Which are the main characteristics of an empowerment culture?

Why do you consider those

characteristics are important in an organization fostering an empowerment culture?

2.1 ¿Cuáles son las principales características de una cultura de empoderamiento? ¿Por qué
considera que esas características son importantes en una organización que fomenta una cultura
de empoderamiento?

2. 2. ¿Cómo lograr una cultura de empoderamiento en su organización?

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Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 94—107, 2000

C) 2000 Elsevier Science, Inc.

ISSN 0090-2616/00/S—see frontmatter

PII

Re-tbinking Empowerment:

Why Is It So Hard to Achieve?

W. ALAN RANDOLPH

o date, empowerment remains one of

the most promising, yet mystifying,

concepts in business. First introduced into

the corporate world in the 1980s, it quickly

became a buzzword with great promise. So

far, however, it has had only selective im-

pact. The attraction was simple to under-

stand; senior managers covet employees

who accept responsibility, take a propri-

etary interest in their work, and willingly

work hard. At the same time, employees

want to feel valued, involved in their jobs, and

proud of their work.

The bottom-line is that managers and

employees want very compatible out-

comes— outcomes associated with em-

powerment. Why then, has it been so hard

for most companies to find real em-

powerment? Why has the concept fallen

into such disrepute? My research and ex-

perience in a wide variety of companies

has taught me that the answer is at the

same time simple and complex. It is time to

rethink our understanding of this power-

ful tool.

NOT A FLAWED CONCEPT

The concept of empowerment is not

flawed. Indeed, many companies in a vari-

ety of industries have successfully created

cultures of empowerment. The list includes

such well known companies as General

94 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS

Electric Co., Pacific Gas & Electric, Marriott

Corp., and a variety of lesser-known com-

panies like AES Corporation in Virginia,

Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation

in Missouri, and Chesapeake Packaging

Company in Maryland. Yes, empowerment

can work and can work very well. But

achieving it means turning inside out the

assumptions about how managers and em-

ployees interact. Few managers and em-

ployees really understand empowerment,

and they understand even less about how

to shake free of their traditional, hierarchi-

cal mindsets and behavior patterns, and

how to adopt a mindset and repertoire of

behaviors consistent with empowerment.

Whether we focus on managers or employ-

ees, the problem boils down to the need for

massive change in people and organiza-

tional systems.

This paper will explore the core ele-

ments of empowerment and examine why

people's ingrained assumptions about

organizations make empowerment both

difficult to comprehend and even harder

to achieve. It will also focus on the com-

plex interplay between organizational

and human systems that must be

changed if movement to empowerment is

to occur. The creation of this new, very

different culture will be broken down

into three stages, and I will show how

three interlocking tools build on a foun-

dation of information flows to resolve

the wide array of issues that arise at each

stage of changing to empowerment.

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W. Alan Randolph is professor of management

in the Merrick School of Business, University of

Baltimore. He is also a consulting partner with

the Ken Blanchard Companies, Escondido,

California. Alan holds a bachelor's in industrial

engineering from the Georgia Institute of Tech-

nology and a master's and Ph.D. in business

administration from the University of Massa-

chusetts. He has published in a variety of pro-

fessional and academic journals on topics like

empowerment, leadership, project manage-

ment, and international management. In 1995

he published "Navigating the Journey to Em-

powerment" in Organizational Dynamics.

Recent books include The 8 Keys to Em-

powerment: Release the Power Within People

for Astonishing Results, with Ken Blanchard

and John P. Carlos (Berrett—Koehler, 1999),

Empowerment Takes More Than A Minute, with

Ken Blanchard and John P. Carlos (Berrett—

Koehler, 1996), Getting the Job Done! Manag-

ing Project Teams and Task Forces for Success,

with Barry Z. Posner (Prentice—Hali, 1992). He

recently published a 10-booklet discussion se-

ries titled Power Up for Team Results, with Ken

Blanchard, John P. Carlos, and Peter B. Grazier

(Berrett—KoehIer, 2000). Randolph engages in

consulting work on empowerment, perfor-

mance management processes, project man-

agement, and self-directed teams.

JUST WHAT IS EMPOWERMENT?

My informal yet extensive research in a wide

variety of companies indicates that most

managers continue to define empowerment

as "giving people the power to make deci-

sions." Although relocating the locus of de-

cision-rnaking is a critical part of the empow-

erment process, that step alone is just

another manifestation of the manager acting

as director and controller. The manager still

mandates the decisions people are allowed

to make. This definition of empowerment

also misses the essential point that people

already possess a great deal of power—

power that resides in their knowledge, expe-

rience, and internal motivation. To achieve

real empowerment managers must embrace

this wider concept and must focus on ways

to "release the power within people to

achieve astonishing results." Sounds simple,

right? Well, not so fast! There are other play-

ers who can inhibit this release of power.

Employees, too, misunderstand empow-

erment. Many of them feel that empower-

ment means they will be given free rein to do

as they please and the freedom to make all

the key decisions about their jobs. Employ-

ees often fail to grasp that empowerment

means sharing risks and responsibilities as

the price for freedom to act, pride in their

work, and ownership of their jobs. Indeed,

empowerment entails much greater account-

ability for employees than in a hierarchical

culture. But it is precisely this frightening

increase in responsibilitv that creates a sense

of engagement and fulfillment on the job.

