MPOB Employee Empowerment

A term paper on

Employee Empowerment
(Management Practices & Organizational Behaviour)

By

Nadeem Yousuf
Reg. No: 11013296

Roll no: R1003A68 (Group – 1)

Department: Lovely School of Business

Submitted to

Ms. Mallika Rani

(Faculty of MBA)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.No Particulars Page no.

1. Introduction 3-7

General introduction 3-4

Emergence of the topic 4

Objective of my study 4

Objectives of Employee Empowerment 4-5

Principles of Employee Empowerment 5-7

2. Review of related literature 8-15

3. Research Methodology 15

Research Design -

Data collection method -

4. Findings 16

5. Conclusions and Suggestions 17

6. Bibliography /Reference 17-19

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I. INTRODUCTION

Employee Empowerment is a strategy and philosophy that enables employees to

make decisions about their jobs. Employee empowerment helps employees own
their work and take responsibility for their results. Employee empowerment
helps employees serve customers at the level of the organization where the
customer interface exists.

Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to

think, behaves, take action, and control work and decision making in
autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of
one's own destiny. Empowerment rules as a development strategy. When
thinking about empowerment in human relations terms, try to avoid thinking of
it as something that one individual does for another. This is one of the problems
organizations have experienced with the concept of empowerment. People think
that "someone," usually the manager, has to bestow empowerment on the people
who report to him. Consequently, the reporting staff members "wait" for the
bestowing of empowerment, and the manager asks why people won't act in
empowered ways. This led to a general unhappiness, mostly undeserved, with
the concept of empowerment in many organizations. The organization has the
responsibility to create a work environment which helps foster the ability and
desire of employees to act in empowered ways. The work organization has the
responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in
empowered ways. Employee involvement and participative management are
often used to mean empowerment. They are not really interchangeable.

People talk about employee empowerment in many different ways, but the basic
theme remains: give your employees the means for making important decisions,
and making those decisions the right ones. The results, when this process is
done right, are heightened productivity and a better quality of work life.
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Employee empowerment means different things in different organizations,

based on culture and work design. However, empowerment is based on the
concepts of job enlargement and job enrichment.

Emergence of the topic

The history of empowerment in the workplace has, in a way, simply been a

journey back to the status quo ante. Its history is not lengthy. In 1977, when
Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote Men and Women of the Corporation, a study of
power and the role of women in a large organization, there still didn't seem to be
much of it about. The book was in the vanguard of a movement to give
employees some discretion over their work (a reasonable definition of
empowerment), to emancipate them from rigid hierarchies, and generally loosen
things up. Today many more studies have claimed to show a link between
treating subordinates more like grownups, and their developing more initiative,
motivation, well-being and engagement

Objectives of my study

The objectives of my study are:

To find out the effect of employee empowerment on employees working

in an organization.
To determine the current trends which effect employee empowerment.

Objectives of Employee Empowerment

1. To create a workforce that is energized by an enhanced ability to help them

make their own autonomous decisions.
2. To shift employee focus from technical skills to managerial, cognitive and
interpersonal skills.

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3. To allow workers to take decisions that would otherwise come from

management.
4. To motivate the employees and make him feel more attached to the
organization.
5. To have a lean and highly motivated workforce that will give the company a
competitive edge.

Top 10 Principles of Employee Empowerment

The basic principles of Employee Empowerment are:

1. Demonstrate That You Value People

Your regard for people shines through in all of your actions and words. Your
facial expression, your body language, and your words express what you are
thinking about the people who report to you. Your goal is to demonstrate your
appreciation for each person's unique value. No matter how an employee is
performing on his or her current task, your value for the employee as a human
being should never falter and always be visible.

2. Share Leadership Vision

Help people feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves and
their individual job. Do this by making sure they know and have access to the
organization's overall mission, vision, and strategic plans.

3. Share Goals and Direction

Share the most important goals and direction for your group. Where possible,
either make progress on goals measurable and observable, or ascertain that you
have shared your picture of a positive outcome with the people responsible for
accomplishing the results. If you share a picture and share meaning, you have
agreed upon what constitutes a successful and acceptable deliverable.
Empowered employees can then chart their course without close supervision.
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4. Trust People
Trust the intentions of people to do the right thing, make the right decision, and
make choices that, while maybe not exactly what you would decide, still work.
When employees receive clear expectations from their manager, they relax and
trust you. They focus their energy on accomplishing, not on wondering,
worrying, and second-guessing.

