the research and ends with the conclusion and recommendation of the research. Employee involvement is a very important programme to utilize the tacit knowledge of the employees to increase commitment and performance with a limited cost. This paper will discuss different types and models of employees involvement and their benefit and limitations. The research start with the secondary research through collected theories to write the literature reviews to build the base of the research. In the literature reviews, it has explained views of different writer on employees involvement. The literature reviews includes types of involvement, models of employees involvement and management support for employees involvement Further, this research includes a methodology where the research strategy, approach, data collection and sample of the research are outline. Research methodology is crucial, as it is giving the researcher ways to conduct the primary research. The research is base on a case study and the data collection methods are interviews and a survey. In the third section the researcher, outline the finding of interviews and survey. In this research, there are three interviews and one survey conducted by the researcher. The participants in the interviews are the managers and the respondent in the survey are the employees of the organisation. Finally, in the last section the researcher presented analysis and conclusion of the research. In the analysis, the data collected from the research has been tested with the theories of literature. The research concludes with a brief conclusion where the result of the research has discussed. In the end, the researcher gives recommendation and discusses the scope, limitation, and interesting issue of the research. Research objectives are Critically analyse the importance of employee involvement as outlined in the literature review that includes its importance in recession. Evaluate Gourmet Burger Kitchen employee involvement strategy in the light of the research finding and theoretical literature. Discuss the benefits and limitations of Employee involvement. Benchmark the GBK canary wharf case study with other restaurant. Reason for choosing this topic The purpose of this study is to investigate the methods of effective involvement of the employees in a company where the researcher is working. Employees are the most valuable assets of a company. Employee involvement is important as it can result in empowerment and democracy in the organisation. This may result in increased motivation to take more responsibility (Judge and Gennard (2005). In this current economic situationwhen the confidence of the employees is low, EIP can motivate the employees to deliver good customer services, which can eventually result in improved profitability. The researcher aims to explore the role of employee involvement in the hospitality industry where the employees turn over is highest. The researcher is presently working at GBK and has accessto conduct interviews and surveys. Furthermore, the researcher is interested in opening a business in India that is why the researcher has chosen this topic. PART ONE LITRETURE REVIEW Definition of employee involvement Employees, the strongest pillar of the organization are the most valuable asset that contributes significantly to its success and prosperity. According to Price (2004), the involvement of employees in the organizational operation not only motivates them but also enables them to contribute more effectively and efficiently. Further, he explains employee involvement as a process involving participation, communication, decision making which leads to industrial democracy and employee motivation. Further CIPD (2009) explain employee involvement as a commitment of the employees towards the values of the organisation and willingness to help each other to achieve the organisational goal. The results are not only to increase job satisfaction, or motivation but the increasing performance of that organisation. In short, employee involvement is creating an environment where people have a continuous impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement Vs participation Understanding and defining the concept Employee involvement and employee participation are like two sides of a coin. Both are supplementary to each other and existence of one depends on the other. There is not any significant difference between the two terms. Participation is an act of sharing information and the meaning of involvement is the day-to-day activity of the organization. Many writers have contributed towards the development of this thought of employee involvement or participation. For example Delaney (1996) had used the term participation as a voice of the employee in the decision making process and to describe different types of involvement of employee in the organizations affair. But very few writers tried to find the difference between the two concepts. Kale (1999) argues that participation is any organizational arrangement under which employees have some sort of share in some aspect of the business which is not specific types of employee involvement. Furthermore Ang (2002) has contributed towards the development of the difference between the two terms and concluded that, Employee involvement calls for participation which is all about sharing information, training, mutual decision making process whereas traditional participative managementviews participation as a part of other organizational process. Marching ton et al. (1993) have used employee participation in a different context and as an umbrella term covering all forms of employee influence in the organization. Employee involvement is used to describe managerially inspired initiatives aimed at winning employee commitment, as part of the practices of industrial democracy, whose aim is to increase the rights of employees to participate in management decisions. This not only results in enhanced employee morale but also retaining the potential manpower resulting in lower attrition rate. Many writers have contributed differently and each one of them has different approach to the concept and the context. Employee involvement was and is still known and referred to by different writers under such headings as