THE CONTRIBUATION OF EMPLOYEES PARTICIPATION IN

DECISION MAKING PROCESS AND ITS IMPACTS ON EMPLOYEES

JOB SATISFACTION. THE CASE OF WOREDA 9, LEMIKURA SUB
CITY

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO DEPARTMENT OF

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT FOR A PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

MBA DEGREE IN MANAGEMENT

By Getnet Tilahun Tiruneh

ID No 138/14

Advisor Bekretion H(PH.D)

March; 2023

ADDIS ABABA; ETHIOPIA

Abstract
This study aims to assessing the role of participation in decision making and its impact on
employees’ job satisfaction in the case of selected district of Lemikura sub city woreda nine.
More particularly, it is aims at mapping out the extent of participation in decision making
process and to identify the mechanism employed by the management to ensure employed
participation and examine the effect of employees’ participation on their commitment and job
satisfactions. The success of any organization is measured by the Quality of products or service
it delivers. This success will bring by the whole employees from low to top including the leaders
and managers those who providing the policy and procedures of the organization. Unfortunately
many organizations do not meet their success effectively and efficiently because of different
factors. Among those factors lack of participatory decision making and employees’
dissatisfaction by their job are taken as the main reasons for the organization not to achieve
their goal and successes. Participatory decision making and job satisfaction is very crucial for
the organization successes, because it gives new skill needed to perform the job effectively and
develop a quality work force. Job satisfactions are the attitudes and feelings employees have
about their work. Participatory decision making offered valuable opportunities to focus on work
activity and goals to identify, correct existing problems and to encourage better current and
future satisfaction of job. The study will focus to assess the contribution of participatory decision
making and its impact of job satisfaction at Addis Ababa lemikura sub city in woreda 09.The
researcher believes that participatory decision making will bring employee job satisfaction so
does the successes of the organization. The study will conduct by gathering information though,
observation, reviewing related books, primary sources questionnaire both, open and closed
ended questions and interview, that will distribute to employees select by probability stratified
sampling technique. After the researcher gather the desire information, it will analyze precisely
using tables, percentages and generalization, at last the researcher will try to resolve the gap
and recommend to the employee how they to be committed about their work and organization
how to participate its employee in the decision making process for better performance for their
successes in the near coming future.

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Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................ii
CHAPTER ONE.........................................................................................................................................vi
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................vi
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................................vi
1.1 Background Of The Study...............................................................................................................viii
1.1 Statement Of The Problem..........................................................................................................ix
1.3 Objectives of the Study......................................................................................................................x
1.3.1 General Objectives of the Study..................................................................................................x
1.3.2 Specific objectives of the study...................................................................................................x
1.4. Basic research questions...................................................................................................................x
1.5 Significance of the Study..................................................................................................................xi
1.6 Scope of the Study............................................................................................................................xi
1.7 Limitation of the study.....................................................................................................................xii
1.8 Delimitation of the study..................................................................................................................xii
1.9 Definitions of key terms...................................................................................................................xii
1.10 Organization of the study..........................................................................................................xiii
CHAPTER TWO......................................................................................................................................xiv
LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................................xiv
2. Introduction...........................................................................................................................................xiv
2.1. Review of concepts and theories....................................................................................................xiv
2.2 Forms of participative decision making...........................................................................................xv
2.2.1. Direct participative decision making.......................................................................................xvi
2.2.2. Indirect participation decision making.....................................................................................xvi
2.3. Extent of participative decision making........................................................................................xvii
2.3.1. High-level participation..........................................................................................................xvii
2.3.2. Mid-level participation...........................................................................................................xvii
2.3.3. Low-level participation..........................................................................................................xviii
2.4 Objectives of participative decision making..................................................................................xviii
2.4.1. Moral/Ethical Objectives.......................................................................................................xviii
2.4.2. Social Objectives:..................................................................................................................xviii
2.4.3. Economic Objectives:..............................................................................................................xix
2.5 Factors Affecting Decision Making.................................................................................................xix

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 2.5.1 Certainty....................................................................................................................................xx
2.5.2 Risk...........................................................................................................................................xx
2.5.3 Uncertainty...............................................................................................................................xxi
2.5.4 Bounded rationality..................................................................................................................xxi
2.5.5 Escalation of commitment........................................................................................................xxi
2.6 Essential Conditions for successful participation in decision making..............................................xxi
2.6.1. Effective engagement of subordinates.....................................................................................xxi
2.6.2. Management Commitment.....................................................................................................xxii
2.6.3. Participative Management Style.............................................................................................xxii
2.6.4. Organizational Culture...........................................................................................................xxiii
2.6.5. Training.................................................................................................................................xxiii
2.6.6. Trade union support...............................................................................................................xxiv
2.7 Effect of Employee commitment and their job satisfaction on Organizational goal......................xxiv
2.8 Impact and Benefit of participative decision making.....................................................................xxiv
2.9 Empirical Literature review............................................................................................................xxv
2.10 Conceptual Framework................................................................................................................xxvi
CHAPTER THREE...............................................................................................................................xxviii
METHDOLOGY...................................................................................................................................xxviii
3. Research Methodology......................................................................................................................xxviii
3.1 Research design...........................................................................................................................xxviii
3.2 Sources and types of data.............................................................................................................xxviii
3.3 Research approch...........................................................................................................................xxix
3.4 Sampling technique and sampling size..........................................................................................xxix
3.4.1 Sampling technique................................................................................................................xxix
3.4.2 Sampling size...........................................................................................................................xxx
3.5 Instruments to be use....................................................................................................................xxxii
3.6 Methods of data analysis...............................................................................................................xxxii
3.7 Validity and Reliability of the study.............................................................................................xxxii
3.8 Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................xxxiii
3.9 Time frame (Work schedule) and Budget....................................................................................xxxiii
3.9.1 Time frame............................................................................................................................xxxiii
3.9.2 Budgeting..............................................................................................................................xxxiv

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3.10 REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................xxxvi

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction
This chapter will start by introducing the main theme of the proposal or research, which is
participatory decision making and employees’ job satisfactions. It will examine the historical
background information to the study, the statement of the research, objectives or purpose of the
study, the research queries, and justification of the study, importance of the study, scope and
limitations of the study and paper organization of the research.
The organizations to stay a long with their existence, the first task have to develop their own
human resources. Human resource is the means of the organizations success, because these
human resources (Employees’) provide skills, knowledge and driver that create, maintain and
advance organizations. Therefore every organization wants to have employees with competence
in accordance with the needs of their organization, committed to the organization and have high
performance that is why all organizations are engaged in a matter of human resources. These
resources will the vast resource of people in external environment from which organizations
obtain its employees people are perhaps organization most precious internal resources because
they will organization’s life blood.
Participative decision making is a classical concept in modern organizational administration
(Wilkinson, 1988). It’s described in a variety of ways but generally define as when employees
fully invest emotionally, mentally and physically so they focus on achieving the organizational
goals. Employee participation in decision making is a process of involving and empowerment of
employee in order to use their input towards achieving higher individual and organizational
performance. It is a type of decision making, in involves participating employees in various form
of decision making activities. Participation in decision making is the most important organization
characteristic that influence not only employee productivity, job satisfaction and motivation but
also for success of organization goals (Bhatti, 2013). Participative decision making is one of
important aspect of organizational life to achieve increased organizational effectiveness and
employee’s commitment towards organizational goals. Employee participation is management