Empowerment is a strange combination of

opportunity and risk.

In one retail food company, senior man-

agement became intrigued with the idea of

empowering their people." They held an

all-company meeting and announced that

they would begin to increase the decision-

making options for people at all levels of the

organization. As they did so, they were sur-

prised to find that little if any change in

people's behavior was noticeable. The mid-

dle managers were extremely concerned

about losing control of the results for which

FALL 95

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they were held accountable; hence they with-

held critical information from their employ-

ees. And the employees were scared to act

for fear of making a mistake for which they

might then be punished. Within two short

months senior management decided em-

powerment would not work for them, and

the idea was abandoned.

Needless to say, many other companies

have given up, too. The journey to empow-

erment is a long and arduous trek, made

especially difficult by misunderstandings of

what empowerment really is. The journey

requires managers and employees to chal-

lenge their most basic assumptions about

how organizations should operate and how

managers and employees should interact in

pursuing organizational goals. Significant

changes in individual and collective behav-

iors are essential. Simply announcing the

destination will not be sufficient; neither will

a traditional approach to organizational

change- Fundamental changes in manager

and employee skills, attitudes and relation-

ships are needed. That means starting small,

and adding leverage points that allow peo-

ple to gradually grasp the purpose of em-

powerment, learn new attitudes, and de-

velop new sets of skills. Getting to

empowerment requires massive changes for

everyone involved—a daunting task, indeed.

CORE ISSUES IN CHANGING TO

EMPOWERMENT

To understand the magnitude of the changes

that are needed to move to empowerment, it

is helpful to focus first at the level of indi-

viduals, regardless of their organizational

position. Chris Argyris has insightfully iden-

tified the two types of commitment on which

progress toward empowerment turns. Exter-

nal commitment is consistent with old-style

command and control (or hierarchical) forms

of organization. It typifies the operating con-

tract between managers and employees in

hierarchical organizations. At every level of

an organization built on external commitment,

managers:

96 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS

• Define tasks for employees at the level

below,

• Specify the behaviors required to per-

form those tasks,

• Define performance goals for employ-

ees, and

• Specify the priority of employee goals.

By contrast, internal commitment is more

consistent with working in a culture of em-

powerment. It defines a qualitatively differ-

ent operating contract between managers

and employees, which requires a significant

shift in the locus of responsibility. In an or-

ganization built on internal commitment, peo-

ple engage in relationships, as follows:

• Individuals define their own tasks in

the context of the company's vision and ob-

jectives, which are set by management.

• Individuals determine the behaviors

and action plan required to perform their

tasks.

• Managers and employees jointly de-

fine performance goals for individuals.

• Employees and managers specify the

priority of individual goals and how they

relate to company goals.

The vast difference between external

commitment and Internal commitment is

made clear by these bullet points. The visible

gulf in ownership, responsibility, and in-

volvement makes it possible for us to under-

stand just how difficult it is to change from a

command-and-control culture to a world of

empowerment.

PAST HISTORY BLOCKS

CHANGE

Lest we jump to the conclusion that it would

be far easier to create a culture of empower-

ment from scratch—by starting a new com-

pany—think again. Although it may be eas-

ier to create this new culture from the

ground up, it is not at all simple. People are

at the core of the process, and most people

have a history of exposure to command-and-

control thinking. Indeed, most of us are quite

accustomed to operating in ways that are

consistent with external commitment. The

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following questions have been and are all too

familiar to each of us. "What do my parents

want me to do? What does the school want

me to do to get good grades? What does my

boss want me to do?" Moreover, we have

im ested a lifetime in learning answers to

these questions that meet the expectations of

hierarchical thinking and assumptions. We

arf far less accustomed to dealing with the

questions of internal commitment. "How do

I want to contribute to the needs of my fam-

ily? What do I want to learn from this school?

How will I know I have learned something I

can use? What do I need to do to help my

company succeed?" These are the questions

that arise when a corporate culture begins to

support internal commitment. Managers and

err ployees alike must learn to answer them if

they are to operate successfully in a culture

of empowerment.

To complicate things further, many of us

possess hard-earned parenting, teaching,

and managing skills that fulfill role expecta-

tions for leaders based on an assumption of

ewernal commitment. Indeed, we feel it is

our responsibility as parents, teachers, or

managers to tell people what to do, how to

do it, and (sometimes) why it needs to be

done. We feel as though it would almost be

avoiding our responsibility to ask children,

students, or employees such questions as,

"What do you think needs to be done and

why is it important? What do you think

your goals should be? How do you think

you should go about achieving your

I can recall a very interesting discussion

in one of my consulting client organiza-

tions. As we worked hard to develop the

skills and attitudes for a team-based cul-

ture, we kept encountering the same theme

over and over again. No matter how much

we discussed team decision-making, em-

ployees and managers could not get be-

yond the thought that eventually one per-

son would have to make the final decision.

They could imagine no way that a team

could make a decision. Sure they could

discuss options and provide input, but a

final decision would have to be made by

one person. At first I thought this might be

unique to this engineering organization,

but I have encountered this same phenom-

enon in numerous other settings.

