According to this principle, a company management should encourage employees to experiment and to innovate. The spirit of innovation should be actively fostered and they should be encouraged to express new ideas and to develop new processes for implementing these new ideas. This will result in greater engagement and involvement of the team. Employees will identify themselves with the company. Better productivity and results can be achieved in this manner. However, initiative does go to the extent of employee interference in the set order of the company which can lead to disobedience.
Typically initiative means to start or to begin to instruct in an ongoing or a new project. So if the company encourages and one of the employees come forward and does bring out some innovation, the others will also be encouraged.
It is a good idea for the manager, before setting a plan for a new project, he / she should welcome the suggestion and idea of the employees. There can be a brain storming session which always proves very useful and brings about maximum participation. However when the plan is made and agreed upon, it should be strictly followed.
Developing employee initiative brings the following benefits:
- It develops a feeling of oneness and belonging within the employees, and this leads to better loyalty towards the organization.
- Employees achieve the targets when they are allowed to take initiative and such targets are set up with their consultation.
The adverse consequences of lack of initiative among the team is:
- Employees will not work to the best of their ability.
- Demotivation among the employees will result in lower organizational productivity.
Blog is written by Vikram.