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Initiatives are given the opportunity to discuss issues relating to their work to influence
managerial decisions, but management reserves the right to govern. Employee participation in
decision making has various aim including; to increasing motivation and commitment in
employee; to channel their interests and knowledge and skills to improve processes; to consider
their interests and keep them informed of the organizations activities and position. In order to
achieve these aims a diverse range of techniques are being used, including consultation
committees, suggestion schemes, certain forms of team working, newsletters and briefings
(Gifford, Nealthy, Loukas, 2005). As a result, employees are expected to be more motivated,
committed, productive and more satisfied with their work. The participation of employees in
decision making can help in many ways to the organizations including enhancing and generating
creativity changes in behaviors at works; work force commitment and in organizational decision
making process. In general the employee participation in decision making should be an important
step to improve employee job satisfaction towards achieving organizational goals.
The reason why I chose this topic is that nowadays almost all organization relies on employees
for success and competitiveness. Consequently, organization needs to figure out strategies how
to involve employees in decision-making and enhance the commitment of employee for good
performance of organization. In respect, employee participation has come to play an
indispensable role in helping organization to reach its goals. Therefore it is important that this
research will be conducted to understand experience and perception of employee participation in
decision making, So that the commitment and job satisfaction of employee towards
organizational goals could be built up. To get job satisfaction employees, contribution of
participatory decision making is high due to greater Poole of knowledge, different perspectives
greater comprehension and increased acceptance and so on. (Cliffered 2000: pp.384). If the
employees do not participate in the decision- making process of organization activities, they are
likely to be unwilling to take (own) an active part. To conclude, this topic would be interesting
and meaningful for any organization because employee participation in decision-making has a
significant relationship with employee job satisfaction and organization performance.
Due to the increased complexity of many problems in decision making it requires specialized
knowledge in numerous fields, usually not possessed by one person. To insure sustainable
organization, many managers spend eighty percent of their working time in committee meetings.
When employees are satisfied an organizational sustainability and successfulness continuous

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normally. However, most of the time employees are not satisfied with their work. One of the
most complain everywhere is manager’s decision making style such as more centralized and
autocratic type therefore participatory decision making should provide an uninterrupted work for
employees to lemikura woreda 09 staff without incurring additional cost

Workers satisfaction has become an essential consideration for management strategy. One of the
major important ways aimed at improving job satisfaction has been allowing employees to
participate in job related decision (Harley et al.2000), While this decision may have to do with
the strategy of the organization or simply with the routine activities of staff, this decision may
require months after gathering information or exchange details or at one point without any
consideration either by individuals or in group. Participation allows individuals to share
influence among them who are not hierarchically equal, and participative management practices
help to maintain a balance on the involvement of managers as well as subordinates in the routine
tasks and activities related to the job (Cotton, 1995). According to Saha and Kumar (2007), the
maximum range of satisfaction is most likely to occur when there is an excessive degree of
employee involvement in the planning process, producing alternatives, developing policies, and
comparing the results. The idea to make decisions with groups that can participate in decision
making is unavailable to all managers. Many of the problems that employees have within
organizations, is from their lack of involvement in organizational decision making.

1.1 Background of the Study

In our country Ethiopia, organizations or companies have their own policy, procedure vision,
mission and value to create a favorable environment and scope for the success of their own
ultimate goals.

Political, economical, and social affairs of a any country are the back bone of its development, so
that the government has been incorporating an organization, which gives a service and managing
such an activity for societal benefits.

Lemikura sub city is newly incorporated governmental organizations that sub merged from Yeka
sub city and Bole sub city in previous name. The sub city has its own vision, mission and values,
so performs its task based on the societal interest and benefits in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
Lemikura sub city woreda nine (09) is one of the fifteen woreda in the new sub city, which is

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found in the south east of Addis Ababa. This woreda has around 500 staff members and gives a
public service based on the Lemikura sub city guidance’s procedures. Following its public
organization, it gives multi service of the society who lives around. The staff members or
employees’ are determining the success of the lemikura woreda 09 workforces and effectiveness
of the organization. Most of the excising researches focus on the impact of employee turnover on
organizational performance but little of the researches deals about the impact of participatory
decision making. In the early 2014 E.C there was a statically data, which shows that a lemikura
woreda nine staff member was a round 700, but now it has only 500 staff members. This
organization doesn’t have a full awareness about what things determine or case this high
employee turnover rate. In Lemikura woreda nine there was not such a research paper that
justifies the means of the employees’ turnover rate the researcher believes that this high rate of
employee turnover due to dissatisfactions of employees on their work. This is because most
organizations do not participate their employees and lead them with their unclear and autocratic
management. That is why the researcher wants to do the research on assessing participatory
decision making and its impact on employees’ job satisfaction.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

Participatory decision making is a type of decision making, it involves participating employees
in various form of decision making activities. In premise to employee participation on
organizational decision making process the study assess several studies conducted on the area.
However, studies conducted on the area were very few; such as, there were a study conducted by
Demse (2001) on the impact of female participation in decision making at senior management
level of Yeka- Sub City, in this study he was tried only to indicated the impact of females
participation on organizational leadership, there were also a study conducted by Birhanu, 1996
on the topic “factors affecting employee participation of decision making process on public
service”, the study were focused in identifying major determinate factors affecting employee
participation on organizational decision making. Though both of the studies have been tried to
investigate lack of women participation on administrational decision making and identified
major determinate factors, however the study were not implied the effect of employee
participation on organizational performance. In addition to the above idea Aldoory, and Toth,
(2004) contend that there is much less research evidence for the value of employee participation
and involvement on decision making globally. Scholars have also argued that employees‟

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involvement and participation in decision making may primarily serve to make them feel good
about their jobs and in turn increase firm‟s organizational performance. Similarly this study
confirmed also that, there is no sufficient research results in Ethiopia with related to employee
participation and involvement on decision making of organizational activities. This is one of the
encouraging factor or research gaps that initiated the researcher to investigate on the area,
specifically, taking one of the large public organizations known as Ethiopian Construction works
Corporation (ECWC), as a case study. Those all studies show that there was a gap, which are
women were not participated in decision making that makes them dissatisfy by their job. Job
satisfaction in the organizations sustainability are highly inter related because an organization
can be sustainable if it employee give effective response to their job. Participative decision
making is very important for the success of an organization, and as its help organizations make
sure employee are working hard or committed to contribute to accomplishing the organization
goal, but due to the increasing of complexity of many problems in decision making it requires
specialized knowledge in numerous fields, usually not possess by one person. Many
organizations have experienced the lack of job satisfactions by employees towards
implementation of decision taken by the top management which undoubtedly has serious
repercussions on organization goal success (Abdulai and Shafiwu, 2014). Decision making is
mainly use administrative to motivate the employee, to creativities and to share or shift risk of
different level. It is the basis for the organization objectives achievements that increased
acceptance, greater pool of knowledge and skill. But different factors might that in participatory
decision making such as unwillingness of employees to participate, rigid, avoiding management
style during decision making activities and increase customer compliant. According to Ethiopian
labor Authority (2007), among several problems that affect organizational performance of public
organizations is lack of employee participation at organizational decision making process.
Therefore this study will attempt to show contribution of participatory decision making in
handling these problems that affect employee job satisfaction. In order to increase the workers
commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational performance organizational leaders need to
permit a high degree of employee participation and involvement in the organization decision
making practice. According to many research in governmental organization the decision making
process is only held by small top managements. This type of management leaders will not
interact with their Employees easily because employees do not participate in the decision and do

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not know how the management leads them. This will a reason for the employee will dissatisfies
on their own work and will lack of commitment for their work. The problem in this regard
mainly lies on the fact that employee participation in decision making has not been clearly
understand as well as its role and the impact it has on employees job satisfaction at lemikura sub
city woreda nine.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

In consideration of the problems and magnitude of their impact on employee’s job satisfaction,
the study will have the following objectives:

1.3.1 General Objectives of the Study

The main Objective of this study is to assess the role of employees’ participation in decision
making and its impact on their job satisfaction in selected Districts of Lemikura woreda nine (09)
as case study:

1.3.2 Specific objectives of the study

 To find out the extent of employee’s participation in decision making process in
Lemikura woreda 09.
 To identify the mechanisms employed by the management of Lemikura sub city woreda
nine to ensure employees participation in decision making process.
 To identify the factors or challenges that affect employees participatory decision making
in Lemikura woreda 09.
 To examine the effect of employees participation in decision making on their
commitment and job satisfaction towards organizational goals.