5. Provide Information for Decision Making

Make certain that you have given people, or made sure that they have access to,
all of the information they need to make thoughtful decisions.

6. Delegate Authority and Impact Opportunities, Not Just More Work

Don't just delegate the drudge work; delegate some of the fun stuff, too. You
know, delegate the important meetings, the committee memberships that
influence product development and decision making, and the projects that
people and customers notice. The employee will grow and develop new skills.
Your plate will be less full so you can concentrate on contribution. Your
reporting staff will gratefully shine - and so will you.

7. Provide Frequent Feedback

Provide frequent feedback so that people know how they are doing. Sometimes,
the purpose of feedback is reward and recognition as well as improvement
coaching. People deserve your constructive feedback, too, so they can continue
to develop their knowledge and skills.

8. Solve Problems: Don't Pinpoint Problem People

When a problem occurs, ask what is wrong with the work system that caused
the people to fail, not what is wrong with the people. Worst case response to
problems.

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9. Listen to Learn and Ask Questions to Provide Guidance

Provide a space in which people will communicate by listening to them and
asking them questions. Guide by asking questions, not by telling grown up
people what to do. People generally know the right answers if they have the
opportunity to produce them. When an employee brings you a problem to solve,
ask, "what do you think you should do to solve this problem?" Or, ask, "what
action steps do you recommend?" Employees can demonstrate what they know
and grow in the process. Eventually, you will feel comfortable telling the
employee that he or she need not ask you about similar situations. You trust
their judgment.

10.Help Employees Feel Rewarded and Recognized for Empowered

Behavior
When employees feel under-compensated, under-titled for the responsibilities
they take on, under-noticed, under-praised, and under-appreciated, don’t expect
results from employee empowerment. The basic needs of employees must feel
met for employees to give you their discretionary energy, that extra effort that
people voluntarily invest in work. For successful employee empowerment,
recognition plays a significant role.

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II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

1. The First research on Employee empowerment is that of Chang LC and
Liu CH from Chang Gung Institute of technology in Taiwan, Republic of
China. The objective of the study was to investigate the relationships
between employee empowerment, innovative behaviours and job
productivityof Public Health Services(PHSs). The research was
conducted through a cross sectional research design n structured
questionnaires were used to collect data by post. The result of the
research was that Employee empowerment and innovative behavior of
PHNs have little influence on job productivity. Employees with greater
competence for delivering public health showed higher self-evaluated job
productivity. The negative influences on job productivity possibly caused
by conflict meaning on public health among PHNs in current public
health policy. It should be an issue in further researches. Public health
department should strengthen continuing education to foster competence
of psychological sense of empowerment and innovative behavior to
increase job productivity.

2. The Second research is that of Isaiah O Ugboro North Carolina A&T

State University. The research was done to determine the relation
between job redesign, employee empowerment and intent to quit among
survivors of restructuring and downsizing. The study samples and
questionnaires were used for the study. The study addresses an important
problem among survivors of organizational restructuring and downsizing.
It also shows that intent to quit and subsequent voluntary turnover pose a
serious threat to effectiveness of restructuring strategy. The study has
added validity to the theoretical conceptualization that enhances an
employee’s sense of impact and self determination and an enhanced
coping capacity which facilitates constructive responses.

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3. The third review is that of Prof. Dr Nihat KARAKOC, Prof Bahkesir

University Turkey. The objective of the research was to find the
differentiation in companies due to employee empowerment i.e how
empowering the employees makes a successful work environment in a
company and makes it different from other companies. The study has
investigated about employee empowerment concepts and effects of
employee empowerment in differentiation process. This research shows
that employee empowerment causes benefit from different skills and
capablities of human resourse at maximum degree.therefore it plays an
important role in customer satisfaction.

4. The fourth research is that of Antonia Girardi Murdoch business school,

Murdoch university, Australia. The research was to analyze the
Mediating Effect of Empowerment in the Relationship between
Transformational Leadership and Service. The study was conducted to
measure the effect of transformational leadership characteristic
andempowerment on service quality by using110 usable questionnaires
gathered from employees working in city based local authority in
sarawak, Malaysia. The outcomes of the research showed that the
relationship between empowerment and selected transformational
ledership characteristics is positively related with service quality. The
results also shows thatempowermentdoes act as a full mediating
variablein the leadership model of an organization under study.