participative management, employee participation, and worker involvement. Employee involvement and empowerment The concept of employee involvement is incomplete without it being associated with employee empowerment. According to Cunningham and Hyman (1999) there cannot be a single or simple definition of empowerment as some writers see empowerment as a recent development after increase employee involvement. Further Apostolouain (2000) explains that empowerment is the next step of employee involvement means where the employees have the power to take decisions. Blanchard et al. (1999) has defined its scope referring it as a means for involving team members as business partners in determining company success or failure. The real essence of which comes from releasing the knowledge, experience, and motivational power that is already in people but is being severely underutilized. In short it can be said that employee involvement leads to empowerment of the employees in different management decision process. Importance of Employee involvement The increasing competition and technological changes in the last 20 years have demanded higher skills and flexibility from the employees for the organisation. Walton (1985) stated that the highly competitive environment needs a different strategic approach to manage the employees. He further stated that in order to achieve that the jobs needs to be broader. The jobs structure should be made with proper planning and implementation to improve the performance unless just to maintain it. This situation leads to formation of teams, which are accountable for the performance. Employee involvement not only maintained the standard of the operation process but gives emphasis on continuous improvement and it is reflecting the requirement of the market place. Further Marchington (2001) argues that the employee involvement come into focus in the early 90s when the employer looking for a participative way to manage the work force. Judge and Gennard (2005) further outline the other important aspect of employee involvement is the increases job security of the employees by offering them priority in training and retraining. The training equipped them with the skill and knowledge that the job demands. Greater employee commitment leads a growing expectancy to better job satisfaction and performance. It is difficult for the organisation in current business scenario to improve the performance without employee commitment towards the organizations mission and objective. Employee involvement allows the employee to input their views and ideas on performance and the quality of the service. This will lead the development where the employees want to be part of successful organisation, which provides them a good income and opportunity to enhance their skills for a secure employment. Grates (2009) stated that the engaged employees significantly contributes to the success of the organisation to achieve the goal and objective. H e further said that employee involvement could give competitive advantage in the market. It can help to reduce turnover and increase the productivity. An industrial services survey conducted in 1999 on 49 organisations experiences on employee involvement over the period of 1991-1999 has reported that more then 33% people believe that it enhanced employee commitment and motivation. The same number of people believes that it is really help to improve the relationship between the employee and the employer. Approximately 60% people said that the quality of the product and the services has improved. More then 50% believe that their job satisfaction had increased and the organisational profit has increased. Importance of employee involvement in recession The world has seen its worst recession since 1930s and most of the world economies are fighting against it. The economic crisis forces the employers to introduce cost-cutting measure and one of them is redundancies. According to an article HR focus (2009) most of companies in the world complete the lay offs of employees. Now the big question is how this organisation can use the most of the remaining employees. The other important question is how the company survive and can increase their performance in this difficult time. One of the measures that the organisation uses to give confidence to their employees is greater emphasis on employee involvement and participation scheme. According to Frauenheim (2009) the importance of employee involvement is more crucial in this difficult environment of economic trouble. As it is revels by many experts that worker commitment is more important then before as the confidence of the employees are badly hit by the lay offs. Haters stated that its the employees help that improving the situation during this economic turmoil as employee involvement can give the sense of value to the employees and can increase the job security. Juile Gebauer managing director of Towers Perrin believe that the company must give more attention to employee involvement to survive and performing good in recession as his organization found there is direct link between performance and involvement. Low employee satisfaction or confidence may results poor customer services and in recession where customers are very reluctant to spend, companies can not afford bad customer service. In this difficult time companies have to be more efficient to attract more customers to surviveand customer service isof the tool to do that. It is found that EIP can increase employee satisfaction which can lead better performance Types of employee involvement Employee involvement practices/ approaches According to Ang (2002) the idea of employee involvement is still developing although there is large amount of research done in the last decade still there is not any developed ways to use employee involvement as a management approach. The management approach depends how the employer wants to involve their employee in different operation. According to Lawler et al (1998) the most important factor of employee involvement approaches is how it can represent comprehensively in the process of problem solving, sharing information, rewards for performance and developing knowledge and ideas. He further says that in order to implement these practices the organization