1.4. Basic research questions

Based on the statement of the problem the study sought to give answer to the following research
questions;
 To what extent do employees participate in decision-making process in Lemikura woreda
nine?
 What mechanisms are employed by the management of Lemikura woreda 09 to ensure
employees’ participation in decision- making process?

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  What are the challenges or factors associated with employees’ participation in decision
making?
 What are effects or significances of employees’ participation in decision-making on their
commitment towards organizational goal and their job satisfactions?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study significantly will help specially the following body or groups;
Policy Makers and organizations፡-The finding of this study will assist the policy maker,
especially the leaders. As the employees’ participation in decision making in important aspects
of any organization, this study will provide practical benefits for organization that attempt to
introduce direct and indirect participation decision making. The study also will provide a better
understanding of the factors that influence the effectiveness of participative decision making and
the role and contributions of employers and employees to participative decision making
processes. Generally the findings of this study significantly will help the organization to
minimize, dissatisfaction of their employees as well as themselves, inefficiency and
unproductively and will improve employees’ job satisfaction and organizational profitability.
After conducting this research the organization will be benefits that the manager sees identified
problems and recommended solution of the study and he/she will take the corrective action in the
way and function of the decision making in lemikura woreda nine to fill their gap and achieve
their success.
Scholars፡-scholars will gain knowledge on the role of participative decision making in
improving job satisfaction. The finding of this study also will help scholars to develop various
theories and while, employees’ participation in decision making have not been conducted as to
the knowledge of the researcher in Ethiopia, thus this study adds to the literature and use this
study for further research.

For researcher hem self:- Beneficiary on getting knowledge about the study and experience on
conducting such assessment to get satisfaction.
For other researcher:- He/she can take this study as a reference for conducting other similar
assessment.

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1.6 Scope of the Study
Scope of the study: The study aims to assess the contributions of employees’ participation in
decision making and its impact on job satisfaction in Lemikura woreda nine. Even though there
are many factors, which makes employees satisfied by their own job, decision making is only
taken for this study. Hence an attempt will made to find out the extent of employees participation
in decision making and to assess the mechanism employed by management of organization and
the challenges associated with participative decision making and examine the effect of
participative decision making on employees job satisfaction. Since woreda nine is found near to
the researcher village, the researcher select this woreda not only optimize the transportation cost
but also time frame. The researcher takes a target population of 500 respondents from Lemikura
woreda nine and a sample size of 150 respondents within a simple random sample selection
method.

1.7 Limitation of the study

Understanding the study will not be an easy task, particularly in order to access relevant data’s
and sources its tiresome, the researcher face the following limitations; the major limitation for
this study the researcher will not find empirical studies in the areas of participative decision
making in Ethiopian context, for the reason literature review part of the study will not much
more rich enough with cases from Ethiopian scenario. With respect to this, since the practice of
employees’ participative decision making will not widely known in the country the researcher
will found much more published and unpublished documents and books.

1.8 Definitions of key terms

Decision: it is the action or process of something or of resolving questions. (Source: oxford
dictionary).

Organizational culture: Are a company’s beliefs, values and attitude, and how these influence the
behavior of its employees. (Source: management principle (v.1.0))

Leadership: the action of leading a group of people or an organization or it is mobilizing people

towards a vision.(source: Dave Ramsey, (1999,sep), practical business wisdom and leadership.

Dialogue: is a conversation between two or more peoples. (Source: Google, www.what is

dialogue? On (march, 2025)).

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Decision making means involving or participating employees in various form of decision
making activities for the work what they will do. (Source: management principle (v.1.0))

Employees’ are persons those who are staff members of the organization (In lemikura woreda
nine).

Participation: is the action of involving in the decision process. (Source: Google, www.what is
dialogue? On (March, 2025)).

Success: the ultimate goals archiving the organizational goal. (Source: Johan. C(2009). How
success people think.

Job satisfactions, employees’ commitment to archiving the organizational goal lead them to
devote their work and the will satisfied by the work what they do. (Source: Richard’s, (2010)
strategic leadership.

1.9 Organization of the study

This study will orient towards the " The role of participative decision making and its impact on
employees’ job satisfaction: a case of selected district of Lemikura woreda nine. This proposal
study will constitute by three chapters: Chapter one includes: introduction, the Brief background
of the selected area, Statement of problem, Objective of the study, significance of the study,
scope of the study, limitation and delimitation of the study; Chapter Two discusses the major
concepts and related literatures included in the topic. Those concepts are: participation concepts,
decision-making concepts, and employees’ job satisfaction. It will attempt to discuss the
concepts by focusing on key elements such as the meaning, reason, forms or types and other
related to these. This chapter will describe the different studies which have been carried out on
employee participation in decision-making. It will starts by reviewing the studies achieved on
employee participation in decision-making in the general context, and then highlights research
studies specifically that are conducted on employee participation in decision-making in public
enterprises or organizations. Chapter Three, on the one hand, outlines the research
methodology and procedure used in this study, and on the other hand, clarifies the source and
types of data collection instruments, and discusses validity and reliability issues. Finally, it
describes the data analysis methods used in this research and ethical consideration. The Fourth

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Chapter will namely the presentation, analysis, finding and interpretation, it is carefully
diagnosed the data collected through questionnaire, interview and document analysis.
The Fifth Chapter will dedicate to summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations by
the researcher based on the outcomes the overall study.

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 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2. Introduction
In this chapter the researcher will present an over view of related literature to the research
problem. It includes that the definition and types of decision making, factors or challenges of
employees in participating in decision making in the organization affairs, employ job satisfaction
talks about the detailed satisfaction variables (independent variables) theoretical concepts that
the researcher believe they provide a good back ground to carry out the research work. Therefore
this chapter will introduces us to the literature review of the area of study which is the
contribution of participative decision making and its impact on employee job satisfaction. First it
presents the concept and theories supporting, the study and followed by a review of the empirical
studies conducted by research on participative decision making and finally the conceptual
framework will develop based on the literature reviewed. The dimensions (independent variable)
that measure the job satisfaction will mention under this chapter.

2.1. Theoretical Review

Employee participation entails the involvement of the employee in as many facets of his/her
work life as possible; this may occur either directly or indirectly through, which are the
representatives of the employees (Bendix, 2001). Employees’ participation in organization
decision making may affect an employee’s job satisfaction, productivity, commitment, which can
create comparative advantage for an organization (Bhattiand Qureshi, 2007). High performing,
effective organizations have a culture that encourages employee involvement, since employees
are willing to get involved in the decision making process, goal setting and problem solving
activities, which then results in higher employee performance (Slocum and Woodman, 1998).
Decision making: According to Venter, (2003) participative decision making is generally seen to
satisfy morale, political, social and economic objective of employees. Store and Freeman (1984),
define decision making as “the process of identifying and selecting a course of action to solve a
particular problem.” Moorhead and Griffin, (2004) decision making can be defined as choosing

