The conditions that are necessary for empowerment and gaining credibility and acceptance at various levels in the organization are active participation by lower level employees in the management
Conditions Necessary for Empowerment
The conditions that are necessary
for empowerment and gaining credibility and acceptance at various levels in the
organization are active participation by lower level employees in the
management of the affairs of an organization, encouragement to innovations,
transparent information sharing, less formalization of workplace, installation
of upward performance appraisals, creating tasks that provide intrinsic
feedback, encouragement to self-management of individuals and self-managing teams and uniform standards of
accountability. A wide variety of firms have undertaken interventions such as
quality circles, cross-functional teams, employee stock options, autonomous
work groups and quality of work life councils in order to empower employees.
The leader or chief functionary of the organizations needs to assume the roles
of a stimulator, supporter, guide and an enabler of employees serving under him
in order to empower them.
While the minimum prerequisite
for empowerment is sharing of information about an organization’s plans for the
near future and the details required to the completion of job, an organization
would also have to reduce resource-dependency on the part of the people to be
empowered, towards their bosses. The maximum extent of empowerment is found
when workers become directors and become capable of codetermination. Empowerment
is normally associated with the practice of delegation at individual level and
decentralization and flexibility in the organization in general. In short,
empowerment has to cover the bases of supremacy such as information, personal
charisma, reward and coercive potential, expertise and position. Empowering the
workers in progressive doses, would keep their interests and initiatives alive,
sustain their resourcefulness and independence, and promote foresight,
profit-orientation, optimism and versatility, besides instilling a significant
sense of responsibility in them.
Empowerment consists of five
stages. The first stage is the diagnosis. It involves identifying the existing
conditions in the organization that lead to feelings of powerlessness among employees.
Some of the conditions thus identified could be centralized resources,
authoritarian styles of leadership, rewards with low incentive value and poor
communication. The next stage is to introduce empowering strategies like
participative management, merit-pay systems and job enrichment. The third stage
is to remove conditions of powerlessness and provide self-efficacy information
to make the employees feel confident, self-assured and hopeful of success. The
fourth stage is when a feeling of empowerment is generated. The fifth and final
stage towards empowerment involves deriving performance as a beneficial outcome
of better empowerment.
Tags : Human Resources Management - Employee Empowerment & Seperations
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