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Employee Empowerment and Retention Strategies in Diverse Corporate Culture:

A Prognostic Study

Article  in  Vision-The Journal of Business Perspective · January 2004

DOI: 10.1177/097226290400800107

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 Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective
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Employee Empowerment and Retention Strategies in Diverse Corporate Culture: A Prognostic Study
B. K. Punia
Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective 2004 8: 81
DOI: 10.1177/097226290400800107

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VISION: The Journal of Business Perspective, January- June, 2004, pp. 81-91

Employee Empowerment And Retention

Strategies In Diverse Corporate Culture :
A Prognostic Study

B. K. Punia*

The recent times have evinced a very high degree of diversity and uncertainty in the business
environment. Workplace of today witnesses the co-existence of employees from the various
socio-cultural backgrounds making the corporate culture a complete diverse one. The progressive
companies of today look for diverse workforce who can bring and help in managing diverse talents,
interests, and viewpoints and that too in the continuously changing business environment. This
diverse corporate culture has further affected the employment relations by not keeping it confined to
traditional issues, rather concerns like empowerment, effectiveness, retention, development,
managing cross-cultural diversity, management of gender issues, orgl1nisational learning, change
management, etc. have emerged as contemporary challenges leading to new paradigms in corporate
culture. The present paper attempts to address the specific contemporary challenges of employees'
retention and empowerment in the light of organisational changes taking place. This paper brings to
light the fact that Indian organizations are finding it difficult to retain the talent and are resorting to
newer strategies of empowerment to retain the best talent.

INTRODUCTION they could lose competitive edge (Drucker, 2002). In

The recent times have evinced a very high degree of
diversity and uncertainty in the business environment of
the firms. The globalisation of business is forcing the
manaqers to grapple with complex issues as they seek to
gain or sustain a competitive advantage further making
the corporate relations more demanding and testing. The
workplace of today witnesses the co-existence of
employees from the various socio-cultural backgrounds
i.e., race, gender, colour, national origin, economic status,
ethnicity, etc. making the corporate culture a complete
diverse one. The progressive companies of the day look
for diverse workforce who can bring and help in managing
diverse talents, interests, ideologies, and viewpoints even
in a continuously changing business environment.
This diverse corporate culture has further shuddered the
employment relations every where in general and the Indian
subcontinent in particular. More so two fast-moving trends
are changing the way for companies to manage their talent.
They are outsourcing them from professional employee
organisations and providers of "temps". But if companies
do not pay attention to how these assets are managed,
addition the advent of human resource management has
also brought forward the issue of the linkages between
the employment relationship and wider organisational
strategies and corporate policies. Historically, the
management of industrial relations and personnel
manageme.nt has been concerned with either the
'downstream' consequences of earlier strategic decisions
or to 'firefight' short-term problems which threaten the long
term success of a particular strategy. In these
circumstances the role has been at best reactive and
supportive to other managerial functions, at worst a
hindrance until particular operational problems were
overcome (Beardwell and Holden, 1995). The issues and
phenomenon like cultural diversity and contractual
employment have multiplied the challenges of human
resource management. The employment relations of today
are not confined to traditional issues of mere better working
conditions, timely payment of salary, etc. Rather the
issues like empowerment, effectiveness, retention,
development, managing cross-cultural diversity,
management of gender issues, organisational learning,
and change management, etc. have emerged as
contemporary chaUenges leading to new paradigms in

·Associate Professor. Department of Business Manaqernent, Guru Jambheshwar University, Hissar.