Team decision-making and other aspects

of an empowerment culture are part of a

strange, new world for most of us. We have

much to learn about how to operate there

comfortably and effectively. Indeed, we have

a long journey of learning ahead of us. We

must learn new skills, new attitudes, new

behaviors, new ways of relating, and even a

new language.

An analogy might lead to further under-

standing the magnitude of the needed

changes. Imagine you are a U.S. citizen

working for a North American company.

You learn that your company has been pur-

chased bv a Brazilian corporation, and

starting next month your company is to

operate according to Brazilian laws and

customs, adhere to Brazilian cultural

norms, and that henceforth, everyone must

only communicate in Portuguese. You

would likely feel a tremendous sense of

"How will I ever do that? What does that

really mean for me? And will I be able to

make the changes that will be necessary to

succeed in the new culture?" Moving to a

culture of empowerment is a lot like this

cultural shift. People may think the end

result sounds interesting, even exciting,

but they will have real concerns once they

grasp the magnitude and difficulty of the

long journey ahead.

THE LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES

To gain a more in-depth understanding of

the differences between the command- and

control, hierarchical culture, to which most

people have become accustomed, and a new

and different culture of empowerment, one

need look no further than the languages used

in the two cultures. The differences are not

unlike the differences between, say, Ameri-

can English and Brazilian Portuguese. Con-

sider the following lists of words, and com-

pare them row by row:

FALL 2000 97

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Hierarchical Culture

Planning

Command and

control

Monitoring

Individual

responsiveness

Pyramid structures

Workflow processes

Managers

Employees

Participative

management

Do as you are told

Compliance
Empowerment Culture

Visioning

Partnering for

performance

Self-monitoring

Team responsibility

Cross-functional

structures

Projects

Coaches/ team leaders

Team members

Self-directed teams

Own your own job

Good judgment

As you compare the words in the two

lists, the differences in attitude, norms, ex-

pectations, and associated behaviors become

clear. For example, "planning" suggests that

someone (usually the manager) knows

where we are going and the best way to get

there—we just have to follow the leader. "Vi-

sioning" suggests that someone points

where we want to go (perhaps the manager

again), but how we get there is left open for

discussion and subject to the judgment of

everyone involved. Further, "monitoring"

suggests that someone (usually the manager)

should check on each individual's perfor-

mance and provide performance evaluations

and feedback. "Self-monitoring" suggests

that everyone possesses requisite goal clarity

and measurement skills, as well as access to

relevant data. Thus armed, they can check

their own performance and make the behav-

ior adjustments needed to stay on goal. And

one more example, "Do as you are told"

exemplifies the external commitment atti-

tude in behavioral terms. Once you are told

what to do, you can do it, but please do not

use your intellect or judgment, and do not be

too concerned about results—that is the

manager's job. "Own your ov•.zn job," on the

other hand, exemplifies the internal commit-

ment attitude. It suggests that, in a culture of

empowerment, you care about results and

use your intellect and judgment to decide

98 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS

how to achieve individual, team and com-

pany success.

This final example may best clarify the

key distinction between a hierarchical cul-

ture and a culture of empowerment. In the

former, individuals do what they are told—

to a fault. Even when they know a task is not

being done the best way, or that it may be

altogether the wrong task, they may con-

tinue to do it in a spirit of malicious compli-

ance. Why? Because that is what they are

rewarded for, what they are expected to do,

and what they have been conditioned to do

over a lifetime of exposure to hierarchical

management.

A colleague of mine once experienced an

amazing incident in a bakery. The server

behind the counter insisted that my col-

league "take a number for better service," so

that everyone could be served in the order in

which they arrived. The only problem was

that it was 5 a.m., and my colleague was the

only customer in the store. Now, you may

think this is strange and wonder how this

server could be so dumb. But the fact is that

the server had been so conditioned, so re-

warded, and so trained to follow procedure

(or risk severe reprimand) that he did so

even though he knew better. In a way it was

his way of following commands to a fault as

a form of malicious compliance.

In a culture of empowerment, individu-

als respond very differently. They take the

risk of challenging a task or procedure that

they feel is not in the best interest of the

organization. What compels them to act is a

sense of pride in their jobs and a feeling of

proprietary ownership of the results. They

think about what makes sense in the situa-

tion and they act in ways that both serve the

customer and achieve company goals and

results. But where do we find such individ-

uals, or better yet, how are individuals trans-

formed into empowered people?

EMPOWERED PEOPLE

Some writers have suggested that, "Empow-

ered people empower themselves." They ar-

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gue that empowerment is not something

managers do to their people. But that begs

the question, "How do people empower

themselves in a hierarchical culture?" Or

more importantly, "How do they empower

themselves when their life experiences have

taught them how to operate in a hierarchical

emironment but not in an empowered cul-

ture?" My research in over 25 companies and

with hundreds of people in those companies

during the past 15 years suggests that it is

futile to wait for people to become empow-

ered in a command and control organization.

They will not take the risks, and they will not

be comfortable with the necessary levels of

internal commitment. In short, they lack the

skills, attitude, and behaviors needed to act

empowered. My research also suggests that

traditional change programs—comprised as

they are of sequential steps that start with

defining a vision of empowerment and plan-

ning a strategy to get there are not adequate

to he task of driving the needed changes in

people and systems.

