Empowerment takes more than a minute

Critical Review
25th July, 2011 Submitted to Prof. R. L. Raina Section B

Dheeraj Arora Dilip Singh N. Mahesh Senthil Kumaar Punit Shukla Sairam Kandaswami

PGP27078 PGP27079 PGP27092 PGP27098 PGP27101 PGP27113

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

Summary: This book introduces the concept of empowerment in an organisation to the reader in a conversational manner. It explains empowerment as giving employees the information and the authority needed to make decisions independently. The book puts across the keys to empowering the organisation through a fictional account of a CEO, Marvin Pitts striving to create an empowered organization. The three keys detailed in this book are Sharing information with everyone in the organisation Creating autonomy through boundaries Replace hierarchy driven team with self-managed teams

Plot setting: The book tells the story of a CEO whose attempts to bring about change within his organisation have yielded no results. The organisation is shown as having a traditional hierarchy based structure. He then seeks help from an expert on empowerment whose has transformed her company through empowerment. The expert and her colleagues then take him step by step through the reasons for unsatisfactory results at his company and the changes that will put him on the path to empowerment. Opinion: The purpose of the book is to guide the readers through the various steps involved in creating an empowered organisation. It also briefs the reader on the benefits associated with empowerment. It is intended for mid-level and senior level managers looking to create an efficient organisation through empowerment. The language used in the book is simple and conversational. The first-person narrative employed in the book helps the reader identify with the issues and the concepts addressed in the book. Marvins frequent notes make it easy for the readers to summarise the learnings from each of the chapters. The book is fast-paced and the empowerment game plan provided at the end of the book summarises the various concepts explained in it. This book however lacks some real life examples of empowerment helping organisations which could be included as an appendix to the book. This would lend more credibility to the roadmap to empowerment suggested in the book. Finally, this book does a commendable job of familiarising the readers with empowerment and sensitizing them to the benefits associated with it.

KEYWORDS: Empowerment, autonomy, self-directed teams

Management Insights
Self-managed teams

Self-managed teams are teams that are given the power to make decisions and do not involve any one person supervising the teams work. This builds fosters a feeling of understanding and cooperation. The trust within the team makes them accountable for one anothers efforts and ensures effective functioning of the organisation on the whole.
Transparency and information sharing

Information sharing can serve as a powerful tool in nurturing responsible employees. It also makes the employees understand the long term, organisational impact of their work. Responsible employees consider themselves an integral part of the organisation and are proactive in the decision-making process within the organisation.
Training and Development

In todays knowledge oriented economy, continuously updating the skills and knowledge of the employees is pertinent in ensuring long-term success. As most employees do not have an experience in decision making and problem-solving, appropriate training programs need to be undertaken in the organisation to bring the employees up to speed with the current developments. This will help them leverage their knowledge and put it to better use in ensuring the success of the organisation.

Communication Insights
Barriers to Communication Corporate Hierarchy

The traditional model of top-down, hierarchy driven management acts as a barrier to communication between the employees and managers. The employees perception that the organisation aims to get maximum work from them hinders the effective flow of ideas. The managements distrust of employees loyalties and sense of responsibility prevents it from sharing information which could be crucial to the success of the organisation with the employees. Managers need to take facilitative rather than supervisory roles in the organisation to overcome this barrier to effective communication. As suggested in the book, replacing hierarchical organisational structure with self-directed teams can overcome these barriers.

Feedback in communication

Feedback is an audience initiated response to the communication by sender. It helps the sender of the message understand if the receiver has interpreted the message in the intended manner or not. In the book, Marvin gets his notes reviewed by the sender to confirm that he has understood correctly. The way feedback is received by the sender also determines the success of the feedback loop. When the sender is not ready to accept the feedback and is defensive about his point of view, the communication breaks down. In the book, we can see that Sandy Fitzwilliam is always receptive to the feedback from her colleagues. Feedback works in synchronization with the information sharing as it helps to optimize the business process by voicing of opinions.

Listening

Listening is as important a part of communication as conveying the information correctly. Listening to the sender of the message not only lets one understand the information but also add points that might be missing. This will lead to sound decision making within the organisation as the information will be complete and understood by all. In the book, the empowerment experts persistent efforts in becoming a good listener help her gain the trust of her employees and build an empowered organisation. Marvins listening skills help him understand the crux of the message conveyed by each associate in the empowered organisation and put it to good use.

Receiver orientation

When communicating with employees, their prejudices and preconceived notions about the management need to be addressed to ensure effective functioning of the organisation. In the book, the resistance to communication is due to doubts over the true intentions of the organisation in empowering the employees. Also, Marvins intention to not reveal some information which would be available to the employees through other media does not consider the negative mindset it might foster in the employees. This resistance need to be addressed through discussions and fostering a feeling of trust within the organisation through information sharing.

Clarity of information

The content of the communication needs to be clear and lucid. Any ambiguities that may exist on the part of the sender will result in misinterpretation of the intended communication. The clarity of content is conveyed not only through written or oral means but also non-verbal cues. The key to clarity is in ensuring that all the above ways of communicating are congruent. In the book, the example of the convenience store owner conveying incorrect information to the worker through his actions brings this to the fore.

Sincere communication

When communicating in the corporate context, the information sharing should be complete and backed by data. This builds credibility towards the information shared and helps the employee understand his contribution to the organisational goals. It also builds a sense of belonging in the employee towards the organisation and this in turn aids the organisation in achieving its objectives. In the book, the reluctance on the part of Marvin Pitts to share crucial information about the company with the employees leads to distrust among the employees. This in turn leads to failure of his empowerment initiatives.

Book References
1. Block, P. (1987). The empowered manager. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 2. Clutterback, D. (1994). The power of empowerment. London: Kogan Page

Journal References
1. Beach, A. J. (1996). Empowerment to the people: creating an atmosphere for growth. Participation and Empowerment: An International Journal , 4 (1), 29-33. 2. Pastor. J. (1996). Empowerment: what it is and what it is not. Empowerment in Organizations, 4(2), 5-7. 3. Smith, J. (1998). An ongoing learning dialogue: an experiential model in progress. Participation and Empowerment: An International Journal , 6 (4), 119-123.

Webpage References
1. Catherine. (2010, May 04). The process of empowerment : Articlesalley. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from Articlesalley: http://www.articlesalley.com/article.detail.php/137250/19/Ethics/Business/1/The_Process_Of_Emp owerment