Employee Empowerment

The term empowerment is so widely used today in progressive management circles suggests not just manipulative intent but an awareness that even in periods of deep recession the boundaries of workplace control continue to be challenged by workers striving to attain a measure of power, security and dignity. -James W Rinehart-1996
The Tyranny of Work:Alienation and the Labour Process

What is Employee Empowerment

Empowerment is the process of identifying and removing the causes for low efficacy in employees. It helps employees to face work related problems with confidence.

Empowerment defined

Empowerment can be defined as harnessing ordinary people to do extra ordinary performance

Enhancing the self efficacy levels of employees makes it possible for employees to achieve more for themselves and the organisation.Empowerment is one way to raise self efficacy levels of employees.

The ways of empowerment

1. The employee should be properly trained ,couched and guided to enable them to master the skills required for their job.

2. Draw the attention of employees to those who have attained remarkable success in the job so that they can observe the working style of their more successful colleagues and emulate them. Thus they have good role models in their colleagues.

3. Raise the confidence of employees through persuasion and social reinforcement techniques like appreciation, encouragement and positive feed back.

4. Provide the employees with clear definition of their roles, and extend assistance when required so that their stress and anxiety can be reduced.

Empowerment encourages employees to share responsibility and use their initiative to take decision and solve problem. Adequate authority and resources are given to employees for taking initiatives and decisions. Allocation of authority here is trust based relationship

It is trust-based relationship between managers and supervisors between supervisors and workers between management and employees. It is a continuous process

In trust based relationship there is no close supervision no constant direction no interference

Here the empowered employee become self directd self controlled A managers most important and serious problem are people problem.People production and money are the key elements in business ,but people are ,far and away, the most important. The line stop system adopted by Japanese management shows the effect of an empowered employee

An empowered situation ; 1Encourages participation 2---Improve communication 3---Promote creativity and innovation 4---Create positive attitude and a sense of belongings

Tom Peters considers empowerment a necessary condition to improve zest, creativity and automatic symbiosis with the customers

Factors Influencing Empowerment.

All factors which contribute enhancement of intrinsic motivation creativity and innovation 1. Factors increasing intrinsic motivation 2. Structural factors 3. Cultural factors 4. Human factors.

Empowering dimensions
1. Impact: when an employee feels that completion of task will make a difference, such task has an impact on him. 2. Competence: when a person has confidence that he has the ability ,knowledge and skill ,to perform the task,assigned to him, then such tasks positively affect competence.

3. Meaningfulness: When employee feels that the task assigned to him is worthwhile and he cares to do so , such task is meaningful. 4. Choice: A task which provides him freedom of decision-making initiative and action,we find the factor choice in it.

Barriers of Empowerment
1. Incongruent Organization culture In family run business the whims and fancies of owner/MD will be the final word 2. Incompatible National culture. A society dominated by fascism,communism,dictatorship,ethinic or religious fundamentalism where there is no freedom of speech.

3. Fear of retribution by subordinates. If employee is under the penumbra of fear that they would be punished for taking initiative, there is no empowerment. 4. Fear of Retribution by superiors seniors avoid delegation if they are punished for failure.

5. Dependency of subordinates. Acting continuously under autocratic leadership weaken the capability to take and act independently. They require out side direction. This can be overcome by better training and leadership. 6. Power hungry superiors: Power hungry superiors will never part with authority.

Employee empowerment is a crucial ingredient in a total quality management strategy. 1. Quality Starts with people Empowerment is based on the belief that employee needs organization and organization needs employees and leaders should understand that employees are the most valuable asset of an organization

2. Participative Management-more than a management buzzword There is positive relationship between participation and satisfaction motivation and performance. The self managed team is a new way of viewing the relationship of the worker-management organisation Employee involvement teams which consists of small groups of employees who work on solving specific problems related to quality and productivity is one way of participative management.

3. We are all in it together Workers be involved in all changes or else they would fight it. The primary role of magt is to support and stimulate their people, cooperate to overcome crossfunctional barriers, and work to eliminate fear with in their own team. Both Magt and supervisors be trained.

4. Empower from the bottom Up In an empowered organization employees feel responsible beyond their own job, since they feel the responsibility to make the whole organization work together.Effective delegation to lower level makes it workable.

5. Employees- the most important asset in the organisation. Empowered personnel have responsibility a sense of ownership satisfaction in accomplishments,power over what how things are done ,recognition for their ideas , and the knowledge that they are important to the organisation. The empower process is only successful when there is room for feedback and autonomy in the organisational culture.The golden rule is that leaders have to treat their employees the way they want the bosses to treat them

6.Treat your employees the way you want your customers to be treated. There is correlation between satisfying internal customers and meeting external customers needs.' Employees who are not treated correctly cannot be expected to treat external customers differently.

To sum up Employees Empowerment is a new way of Managing Organisations towarda a more complex and competitive future. Participative Management has proven very successful in fostering responsibility motivation and belongingness in organization with high autonomy and flexibility.