5. The fifth research is that of S. Thamizhmanii, S. Hasan, faculty of

mechanical and manufacturing engineering, TUN HUSSEIN ONN
UNIVERSITY, MALAYSIA. The research is done to discuss the issues
of employee’s empowerment, their training needs, suggestions and other
needs related to it. The findings of the research were that employee

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empowerment is good for the organization and employee is empowered

to make specific decision for the interest of the organization.

6. The sixth research is that of Yuhanis AB Aziz, department of hospitality.

Putra University, Malaysia. The research was done to analyse the effects
of emotional dissonance and employees empowerment on service quality
and customer satisfaction. The findings showed that empowerment has a
relationship with emotional dissonance and employees may also have a
significant influence in managing employess emotions at a work place.
The results also reveal that there is a positive relationship between
empowerment, service quality and customer satisfaction.

7. The seventh research is that of Amarjit Gill, department of business

adminstration, TUI University USA. The research was done to analyse
the impact of transformational leadership and empowerment on job stress.
The study also relates to factors that mitigate job stress into service
industry. The results of the research suggested that the improvement in
the level of perceived transformational leadership used by managers and
employee empowerment mitigate the job stress of customer contact
service employees in the indian hospitalty industry. The results also show
that transformational leadership and employee empowerment mitigate job
stress of customer contact service employees in the Indian Hotel industry.

8. The eight research is that done by HOWARD A DOUGHTY. The

research is being done to check whether employee empowerment is a
democracy or a delusion. The results of the research showed that the
material conditions of the general population in advanced societies is
stagnant if not falling. The second thing was that the gap between rich
and the poor was growing.

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9. The ninth research is done by CONRAD LASHLEY, School of Tourism

and Hospitality Management, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK.
The research was to analyse the importance of employee empowerment in
services. This results suggests that a framework of analysis needs to be
developed which goes beyond the more simplistic claims which tend to
discuss empowerment as that which is labelled empowerment. The
success or failure of an initiative which claims to be empowering will be
determined by the experience of being empowered. The results showed
that the empowered employee is said to respond more quickly to
customer service requests, act to rectify complaints and be more engaged
in service encounters.

10.The tenth research is done by Frances hill and Rozana Huq. The research
is done to analyse the comparison of how managers and non-managers
conceptualize employee empowerment, what they aim to achieve from it
and what they actually achieve. It also compares theoretical
conceptualizations with those employed in practice. The research reports
the findings of two in-depth case studies and concludes, among other
things, that even in organizations adept in the use of TQM and the EFQM
Excellence Model, employee empowerment, in practice, may have little
to do with power or its redistribution. However, employees in such
organizations do not appear to seek more power in the political sense, but
more discretion and responsibility for decision- making within their own
work situation, which is very much in keeping with TQM ideology. Thus,
organizations seeking to move in that direction should ensure that their
conceptualizations of 'employee empowerment' at least deliver on these
issues.
11. The eleventh research is that done by KEVIN BAIRD, Macquarie
University, Sydney, Australia. The purpose of the paper is to examine the
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extent of employee empowerment within manufacturing business units

using an adapted version of the Pardo del Val and Lloyd instrument. The
paper also examines the influence of organizational (business unit size,
training, and link to rewards) and cultural (innovation, team work, and
outcome orientation) factors on the extent of adoption of employee
empowerment. Data was collected by survey questionnaire distributed to
one business unit within 250 manufacturing organizations. The results
reveal a moderate level of employee empowerment in Australian
organizations, with the cultural factor, teamwork, and the organizational
factors, training and link to rewards, found to have a significant impact on
the overall level of adoption of employee empowerment.
12.This research is done by Davis Lars Halvorsen. The research was an
investigation of employee satisfaction and employee empowerment
specific to on- site supervisors in the residential construction industry.
The data consist of descriptive and inferential statistics. A survey
instrument was designed to measure the level of satisfaction of on-site
supervisors. The study revealed that top most level of on-site supervisors
contribute most to employee satisfaction. The study has generated key
tools by which employers can focus on increasing the satisfaction of the
employees.
13.This research is done by Melinda J Moye and Alan B Henkin . The
research was done to explore associations between employee
empowerment and interpersonal trust in managers. Results were bounded
by sample and focal organizational characteristics, indicated that
employees who feel empowered in their work environment tend to have
higher levels of interpersonal-level trust in their managers. Implications
for managers are discussed in terms of enabling employee empowerment,
strengthening interpersonal trust, and increasing organizational
effectiveness.
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14.The fourteenth research is being done by Laschinger, Heather K. Spence

