While
the idea of empowerment may sound good to some people, others may see it as a
way to manipulate and use their employees.
When we talk about empowerment, it is important to think about our
intentions in empowering others and to think about whether or not we are truly
empowering them. In many cases,
leadership may use the idea of empowering others to use them to do more work,
or thoughtless obedience. They may also
use it to gain notoriety within the press or the public eye. They have no intentions of actually
empowering employees to do what is needed to run the businesses or their
section the way they see fit. The
article, “Empowerment: Rejuvenating a
potent idea” discusses many of these ideas.
The
article states, “as organizations have struggled to apply the notion of
empowerment, the results have often fallen short of their expectations. (Forrester,
2000, p. 67) ”
The article also states that “it is not a futile hope to build and engage the
power of employees; that the shortfalls in empowerment that many organizations
have experiences are more about flawed implementations that flawed conception” (Forrester,
2000, pp. 67-68) . In my own opinion, many employers have a
flawed notion of what empowerment truly means, and often use it as a buzz word
to manipulate employees to what they want.
The text describes empowerment as “providing freedom for people to do
successfully what they want to do, rather than getting them to do what you want
them to do” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p.
443) . Often companies attempt to put programs in to
place to facilitate empowerment, but then they end up losing steam over
time. There are a number of ways this happens.
The
first is through precipitous empowerment mandates. This happens when employers jump the gun,
offer freedom to work, without any sort of plan or goal set. Over a couple of weeks, the idea runs into
interference, and things go back to the way they were. When total freedom of choice is given to
every employee, it takes the power away from the individual with a good idea of
the overall picture. This often slows
things down, because all employees are often not privy to all of the information
and oversight managers are.
If
managers truly want to empower their employees to work with freedom and without
constraints, there are several ways they can go about accomplishing this. Employers often feel that when employees are
given more power to do their work, the intrinsic rewards that come from this
will give them the desire to work that much harder to do a phenomenal job. This is a very limited way of looking at
empowerment and ignores many of the ways people are motivated to do their
work. The article states, “this narrow
framework ignores other psychological factors that bear on individuals’ power
and how they use it” (Forrester, 2000, p. 69) . Some of the ways that employees are motivated
are listed out in the article. “Some
people need to understand things deeply before they act, others need to move
quickly. Approval by others matters more
to some than to others; so, too, do social interaction, play, and artistic
expression. Money counts a lot,
especially for those who have little of it” (Forrester, 2000, p. 69) . In truth, the list of ways we are motivated
is endless and assuming that just empowering people is the only method of
motivation needed is a significant flaw in the system.
Companies
will often use selective empowerment also.
This is when companies end up splitting the workforce into those who
have power to make decisions, use their brainpower, and creativity and those
who do not. The articles states, “Such
deployment is destructive and virtually guarantees failure” (Whetten &
Cameron, 2011, p. 69) .
This is a great way to push employees away and can rifts in relationships
and ability to communicate. The true
problem with this method is that most programs fail to differentiate among
employees, in levels and jobs assigned.
This way the appropriate decisions can be made at each level. Without this differentiation, most power is
taken away from middle managers. Now,
you have all employees attempting to do the managers’ jobs and the managers not
really having a job. Most managers are
trained to be there and taking away their power can reap havoc on the roles in
the management system.
There
are also occasions where small changes are made to empower employees; however,
larger changes are not made that enable employees to act on the changes. Essentially, these changes are peace mealed
and do not address the whole picture.
This usually happens because the zeal to give power to the employees is
there, and the decisions are made in haste without any real planning or goals
in mind.
While
these are all ways that empowering employees has failed in different
organizations, there are a number of ways they can succeed. These are described in the article as High
Voltage Empowerment and are intended to show how we can empower employees
successfully.
This
first method the article discusses is to enlarge power. In order to do this, we need to have a better
understanding of what power is. The
article states that power is, “the capacity to obtain the results you want” (Forrester, 2000, p. 72) . This means that we can empower our employees,
without giving them the complete freedom to do everybody’s job, including their
own, and make all the decisions they may want.
We can do this by providing the necessary resources for people to do
their job and the freedom they need to get the results desired.
When
giving power to employees, it is important to understand what the sources of
power are. The article lists these as;
control over rewards and penalties; expertise; formal authority based on
organizational position; attractiveness, or the need on the part of others to
identify with the individual; control over tangible resources, such as budgets,
employees, buildings, and equipment, information; good working relationships,
knowledge, personal characteristics; and opportunity” (Forrester,
2000, p. 73) . Understanding these sources of power can help
us to gain a better knowledge on how to give power. When we use these sources to truly give power,
and understand that each situation, job and individual is different, and may
desire to be empowered in different ways, we will be more effective in
empowering others. When tapping into
these sources of power, we are enabling the person to gain a sense of
self-efficacy. The book describes this
as “the feeling that they possess the capability to perform a task successfully” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 447) . So, to get the desired results, determine
which source of power fits each employee the most and helps them to gain the
confidence, capability and the desire to fulfill the task.
We
also need to understand that empowerment is not free. With power comes responsibility. When we have power to make decisions, we need
to understand that the consequences of those decisions also come with the
territory. We also need to be aware that
making significant changes to empower employees takes time and will create a
lot of growing pains. Some employees may
not desire power and some may just not like change. Being able to handle these situations is
important, because this is the fulcrum of success. Being able to create meaning and purpose to
actions can help this. The book states
that empowered employees can “value the purpose or goals in which they are
engaged” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p.
449) . When this is the case “not only do they feel
that they can produce a result, but empowered individuals believe in and care
about what they produce” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p.
449) . Being able to create this sense of meaning
can help employees gain a desire for that empowerment.
We
need to understand that it is important to differentiate between
employees. In order to give power to
some individuals does not mean that we have to remove it from others. Managers can still have the power to make
important decisions and they can empower others according to the strengths of each
employee. Using these strengths and
talents can significantly increase the effectiveness of the empowerment
program. This can lead to employees
building on their own power and desire to make more complex decisions about
their job. In addition to this, we need
to manage expectations. Empowering does
not mean complete and total freedom to make all decisions. It is important to manage employees
expectations and the degree as to which their power goes.
We
also need to remember that small changes affect the great whole. In order for empowerment to be successful, we
need to make sure the system as a whole can support those changes. We don’t want employees to constantly run
into roadblocks right after they are making decisions we just told them they
could make. When we change the system,
we need to go on to change the distribution of power also. The article states, “For empowerment to
succeed systematically, there must be a fit between the desired more powerful
action and the rest of the organizational system” (Forrester,
2000, p. 76) .
When
empowering others, it is important that we are clear about the results
achieved. Having a clear, achievable
goal gives employees something to focus on and work for. If this goal is exciting and the manager can
get employees energized, they will be more likely to get excited about their
new found power and freedom to do their job.
The article has this to say about how results serve the power of an
organization. “It channels the flow of
power by setting boundaries around it.
Results establish the ultimate boundary for employees as a basis for
empowerment” (Forrester, 2000, p. 78) . This is giving employees an end result to
work for. Essentially, we are providing
a finish line at the end of the marathon.
The
balance of power within organizations is delicate. If we can follow the suggestions discussed in
the article and avoid the many pitfalls that so many organizations tend to fall
into, we can provide meaningful structure, empower employees, and generate an
energy in the organization that will create an environment that people will
enjoy working in and be able to produce the results desired by both the
organization and the employees.
References
Forrester, R. (2000). Empwerment: Rejuvinating a
potent idea. Academy of Management, 67-80.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing
Management Skills. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
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