Effect of Employee Participation in Decision Making On Corporate Performance: A Case of Selected Banks in South-South Nigeria

Given the dynamism and complexities in contemporary businesses, many organizations designs multiple strategies targeted at growing and gaining competitive advantage in their various business transactions. Achieving these objectives is largely a function of how business decisions are made and the extent to which it goes down well with the organizational members. The need to examine the extent to which Nigerian bank executives achieve corporate goal through participatory decision making is the thrust of this paper.A survey research design was adopted as a framework to guide the study targeted at 389 respondents. Questionnaire and interview schedules were used in data collection. Hypothesis were formulated and tested while, multiple regression statistics was used in data analysis. Findings reveal among others that there is a significant positive relationship between direct employee participation in decision making on performance in many ways, such as boosting the employee morale and improving decision quality. Regular consultation and meetings between management and employees also had positive correlation on performance as it enhances trust between management and subordinates. It was recommended that management should restructure the decision making organs to incorporate key employee representatives and widen the scope and dimension of employee participation on sensitive issues. Regular meetings and consultation between top management and employees should be intensified while also encouraging open communication and robust motivating incentives to enlist employee commitment and minimization of resistance to decisions made.