i. Human Relations Approach: The human relations approach is based on the belief that more satisfied employees are more productive employees. Organisations operating under the human relations framework utilise involvement techniques such as suggestion schemes, survey feedback and quality circles, but do not seek to redesign jobs, change the organisation structure or transform the organisation’s culture to promote maximum employee involvement in decision making.
ii. Human Resources Approach: The key assumption here is that people are a valuable resource, capable of making significant contributions to organisational performance. They should be developed to increase their capabilities and, when people have input to decisions, better decisions result.
iii. High Involvement Approach: High involvement systems operate under the assumption that employees are capable of making important decisions about their work and that maximum organisational performance results when people exercise considerable control over their work activities.
High involvement organisations typically utilise profoundly different approaches to job design such as autonomous work teams. They are very flat organisations, as employees make most of the routine, day-to-day decisions that are made by supervisors in traditionally managed organisations.
All of the organisation’s systems, such as the reward system and the goal-setting system, are designed to reinforce maximum employee involvement in decision-making. High involvement systems represent a radical departure from traditional management assumptions and thus require a great deal of management commitment to change.