needs a particular employee involvement program. Traditional versus current perspective There is a significant difference between the current and the traditional way of employee involvement and participation. According to Gary and Sisson (1994) the traditional way is mostly indirect participation and limited direct participation. Further indirect participation includes trade union and work council and direct participation was limited to improve the quality of the work to counter turnover and absenteeism. He further explains that current employee participation is more direct as it concern with improve the performance of the organization that can be linked with the objective of the organization like customer satisfaction. The types of jobs in the current environment is changing as more and more company recruiting part time employees and they need to adopt different strategy to involve them in the process. Representative participation According to Apostolou (2000) one of the main ways to achieve representative participation is joint consultation where employees elected representative to discuss with the management on various issues which concern them. These processes give the employees an opportunity to influence the proposal before it is finally made. Further Judge and Generd (2004) explain that, joint consolation involves seeking acceptable solutions to problem through a genuine exchange of views and information .Employee communication is concerned with the interchange of information and ideas within an organization. Direct, indirect and financial participation In 1999 Oosthuizen and du Toit classify the employee involvement and participation practice as direct, indirect and financial. Direct participation is the communication between the management and the employees regarding different function of the organization like decision making process to problem solving. Whereas in indirect participation the employees are involve through their representatives who are elected leaders. Financial participation is the economic participation of the employees in the success or failure of the organization through share ownership, profit sharing scheme. Marchington et al (1992) talk of direct and indirect employee participation practices the direct participation consist of downward communication from management to employees which includes team briefing, workplace wide meeting ,staff newsletters and cascading of information down via the management chain. Downward Communication from Managers to Employees According to Marchington et al (1992) the downward involvement technique is used to inform employees of management plans. The management can use different ways to do that. Regular and continuous distribution of the company reports, journal, company publication and videos are the effective way to inform employees about the development of the company. Team briefing and regular team meeting is another ways for the top management to aware the employees about the organization news and development. Upward involvement Marchington et al (1992) explain the other way of direct communication which are upward problem solving communication practices and that includes suggestion schemes, employee attitude surveys, and employee groups established to solve specific problems or discuss aspect of performance or quality and suggestion scheme. Further Taily et al (2003) outline the importance of employees attitude survey and it can be done through questionnaire to a sample of employees to find out their views about different factors of the work. He further explain that formal processes like suggestion scheme can be put forward to find out employees thinking on different issues like quality improvement to enhance performance. Financial participation Financial participation is one of the best direct and tangible forms of employee involvement. The financial participation allows the employee to be a part of the financial success and failure of the organization. This will encourage the employees to show greater commitment and encourage them to take extra responsibility.Further, it is argued that a financial stake gives employees increased enthusiasm for the success of the organization. In its most developed form employee share ownership means that employees become significant shareholders in the business or even their own employer (Judge and Gennard, 2005). Financial employee involvement scheme can be carried out in three ways and that is profit sharing, profit related pay and share ownership. Profit sharing According to Judge al (2004) profit sharing methods can help to build a motivated and committed workforce. Further Taily et al (2004) explains that these schemes encourage employees to work as a team rather then individual as the rewards for working together is more then working individually. Profit sharing scheme ensure that employees benefit from an organization that makes profits. Profit related pay Taily et al (2003) explains that profit related pay scheme where employer rewards the employees for their contribution to the business. Further he outlines that it works where a group of people get pay to the profit of the business for their work. This kind of scheme generally found in the sales business where there is bonus for achieving the target. This scheme can increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. Share ownership Judge et al (2004) stated that latest way of financial participation of the employees is share ownership where the employees are owner of some part of the company through share. It means that they have shareholders right. Further Apostolou (2000) stated that it produces interest among the employees about the company matters. In UK one of 5 employees have share ownership in their company .This kind of schemes seeks long term commitment from the employees and its take the employee involvement in a new stage where employees are promoting to some part of the ownership of the company. Owing share makes the employees more motivated and committed as the loss or the profit directly have an impact on them. Task based participation Task based participation is mainly to the job and an integral part of day-to-day life. It is all about perform the task in the same level or higher level, which can be managers or