In fact, to think of moving to empower-

ment as a sequential process of changing

towards a new state is so badly flawed that it

may doom the entire effort, despite every-

one's good intentions. Applying sequential-

change thinking to the journey to empower-

ment just does not acknowledge the scope

and complexity of the challenge. An example

may help illustrate what I mean.

PEOPLE DO NOT CHANGE

EASILY

Several years ago I was involved as a con-

sultant with a company that wanted to move

to a team-based culture of involvement and

empowerment. We were engaged in a year-

long effort of training, behavioral change,

and systems change. The process was well

designed and orderly and appeared to be

gong smoothly. But one day after about six

months and at the end of a training session,

a eteran employee (20 years with the com-

pany) approached me and said, "This team

stuff is really good and could make a signif-

icant difference, but you know, this too shall

pass." I responded, "Excuse me, what do you

mean?" He proceeded to explain that he had

seen many great new ideas brought forth in

the company, and that most of them started

with a flash—only to die out after a few

months, as the company embraced a new

concept. He was essentially telling me that

sequential-change processes that start with a

big introduction usually fail when the going

gets hard. He would just sit tight, not change

and wait for the next idea. Beneath the sur-

face, though, was another aspect that I saw in

his face. He was scared to try to make the

change, because he was not sure he could do

it successfully. He had been relatively suc-

cessful for 20 years in a hierarchical culture,

and he could not imagine succeeding in such

a radically new team culture. Both managers

and employees and the supporting systems

were failing to drive change in this organi-

zation.

A COMPLEX AND ENDLESS

JOURNEY

This example is informative in helping us

understand that the journey to empower-

ment is both complex and in many ways

endless. Furthermore, it is strewn with mul-

tifaceted, counterintuitive, and nonlinear

processes. The change demands that manag-

ers and employees unlearn old habits and

assumptions that reinforce the hierarchy and

inhibit empowerment. They must institute

new habits and assumptions that allow the

power within people to be released to

achieve astonishing results. At the same

time, many organizational systems, proce-

dures, and operating methods must also

change. And people throughout the organi-

zation must acquire the skills and desire to

use the power they possess.

The bottom-line is that we do not need a

better program to lead us toward empower-

ment. Nor can we expect management's an-

nouncement of the destination to mean that

we are there. Instead, to make the fundamen-

tal and needed changes in the mindset and

FALL 2000 99

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behaviors of individuals throughout the or-

ganization, and in their basic assumptions

about working toward goals, requires an ex-

tensive and pervasive change effort. It means

changing a complex, interacting set of sys-

tems, proced ures, relationships, expecta-

tions, and consequences. The irony is that the

needed change method is both extensive and

simple. It is not a program, but rather an

involved process of change, often employmg

counterintuitive techniques and evolving

plans unique to each organization and its

people. It means understanding and appre-

ciating just how different empowerment is

for everyone and then starting where people

are in their current zone of comfort. The

foundation for the process of change is in-

formation flow, but it involves two other

interlocking elements and a gradual, persis-

tent, and sensitive journey to empowerment.

SO HOW DO WE ACHIEVE A

CULTURE OF EMPOWERMENT?

Research and experience have shown that

when significant and fundamental changes

are to be made in the behaviors of people in

organizations, individuals manifest a variety

of predictable concerns, sometimes directly

but more often indirectly. To complete a pro-

cess of changing to this strange culture of

empowerment, it is essential to recognize,

address, and readdress these concerns as

they arise. Indeed, it is most helpful to un-

derstand that there are three distinct (but

overlapping) major stages of concern that

people experience as the process of changing

to a culture of empowerment unfolds. These

three major stages can be labeled as (1) start-

ing and orienting the process of change, (2) mak-

ing changes and dealing with discouragement,

and (3) adopting and refining empowerment to

fit the organization. Below I will discuss these

stages and the issues that arise for people at

each stage. I will also focus on three inter-

locking tools for empowerment that can be

used in different ways, at each stage, to keep

the process moving forward. These three

tools are built upon a foundation of informa-

100 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS

tion flows and new structures for guiding the

behaviors of people throughout the organi-

zation. The interlocking tools are sharing

information, creating autonomy through bound-

aries, and replacing the hierarchy with self-

directed teams. As I discuss the issues at each

stage, I will show how these tools help ad-

dress the relevant issues that arise.

STAGE I—STARTING AND

ORIENTING THE PROCESS

OF CHANGE

The long journey to empowerment begins

with a need for starting and orienting the pro-

cess of change. The challenge here is not to

provide a big picture of the destination. In-

stead, it is to start taking some initial steps

from where people are at present, and to

have the steps founded initially in new forms

of information sharing. Why information

sharing first? At this stage individuals want

answers to questions that relate primarily to

information and personal concerns. Although

it may seem logical to start with a clear vi-

Sion of the empowered organization that is

desired, such efforts fail to answer the initial

questions on people's minds— questions that

may not be explicitly stated, but are there just

the same. People do not want to be told about

a vision of empowerment and how it will ben-

efit the company. Instead, they want answers

to two types of preliminary questions:

• Information Concerns: Why is the

change needed? What is wrong with the way

things are now? (Even if they do not like

everything about how things are now, at

least they understand them!) What is the

change anyway? In short, people do not

want to be sold on the change; they want to

be told about it and learn why it is necessary.