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Employee Empowerment and Retention Strategies in Diverse Corporate Culture : A Prognostic Study
employment relations. The current situation has raised a
number of questions for the researchers and policy makers:
1. How significant are the issues of talent retention and
employee empowerment in the diverse corporate
culture?
2. How can the organisations retain and empower the
employees in the changing environment of the day?
3. What are the implications of the employee retention
and empowerment on organisational policies and
practices?
The present paper attempts to address the specific issues
of talent retention and empowerment practices with their
organisational implications for the furtherance of corporate
relations in an ever changing industrial environment.
METHODOLOGY
The present paper is a judicious outcome of a two tier
research, the first being an ex-post facto research based
upon a theoretical research model, and the second, a
descriptive research based upon a small survey. In the
theoretical research on employee empowerment and talent
retention strategies, a model has been suggested and
discussed. The model is based upon an extensive literature
review duly supplemented with the author's own views.
The second part of the study is exclusively on employee
empowerment for which a study has been carried out to
ascertain the managerial attitude towards subordinates'
empowerment, and the views of the subordinates towards
empowerment practices being followed by their respective
senior managers. Data from one hundred respdndents (fifty
subordinates a.id fifty managers) has beefJcollected with
the help of two d.fferent sets of questionnaires. The sample
size of one hundred has been taken from ten promising
organisations working in different cities/parts of the national
capital region. The information has been gathered on
different dimensions of employee empowerment tools like
information, communication, decision-making/action,
'planninq/orqanisinq, evaluation/control, leadership/
motivation, and selection /placement /development. Both
sets of questionnaires encompass thirty questions each
on the above mentioned different dimensions of
empowerment. All the questions have been provided with
two options and the answers have been recorded on a
five point scale. The subordinates have provided
information on their senior managers' style of
empowerment, and the questionnaire for managers depicts
their perception regarding their own empowering style. The
scoring and analysis has been done by applying a well
82 VISION: The Journal of Business Perspective, January - June, 2004
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thought and set pattern. The results so obtained have been
presented in a tabular form and discussed accordingly in
the rel~vant section of the paper.
Employee Retention
Since the 1980s, the politico-economic map of the world
has changed dramatically. On the one hand the period
witnessed a substantial withering away of communism
from the global polity, at the same time a number of
significant economic events took place all over the world
to usher in liberalization, privatization, and globalization.
In this era of change industrial managers are well aware
of the need to meet the organizational requirements to
find a place at the global stage. They know how to elicit
the best efforts of the employees to accomplish the
organizational goals effectively and efficiently. Hence the
utilization of manpower resources is being given due
recognition both by practicing managers and academic
community leaving talent retention an exception. Rather,
the competition has come with a new system of contractual
employment instead of lifetime employment, creating an
unknown fear in the minds of both, i.e., the employers
and the employees. If managing employee retention in
the past was akin to tending a dam that keeps a reservoir
in place, today it is more like managing a river (Cappelli,
2000). In fact employees' retention is the resident pool of
knowledge and skills that is manifested employees in their
urge to gain sustained competitive advantage. The role of
retention can be taken as a strategic tool for improving
the organizational effectiveness towards achieving global
competitiveness.
Finding and hiring good people is really a tough task as
every executive knows it, but retaining them for a long
time could be even tougher. In trying to stop people from
jumping out of the ship, many companies have fallen back
on traditional retention strategies. However to adopt the
new strategies, one has to accept the new reality first. In
fact, in a market full of talented people, it is not the
organisation that determines the movement of its
employees. Rather it is the managerial capability of the
firm to retain them in the organization. Because the object
here is not to prevent the water from flowing out but to
control its direction and it can be possible only with the
competitive managerial skills in the employers. The
organizations of the day are very complex wherein
employees from different castes, creeds, regions,
religions, sex, and even nations work together. This multi-
cultural environment leads employees to emerge with multi-
skilling, giving them enormous employment opportunities