supervisor. Team working and self management Teamwork one of the important ways of employee involvement described by Pfeiffers (1998) as it is one of the seven key HRM practise. It allows employees to take extra responsibility for the task, without direct supervision, to have discretion over work method and time, to multi skill and to recruit team members. Managerial control is at it most subversive and effective when employees take on responsibility for peer surveillance (Marchington and Wilkinson (1998 Benefit of Team working Team meeting benefit both the employer and the employees. Through introducing team working the employer can improve productivity, customer service, cost cutting. In addition the employers can spread the ideas and be competitive in the market by improving the performance. Further its increase the employees motivation to extra responsibility and care for the organization. Team working is benefited for the employees as well as the outcome of team working are greater job satisfaction and motivation. Service industry characteristics and customer driven attitude or orientation is suits team working (Wilkinson et al 1998).Cully et al (1999) claim that team working participation is used in two third of the British industries. In order to introduce team working the organization needs skillful management and resources. Employee Involvement Model Psychological contracts First used in 1960s the psychological contract became very popular following the development in the world economy like globalization and economic crisis in 1990s.It is described as mutual obligations without any written contract between the employee and the employer. As it is not a written contract these obligations are informal and imprecise and are made in the requirement process or in the performance appraisal. Some obligation is seen as a promise whereas others are term as an expectation. The important part of that is the belief by the employees to be part of good relationship with the employer (CIPD, 2009). The difference between the legal contract and psychological contract can be easily distinguished. Legal contract is a paper sign contract between the employee and the employer which represent the limited reality of the employment. The nature and importance of that can be found in an employment tribunal. On the other hand Psychological contract is more influential than the formal contract as it is affecting the employee behavior. This contract helps the employee to understand the requirement to represent their side and bargain and what they can expect from the job. The contract is based on mutual trust and understanding and cant be enforceable as it is not a legal one (CIPD2009). Professor David Guest (2002) of Kings College London outlines the importance of psychological contracts and what it can offer to the employee and the employer. The model suggests that the importance of employer to adopt people management as it is directly influence the psychological contract .The contract is based on mutual trust and fairness of the employee and the belief that the employer is respecting the deal between them. Further he explains that positive psychological contract increase employee commitment and satisfaction which results increase performance. Limitation of psychological contract The main problem with Psychological contract arises when it is broken by management by not delivering the promises. This can leads to low job satisfaction, low morale and dispute between the employee and management. The employees are feeling cheated if the promise like rewards, training is not fulfilled or negative feedback from the managers about the work. Another limitation could be emerging when the company merges or restructure and the employees concerns are not listened to, this can raise dissatisfaction among the employees. What Psychological contract is important? The nature of the jobs changed dramatically in the last 20 years and there are more temporary and part time jobs available and the people do not have a permanent future in that company, they need to build a relationship with the management to secure their future. The cost of labor is increasing and most of the organization wants to work more with less employees makes the jobs more hectic stressful. Human resources are becoming more critical to get competitive advantage by their tacit and explicit knowledge. Team work culture is increasing. Finally positive psychological can result in high efficiency. Black box model People, Performance link In order to understand the importance or significance of employee involvement and participation it is really important to understand the people and performance link. A research team lead by Professor John Purcell (2003) at Bath University carried out an investigation on people and performance link called as black box model. In that they have carried out interviews in 18 organizations which lasted over three years. In the interview with the managers the aim is to collect the information regarding their attitudes, level commitment, views about the job, team and reporting relationship. There information had been investigating in depth the relationships between practice and performance to develop understanding of the nature and mechanics of the relationship. After analyzing the data the team develops the people and performance model famously called as black box model. These models found that the people management creates the building blocks of performance and that are ability, motivation and opportunity. As in the figure shows Purcell make four pillars to describe the people performance link. The first pillar is the human resources; the second is the AMO factors which is with the help of the line management in pillar three can result in employee commitment, job satisfaction and motivation which can finally lead to discretionary behavior. Further he explains that ability is the willing to learn new skill and apply and recognized, motivation assume that the use of ability in an effective way and finally opportunity assume the involvement of the employees in different operation like problem solving and the decision making process. These factors like ability, motivation and opportunity are very important as they are directly related to job satisfaction