PhD, RN; Wong, Carol MScN, RN; McMahon, Linda MScN, RN;
Kaufmann, Carl MMath, BA. The research was done to analyse Leader
Behavior Impact on Staff Nurse Empowerment, Job Tension, and Work
Effectiveness. The authors tested a model linking specific leader-
empowering behaviors to staff nurse perceptions of workplace
empowerment, occupational stress, and work effectiveness in a recently-
merged Canadian acute care hospital. The results showed that Leader-
empowering behaviors significantly influenced employees' perceptions of
formal and informal power and access to empowerment structures
(information, support, resources, and opportunity). Higher perceived
access to empowerment structures predicted lower levels of job tension
and increased work effectiveness. The amount of explained variance in
the final model was 42%.
15. This research is being done by Joel N Light. The research is about the
relationships and employee empowerment and employee satisfaction in a
large manufacturing environment. It involved complex production
processes that have not been roughly investigated. The study related
several issues in the work environment as they relate to an international
business unit. Data used for the study was selected from the employee
open survey. The study found a moderate strong relationship throughout
the model.
16. The research is done by Victor Wood dell, Wayne state university,
Detroit USA. The research was to about a case study about employee
empowerment, action research and organizational change. The study was
designed as a project implemented by a cross sectional design team of
employees of a local govt agency. The outcomes of this project has been
related with employee empowerment and compared to see the
relationship in the three factors.
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17.The seventeenth research is done by John Salazar and Leta Salazar. The
study shows locus of control vs. employee empowerment and the
relationship with hotel manager’s job satisfaction. In addition to
satisfaction and control queries, some demographic tags were identified
specially gender and race. The results showed that overall hotel managers
agreed that they could trust their supervisors, their work had impact on
the organization and they were competent in performing their duties. The
results also showed that they could practice self determining powers in
the organization.
18. The research is done by Henry Ignore from university of Botswana. The
research was “Managing behind the scenes- a view point of employee
empowerment”. The methodology adopted in this paper is to review
critically the existing literature on employee empowerment both online
and print. This study contributed greatly to existing literature specifically
in inspiring managers to develop various strategies on how to empower
their employee in organisation and reduce employee turnover. The
outcome from the review indicates that employee empowerment is
essential in this era of globalisation to enable the organisation to respond
quickly to any changes in the environment and reduce employee turnover.
19.The research is being done by Sarmina Samad. The research was done to
analyse the role of social structural characteristics on employee
empowerment. Participants in the study consisted of managerial
employee’s attached to a main telecommunication company in Malaysia.
The results indicated that social characteristics particularly self esteem,
power distribution, information sharing and knowledge rewards constitute
a positive factor in influencing empowerment in an organization.
20.The last research is that done by Victor Voisard, Department of
sociology, California State University, Los Angeles. The study was about
the employee empowerment and employee satisfaction in the work place.
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An index was created to from respondent’s answers to five statements

measuring employee empowerment. It indicated that employee
empowerment has more relevant effect on employee satisfaction over
other employment variables such as salary. The salary was considered to
have an insignificant effect on employee satisfaction.

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology includes the following:

Research design
This research design applied is basically exploratory research. This
research is also called as formulative research. The objective of this
research is to gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new
insights into it

Data collection method

In this research data is mainly collected through secondary data like

books, newspaper, journals, magazines and internet.

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IV. FINDINGS

Some of the findings of the research were as:

Employee empowerment makes a successful work environment in an
organization.
It also increases the level of satisfaction in the employee which enables
them to work with full dedication towards the organization.
The research also found that there is a strong need of employee
empowerment in the service sector industry.
It also showed that empowerment is has a more relevant effect on job
satisfaction compared to other variables like salary etc.
The study also shows that social characteristics like self esteem etc also
contribute to empowerment.
It also raises the level of trust of employees in their managers.
The results also reveal a moderate level of employee empowerment in
organizations, with the cultural factor, teamwork, and the organizational
factors, training and link to rewards, found to have a significant impact on
the overall level of adoption of employee empowerment.
Empowered employee respond more quickly to customer service
requests, act to rectify complaints and become more engaged in service
encounters.
Employee empowerment enhances an employee’s sense of impact and
self determination and an enhanced coping capacity which facilitates
constructive responses.
The findings also showed that empowerment has a relationship with
emotional dissonance and employees may also have a significant
influence in managing employee’s emotions at a work place.