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between alternatives. It can be regarded as an outcome of mental process (cognitive processes;
memory, thinking, evaluation) leadings to the selection of a course of action among several
alternatives. Decision making involves mapping the likely consequence of decisions, working
out the importance of individual factors, and choosing the best course of action to take (Muindi,
2011). Moorhead et al.(2004) in the decision making process the decision makers actions are
guided by a goal. Each of the several alternatives courses of action is linked to various outcomes.
The decision maker chooses an alternative on the basis of her/his evaluation of the information.
Therefore, the concept of participative decision making emphasizes the need for cooperation
between employee, and for employees to share in the decision making processes of management
(Bendix,2001).It is widely believed that employee participation may affect an employee’s job
satisfaction, productivity, benefit commitment, which can create comparative advantage for an
organization (Bhatti and Qureshi,2007). High performing, effective organization have a culture
that encourages participative decision making, since employees are willing to get involved in the
decision making process, goal setting and problem solving activities, which then results in higher
employee commitment (Scocum and Woodman,1998).
Participative decision making will bring together mental and emotional involvement (Davis and
New strong, 1997). Participation in decision making increase employees’ commitment, because
the contribution towards organizational goals is realized. Satisfaction and successful team work
with supervisor will increase as well because employee are less stressed there is less conflict and
more commitment to organization goal and at last, organizational change is better accepted
(Irawanto,2015).To illustrate the above statement Davis and Newsroom put the process of
participative decision making as figure below
Employees are invited to share in the decision making process of the form by participating in
activities such as setting goals, determining work schedules, and making suggestions. Adeola
(1994) defines employee’s participation as the active involvement of subordinates and followers
in the making of decisions that directly affect them in the work place. Participation in decision
making is generally regarded as a sign of enlightened and democratic management. Davis (1981)
stated that participation is a mental and emotional involvement of persons in group situations that
encourage them to contribute to group situation that encourage them to contribute to group goals
and share responsibility for them. Lewin (1969) defined it as a mode of organizational operations
in which decision as to activities are arrived at by the person, who is to execute these decisions.

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The concept of participation in an organization can therefore be summarized as a process by
which an organization attempts to unlock the creative potentials of its people by involving them
in decisions affecting their work lives. It is a structured effort to enable employees at all levels in
an organization to use their knowledge, skills and abilities more effectively in their work and to
participate more fully in decisions about their work life.

2.2 Forms of participative decision making.

According to Nel, Kirsten, Swanepoel, Erasmus and Jordan (2005), there are two forms of
participative decision making, Namely Direct and indirect participation in decision making.

2.2.1. Direct participative decision making.

Direct participative decision making is regarded as a process of job enrichment and enlargement
where the employee is offered the possibility of extending the depth and width of his work tasks,
but without any control over organization planning or goal setting (Nel et.al, 2005). Direct
participation in decision making also includes the sharing of financial rewards, which result from
increased productivity, the provision of all information relevant to a job; consultation about
changes that may affect the employee; and personal involvement of employees in the decision
making process(Nel et al.,2005). Direct participation “…customarily entails that the subordinates
participate, speak for themselves about work or matters related to work.
Geary and Sisson (1994) also define direct employee participation as opportunities which
management provide, or initiatives to which they lend their support, at work place level, for
consultation with and/or delegation or responsibilities and authority for decision making to their
subordinates either as individuals or as group of employees, related to the immediate work task,
work organization and/or working conditions.
Direct participation refers to the practice in which employee are personally involved in decision
making(Knudsen,1995;Markey and Townsend,2013).Kester (2007)adds that direct participation
occurs when employees share in some or all decision that are made at an enterprise level by
themselves. Strauss (2006) coined this form of participation with three dimensions as below;

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 Source – Strauss (2006)
Figure: 2.1 Form of Direct Participation.

2.2.2. Indirect participation decision making

Indirect participation is commonly conceived of as the involvement of a restricted set of actors
who are elected or appointed to act as the representatives of the employees (Cotton, Vollrath,
Froggatt, Lengnick-Hall, and Jennings (1988); Black and Gregerson, 1997). Indirect
participation is a situation where employees share in some or all decisions that are made in the
workplace via their representatives (Kester, 2007:45). According to Fennimore (2006:197), the
indirect participation of employees in decision making is one where by employees participating
through. These representatives can be Unions, works councils, Joint committees, or employee
representatives on boards. Indirect employees’ participation concerns employees’ collective
interest, for instance, collective bargaining negotiations (CBN).
According to Anstey, (1997), collective bargaining is an indirect form of employee participation
in decision-making, and it is the most common form of employee participation worldwide.
Collective bargaining is a vehicle used by employee representative to regulate workplace
behavior between managers and employees. similarly, Bendix (2010) state that collective
bargaining is an indirect forms of employee participation in decision making ,particularly
because the process of collective bargaining allows managers and employees to engage in the
joint regulation of workplace-related issues whilst they may jointly solve problems, which may
arise.

2.3. Extent of participative decision making

Extent refers to the Levels of participation, which employees or their representatives‟ influence
decision making in an enterprise/organization. This can range from employees simply being
informed about management decisions through two-way communication, and up to a stage where

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employee shave joint or full control over decision making in an enterprise (Du Toitand
Oosthuizen,1999:214).A distinction is usually drawn between three levels of participation within
an organization (Neletal., 2005:292). According to Bennet (1997), there are three level of
decision making in an organization these levels are described below here under;

2.3.1. High-level participation

At this level management views the employees as partners in the enterprise and rewards efforts
through gain sharing or profit sharing schemes (Du Toit and Oosthuizen, 1999:214). High level
participation is a broad decision about organization direction and its relations with the outside
world. These decision established organizational objective and impose frameworks for
controlling the organization activities. Top management and the representative of employees
decide on issues of strategic importance for the organization as a whole (Net et.al, 2005). These
decisions are usually made by high or top level management may senate (Bennet, 1997). In this
level of participation what to produce and how the organization with finance its operations are
considered.

2.3.2. Mid-level participation

This level of decision making is concerned with implementation of strategic decisions. It takes
place when an employee participates in the decision making processes of the plant or
establishment, concerning, as, the way in which the company‟s rules, regulations, and
disciplinary procedures should be applied and executed (Nelet al., 2005:293). According to
DuToit and Oosthuizen (1999:214), at this level management seeks to actively involve the
employees in productivity and cost management. An example of mid-level participation in public
institution is participation at the level of a Faculty (Faculty Board Meeting). This level of
decision participation include decisions on issue such as the acquisition and deployment of
resources, allocation of duties and specification of secondary objectives monitoring performance
and reporting to top levels of authority (Bennet, 1997).This takes place when an employee
participations in the decisional making processes of the plant or establishment, concerning for
instance, the way in which the company’s rules regulation and disciplinary procedures should be
applied and executed (Nel et al., 2005).

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2.3.3. Low-level participation.
This level of participation is focus on day-to-day activities of organization or departmental
activities. At this level of participation, management makes an effort to improve communication
and attitudes, but still views employees as relatively passive (Du Toit and Oosthuizen,
1999:2014). In other expression this level concerned with minor administrative matter such as
lengths of production runs, shift rosters, stock levels and so on(Bennet,1997), via staff bodies
(the participation of employees at the level of their department or Departmental Meeting) is a
low-level participation.

2.4 Objectives of participative decision making.

The main objective behind participative decision making is to motivate employees to meet
specific organizational goals. This is the process of involving people in decisions making process
to ensure that every ones psychological needs are met. It in turn increases the commitment work
life. Committed employees are the biggest assets of an organization and participative decision
making is an effective strategy to retain the best talents of the industry (Prachi J., 2017).
According to Venter, (2003) participative decision making is generally seen to satisfy morale,
political, social and economic objective of employees.