• Personal Concerns: How will the

change impact me? What is in it for me? Will

I win or lose by the change? How will I find

the time to make the change? People wonder

if they have the skills and knowledge to

make the change—they sense that it may not

be all that easy.

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Unless these initial concerns are ad-

dressed, they will continue to impede the

journey to empowerment, by continually ris-

ing up and blocking progress. Fortunately,

the three empowerment tools can help ad-

dress these questions and get the process of

change started.

THE EXPERIENCE OF A CABLE

TV COMPANY

At one cable TV company, senior manage-

ment tried to start the movement to empow-

erment with a vision of a new type of orga-

ni zation, but the change process quickly

broke down as people flooded management

w th a deluge of questions like the ones listed

above. It became very clear that people

lacked sufficient information to participate ef-

feetively in clarifying the vision and to give it

meaning related to their jobs. They were

more interested in why change was needed

than in what the end result would be for the

organization. Unless people can make sense

of a new companv vision as it relates to their

jobs, it will be just another plaque on the

wall. The tool that addresses this issue is not

a better vision, but simply sharing information

about the company and its performance,

market share, profitability, measures of qual-

itv, waste rates, and so forth.

Senior managers in this company were,

fortunately, good listeners and were not afraid

to "open up the company books to employ-

ees." They began to hold company meetings

and share information that had heretofore

been only for their eyes. Gradually, they began

to use their information technology system to

make important unit and company informa-

tion available to everyone on an "as-needed"

basis. In other words, management started

treating people throughout the organization

like valued decision-makers. With this new

information in hand, managers and employ-

ees could work together to understand why

changes were needed, and what a new vision

would mean to everyone. In other words,

people were receiving answers to their ques-

tiDns of information concerns, which in turn

helped them begin to act with responsibility

and engagement.

Indeed, I have found that people without

information cannot be empowered to act

with responsibility; once they have informa-

tion, they are almost compelled to act with

responsibility. Sharing information seems to

tap a natural desire in people to want to do

a good job and to help make things better.

With current information technology capa-

bilities, there is no reason why anyone

throughout an organization cannot have

ready access to any information they need to

do a better job.

Another powerful by-product of infor-

mation sharing occurred in the cable TV

companies. Opening up the books signaled

to people that they were trusted and valued

colleagues with management. This element

is vital if empowerment is to be achieved.

Information sharing kick-started the rebuild-

ing and enhancing of trust throughout the

organization. It allowed people to gain a

clearer picture of the challenges facing the

company and to discover how success would

be based on a new and demanding sense Of

responsibility for everyone in the company.

At the same time, senior management

feared they would lose control by sharing

"their information" more broadly. There was

tremendous anxiety for both managers and

employees as the process of change began.

But by starting slowly, sharing some new

information—but not everything—and shar-

ing in a public forum where it could be

explained, everyone learned the power of

information sharing to address their informa-

tion concerns, build trust and responsibility,

and alleviate senior management fears.

IT TAKES MORE THAN

INFORMATION SHARING
Although information sharing helps to kick-

start the journey to empowerment, it alone

cannot keep things moving. Indeed, the pos-

session of information will stimulate ques-

tions of personal concerns. Though people

may not openly express it, they have con-

FALL 2000 101

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cerns about whether they will be able to op-

erate successfully in the new culture of em-

powerment. They wonder whether they will

be able to learn the language and skills

needed to be effectively empowered. With-

out information people cannot assume re-

sponsibility; given information, they may

want to be responsible, but realize they lack

some needed skills and hence the confidence

to change.

Enter the second interlocking tool for

empowerment, creating autonomy through

boundaries. But is not this somewhat counter-

intuitive? Can you free people for empower-

ment by creating boundaries? Yes, but only if

we remember, as pointed out earlier, that

people are unfamiliar with the language,

skills, and attitudes of responsibility that

make empowerment possible. Senior man-

agement needs to set boundaries within

which people can use the information they

now are receiving to act with freedom and

responsibility, gradually expanding the

boundaries as people's competence and con-

fidence to act empowered grows.

The use of clearly articulated goals is one

example of setting boundaries. The sense of

empowerment comes in leaving the action

plan for individual employees to determine,

perhaps in consultation with their managers

or with peers. Setting boundaries also means

providing skill training—for example, in

how to read a budget, analyze an exceptions

report, or run a meeting—in short, learning

the skills needed to become empowered to

act with responsibility. We must remember

that people in the company probably have

not had much experience with being em-

powered; they need time and guidance to

develop the skills of empowerment. It is im-

portant to note, though, that boundaries are

used differently in empowerment than in a

hierarchy. In a culture of empowerment,

boundaries define the domains within which

people have autonomy and responsibility to

operate; like rubber bands, they stretch as

people develop new skills. In a hierarchy,

boundaries define what people cannot do;

they operate more like barbed wire to keep

people in limits.