in the open market situation. This situation has increased
the employee turnover, and in this process of turnover
some organizations may just become training platforms.
It is also true that due to downsizing philosophy of the
organizations job market is shrinking, but at the same
time it would be worth mentioning here that there is no
dearth of jobs for learning and performing employees.
Hence, employee retention has become a challenge in
the diverse corporate culture to sustain in the competitive
environment; to overcome the technological complexities;
to cope up with changing environment; to increase the
organizational strengths for attaining organizational
effectiveness; to enhance the commitment level of the
employees; and also to develop a performing organizational
culture for the present and the future.
Employee retention is not the function of an individual,
rather of the entire organization in general and the HRD
department in particular has to be put on the job. Here the
department will have to manifest through its acts and
intentions that it is really interested in retaining and
developing its employees, as merely retaining the
employees without developing them will convert them into
liabilities instead of assets for the organization. The HRD
department can initiate retention strategy through its
philosophy, policies, programmes, practices, and
processes. The human resource philosophy manifests the
core business values and culture that expresses how the
employees should be treated and valued. The policies
express the shared values that establish the people related
guidelines for future course of action. Human resource
programmes co-ordinate the organizational efforts to
facilitate change to get in touch with major people related
business issues. The practices motivate the needed role
behavior and the processes translate the above human
resource practices for their implementation and execution.
That is how the activities and action of the organization
through human resource management department will lead
to developing its employee retention strategy making an
organisational culture employee retention oriented.
Once the organizations identify which employees they
need to retain and for how long, they can use a number of
mechanisms to encourage them to stay. A truly honest
assessment of how long the organization would like the
employees to be retained, reveals that different group of
employee's demands diverse retention efforts. In an
organization there will always be some people whom the
organizations want to retain for an indefinite period. The
employees of this category mainly include the project
leaders, project designers and genius engineers. Another
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Punia
set of people will be important to retain for shorter or a
well-defined period. Sometimes it can also happen that
the type of people once selected should not only fit into
the jobs in terms of skills set, but must also match the
company's culture in terms of attitude, personality and
commitment. In this case, first the company should develop
detailed profiles of the people after analyzing the job
profiles, career paths, background, and experiences of
their current high performers. Once the organization comes
to know actually what they are looking for, the descriptive
research based model, having a prognostic outlook as
suggested through the present study, may help the
organisations in retaining their best talent. It would be worth
mentioning here that the empowerment and retention
strategies as discussed henceforth have a definite effect
on the diverse corporate relations. Thus, how the
progressive companies of future could retain their best
talent while empowering them simultaneously has been
shown in Figure 1.
Environment Matching
Environment matching here refers to harmonizing the
physical working environment with the employees' needs'
and aspirations to provide them better quality of work life.
Organizations with future orientations are studying their
office furniture, work environment, and space utilization
in an effort to provide a productive atmosphere. A number
of reviews have witnessed positive impact of quality of
work life on productivity. New kinds of office furniture are
being designed to ease fatigue and back-strain. This
newness will make employees' surroundings more
pleasant and more conducive to working. Having office
furnishings with ergonomically designed furniture would
reduce health problems, especially back-strain and the
like. Matching the environment to the employees is
becoming a major function in human resources because
sometimes performing employee quits the organization
only due to the prevailing undesired physical environment.
Organizational Building
Organizational building has been an emerging aspect of
management emphasizing on newer ways of doing things,
keeping the doors open for enriching the knowledge base
with a focus on shifting from doing the right things to doing
things rightly. Processes are becoming equally important
having key nucleus on creating learning organizations for
creation and application of newer knowledge. Learning
organizations are skilled at creating, acquiring and
transferring knowledqa, and also at modifying
83
Employee Empowerment and Retention Strategies ln Diverse Corporate Culture : A Prognostic Study
organisational behavior to reflect new knowledge and
insights. In relation to management of human resources,
the concept of learning organization can be used in various
spheres, and will be a major challenge in the discipline.
Sometimes acquisition of new learning skills may
encourage employee turnover, as all people may not be
willing to learn new things, even though they may otherwise
be good performers, and hence ways to handle· such
situations also need to be learnt. Organizations, which
show little or no willingness to learn, are bound to be
doomed, and those having open minds on this front may
emerge as market leaders. The pace of change is too fast
and the organisations need to adapt and learn everyday
to retain its gems and gain competitive advantage.
Organizational Transformation
Organizational transformation has emerged essentially as
much needed tool of forward looking business leaders to
acclimatize in the diverse corporate environment. Here
the learning organisations will act as a catalyst in the
transformation process. The work can be structured to
achieve radical improvements in quality, efficiency or
services level and the process is known as re-engineering.
Today, the organisations have realized that the individuals
are crucial for the success of re-engineering. In fact, not
just re-engineering but every other form of organizational
transformation needs the wholehearted participation of
people at all levels. The participation of employees in the
organisational transformation process will create a moral
bond between the organisation and the employees, thereby
seeking the commitment for their long term involvement.
Job Re-structuring
Job re-structuring is yet another strategy of retention as
the organizations have to manage and sustain by re-
engineering and redesigning of jobs. In this whole
progression, human resources is the most important
aspect of organisational core competencies. Even the star
performers will stay with organization only if the job
matches their deeply embedded life interests. Hence,
matching employees' deep-seated interests with particular
work responsibilities, calls for re-orientation of the system.
But in a souring business situation, it can help the
organizations to maintain the dual focus on their needs
i.e., making strategic layoffs on the one hand and keeping
the best employees engaged on the other.To make strategic
layoffs, they should maintain the desolate difference
between short term and long term trends, keep an eye on
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motivating the most productive employees while
simultaneously focussing on the potential layoffs.
Valuing the Employees
Valuing the employees is of particular significance as a
large majority of employees today strives for esteem and
self actualization needs. They want recognition and expect
that the organisations should value them as productive
partners in the process instead of mere factors of
production. A recent study conducted by the Gallup
organisation identified employee recognition as one of the
twelve key dimensions that describe great workplaces.
Recognition initiatives with strict performance criteria, or
those with a completely "feel-good" focus, remain half
baked. Employees want to know that they are valued as
people, but they also want feedback on how they are
performing. The solution is a balanced focus on both hard
business results and soft people skills, in order to retain
committed workforce. In fact, employee recognition creates
role models, reinforces desired behaviours and
communicates standards of excellence (Human Capital
Team, 2003). Many a time the organisations are deserted
by performing employees just because of their strained
relations with an insider, usually the direct managers. In
the prevailing and potential times the organizations will
have to learn to value their employees. Gone are the days
when the employees could be treated like machines, today
they are most indispensable assets for any organization
and hence need humane treatment. Here it would be worth
mentioning that only individual grievances are not to be
managed rather the entire office rage is to be done away
with.
Career Growth Assurance
Career growth assurance along with reasonablejob security
seems to govem the industrial scenario of the future. Every
organization has become the hub of people with diverse
interests and ideals. Some have interest in quantitative
analysis while the others have developmental, conceptual
and creative skills. These skills can be stretched in many
directions, but if they are not going in the direction that is
congruent with deeply embedded life interests, then
employees are at risk of becoming dissatisfied and
uncommitted. In such situations, employees usually
attribute their unhappiness to their managers or to their
organisations. This kind of thinking often leads to a
"migration cure", of leaving one organisation for another,
only to find similar dissatisfaction because the root of the