2.4.1. Moral/Ethical Objectives

Participative decision making has ethical dimensions and based on morals, principles and
values. In this forms of management everyone is treated equally when it comes to organizational
decision making (Prachi J., 2017).Workplaces is not only a source of employment and income,
but also has an impact on the health, wellbeing, security, happiness, and self-esteem of
employees. Therefore the participation of employees in decision making is an ethical and moral
imperative (Cassar, 1999).
2.4.2. Social Objectives:
Participative decision making can improve job satisfaction, commitment and labor relations
(Haggerty, 2005).
 Job satisfaction; job satisfaction is the collection of feeling and beliefs that employees
have about their job (Aziri, 2011).Judge and Robins (2009), define job satisfaction is a
positive feeling about resulting from an evaluation of its characteristic. Employee

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 participation in decision making may increase level of job satisfaction and consequently,
motivation (Venter, 2003).
 Organizational commitment; participative decision making is a vehicle to gain
commitment to responsibility. Satisfied employees are more committed to an
organization and its goals, and committed employees will use extra energy to promote the
interest and well-being of the organization in which they work Haggerty
(2005).Commitment employees who are highly motivated top contribute their time and
energy to the pursuit of organizational goals is increasingly acknowledged to be the
primary asset available to an organization (Hunjira, 2010).
 Labor relations; According to Masaryk and Tannenbaum (1999), engaging employees in
decision making will help to reduce labor turnover, absenteeism, the number grievance,
while the end result is a cooperative relationship between management and labor, as
opposed to an adversarial relationship. Shelley, (2000) also believes that employee
participation may foster more Co-operative attitudes amongst employees and
management, thus rising efficiently by improving teamwork and by reducing the loss of
efficiency arising from industrial disputes.

2.4.3 Political objectives

Political democracy in its basic form refers to government for the people by the people and with
the people (Bendix, 2010:707). If employees are entitled to influence those issues, which
impaction them politically through a democratic process, it follows that they should have an
equal say on issues, which have an impact on them economically (Venter, 2003:441).Engaging
employees in decision making is an extension of the principle of democracy in the workplace,
where employees can exercise greater influence over decisions, which affect their lives at work
(Davis and Lansbury, 1992:231); (Lessing, Schepers and Valoyi, 2000:32). Since1994,
increasing pressure has been placed on South African workplaces to introduce processes and
structures that will allow employees to participate in decision making at all levels of an
organization (Venter, 2003:442).
2.4.4. Economic Objectives:
Bendix (2010), in his study the main economic objective of participative decision making is that
cooperative is seen as bringing about greater, commitment, performance and motivation on the
part of employees, which will result in higher productivity. Cabrera, Ortega and Cabrera (2003),

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believe that employee participation increases effort, which subsequently improves efficiency,
and productivity while it also reduces the cost of monitoring employees and it leads to increased
commitment.
Participative decision making can result in higher rate of outputs and increased quality of
products owing to greater personal effort and attention on the part of employees (Masaryk and
Tannenbaum, 1999). Improving participative decision making is the most powerful force used by
most organization to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency (Macey, Schneider and
Barbera, 2009).

2.5 Factors Affecting Decision Making

There are several major elements of the internal environment that influenced decision making in
all organization. Even when employees have clear work objective, the right skills, and a
supportive work environment they won’t get the job done without commitment to achieve those
work objectives (Teryima, Timothy, Faajir, John and Vivien, 2016).The predictability of
decision out comes, individual a decision making models management style in decision making
organization decision making modes, and general decision-making strategies which can be used
in organization. When managers make decisions, they find that the quality of information about
the alternatives, the payoffs, the risks etc. varies widely. As indicated on the above paragraph the
information environment that manager’s face ranges all the way from complete uncertainty to
compete certainty. While there are an infinite number of circumstance in which decision are
made, we can divide the continuum in to following basic parts.

2.5.1 Certainty
At one extreme manager can have very exact information about the relevant aspects of the what
problem facing them. When certainty exist, the managers known exact is how many alternatives
are available, the nature of each alternative the payoff, and likelihood of events. This situation is
not very likely to occur often in managerial decision making although there are certain type of
management decisions where virtual certainty exits. In Generally speaking, the lower the
organization level, the relater the degree of certainly. At upper level uncertainty exists about
which alternatives are available, what their payoffs will be the probabilities of success and so no
to sum up, certainty is the condition that exist when decision makers are fully informed about a
problem its alternative solution and their respective out comes (Graty; 2000 PP: 354).

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2.5.2 Risk
Under conditions of risk, the managers are able to define the problem clearly of list many (but
not all of the alternatives, and to make an assessment of the likely hood of payoff given a certain
alternatives. However, the manager cannot guarantee that a certain pay off will occur once a
given alternative is chosen. Example if a retail chain decides to open a new out, there is no
quarantine that this new out let will be economically viable there is no way to know forcer train
whether the location that has been chosen is better or worse than some other location. However,
managers can do various analyses to assess more a accurately of the like hood that a particularly
location will be success full.

Situation of risk require the use of probability analysis in order to use probability in making
decision managers must have some basis for assessing the likely hood that given alternative will
result in a certain out come.

2.5.3 Uncertainty
Uncertain conditions exist when management can not assign probabilities (subjective or
objective or chance of occurrence to the alternative that they develop. The problem is or the
possible alternative solution. This is because the decision maker has virtually no information
about the problem or because the problem is one that has never top management decisions
particularly those that are among departure from the organization current particles.
The obvious thing to do in conditions of uncertainty is to rather more information. If
probabilities are not known, task force might be assigned to assess the experience of other firms
who have faced this problem (Gray Starke; 2000: pp 355-356).

2.5.4 Bounded rationality

It is the notion that challenging complex issue leaders cannot fully grasp, make them unable to
be rational about the situation.

2.5.5 Escalation of commitment

this is an idea, which leaders and managers are remain committed to a poor decision or find it
hard to remove themselves from their poor decision. It is the inclination for decision makers to
adhere to wrong decision even when the outcome is worsens.

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Personal biases and time constrains are also another factors those affect the decision
participation process.

2.6 Essential Conditions for successful participation in decision making.

The success of participation is directly related to how well certain prerequisite conditions are met
(Nandi, 2003). To be participative decision making is effective, the following necessary
conditions must be meet (Venter, Bendema, Conradie, Dwortzanowski-Venter Holtzhausen and
Levy, 2009).

2.6.1. Effective engagement of subordinates.

The success of participative decision making is mainly depending on the degree of participation
of employees (“Management study guide.com”, 2018). Know a days the powerful force
governing organization participation is one of the vital factors, dynamics, and productivity in
organization that by creation of organizational network communication and by using idea and
collective action makes a good move from organization current situation to the desired situation
(Mohammed, Mehrdad and Mahyar, 2013).

2.6.2. Management Commitment.

According to Macey and Schneider (2008); Emmanuel, (2013), it is the organization responsibly
to create conducive environment that sincerely engage the workforce. The disclosure of business
and financial information to employees by management is a critical requirement for effective
employee participation in decision making and is a true test of management commitment to the
process (Venter.et al., 2009). Employees are better able to make more informed decisions, as
well as a greater impact in the decision making process if they have the right information at their
disposal. If employees have the right information at their disposal, they will be able to identify
more strongly with the aims, objectives and vision of the organization (Emmanuel, 2013). We
can conclude from above for meaningful participative decision making an effective commitment
of management to the process, and disclosing any relevant information to employees is to
important.

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2.6.3. Participative Management Style.
Participative management style is a strong predictor of degree of participation. Management has
the prime responsibility of structures for appropriate communication, information sharing and
setting the right procedures for employee participation in decision making (Du Toit et al,).
Hofstede (2005); Bialas (2009) also said that work relationships between managers and their
subordinates depend on power distance. If the power distance is low, the distance between
managers and employees will be small, and there will be cooperation because the contacts are
direct. If the power distance is high, which is a management style that is often used by autocratic
managers; employees will hardly have any say in decision making. Participative decision making
is more acceptable in a low power distance management style rather that in a high power
distances style of management (Porter and Rees, 1998). Participative or democratic style of
management, managers give recognition to the value of employee input; foster a culture of
information sharing; promote cooperation; and encourages employees to participate in decision
making (Venter et al,).
Participative style of management, people in different position think at the same time about the
same thing, but not in the same way. In contrast authoritarian style of management, people in
senior positions think and subordinates execute (Emmanuel et al.).

