Entrepreneurial Journal of Management Sciences Volume 6, Number 1, 2019 1 PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE JOB PERFORMANCE IN A NIGERIAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AMOSA, Jimoh Rafiu; OMOLABI, Issa Ph.D. & SULEIMAN, Ahmed Aremu ABSRACT The denial of workers’ active involvement in decision-making and the attendant negative attitude to work necessitate the need for this study to examine the impact of participative management (PM) on employee job performance in a Nigerian Manufacturing Industry. Other specific objectives were to: examine the impact of participative management on employee job performance; and, evaluation of the relationship between indirect participation dimensions and employee job satisfaction. Questionnaire was served to 240 out of 600 employees of the manufacturing organisation through stratified, simple random sampling techniques. Two hypotheses formulated were tested through regression and correlation analysis. The findings revealed that (PM) had a significant influence on employee job performance (r 2 =76.5%, p-value<0.05) and that indirect participation dimensions and employee job satisfaction correlated (P-value<0.05). The study concluded that PM remains an important management strategy for improving employee performance with recommendation that organisation should emphasize comprehensive task and contextual performance behaviour strategy through the adoption of participative management. Keywords: Participative management (PM), employee job performance, employee job satisfaction, indirect participation, task and contextual performance Introduction Organisational success in the attainment of set goals and objectives do not only depend on material endowments of the organisation such as money, technology, buildings and other business development enhancers but also on the successful management of the human elements of the organisation. The reason for the emphasis on the human elements is based on the indisputable fact that organisations need dynamic employees to operate their key activities, the modern sophisticated operational technologies notwithstanding. Employees play a significant role in any organisation because they are the heart of the organisation. Organisation simply cannot achieve their goals without them. Thus, employees need to be motivated to persuade them to put in their best in everything they do in the organisation (Burhanuddin, 2013). Now, the increased application of participative management by leaders of organisation has increased the recognition that workers have something tangible to contribute beyond their normal day-to-day work. Many organisations are now seriously seeking ways of getting workers to be more involved in decisions that will affect them in the work environment (Jonny, Fiona, & George, 2005). The paradigm shift is linked to the fact that employer has