career malaise has not been identified and addressed
(Butlerand Waldroop, 1999).Hence, the people with diverse
skills need be encouraged to excel in their respective fields,
for their ultimate aim being organizational effectiveness.
Once the employees are sure of their job and growth
prospects, the job satisfaction and commitment level will
burgeon, having a multiplier effect on organisational
performance and excellence.
Reward System Re-designing
Reward system re-designing of the upcoming era calls for
competence and potential based performance reward
system. This system will have a strong bearing upon the
emergingemployment relations since the extrinsic sources
of motivation like perils, benefits and incentives pay do
have a significant effect on employees' performance. This
becomes more of the essence when these are conferred
on competence base vis-a-vis the potential of employee.
When a poor performer gets undue favour or reward, the
high performer not only feels insulted but also gets
emotionally hurt very badly. In some extreme situations
he even takes the drastic step of quitting the organization,
which will not be in the best interest of either of them and
in such a situation, the organisations will have to think in
terms of Structural Fit Strain (SFT) (Shermon and Goenka,
2003). In SFT,a connection between pay and performance
needs to be established while managing the retention as
shown in the Figure 2. As per the Figure, quadrant-A
denotes a serious case of job and performance fit
dissonance and hence need to depart, whereas the
quadrant-B will exit because herein the performance
exceeds the pay. In case of quadrant-C, there is need to
re-structure because of malafide performance criteria
prevailing in the organisation. Most critical is the quadrant-
D, which needsto be retainedbecause of high performance
and high pay. At this juncture the organisation may also
have to pay retention bonus, which once was a
compensation tool reserved largely for top executives.
Retention bonuses can help keep and motivate key people
during a company's financial crisis as well as ensure a
smooth transition (Times Ascent, 2003).
Flexi-Timing
Flexi-timing as a recent requirement is the resultant of
emerging work force diversity. The advancements in the
society have witnessed a stronger emergence of women
at the work place.This phenomenon had led a very complex
situation, particularly in the cases where husband and wife
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both are working in the same organization with similar office
timings. Sometimes due to household responsibilities, one
of the two plan to quit or change the job irrespective of the
fact that both husband and wife are indispensable assets
for the organization.That is how the concept of flexi timings
had been originally planned to cater to the household
requirements of dual career couples. In an urge to retain
both of them, employers are coming forward with flexi-
times system which believes in the concept of two phased
working i.e., the core time of about four hours where
everyone is present and the remaining four hours flexi-
time. If you start early you finish early, if you start late
you finish later in the day (Mani, 1996). Hence the
employersof tomorrow will have to keep their options open
with regard to offic~ timings to uphold their best talent.
Job SCUlpting
Job sculpting is primarily the task of aligning workers'
responsibilities with the long-standing passions that
determine the activities, which makes them happy. The
extrinsic sources of motivation perks, benefits and
incentive pay can have a significant effect on workers
performance. But the most important ingredient of
employees' satisfaction are the inherent challenges of the
particular job, the opportunity to work with talented,
supportive colleagues and the chance to learn, grow and
developnew skills. For people who could succeed in almost
any positlon.. it's very crucial that the job responsibility
stay matched to the individual's deeply embedded life
interest. These interests reflect a person's intrinsic
motivations, which are long held, emotionally driven
passions. By probing, observing, listening carefully to
highly talented employees, descriptions of the work they
enjoy most and applying a little psychology, managers
can customize job responsibilities so that they can be
effectively matched with the worker's sources of intrinsic
motivation. Many talented professionals leave their
organisations because senior managers don't understand
the psychology of work satisfaction; they assume that
people who excel at their work are necessarily happy in
their jobs. Sounds logical enough. But the fact is, strong
skill don't always reflect or lead to job satisfaction. Most
protesslonals, particularly the league of 20s and 30s
streaming out of today's MBA programmes, are so well
educated and achievement oriented that they·could
succeed in virtually any job. But will they stay? The answer
