Employee empowerment
Empowering refers to passing an authority and responsibility. Empowerment occurs when power goes to employee who then experience a since of ownership and control over their jobs.
Empowered employees becomes “self-directed” and “self-control”. this is possible only when there is mutual trust between the superior and his subordinates. The superior has full faith that his subordinates will not do anything which is harmful to the organization. Similarly the subordinates has confidence in his superior that he will support his decisions and actions.
Definitions
“empowerment is simply gaining the power to your voice heart, to contribute to plans and decisions that affect you, to use your expertise at work to improve your performance and with it the performance of your whole organization”.
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Elements of empowerment
1. Sense of personal control over one’s immediate work situation.
2. Competence: - it means the feeling that one is capable of successfully perform a particular task. Employee will not accept responsibility for making decisions until they are confident of their abilities.
3. Meaning fullness: - it means the feeling that the task is valuable both to the organization and oneself. Employee know how their task fit into the larger scheme of things.
4. Impact: - it refers to the beliefs that one has an influence on decisions of the organization. Impact is felt when employees precise that their behaviour has caused important outcomes.
Approaches to empowerment
Helping employee achieve job mastery: - Giving training, coaching and guided experience that are required for initial success.
Allowing more control: - giving employees direction over job performance and making them accountable for the performance outcomes.
Providing successful role models: - allowing them to observe peer’s who are performing successfully on the job.
Using social reinforcement and persuasion: - giving promise, encouragement and verbal feedback to raise confidence.
Giving emotional support: - reduction of stress and anxiety through better role perception, task assistance and personal care.
Importance of empowerment
Knowledge workers
Knowledge employees are not prepared to accept the old command and control system. They want environment which provide them opportunities for exercising control over work related decision. Organization which fail to provide such opportunities continuously lose their best employees.
Cut throat competition
In order to survive and grow in competitive era, organizations must meet the needs of customers more effectively. For this purpose, cross functional working and close co-operations required. Empowerment can provide such cooperation when the customer demands rapid action it is easier to meet the demand through employee empowerment then through changes in process and technology.
Globalization
Economic liberalization and globalization one leading to downsizing and decentralization. In order to achieve coordination and control in the new economy, staff must exercise much greater responsibility.
Human resource development
Empowerment helps to reveal and utilize untapped potential of employees.
Speed and flexibility
Growing turbulence of environment requires quick response which is not possible under the old command and control model of organization functioning.
Empowerment encourages innovation and creativity on the part of staff. Empowered managers can focus more on external changes than internal problem solving.
Barriers to empowerment
Incongruent organizational culture
An authoritarian organizational culture works as an impediment to employee empowerment. In such a culture authority is centralized at the top and there is lack of meaningful sharing of authority. Most of decision’s are made at higher levels and there is lack of involvement of lower level staff. Unless this type of organizational culture empowerment cannot be effective.
Love for authority
Power hungry manager’s can not empower the staff. Such manager’s are autocratic. They want to make their importance felt in the organization. They expect their subordinates to come frequently to get their decisions approved. They maintain tight control over subordinates.
Fear of retribution by superior’s
A manager may not empower his employees if he is punished for each and every failure or mistake of his subordinates. One example is that firing a coach if the team fails to win a match.
Fear of a retribution by subordinates
Empowerment can not flourish when there is fear in the mind of subordinates that they will be punished for taking initiative.
Dependency of subordinates
Some subordinates always feel comfortable with command and control by boss. They may have external locus-of-control personality or may be under prolonged autocratic leadership. Empowerment will be difficult with such subordinates.
Making empowerment effective
(a) Impact: - When an employee feels that completion of task “will make a difference” such task has an impact on him.
(b) Competence: - when employee has the ability, skills and knowledge to perform a task, he feels the sense of competence.
(C) meaningfulness: - When an employee feels that completion of task assigned to him is worthwhile, he develops a sense of meaningfulness in the job.
(d) choice: - When an employee feels that he has freedom to make decisions and initiate actions, he experiences the sense of choice.
