Reasons for the Practice of Employees’ Involvement in the Company’s Management

Abstract

he article deals with various reasons, encouragingenterprises of Lithuania to apply the practice of involvementof employees into enterprise management,widely applied in the countries of Western Europe.The main aim of a modern enterprise managementshould be the increase of business effectiveness in thecontext of globalization and European integration. Toachieve this aim, special attention should be paid to thefactors expressing abilities for the increase of businesseffectiveness. Among the factors the most importantplace is taken by the adequacy of enterprise managementto the situation, which is caused by increasinglyintensifying progress of science and technology as wellas formation of the information society.After Lithuania has become a member of the EU thepractice of employee involvement into enterprise managementwill have to be introduced in enterprises ofLithuania, because this is one of the requirements listedin the EU agreements and legal documents. Most ofthese documents are not legally binding (except the EUdirectives), however they oblige to accept political obligations.Knowing the diligence of Lithuanian politics inthe implementation of such obligations (especially intransferring the EU directives into the national law),one can expect quite concrete and strict requirements inthis sphere.Apart from the legal obligations, the practice ofemployee involvement as well by the market economymechanisms are encouraged. Most theories and conceptionsacknowledge the application of more effectivemanagement forms to be the most important guaranteeof modern competitiveness. Seeking to become competitivein the EU internal market, enterprises of Lithuaniawill have to adopt practice of enterprises of the WesternEuropean countries, because the old means of competitiveness,like cheap labour force, less expensive rawmaterials from the East, close neighbourhood of theEastern markets cannot assure successful business development.The analysis presented in the article shows, that involvementof employees into enterprise management is acomplex problem. It is evident that legal regulation isnot a sufficient reason for the application of this practiceon a wide scale. The limit at which the “socialization”of labour relations enhances competitiveness isnot clearly defined. At the moment Central and EastEuropean countries possess many more efficient and notemployed so far ways of enhancing competitiveness.Therefore the practice of employees’ involvement commonin West European countries such as Germany, Belgium,Netherlands, Sweden, may find itself not so commonin the new EU Member states.