is, only if the job matches their deeply embedded life
interests and for this purpose the organisations require
85
Employee Empowerment and Retention Strategies in Diverse Corporate Culture : A Prognostic Study
job sculpting. In these days of talent wars, the best way
to keep your stars is to know them better than they know
themselves, and then use that information to customize
the careers of their dreams (Butler and Waldroop, 1999).
Hence to retain the most indispensable assets i.e., the
employees, job sculpting could be one of the most effective
and preventive measures.
Entrepreneurial Encouragement
Entrepreneurial encouragement is going to be the way of
business organisations of future for retaining the best talent
before they become intrapreneurs. Ultimately these
intrapreneurs are bound to help their parent organisation
and this is for sure in the orqanisations that practice and
develop the entrepreneurial orientation amongst its
employees. At times it has been observed that many
talented and enterprising employees look for greener
pastures in business of their own (Podder, 1996). These
type of employees can be of great use in the new product
development process and execution and hence, need to
be retained till they become intrapreneurs i.e'. an employee
turned entrepreneur.
The above mentioned are some of the coping strategies
to retain the best talent of the organization. This cannot
be taken as an exhaustive list of the strategies as it is
based upon the author's understanding of the concept and
availability of literature reviewed. The success rate of the
strategies may vary from organization to organization and
from situation to situation. Moreover so the progressive
organizations may evolve their own coping strategies
specifically tailored to the requirements of their organization
and employees as well. But one thing is certain that the
coming time is much challenging for both i.e. the employers
and employees and particularly in a fast emerging multi-
cultural environment, thereby making the subject of
employee retention a subject of every one's interest.
It has been established that, on retention front, 'Indian
organizations are finding it hard to retain the best talent,
particularly in the wake of the globalisation process and
are resorting to above mentioned newer strategies
ultimately affecting the employment relations. In addition,
employee empowerment in itself may act as a retention
tool but it has to become a way of life in future organisations
and therefore, it needs special treatment as discussed in
the ensuing section of the paper.
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Employee Empowerment
Employee empowerment, a management buzzword of the
1990s now has turned into prominent human resource tool
of talent retention and corporate excellence. Conceptually,
empowerment is to invest power and full authority on
everyone in the organisation. It is getting employees to do
what needs to be done rather than doing what they are
told. Empowerment as a management concept is
associated with 'enabling' rather than delegating andthus
help in rnakinq the organisation responsive and flexible
for environmental adaptability. Infact employee
empowerment is sharing responsibility and power equally.
at all levels of an organisation, enabling them to innovate,
take initiatives and make independent decisions to satisfy
the needs and the wants, thus, reaching desired goals
and objectives (Argyris, 1998). While empowerment is a
holistic approach, it is an advanced approach towards
human resource development and management, where
everyone is involved at different stages of organisational
development process and at the same time making each
responsible and accountable for their actions (Sagaii,
2003). Rationally thinking the core of human resource
development is the concern for people, and concern for
the organisation has to be judiciously blended with concern
for people to have an empowerment oriented organisation.
The characteristic features of an empowered organisation
are:
• The employees are committed to their own jobs and
the organisation. They are proactive problem solvers,
and aware that their contribution is valued and vital.
• The organisation structure is focused on team-work
with employees working together to solve and bring
about improvements while the manager acts as a
facilitator and enabler.
• Employees get informed, trusted and involved, their
skills and experiences are recognized and they are
encouraged to be creative, innovative and risk takers.
Thus, keeping in view the significance and applicability of
empowerment in employee retention and organisational
effectiveness a small study has also been conducted to
assess the state of empowerment practices in the
corporate sector and to substantiate the above mentioned
discussion. The details of the study have been presented
in Tables 1, 2 and 3 and discussed accordingly in the
remaining part of the paper.
 Punta