102 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS

LINKING IN THE THIRD TOOL

FOR EMPOWERMENT

The third empowerment tool, replacing the

hierarchy with self-directed teams, works in

conjunction with the first two to speed up the

journey to empowerment. To reach and op-

erate in a culture of empowerment means

developing and relying on teams to run the

show. Why? Quite simply, because empow-

ered teams are capable of much more than

the sum of empowered individuals. Team

members can help each other interpret and

use the shared information more effectively;

they can help each other clarify boundaries

and make good decisions within the context

of ever-expanding boundaries and responsi-

bilities. But keep in mind that teams do not

start off in an empowered mode. Indeed,

they must develop the competencies and

motivations to form self-directed teams that

take on responsibility. During the first stage

of the journey, teams are not yet ready for

self-direction.

In one manufacturing company, man-

agement combined the benefits of informa-

tion sharing with team development by shar-

ing information aggregated at the level of the

teams. Essentially, they broke the company

into team-level profit centers. Data were pre-

pared to help the teams know their own

productivity, waste percentage, quality mea-

sures and profitability. In monthly general

company meetings, these data were shared

for everyone to see. Teams could compare

themselves to other teams and get ideas from

others about how to improve their own re-

sults. Over time, the teams became quite

comfortable with a new sense of responsibil-

ity, but not before they went through some

times of discouragement.

STAGE 2—MAKING CHANGES

AND DEALING WITH

DISCOURAGEMENT

In time, and if the Stage 1 issues are reason-

ably well addressed, the journey will move

into a second and disturbing stage, making

changes and dealing with discouragement, a ter-

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ritory where people encounter yet more

complicated issues and concerns. It is in this

valley of discouragement that many manag-

ers and employees give up on empowerment

and try to go back to their old way of doing

things. They bemoan the decision to take the

first steps toward empowerment, and now

find themselves even more distrusting of

each other. The issues people express in this

stage will transition to a focus on implemen-

tat.on and impact concerns:

• Implementation Concerns: What do I

do now to become empowered? What must I

do next? How do I manage all the details so

I eo it right? What happens if it does not

work out as planned? Where do I go for

help? How long will this change take? Are

our difficulties typical? People want to have

some clarity on how to move forward, as

well as some empathy for how hard this

change is. A strong fear of failure develops.

• Impact Concerns: Is the effort really

worth it? Is this change making a difference

for the organization and me? Are we making

anv positive progress and how do we know?

People want to know if their efforts are pay-

ing off, because change is so hard. But as a

few people begin to recognize signs of

progress, they will begin to sell each other on

the value of empowerment. Slow and painful

progress is being made, though many people

do not yet see it.

At this stage, people throughout the or-

ganization need to be heard. To some extent,

everyone, from top to bottom, is feeling con-

fused and discouraged. They wonder why

the change to empowerment is taking so

long. Why is it so hard? Whose fault is it that

this change is so difficult—surely not mine?

Things probably seem worse than before,

and a natural desire arises to return to the

way things were.

THE FEELING OF BEING LOST

Inevitably, during the second stage of the

journey, people throughout the organization

will feel a tremendous sense of being lost.

We might compare this stage with sky div-

ing for the first time. You and others have

jumped from the plane and are in free fall.

Now you begin to wonder where the ground

is and whether the parachute will open. Per-

haps equally important, you realize there is

no going back! At this stage, people become

very interested in the details of the empow-

erment process. Their implementation concerns

are expressed in their desire to know what

specific steps to take, how to manage all the

details, and what to do when things do not

go according to "plan." They sense the tre-

mendous effort needed to make the journey

to empowerment—perhaps for the first time

realizing the true immensity of the task.

They will quite likely also feel a fear of

failure, which they express by asking for de-

tailed plans for action so they cannot be

blamed for failure. There is a tendency to

want to retreat to the old hierarchical model

of doing what they are told to do. People

throughout the organization are beginning

to realize that empowerment means more

freedom to operate, but also that it entails far

more accountability than a command-and-

control environment. In the old hierarchical

culture, people were protected from respon-

sibility as long as they did what they were

told. In an empowered culture, their work

and its results (positive or negative) are ex-

posed for everyone to see. That is a scary

proposition for most people.

During the discouraging stage of being

lost and lacking the skills for empowered

action, people need a great deal of guidance.

They also need to find answers to their ques-

tions that relate to implementation and impact

concerns. And some information and personal

concerns continue to linger. The three inter-

locking tools for empowerment again prove

useful for responding to these issues.

Information sharing can show people the

impact of their efforts on business results.

Seeing and understanding this impact pro-

vides incentive to keep moving forward.

People can also use information to adjust

their efforts, avoiding problems before they

become too severe. In the manufacturing

company mentioned before, the team-based

information gradually began to reveal posi-

FALL 2000 103

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tive results. Competition among the teams

served as an incentive for continuous im-

provement, and seeing their measures im-

prove from month to month served as a

powerful reward for their efforts to take on

increased responsibility.

Before these feelings of success occur,

the teams frequently feel a sense of frustra-

tion, which is based on the clear realization

that they are not succeeding in all areas of

responsibility. Oddly enough, this is the time

to extend the boundaries of autonomy and to

increase the expectations of teams. Rather

than allowing people to succumb to their

anxiety, the teams need to be pushed to use

the information they now possess to set

broader team goals that test and reward

them for even more progress. Managers

must help the teams continue creating auton-

only through boundaries by working with them

to set challenging but attainable goals. Then

they must hold the teams accountable for

results but leave it up to them to determine

how to get the job done. In other words, let

the teams be a little more self-directed and a

little more responsible and autonomous.