Empowering refers to passing an authority and responsibility. Empowerment occurs when power goes to employee who then experience a since of ownership and control over their jobs.
Empowered employees becomes “self-directed” and “self-control”. this is possible only when there is mutual trust between the superior and his subordinates. The superior has full faith that his subordinates will not do anything which is harmful to the organization. Similarly the subordinates has confidence in his superior that he will support his decisions and actions.
Definitions
“empowerment is simply gaining the power to your voice heart, to contribute to plans and decisions that affect you, to use your expertise at work to improve your performance and with it the performance of your whole organization”.
Hello, readers of my blog
if u like it my post then
please click on advertisment or add in followers list.
its beneficial for you and me both.
Elements of empowerment
1. Sense of personal control over one’s immediate work situation.
2. Competence: - it means the feeling that one is capable of successfully perform a particular task. Employee will not accept responsibility for making decisions until they are confident of their abilities.
3. Meaning fullness: - it means the feeling that the task is valuable both to the organization and oneself. Employee know how their task fit into the larger scheme of things.
4. Impact: - it refers to the beliefs that one has an influence on decisions of the organization. Impact is felt when employees precise that their behaviour has caused important outcomes.
Approaches to empowerment
Helping employee achieve job mastery: - Giving training, coaching and guided experience that are required for initial success.
Allowing more control: - giving employees direction over job performance and making them accountable for the performance outcomes.
Providing successful role models: - allowing them to observe peer’s who are performing successfully on the job.
Using social reinforcement and persuasion: - giving promise, encouragement and verbal feedback to raise confidence.
Giving emotional support: - reduction of stress and anxiety through better role perception, task assistance and personal care.
Importance of empowerment
Knowledge workers
Knowledge employees are not prepared to accept the old command and control system. They want environment which provide them opportunities for exercising control over work related decision. Organization which fail to provide such opportunities continuously lose their best employees.
Cut throat competition
In order to survive and grow in competitive era, organizations must meet the needs of customers more effectively. For this purpose, cross functional working and close co-operations required. Empowerment can provide such cooperation when the customer demands rapid action it is easier to meet the demand through employee empowerment then through changes in process and technology.
Globalization
Economic liberalization and globalization one leading to downsizing and decentralization. In order to achieve coordination and control in the new economy, staff must exercise much greater responsibility.
Human resource development
Empowerment helps to reveal and utilize untapped potential of employees.
Speed and flexibility
Growing turbulence of environment requires quick response which is not possible under the old command and control model of organization functioning.
Empowerment encourages innovation and creativity on the part of staff. Empowered managers can focus more on external changes than internal problem solving.
Barriers to empowerment
Incongruent organizational culture
An authoritarian organizational culture works as an impediment to employee empowerment. In such a culture authority is centralized at the top and there is lack of meaningful sharing of authority. Most of decision’s are made at higher levels and there is lack of involvement of lower level staff. Unless this type of organizational culture empowerment cannot be effective.
Love for authority
Power hungry manager’s can not empower the staff. Such manager’s are autocratic. They want to make their importance felt in the organization. They expect their subordinates to come frequently to get their decisions approved. They maintain tight control over subordinates.
Fear of retribution by superior’s
A manager may not empower his employees if he is punished for each and every failure or mistake of his subordinates. One example is that firing a coach if the team fails to win a match.
Fear of a retribution by subordinates
Empowerment can not flourish when there is fear in the mind of subordinates that they will be punished for taking initiative.
Dependency of subordinates
Some subordinates always feel comfortable with command and control by boss. They may have external locus-of-control personality or may be under prolonged autocratic leadership. Empowerment will be difficult with such subordinates.
Making empowerment effective
(a) Impact: - When an employee feels that completion of task “will make a difference” such task has an impact on him.
(b) Competence: - when employee has the ability, skills and knowledge to perform a task, he feels the sense of competence.
(C) meaningfulness: - When an employee feels that completion of task assigned to him is worthwhile, he develops a sense of meaningfulness in the job.
(d) choice: - When an employee feels that he has freedom to make decisions and initiate actions, he experiences the sense of choice.
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