Subordinates' Perception of Empowerment Practices organisations. The dimensions of information

communication, and decision-making and analysis exhibit
Table 1 presents the scores on different dimensions of an empowerment driven culture in contrast to planning
employee empowerment on the basis of different organising, and system evaluation showing the signs of
demographic variables. The results have shown variations control oriented culture. The dimensions of leadership
in subordinates' perception according to different age motivation, and selection, placement and development
groups, total work experience and educational have revealed a mixed picture of empowerment and control.
qualifications. On the dimensions of information . Taking the percentile form of analysis, in totality fifty one
communication, leadership and motivation, and, selection, percent respondents have expressed the prevalence of
placement and development the subordinates have viewed controlling culture and particularly in the areas of planning
their respective senior managers resorting to more and organising, system evaluation and control, and
empowering and less controlling behaviour. In case of leadership and motivation. In the areas of selection,
decision-making and action, and system evaluation the placement and development there exists a controlling as
senior managers go for middle ground approach as well as empowering culture as viewed by sixteen percent
perceived by the subordinates wherein the managers use of the total respondentsand thirtythree percent respondents
controlling and empowering in equal proportions. However have strongly indicated at the prevalence of empowering
in case of planning and organising, initially the senior culture while being concentrated in the area of information
managers express control oriented behaviour but they shift communication and decision-making and action.
to empowering behaviour after settling down. As a whole
the picture as perceived by the subordinates largely
indicates empowerment oriented corporate culture in their
CONCLUSION
respective organisations.
Due to the intensity of talent war, the changing corporate
relations have become a challenge for the modem
Managers' Perception of Empowerment Practices
organisations. In such type of environment the executives
will have to resort to untiring and persistent efforts for
Table 2 illustrates the perception of managers on different
employee empowerment. The phenomenon of
dimensions of employee empowerment on the basis of
empowerment will help the organisations in retaining their
demographic variables. Here also the results have shown
finest talent. The superior of employees do have certain
variations in managers' perception according to different expectations from the organisations in terms of their
age groups, total work experience and educational empowerment for further development. The retention
qualifications. Here, the perception of managers has been strategies discussed in the paper will not only help the
found divided in control oriented and middle ground organisations in empowerment and retention but they also
practices. The dimensions of decision-making and analysis, have reverse impact as well. The organisations will have
system evaluation, and leadership motivation have been to be cautious enough on these fronts to keep the corporate
found in the controlling zone; whereas information relations lively, healthy and performing, and inconsiderate
communication, planning and organising, and, selection, empowerment and retention endeavours may even ruin
placement and development dimensions of employee the state of employment relations and can run contrary to
empowerment find a place in the middle ground approach human nature. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: You can
as perceived by the managers themselves. As a whole empower all of the people some of the time and some of
the managers have perceived themselves as more control the people all of the time, but you can't empower all of the
and less empowerment oriented. people all the time. Therefore, nobody should expect more
than that and should be realistic about how to achieve
Overall Perception of Empowerment Culture and use retention and empowerment tools to act in favour
of meeting the challenge of a diverse corporate culture. To
'Some contrasts have come to light while discussing the conclude we must remember the sayings of the great Peter
perception of subordinates and managers individually, and Drucker that in a traditional workforce, the workers serves
hence necessitating the study of whole sample perception the system; in a knowledge workforce, the system must
to visualize the organisational empowerment practices. serve the worker because a great orchestra is not
Table 3 presents the results on the same and present a composed of great musicians but of adequate ones who
three dimensional picture of empowerment culture in the produce at their peak.