DISCOURAGEMENT IN AN

INFORMATION SERVICES

COMPANY

In one information services company, as the

teams encountered discouragement, man-

agement asked them to use the information

at their disposal, which included the compa-

ny's strategic business plan, to set three or

four team goals and individual goals. Goals

were subsequently clarified during meetings

with managers. But the employees retained

the primary responsibility for setting and

achieving their individual and team goals.

Initially, there was resistance to taking on

this responsibility; employees neither felt

they had the skills to set their own goals, nor

did they want to be held accountable for the

results. In time, team members helped each

other, and the employees came to like the

idea. They developed the sense of ownership

and self-confidence that derives from being a

104 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS'

valued contributor to their team and the

company.

At this point m the journey, managers

need to be prepared for some tough ques-

tions. People throughout the organization

are gaining insight into empowerment and

the way the company approaches issues.

They are frustrated that things are not chang-

ing faster. They may see obstacles that are

not yet on the radar screen for managers, and

it is essential to listen and respond to their

concerns, which may raise some very valid

points. For example, people may ask why the

performance management process evaluates

individuals and evaluates them after the fact,

when we are supposed to be focusing on a

working partnership built around team ef-

fort. Indeed, performance management is

one of the essential systems that needs to be

changed to support the move toward em-

powerment. Almost all performance ap-

praisal systems are, by design, at odds with

a culture of empowerment. They rely on

someone else monitoring and evaluating

each person, rather than on self-monitoring

and a partnership of evaluation between em-

ployee and manager. Hence they must be

changed into a more collaborative, partner-

ship process; this shift involves significant

change in people's attitudes, as well as their

learning new procedures and skills. They

must also rely more heavily on information

technology to make relevant information

available for tracking and updating by both

managers and employees.

STAGE 3—ADOPTING AND

REFINING EMPOWERMENT TO

FIT THE ORGANIZATION

Fortunately, for those organizations and in-

dividuals that stay the course and move past

the stage of discouragement, there is a new,

more productive organization wherein peo-

ple begin to feel meaningful empowerment.

This third stage of the journey, although not

the final destination, is a giant step forward.

People begin to feel a sense of competence

and confidence to act in an empowered way

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at this stage of adopting and refining empower-

ment to fit the organization. Here, people want

answers to collaboration and refinement con-

cerns. They are ready to begin acting with

power and with a greater sense of confi-

dence, but they want to become partners in

making empowerment a reality. Now they

want answers to such questions as:

• Collaboration Concerns: How do we

get everyone involved in empowerment?

How do we spread the word that empower-

ment is working? People are now focused on

getting everyone on board with empower-

ment, because they are convinced it is mak-

ing a difference for themselves and the orga-

nization.

• Refinement Concerns: How can we

make the changes even better? Can we im-

prove on the original idea? People begin to

focus on the proprietary position of continuous

improvement on the job and in the organiza-

tion. They want to use their knowledge, skills,

experience, and motivation to achieve results.

At this stage, the desired culture of em-

powerment begins to come into focus, as

people adopt internal commitment to their

jobs and commit to regularly using the Ian-

guage, behaviors and skills required for em-

powerment. The organizational leadership

has made significant progress in transform-

ing the systems and procedures so that a

culture of empowerment is both expected

and better supported.

VITAL TO CONTINUE WORKING

TOWARD EMPOWERMENT

It is vital to continue to work to get everyone

involved in moving toward empowerment.

Those who have begun to adopt the empow-

erment attitude and behaviors need to be

encouraged to engage others who may be

responding more slowly. People throughout

the organization need to be encouraged to

use their ideas to refine and improve the

emerging culture of empowerment. They

will see opportunities and obstacles that

managers do not see, and they will have

ideas for improvement that managers also

do not see. It is a time for collaboration be-

tween team members and for team leaders

with the teams. Empowerment is a new state

of becoming, a dynamic equilibrium that re-

leases the power of people, so they can

achieve astonishing results and make refined

use of their knowledge, experience, and mo-

tivation. People sprinkled throughout the or-

ganization have begun to experience the

pleasure of being involved and engaged in

their work. Employees and managers can

now more actively work together as team

members to continue the journey to a more

full realization of empowerment.

With the culture of empowerment in sight,

new ways can be found to share information in

all directions in the organization, essentially

bringing final destruction to the old hierarchi-

cal way of keeping people in the dark regard-

ing vital operating information. Information

sharing is the great equalizer, and full informa-

tion sharing is vital to building and maintain-

ing the responsibility and bust that are essen-

tial in a culture of empowerment. Teams and

senior management must inform each other

via collaborative sharing of information, be-

cause each has access to different types of

information. And information technology

systems can make information accessible to

anyone in the organization, on demand.