2.6.4. Organizational Culture.

Organizational culture affects the way in which people set personal and professional goals,
consciously and sub consciously think; make decision, perform tasks a administer resource to
achieve them (Lok and Crowford,2003).An organization has a culture of participation if it uses
forms of employee participation permanently, intentionally and preferentially to solve opining
and integration problems effectively and sustainably, thus facilitating the adaptation to altering
environmental conditions (Nerdinger and friedemann,2008).The participation of employees
presupposes an organizational culture that;
 Reflect the broader socio-political imperatives of democracy, inclusive and effective
engagement by all.
 Is supportive of the empowerment of employees by allowing autonomy and discretion in
carrying out tasks,
 Provides an environment that facilitates a commitment to free, open and transparent
exchange of information;

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  Encourages effective, tolerant and engaged leadership through necessary reward systems
in order to overcome management resistance to participative structures; and
 Inculcates the requisite values of trust, tolerance, commitment, openness and cooperation
(Venter et al.)

2.6.5. Training
Gordon (1992) defines training as the planned and systematic modification of behavior through
learning events, activities and programs which result in the participation achieving the levels of
knowledge, skills, competencies and abilities to carry out their work effectively. Training is
important because when employees and management make vital workplace decisions it is of
utmost importance that they have the skills and abilities that are required to make the right
decisions (Konrad, 2006).

2.6.6. Trade union support

Emmanuel in his study emphasize that trade union should be included from the start in initiating,
developing and implementing participative decision making structure in order to ensure
transparency, and hence the success of any participative structures. Venter et al., also adds trade
union might be distrustful of participative structure, perceiving them as an attempt by
management to either dilute their power or to co-opt them in order to influence their activities.

2.7 Effect of Employee commitment and their job satisfaction on Organizational

goal.
Employees who are highly committed to contribute their time and energy to the pursuit of
organizational goal are increasingly acknowdged to be the primary asset available to an
organization (Hunjra, Ali, Chani, Khan and Ramy, 2010).Employee commitment seems to be a
crucial factor in achieving organizational goal success (Irefin and Ali,2014).Employees who are
committed to their respective organization are more likely not only to remain with the
organization but are also likely to exert more efforts on behalf of the organization and work
towards its success and therefore are also likely to exhibit better performance that the un
committed employees. Employee commitment can benefit organization in a number of ways
such as it can improve performance; reduced absenteeism, and turnover there by resulting in
sustained productivity(Dixit et al,).Committed employee is perceived to be one who stays with

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the organization even in turbulent times, attends works regularly, protects organization assets and
shares organizational goals(Meyer et al,1997).

2.8 Impact and Benefit of participative decision making.

A participative decision making offers various benefits at all levels of the organization. By
creating a sense of ownership in the company, participative decision making instills a sense of
pride and enhance employee’s job satisfaction, so increase productivity in order to achieve
organizational goals. Employees who participate in the decisions of the organization feel like
they are a part of a team with a common goal, and find their sense of self-esteem and creative
fulfillment heightened (Mundi, 2011).Putting decision making power as close as possible to the
point of delivery makes that implementation of those decisions not only possible but also
successful (Rice, 1987).
Managers who use a participative decision making find that employees are more receptive to
change than in situations in which they have no voice. Changes are implemented more
effectively when employees have input and make contributions to decisions. Participation keeps
employees informed of upcoming events so they will be aware of potential changes. The
organization can then place itself in a proactive mode instead of a reactive one, as managers are
able to quickly identify areas of concern and turn to employees for solutions (Helms, 2006).
According to Sharma,(2003) the benefit of participative decision making are; quick decision,
enhance quality of decision, increase the responsibility and accountability, enhance transparency
and co-ordination among members, improve quality of work, time savings, increased flexibility
in working, improve performance ,creative problem solving, enhanced trust among members,
shared responsibility, distributed work, ready to face the challenges, quick implementation of
decisions, effective utilization of resource and communication at all level, good interpersonal
relationship and discipline and amicable settlement of dispute and acceptance of changes.
Eboli,(2007) also discusses the benefit of participative decision making (PDM) as follows; the
benefits of PDM found promotion and growth of products and services, diversifying products
and services, supply conditions continuous improvement, increasing individual job satisfaction
and organizational efficiency, increasing job security and collaboration method, enhancing
motivation and sprit of work, reduced absenteeism and poor work atmosphere promotion sprit of
creativity and innovation and improving communication between manager and employees their
interactions and relationships.

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Azahdel, Chegini and Delshad (2013), the benefit of participative decision making are it leads to
self-discovery and human integrity, improving human capital through education encourages
provide appropriate strategy for the integration of independent tasks, makes it possible for
employees to have share in improvement of work performance and low level of staff will be
responsible for the maintenance and improvement of work processes.

2.9 Empirical Literature review.

There are no adequate researches on the contribution of participative decision making and its
impact job satisfaction and towards the organization success. Various research are done focus on
the relationship between participative decision making (PDM) and with some of the results
variables such as performance, environment, commitment, benefit, productivity, job
satisfaction etc. even though the researcher emphasize the participative decision making with
these variables, indirectly they discuss the impact of participative decision making on employees
commitment towards organization goals. So it is important to discuss these related empirical
study’s to know the justified role of participative decision making and its impact on employees
job satisfaction.
Reinforce the goals, values and priorities, define responsibilities ,limits and expectations , define
decision making process, training program participation, adjusted for organizational
environments ,creating a culture of participation, clarifying structure of participations are
prerequisites that is very important in the success of participatory decision making ,they will
have more likely to hear comments in order to improve the performance of services.
Participation in decision making and the organization also gains through positive impact on
carrying out tasks and performance effectiveness. From the most common one the dimensions of
job satisfaction are environment, organizational culture, personality, Salary, welfare, work itself,
leader behavior, personal growth, interpersonal relationship, and job competency are the
commons.
A synthesis of the above empirical studies showed that participative decision making is enhance
the employees feeling of better-off /recognition, that have direct impact on employees
commitment and job satisfaction to the organization. The study’s also shows that the true
motivators of employees is participative decision making and the level or extent of participation
in decision making also determent the level of employees commitment and satisfaction as well.

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A study Conducted Verplanken and Holland (2002) on Indonesian Public Sector Employee
Decision making practice employees‟ participation in the decision making process and his/her
contributions, are appreciated, with the minor contributions being highly appreciated, as well.
This is expected to increase work motivation. Employees who enjoy decision making
participation also feel secure in their jobs and were indirectly motivated to provide the best
possible performance in their job, which reflects their pride and loyalty towards the organization.
This indirectly shows their commitment towards the organization. The study concludes that, in
Indonesia, where most organizations are highly structured bureaucracies, including state-owned
enterprises, participation, initiated by employees was considered a sensitive topic and remained
invisible until the early 1997.
Cotton (2000) stressed that organizational size was positively related to consultative participation
yet negatively related to delegate participation. Employee involvement in decision making is
found in any type of organization explained that putting decision making power as close to the
point of delivery as possible makes implementation of those decisions not only possible, but
successful. This statement can be correlated to this study, emphasizing participation program
where employees will feel secure, when involved in the decision making process. The
participation program, analyzed in this study, was bringing staff and supervisors/employees and
mid-level managers closer to decision making power. Not only did work motivation increase, but
some respondents stated that the decision taken would be successful because they felt involved
and emotionally secure. The results show that, the more employees are involved in discussion on
recent issues, the more they are aware of the decision making. This result is in line with studies,
conducted by Phillips (1989) and Wang and Noe (2010).
Moreover, a study by Ladd and Marshall (2004) stated that participation in decision making was
important to employees and, along with job satisfaction and affective organizational
commitment, is valued by them. Employees believe they are better off, because of participation
in decision making and the organization also gains through positive impact on carrying out tasks
and performance effectiveness. These research finding supports the position that participation
achieves positive results in organizational commitment. The limitation of this study is the small
number of studied participation programs.
Employees are aware of the participation in decision making, e.g. when they discuss recent
issues with their peers, they feel secure and the communication flows without boundaries and

