Making Employee Involvement Work: Cooperative Goals and Controversy to Reduce Costs

Organizations are involving employees to helpreduce costs to succeed in the intensely competitivemarketplace. However, many researchers have beenskeptical of the value of participation. This study uses Deutsch's theory of cooperation and competitionto examine the critical mediating variable of theinteraction as employees discuss how to reduce costs.Results of structural equation analyses on datacollected from interviews when employees participated inreducing costs indicate that cooperative goalscontributed to constructive discussion among employeesthat resulted in productive work and strongerrelationships, which in turn led employees to be committed toreducing costs. Competitive goals were negativelycorrelated with dynamics and outcomes. These resultssuggest that researchers and managers can agree that employee involvement has potential butemployees need cooperative goals and skills to discussissues open-mindedly and constructively to realize thesebenefits.