ACHIEVING EMPOWERMENT IN

RETAIL CLOTHING

One retail clothing company built an infor-

mation technology system that allowed a

person anywhere in the organization, in any

location, to have immediate access to what-

ever information they needed. Daily updates

on sales and returns were made available so

the information had a real-time quality. Any-

one from top to bottom of the organization

could access this information. The system

also allowed people to input comments that

facilitated organizational learning among de-

partments and locations. The database al-

lowed the associates to access the history of

a client who walked in the door, so that more

focused service could be offered. Over time,

FAZE 2000 105

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people have become very committed and so-

phisticated in using the information to en-

hance sales and customer service.

Building on such sophisticated and ex-

tensive use of information, the teams can

expand and refine their responsibility for de-

cision making. Relying more and more on an

internalized vision and set of values as the

boundaries that create autonomy, the remnants

of the old hierarchy are demolished. For ex-

ample, at Disney World, the cast members

are so clear about company values that they

can take responsible action without having

to ask anyone for guidance or even refer to a

company procedure manual. People know

that the primary value is "concern for the

safety of the guests." Second is "courtesy to

the guests." When a cast member is assisting

a guest with directions, and a safety alarm

sounds on one of the rides, there is no hesi-

tation about what to do. The cast member

will quickly say, "I have to go," and will be

off to assist with the safety problem.

At this stage of the journey, people are

reaching the point where they feel capable of

and willing to replace the hierarchy with self-

directed teams. They have learned the skills

and attitude of internal commitment needed

to play a vital business role in an empowered

organization. As team members, they have

learned and are becoming comfortable with

team decision-making, managing conflict, and

holding themselves accountable for results.

They are ready to release their power into the

organization to achieve astonishing results.

Everyone still needs encouragement, but it

can come from anyone in the organization, as

people increasingly operate like highly re-

sponsible and empowered team members.

THE FINAL STEP INTO A

CULTURE OF EMPOWERMENT

When managers and employees work to-

gether to deal with the issues encountered at

the three stages, a culture of empowerment is

achievable, but the journey is challenging

and demanding. People throughout the or-

ganization must work long and hard to

106 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS

change their mindsets, assumptions, and be-

haviors, as well as the organizational sys-

tems that support a new culture. At long last,

people become fluent in the language of em-

powerment. They now possess the skills and

desire needed to act with responsibility and

internal commitment. The organization and

its leadership have made many changes to

support empowerment, and managers have

learned how to be partners with teams. They

know a great deal about how to release the

power within people to achieve astonishing

results. Everyone has made the effort to

achieve empowerment, because it makes

good business sense in today's marketplace

to engage people throughout the organiza-

tion. People in all areas of the organization

have learned the joys of being involved and

engaged. They want to use their knowledge,

experience, and motivation to achieve aston-

ishing results for the company and to feel the

sense of pride and ownership that comes

with being empowered.

The journey to empowerment may never

be fully realized, but people are now much

closer to this new land. A significant transi-

tion has occurred in employees, managers,

and organizational systems. People are no

longer the same as they were in the culture of

hierarchy. They are now full-fledged members

of a culture of empowerment. They see the

world and their own responsibilities and rela-

tionships in a totally new light, and they see

ways to continue to grow toward even greater

degrees of autonomy and responsibility.

Empowerment is achievable, but the

journey is a challenge. Are you ready to start

your own journey to the distant culture of

empowerment? Are you ready and willing to

lead your organization through the chal-

lenges in the valley of discouragement? Yes,

empowerment is real, and it releases the

power of people for astonishing results, but

managers and employees alike have to

choose to make the long, challenging and

arduous journey of change! Hopefully, un-

derstanding the issues that must be faced

along the way, and using the three interlock-

ing tools to address the issues, will encour-

age you to lead the process of change.

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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Understanding the magnitude of change in-

volved for people in moving from hierarchy

to empowerment is essential for a successful

journey. The distinctions between external

commitment and internal commitment are

explained very clearly in "Empowerment:

The Emperor's New Clothes," by Chris Ar-

gyris, Harvard Business Review, 1998, (May-

June). For a clear definition of empower-

meat, please refer to the book by Ken

Blanchard, John P. Carlos and Alan Ran-

dolph, Empowerment Takes More Than A

Minute, 1996.

For a discussion on the issues leaders

must consider when embarking on the jour-

ney to empowerment, please refer to the ar-

ticle by Robert E. Quinn and Gretchen Spre-

itzer, "The Road to Empowerment: Seven

Questions Every Leader Should Consider,'

Organizational Dynamics, 1997 (Autumn).

Further understanding of the challenges

faced during the change process to empow-

erment are covered in the book by F. Hall

and S. Hord, Change in Schools: Facilitating the

Process (State University of New York, 1987)

and in the book by Ken Blanchard, John P.

Carlos and Alan Randolph, The 3 Keys to

Empowerment: Release the Power within People

for Astonishing Results (Berrett—Koehler,

1999).

The 1999 book above by Blanchard, Car-

IOS, and Randolph highlights the fact that

reaching empowerment is a never-ending

journey, as does an interview by Suzy Wet-

laufer, "Organizing for Empowerment: An

Interview with AES's Roger Sant and Dennis

Bakke," Harvard Business Review, 1999 (Janu-

ary-February). A guide for creating an em-

powered team can be found in the 10-booklet

series titled Power up for Team Results by

Blanchard, Carlos, Randolph, and Peter B.

Grazier (Berrett-Koehler, 2000).

FALL 2000 107

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