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formal arrangements. Wood and de Menezes (2011) conclude that high involvement
management program contributes to the employees‟ well-being. The findings from the study
prove that when any type of participation program introduced in decision making, employees
feel that by being involved in this participation program, their motivation increases as well.
Watson Wyatt‟s (2007) researched on 946 organizations in 22 countries. The findings showed
that involved employees who are more likely to perform better than employees who are not
involved. However, Balain and Sparrow (2009) contends that employee involvement relationship
to job performance is over simplified as it implies that higher levels of employee involvements
results in higher job performance but rather they contend that the correlation between employee
involvement and job performance is rather complex to be explained through performance and
that studies only indicate and measure the outcomes of performance rather than the underlying
issues and causes.

2.10 Conceptual Framework.

The above literature shows that there are arguments that support participative decision making
have a positive impact on employees’ commitment. However there are moderating factors
between these variables. The Leadership style is the intervening/moderating variables. There is
always a gap between what is expected and the reality. So organization should leadership style
encourage employees participation for effective Participative decision making which have great
role in improving employees’ commitment.
The conceptual framework below shows that participative decision making has great role in
improving employees’ commitment towards organization goal, but this is moderated by the
leadership style. The intervening variables also have an impact on the extent/level of
participative decision making and hence their organizational commitment.

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Source: Adapted from Literature review.
Figure : 2.2 Conceptul Framework

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 CHAPTER THREE

METHDOLOGY

3. Research Methodology
This Chapter will discuss about the research methodology for the study. The population targeted,
sample size and sampling technique will explain. Moreover the data collection instruments that
will use in the research will elaborate and their applicability will discuss. Finally, brief
descriptions of the statistical techniques use for analysis will also provide. The purpose of this
study will be explore the role of participative decision making and its impact on the employees’
job satisfaction in lemikura sub city woreda nine.

3.1 Research design

Burns and Grove, (2009) define a research design as a blue print for conducting a study with
maximum control over factors that may interfere with the validity of the findings. Parahoo,
(2006) on the other hand describe a research design as a plan that describe how, when and where
data are to be collected and analyzed. The research designs will descriptive survey. According to
Mugenda (2003), a descriptive survey is an attempt to collect data from members of population
in order to determine the current status of data from members of a population with respect to one
or more variables. So that, research will be a descriptive design research design for describing
research survey helps for fact finding inquiries in order to describe the state of affairs as it is
(Burrows, 2011). The method of research design is special importance for this particular study to
portray the relationship between employee participation in decision making process of the
organization and its impact on their job satisfaction. This is a descriptive type of study therefore
the research methodology is designed in order to give proper answer for the research questions of
the study. Therefore this study will use descriptive research which will provides answers the
“who, what, when, where, and how” questions (Zikmund, 2003). Furthermore, a research design
will have structured, will have investigative questions and part of formal studies. The design will
deem appropriate because the main interest is to explore the viable relationship and describe how
the factors support matters under investigation.

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3.2 Research approach
Based on the nature of data collection both qualitative and quantitative data analysis method will
apply. Quantitative data will gather through structured questioners and will process to get
descriptive results. Frequency table and percentage will also use to present process information.
On the other hand qualitative data will gather through interview, open ended questionnaires and
document analysis will analyze through organization based on their types and reduction through
summarization and categorization. Therefore the researcher will use mixed approach.

3.3 Sources and types of data

The research was conducted based on two types of data sources, which are primary and
secondary data sources.
A primary data will gather through structured questionnaire (close ended and open ended), and
semi structured in-depth interview. The questionnaires include open ended questions that may
invite them to express their feeling, and closed ended questions that provide alternatives to
choose. The purpose of primary data will use to obtain the opinion of employees and managers
related to employee participation in decision-making and direct observe the Employees
participation a decision situation. It will also collect through interview method of data collection.
The interview will use to collect data from managers and the questionnaire will use to collect
data from employees. Mostly, self administered questionnaires will propose tool for the primary
data collection. Because the time given to conduct this study is short, the researchers will use this
technique to get more data within a short period.
The secondary data will gather from business or strategic plan, books, journals, working papers,
reports and electronic data (documentaries) and will record by the organization and other experts
prior to the current need of the researcher. Therefore, the researcher will utilize the
organizations, employees, magazines, books, and newspaper of the organization.

3.4 Sampling technique and sampling size

Population: A population may be a well-defined or set of people, services, elements, and events,

group of things or households that are being investigated (Ngechu, 2004). Population is the
entire group of people, events, or things that the researcher desires to investigate.

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Target is the entire group that you want to draw conclusion about, while sample is the specific
group of individuals that you will collect data from. In this study the population is the whole
employees or staff members of Lemikura sub city woreda nine those whore will take
consideration in the research.

3.4.1 Sampling technique

Sample is a group of individuals who will actually participate in a research. A sample is made up
of some of the members of the company. Selecting a sample was a fundamental element of the
study. Sampling is a technique of selecting individual members or a sub set of the population to
make statically inference from them and estimate the characteristics of the whole population. The
simple random technique was used to draw respondents from employees of selected districts that
are believed to provide the necessary information for the research. The researcher will use
stratified sampling method to select out a pattern that represents the entire population. This
method is preferred considering that all the target population had the same likelihood of being
chosen. Stratified sampling technique ensures inclusion of small groups that otherwise could also
be omitted entirely by other sampling methods. Stratified proportionate sampling technique will
use to choose the sample (Mugenda, 2008). Stratified proportionate random sampling approach
produces estimates of general population parameters with larger precision and ensures plenty of
representative samples come from a relatively homogeneous population (Chandran, 2004).

The study grouped the population into three stratas based on the level i.e. managers, middle
level staff and low level staff. From every stratum the study used simple random sampling to
pick a sample of 30% that is 150 respondents. Random sampling often times minimizes the
sampling error in the population (Cooper & Scindler, 2003). This in turn will increase the
precision of any estimation methods used.

According to the collected data from Lemikura sub city woreda nine, the target populations in
woreda nine total employees (N) are approximately 500. Sample (n) of 150 users out of total
population will select. The rule of thumb proposed by Roscoe (1975) suggests that sample size
larger than 30, but less than 500 are appropriate for most research and a random sample size have
to from 25% to 30%. Therefore, here the researcher sample is consistent the above criteria and
the researcher will use 30% of a random sample from the target employees or population.

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3.4.2 Sampling size.
The simple random technique was used to draw respondents from employees of selected districts
that are believed to provide the necessary information for the research. Simple random sampling
was chosen for taking the sample on the grounds that every single observation of the sample has
non-zero chance of being actually included in the sample, and so that bias was eliminated at the
outset. And the selection of any unit did not affect the selection of any other. Therefore stratified
sampling will choose for this research.
In a proportionate stratified method, the sample size of each stratum is proportionate to the
n
population simple random size of the stratum with a common fraction (F p) of Fp = (In a
N
proportionate stratified method the sum of each stratum sample size must be proportionate or
n 150
equal to the simple random sampling size. Since F = = = 0.3. This mean that n = F*N =
N 500
150 = 0.3*500, n1= F∗N 1 = 0.3*100 = 30, n2= F∗N 2 = 0.3*160 = 48, and n3= F∗N 3 =
0.3*240 = 72. Therefore n1 + n2 + n3 = n. this implies that 30 + 48 + 72 = 150).
Since, this study will have studied under the strata sampling technique, among the total
population of 500 employees the research stratum into three employee categories, which will 100
of top level employees with a stratified sampling size of 30, 160 will middle level employee
within a stratified sampling size of 48, and 240 low level employee within a stratified sampling
size of 72. 