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V. CONCLUSION
The research concludes that employee empowerment plays a very
important role in different sectors of the organization. It helps employees to
understand their responsibilities and give their best to the organization.
Empowerment acts as a full mediator in the relationship between intellectual
stimulation, individualized consideration and service quality. This result had
supported and extended leadership research literature mostly published in
Western and Eastern organizational settings. Therefore, current research and
practices within transformational leadership models needs to consider
empowerment as a crucial aspect of organizational leadership styles where
increasing followers’ empowerments in planning and implementing their jobs
may strongly induce positive subsequent personal outcomes (e.g., competency,
performance, satisfaction, commitment, trust, and positive moral values).
Therefore, these positive outcomes may motivate employees to sustain and
support organizational strategy and goals.

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

Various references used for the research were in the form of websites and
books. Some of them are given below:

I. WEBSITES:

1. www.google.com
2. www.proquest.com
3. www.scribd.com
4. www.docstoc.com
5. www.businessdictionary.com
6. www.ecohost.com

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II. BOOKS
1. Organizational Behaviour by STEPHEN P. ROBBINS.
2. Business Management by

III.URL’s
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18295217

2. http://www.google.co.in/url?
sa=t&source=web&cd=4&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.ibam.com%2Fpubs%2Fjbam%2Farticles
%2Fvol7%2Fno3%2FJBAM_7_3_1_Organizational_Commitment.pdf&ei=TdTDTN
31Foq8cNePmcwN&usg=AFQjCNHznA89VXLRo8LrslPMKrLP7ix2oQ&sig2=YZ
RntVlXg7N99aQW3J0r1w

3. http://www.google.co.in/url?
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%2Fwww.macrothink.org%2Fjournal%2Findex.php%2Ferm%2Farticle
%2FviewPDFInterstitial
%2F115%2F48&ei=TdTDTN31Foq8cNePmcwN&usg=AFQjCNGnwa8t0I7ZK8_80
NQrFzsy3_7INw&sig2=X3JK324QDa2aJYMjyorwTA

4. http://www.google.co.in/url?
sa=t&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.journalamme.org
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MsJMxDFNaUunzVMfVBcwIkxebhA&sig2=D8tqeUz2wUXO5OkQ-18Vpg

5. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1876315&show=html

6. http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CDUQFjAG&url=http
%3A%2F%2Fwww.econ.upm.edu.my%2Fijem
%2Fvol2no2%2Fbab03.pdf&ei=adXDTKGFB8SycOXkjJwE&usg=AFQjCNFWA6o
GEBs8rzpZQC3hX_N3km4jpA&sig2=YhBq3N3RZfnjJpVtMPsBSw

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7. http://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-style/doughty-emp.pdf

8. http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http
%3A%2F%2Fwww.emeraldinsight.com
%2F10.1108%2F00483489910264570&ei=UtbDTNXqIoqcYeL3dgL&usg=AFQjCN
EnCgrVFbiaxn0lFEgzw5Bvfv1zxQ&sig2=maC2-eCIQcePhsbupdwGVw

9. http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBkQFjAA&url=http
%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjohnlatham.com%2FConceptual_Framework_files
%2FLight_Joel_Dissertation.pdf&ei=t9bDTJCgFcvQcbmaycwN&usg=AFQjCNF-
NwtzF-ahdbpsCP4O5sDmpe4s2A&sig2=Asi-GnDZFJ6pghDmyTNFYw

10. http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBkQFjAA&url=http
%3A%2F%2Fwww.palgravejournals.com%2Fomj%2Fjournal%2Fv6%2Fn1%2Fabs
%2Fomj200910a.html&ei=-dbDTL-
OIZCdcf_u6NgL&usg=AFQjCNFMVTVMjC1H8kzO2oGcQ5lCt27Fdw&sig2=6zxZ
j4lstf4-Ty4pr8FLDA

11. http://www.academicjournals.org/ajbm/abstracts/abstracts/abstracts2009/Jan/Ongori.h
tm

12. https://nssnemo.calstatela.edu/csf/files/Vol1%20Issue1%20Article1_Victor
%20Voisard_1-17.pdf%20

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