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Employee Empowerment and Retention Strategies in Diverse Corporate Culture : A Prognostic Study

REFERENCES 10 Mani, R.S.S. (1996). "Talent Retention:

Controversies", The Hindu, 20 March.
Trials and

Argyris, Chris (t 998). Empowerment: The Emperor's New 11 Pfeifier, Jeffrey (1994). Competitive Advantage through People,
Clothes, Harvard Business Review May-June: 98-105. Boston: Harvard Business School.
2 Armstrong, Michael A. (1996). Personnel Management Practices'
12 Podder,C.K. (1996). "Retention ofEmployees-HR Managers'
London: Kogan Pages.
Challenge", The Hindu, 10 January.
3 Bagali, MM. (2001). "Employee Empowerment: Global Strat~g~es
13 Punia, B.K. and Luxmi (2003). "Employees' Retention in Cross-
in Making HR for High Performance", Indian Journal of TraInIng
Cultural Environment - A Challenge for the Future Organizations",
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8M: The
4 Beardwell, Ian and Holden, Len (1995). Human Resource
14 Journal of Indian Management & Strategy, 7(6): 35-40. Ravi, V.
Management: A Contemporary Perspective, Delhi: Macmillan.
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5 Butter, Timothy and Waldroop, James (1999). "Job Sculpting: Management, April: 72-75.
The Art of Retaining Your Best People", Harvard Business
15 Shermon, G. and Kanul Goenka (2003). "When Talent Heads
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6 Cappelli, Peter (2000). "A Market-Driven Approach to Retaining
16 Times ascent (2003). "Staying Power", The Times of India, 28
Talent", Harvard Business Review, January-February: 103-111.
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17 Venkatachalam, J. (1998). "Empowerment: An Integrated
Indian Management, 41 (2): 30-35.
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an Empowered Organisation", Indian Management, 37(1):
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88 VISION: The Journal of Business Perspective, January - June, 2004

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 Punia

Environemental Organisational Organisational

Matching • • Building Transformation

I
Job
I
Valuing the
I
Career Growth
Re-structuring • • Employees Assurance

I I I
Reward System
Re-designing • • Flex-Times &
Job-Sculpting
Entrepreneurial
Encouragement

Employee Retention

/ \.
I Diverse Corporate Culture I

Figure 1 : Employees Empowerment & Retention Strategies

c D
High Pay High Pay
Low Performance High Performance
(Need to Re-structure) (Need to Retain)

A B
Low Pay Low Pay
Low Performance High Performance
(Need to Depart) (Need to Exit)

Figure 2 : Pay-Performance and Retention Relationship

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Employee Empowerment and Retention Strategies in Diverse Corporate Culture : A Prognostic Study

Table 1 : Scores on Subordinates' Perception of Empowerment Practices

Empowerment Dimension Variables Ie DMA PO Se LM SPD

Age:
Below 30 years (n=18) 102 178 74 88 76 64
30-40 years (n=24) 180 170 148 170 134 172
Above 40 years (n=08) 64 54 74 80 50 78

Work Experience:
Below 10 years (n=12) 218 266 104 132 120 152
10-20 years (n=14) 104 70 84 86 84 128
Above 20 years (n=24) 84 94 70 100 66 98
Educational Qualifications -:
Graduation (n=18) 102 342 204 272 198 290
Post Graduation (n=12) 90 80 50 66 54 76
Technical I Professional (n=20) 44 50 54 50 41 25
Note : Ie = InfOl'mation Communication; DIIA=Decision-making & Action; PO=P/anninglOrganising;
SE=System Evaluation; L"=Leadership!Afo'iva,ion; SPD=5eIec'ionIPlacemenflDevelopmen'

Table 2: Scores on Managers' Perception of Empowerment Practices

Empowerment Dimension Variables Ie DMA PO Se LM SPD

Age:
Below 30 years (n=20) 54 50 50 50 50 50
30-40 years (n=16) 86 94 156 90 90 112
Above 40 years (n=14) 250 308 240 142 00 270

Work Experience:
Bel')w 10 years (n=08) 54 50 54 56 66 66
10-20 years (n=14) 66 110 98 70 74 98
Above 20 years (n=28) 242 308 230 126 68 282

Educational Qualifications:
Graduation (n=18) 110 176 130 86 90 158
Post Graduation (n=08) 90 94 66 70 50 86
Technical/Professional (n=24) 146 178 150 122 112 146
Note : IC = Information Communication; DAfA=Decision-making & Ac'ion; PO=P/anninglOrganising;
SE=System Evaluation; LAf=Leadership!Afo,ivation; SPD=5eIec'ionIPlacementlDevelopmen'

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 Punia

Table 3: Scores on Employees' Perception of Empowerment Driven Culture

Empowerment Dimension Variables Ie DMA PO se LM SPD

Age:
Below 30 years (n=38) 156 228 124 138 126 114
30-40 years (n=4O) 266 264 304 260 224 284
Above 40 years (n=22) 314 362 314 222 130 348
Work Experience:
Below 10 years (n=20) 272 316 158 188 86 218
10-20 years (n=28) 170 180 182 156 158 226
Above 20 years (n=52) 326 402 300 226 134 380
Educational Qualifications:
Graduation (n=36) 212 518 334 358 288 448
Post Graduation (n=20) 180 174 116 136 104 162
Technical/Professional (n=44) 190 228 204 172 153 171

Overall Score 695 891 679 619 507 784

Note : IC = Information Communication; DMA=Decision-making & Action; PO=Planning/Organising;
SE=System Evaluation; LM=LeadershipIMotivation; SPD=SelectionlPlacementlDeve/opment

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