Table 3.1: shows Lemikura sub city woreda nine employees in a strata form with a
random sampling form.
No Employee list in Stratu Percent’s out of Simple random
lemikura m the total sampling size
population (n)
woreda 09
1 Top level 100 20%
employee (N1) 150
2 Middle level 160 32%
employee (N2)
3 Low level 240 48%
employee (N3)

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 Total (N) 500 100%
(Source: researcher survey).
Table 3.2 employees at lemikura sub city woreda 09 strata sampling size
N Employees list Stratum Strata Sample size from a total
o in lemikura population(n1, n2, n3 respectively)
woreda 09
1 Top level (N1) 100 32
2 Middle level 160 48
(N2)
3 Low level 240 72
(N3)
Total target population 500
(N)
(Source: researcher survey).
Even though there are unreturned questionnaire papers still, According to the survey, and
observation result the researcher understand that both female employees and male
employees are dissatisfied by their work. Leaders are also unsatisfied by their leadership
and management style. Employees that are between 18 to 25 in ages are dissatisfied by
their job, between 26 to 35 in age are neutral, between 36 to 45 in age are moderate, and
above 46 are very satisfied.

3.5 Instruments to be use

Since, the researcher uses mixed research approach not only quantitative research tools but also
qualitative research tools will incorporate. Based on the nature of the study, the researcher will
use descriptive survey, which describes both qualitative and quantitative briefly, so that the
researcher will collect the quantitative data by using document review, interview, observation,
survey and questionnaires, and probability sampling for quantitative data gathering.

The researcher will collect the qualitative data though questionnaires such as, structured, semi
structured and unstructured questionnaires that is open ended questions, interview (one to one),
focus group discussion, observation, record keeping.

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3.6 Methods of data analysis
Data analysis implies that further transformation of the process of data to look for patterns and
relations among the data groups. After all the require data collects and process, the data will
analyze and interpret according to their nature. It will analyze using descriptive data analysis
methods. This method helps to describe, summarize and present quantitative and qualitative data
that will be presented in, table and percentages.
Based on the nature of data collection both qualitative and quantitative data analysis method will
apply. Quantitative data will gather through structured questioners, interview, survey, and will
process and interpret to get descriptive results. Table and percentage will also use to present
process information. On the other hand qualitative data will analysis by deductive approach that
the data gathers through interview, open ended questionnaires and document analysis will
analyze through organization based on their types and reduction through summarization and
categorization. The researcher will collect the qualitative data though questionnaires such as,
structured, semi structured and unstructured questionnaires that is open ended questions,
interview (one to one), focus group discussion, observation, record keeping.
The deductive approach involves analyzing qualitative data based on structure that is
predetermined by the researcher. A researcher can use the questions as a guide for analyzing the
data. This approach is quick and easy and can be used when a researcher has a fair idea about the
likely response that he is going to receive from the sample population.

3.7 Validity and Reliability of the study.

Validity refers to the extent to which an empirical measure adequately reflects the real meaning
of the concept under consideration (Babbie and Mouton, 2001). However, it appears that validity
seeks to ensure that the findings will really reflecting what will expect.
Reliability: Babbie and Mouton et. al stated that reliability is a matter of whether a particular
technique, applied repeatedly to the same object, would yield the same result each time. In this
respect, Cooper and Schindler (2001), cited by Muragize (2004), propose that a measure is
reliable to the degree that it supplies consistent results. Then, they assert that reliability is a
necessary contributor to validity with estimates of the degree to which a measurement is free of
random or unstable error In order to enhance reliability and validity of the study, the researcher
try to conduct include respondents at all levels within the selected at woreda nine. Reliability is
the operations of the research in terms of data collection, data analysis and so on can be repeated
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and the same results will obtain. Therefore the researcher will check the validity of the research
by investigating its outcome.

3.8 Ethical considerations

The ethical procedures followed by the researcher are Anonymity of participants is strictly
ensured. The data that collected for the study is confidential, and is only available to the
researcher. Participation in this research is purely voluntary. The researcher will be trying to
aware the participant the objective of the research, and their contribution to its completion.
To ensure the integrity of data, the researcher will check the accuracy of encoding of the survey
response. This will carry out to ensure that the statistical generate from the study will truthful
and verifiable. In order to protect the respondents and the information, which will given, the
researcher will instill the following ethical issues. The researcher will guarantee the
confidentiality of information and will assure them that the information will solely use for
purposes of research. The researcher will employed due respect especially when seeking
audience from the staff, even when persuading them for the information. The researcher will not
force or coerce the respondents to fill in the survey forms as this assist the researcher in getting
the information during the study. As much as the Researcher can, in every aspect the researcher
will tries to humble, conscious and patience and communicate positively with this regards.

3.9 Time frame (Work schedule) and Budget

3.9.1 Time frame

Table 3.3 shows the time frame of the research

R.No Academic activity Date (G.C) Responsible body Remark

1 Preparation of thesis proposal Feb 1-March student 
5/2023
2 Submission of final draft March 06- student 
proposal to advisor with March08/2023
compiled questionnaires
3 Collected feedback from March 09- Advisor and student Not
advisor March14/2023
4 Submission of final proposal to March 17- Advisor, student Not
the program coordinator office and program
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 and files progress report from March20/2023 coordinator office
at office
5 Data collected and administer March 21- student 
questionnaires March30/2023
6 Data screening, encoding, April 1-april student
entry, generating preliminary 4/2023
analysis and interpretation
7 Writing up of thesis April 5-april student
15/2023
8 Submission of first thesis draft April 16-april student
to advisor 17/2023
9 Time for advisor review, April 18-april Advisor and student
incorporate advisor comments 23/2023
10 Submission of final thesis to April 26-april Student, advisor
program coordinator in hard 30/june and program
copy (2 copies) signed by coordinator
advisor
11 Final thesis defense workshop May 10-may Organized by the
20/2023 PG office

3.9.2 Budgeting

A table that shows the expected costs to be incurred for the accomplishment of each
activity is presented below.

Table 3.4 budgeting of the research

Budget Unit Quantit Cost Total

heading y Cost(Birr
)

Per diem for Perso 01 Self 0

Researcher n

1
Per diem Perso 01 Self 0
Data n
Collector

Payment for Perso 1 1200 10000

Advisor n 0

Sub-total 10000

Stationary and Equipment

Photo copy Ream 2 1600 1600

paper

Pen Pcs. 15 20 300

Flash disk Pcs. 1 500 500

Transport 1000 1000

Miscellaneou Birr 1500 1500

s

Sub-total 14900

Contingency 10% 1490

GRAND TOTAL 16390

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 3.10 REFERENCES
Agar A. (June:2018) Role of Participative Decision–Making in Improving Employees’
Commitment towards Organizational Goal.
Ahsanullah M.(July 2020) employee satisfaction in decision making and its effect on
jobsatisfaction.
Alemayehu A. (Julay: 2019) Employee Participation in Organizational Decision Making Process
and Its Effect on their Performance:
Lakew H. (August 2018): the contribution of participatory decision making and its impact on
job satisfaction.
Komal Khalid K., Masood T: (March 1966: June 1999) Impact of Employee Participation On
Job Satisfaction, Employee Commitment And Employee Productivity.
Blha M (1920) factors affecting job satisfaction among employees
Baye T: (april 2020) the relationship between employee participation in decision making and job
satisfaction
WWW. (March 15 2023) Factors affecting job satisfaction: