The role of participatory management in fostering job satisfaction among public administration employees

The concept of job satisfaction has intrigued a debate that has extended outside the academic community and into the business and government sphere. Both academics and public managers agree that the existence of participative management improves job satisfaction of public administration employees. Being challenged with the goal of creating a high-performing, accountable and goal oriented government service, public management professionals have utilized strategic planning and participative management. The goal of this research is to explore the role between participative management and job satisfaction among public administration employees. More specifically, the research investigates the use of participative management by the managers, existence of strategic participatory planning process and the communication between the manager and employees. A total of 532 public administration employees, from four cities in Republic of Macedonia were involved in the survey. The research results from the multiple regression analysis indicate that there is a positive association between positive levels of reported job satisfaction by employees and their reporting of participatory management style and participatory strategic planning processes. In addition the research results suggest that the effectiveness of supervisory communication has a significant effect on the level of reported job satisfaction by the employees. The significance of this research is in its contribution to the understanding of the role of participative management in creating a satisfied public administration workforce. Based on the research results, recommendations will be discussed both for managers of public administration and academic researchers in the relevant field. Both business and government leaders and managers agree that an essential ingredient to organizational success is employee’s job satisfaction (Voon et al, 2010). This can be defined as s a positive or pleasing emotional state from the appraisal of one’s job or experience (Locke, 1976). By affecting the overall performance of the organization, job satisfaction affects the reported levels of job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, grievance expression, tardiness, low morale, high turnover and participatory decision making (Lee and Ahmad, 2009). Taking all of this into account, the shift to participatory management in the public sector is almost inevitable and has long been recognized as a critical ingredient in the creation of a more satisfied public administration workforce (Lichtenstein, 2000). However the review of the relevant literature uncovers that there is limited evidence of how participatory management influences the levels of job satisfaction among employees in the public sector. In addition, participatory management and levels and determinants of job satisfaction among public administration employees in developing countries remain scarce.