and commitment of the employees. It will encourage the employee to exhibit discretionary behavior which means the way doing the job like in speed, care and innovation. These activities are the heart of the employment relationship as it is very difficult for the employer to monitor all the activities in an organization. This behavior makes the performance of the organization to a next level with greater job satisfaction and better performance. (CIPD, 2009). Role of line managers According to Judge and Gennard (2005) the main reason of the failure of employees involvement is the attitude of the middle and lower management. The middle and lower management fail to support the scheme as they think they will lose power to control employees Further a research done by CIPD the role of line managers are the most important to implement the employee involvement and practice. Line managers are constantly in the communication with the employees. The line managers are the best person in explaining the variation in both job satisfaction and discretionary behavior as it one of the most important factors in order to developing commitment in the organization .The managers can encages employees towards their jobs and make them responsible for their jobs. The line managers can evaluate the performance through performance appraisal and motivates them by introducing more bonuses for better performance (CIPD, 2009). Organization culture According to CIPD (2009) it is found that the practice and performance is highly influenced by the organization environment. The practice performance link depends on the origination goal mission statement which must influence by the values the organizations stands for. And want to achieve in the future. The goal or the mission is very important for employee commitment. The goals or the mission should be spread throughout the organization to embed that in the policies of the organization. These values encourage employees to achieve new height in their jobs. This will motivate them as they are feeling valued and that eventually result in better performance. Comparison between Psychological contract and black box model Black box model is a medium for creating the atmosphere that reinforces psychological contract through the power of line managers. While psychological contract is a state of mind that already exists between the management and the employees. Implementation of employee involvement schemes Different organization operates differently so it is very important to understand that the schemes good for one organization may be not appropriate for the other one. There are few factors that are really important in order to successfully implement the schemes. The factors are good employee relations, the organization culture and the top management support, monitoring and reviewing and resources. Good employee relation Judge and Gennard (2005) explains that good employee relation is the basic need in order to implement employee involvement scheme as it is very important to motivate the employees and the management to take part in the process. The management and the employees must be open in their attitude and behavior. The scheme cant be successful in a case of dispute between them. Employee involvement can gain and develop in the background of trust and motivation among the management and the employees. Commitment by the top management The most importance factor regarding the success of employee involvement is the support of the top management. It is the top management who can encourage employee involvement and participation. According to Lawler et al (1995) it is essential, as employee involvement needs the management support to develop and smooth implementation without any obstacle. It is the management responsibility to introduce EI through suggestion programs and problem solving teams. The management can give more training to the employees to increase their skills and when they believe that the employees are knowledgeable and more skilled they can involve them in different organization function through EIP. This can leads to introduce reward and recognition for better performance to encourage employee involvement. Further Judge et al (2005) explain that the management must be keeping the momentum after the introduction of the scheme. This will develop trust and motivation among the employees and the employees feel the seriousness of the management about the scheme. Any inconstant management behavior in the workforce involvement can put the scheme in trouble as the employees will de motivates and questioning the management commitment about the scheme. According to Apostolou(2000) there are four important actions the management needs to take to run the scheme successfully and those are trust the employees and give them more responsibility, always updating the training programme to train the employees about the recent change in the business and technology the third action is effective communication and regular feedback of the work. This is the most crucial one as its shows the management seriousness about the scheme and that can motivate the workforce. Finally introducing of rewards and recognition for good work really helps to increase the commitment of the employees. Free flow of information is another important aspect of employee involvement. The management must provide information about the company through different sources to their employees .But the management should be careful to provide too much or too little information as it may create confusion among the employees. The role of leader is even more crucial in the time of recession and economic turmoil where the environment is not conducive for employee involvement because of lay offs. According to Day(2009) the roles of leader is more important then before as it is not possible for them to maintain the same employee involvement scheme if the company is not getting profit. The leadership should be aware the workforce the reason behind the lay off and must use the most remaining talent. The leadership must regain the confidence of the employee by regular informing about the company progress and make them understand about the difficult time. By giving more seriousness on employee involvement the management can help the organizat