1. Introduction
The need to change the way organizations and their employees conduct business is becoming more apparent as the economy moves into the new millennium. Escalating development of the global market, rapid changes in technology, a shifting work force and customer demographics, and an increased emphasis on quality and flexibility of products and services all point to the need for change. Recent forces in the business community, such as globalization, skill staff shortages, and the need for innovation and productivity, have added momentum to the search for ways to survive (Rayburn and Rayburn 1999).
Early in the twentieth century, with the extension of scientific management techniques and the assembly line as dominant models of administration and production, industrial managers attempted to assert greater control over the work process. Their initiatives provoked protest from workers who resisted managerial encroachment on their traditional practices of setting the pace of work and regulating productivity. More recently, operating under the rubric of employee involvement, workers and managers have developed new participatory schemes aimed at boosting productivity, improving competitiveness, and decentralizing decision making authority. While the goals and expectations surrounding worker participation and workplace democracy have changed, these concepts have continued to generate interest among both historians and contemporary observers seeking alternatives to a centralized, bureaucratic style of management (Rayburn and Rayburn 1999).
Today, a traditional bureaucratic management style is no longer effective. Sweeping changes are needed throughout most organizations to better meet competition. Empowerment of workers is one of the management approaches used today by companies in response to the need for change (Rayburn and Rayburn 1999). This concept began in the late 1970's and early 1980's with experiments using Quality Circles, Quality of Work life, and Total Quality Management programs (Juravich 1996).
2. Literature Review
What is Empowerment?
Empowerment has been described as a means to enable employees to make decisions (Bowen and Lawler 1992) and as a personal phenomenon where individuals take responsibility for their own actions (Pastor 1996). While (Ettorre 1997) defines empowerment as employees having autonomous decision making capabilities and acting as partners in the business, all with an eye on the bottom line. Empowerment is not just delegating decision making authority; it is also setting goals and allowing employees to participate (Riggs 1995).
According to (Luthans 2005), empowerment may be defined as "recognizing and releasing into the organization the power that people have in their wealth of useful knowledge and internal motivation,". He also stated; "Empowerment is the authority to make decisions within one's area of responsibility without first having to get approval from someone else".
Empowerment can be defined in either a relational or a motivational sense. In the relational sense, empowerment is "the granting of power, the delegation of authority". Defined motivationally, any practice that enhances a belief in self-efficacy increases a sense of power. An effective way to bring about an increase in self-efficacy is through active attainment, the authentic mastery of the tasks related to a job (Burpitt 1997).
Whatever the definition of empowerment used, the end goal is to develop the performance and potential of the individual as well as that of the organization (Long 1996).
Importance of Empowerment
The reason why more and more companies are empowering employees, is the need for quick decisions by those people who are most knowledgeable about the issues-often those at lower organizational level. These prompt decision will allow the organizations to implement the changes quickly and will enable them competing successfully in a dynamic global economy (Robbins and Coulter 2007).
Generally, the increases in autonomy from empowering workers results in increased motivation, job satisfaction, and enhanced job performance. Not only do employees have power to make decisions, they also have useful knowledge and internal motivation to make certain efforts to achieve the company goals (Rayburn and Rayburn 1999).
Empowered employees have autonomous decision-making capabilities and act as partners in ensuring the firm earns profits. Employee empowerment can radically change operations and boost corporate performance and profits. New products, creative ways, and innovation often result because employees are stimulated to play an active role in the organization (Rayburn and Rayburn 1999).
Empowering workers increases bottom-up decision making, reduces checks and controls, and transforms managers into mentors. Implementing teams to improve the quality of work life as well as customer satisfaction is often the motivating factors for moving to an empowered work team type of organization. Moreover, empowerment, allied with self-discipline, eliminates many of the financial and time costs inherent in the separation of decision making and execution and maximizes the potential contribution from all workers (Robbins and DeCenzo 2005).
Negative Aspects of Empowerment
(Koch and Godden 1997) argue that empowerment is a good idea but unworkable for large corporations. They believe empowerment is an inefficient way to run a large corporation; instead, the optimal way for large companies to survive is to have strong leadership and a singular direction. They argue that large corporations benefit from market power and economies of scale. Instead, many researchers argue that empowerment should only be tried in small companies where the risks of failure are less. According to (Argyris 2001), it is unrealistic to think that management would allow thousands of employees to have decision making authority without some limits.
(McClenahen 1995) also agrees that empowerment should not be used in large decentralized companies where performance pressure is substantial and people work at a distance from senior management. Particularly at risk are large, decentralized businesses. To focus on the bottom-line, employees need the information concerning all aspects of the organization--the same information senior management routinely receives. With this in mind, one may wonder if management has a clear idea of what real empowerment is. They have given the employees the ability to solve problems and make decisions but routinely leave out the most important part of the equation, that of allowing employees to take actions based on decisions. Therefore, management must learn how to empower and how to make true empowerment a part of their skill and thinking.
3. Conclusions
Today, more than 70 percent of organizations have adopted some kind of empowerment initiative for at least part of their workforce (Lawler, Mohrman & Benson, 2001). To be successful in today’s global business environment, companies need the knowledge, ideas, energy, and creativity of every employee, from front line workers to the top level managers in the executive suite. The best organizations accomplish this by empowering their employees to take initiative without prodding, to serve the collective interests of the company without being micro- managed, and to act like owners of the business (O’Toole & Lawler, 2006).
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