Nature of Empowerment Program of Participation

What is Empowerment?
-It is any process that provides greater autonomy
to employees through sharing of relevant information and
the provision of control over factors affecting job
performances.
- It helps remove the conditions that cause
powerlessness while enhancing employee feeling of self-
efficacy.
-- Authorizes employees to cope with situations
and enables them to take control of problems as they
arise.

Powerlessness causes low self-esteem.

The feeling of powerlessness contributes to the experience of low

self-efficacy .

Low self-efficacy is the feeling of people that they cannot

successfully perform their jobs or make meaningful contributions

Causes of Low Self-Efficacy:

 CHANGES
 major organizational changes
 LEADERSHIP
 authoritarian leader
 REWARD SYSTEM
 ineffective reward system
 Feelings of low self-efficacy can be raised by
EMPOWERMENT.

Five Broad Five approaches to empowerment:

 Job mastery- Helping employees achieve master.
-Proper training, coaching and guided
experience that will result initial successes.
 Control - allowing more control.
- it is giving them discretion over job performance and
holding them accountable outcomes.
 Role Models –allowing them to observe peers who
already perform successfully on the job.
– Providing successful role models.

 Social Reinforcement and Persuasion

-Giving praise, encouragement and verbal feedback
design to raise self-confidence.

 Emotional Support – providing reduction of stress

and anxiety through better role definition, task
assistance and honest caring.
-giving emotional support.

What is Participation?
 It is the mental and emotional involvement of
people in group situations that encourages them to
contribute to group goals and share responsibility for
them.

Three important ideas

 INVOLVEMENT
 CONTRIBUTION
 RESPONSIBILITY
1. INVOLVEMENT
Involvement- participation means meaningful
involvement rather than mere muscular activity.
EGO-INVOLVED – is a person who participates.
2. CONTRIBUTION
Ideas (Motivation to contribute) – employees are
empowered to release their own resources of initiative and
creativity toward the objectives of the organization.
  - It improves motivation by helping employees
understand and clarify their paths towards goal.

3. RESPONSIBILITY
-Acceptance of Responsibility- participation encourages
people to accept responsibility in their group’s activities.
- When we talk about their organization, they begin to say
“we” not “they”. - When they see a job problem, it is “our”, not
“theirs”.

How participation works?

Involvement: Mental , Emotional
Outcomes:
Organization: Employees:
Higher output Acceptance
Better quality Self Efficacy
Innovation Less Stress
Satisfaction

Two views of Power and Influence:

Prerequisites for participation
Adequate time to participate
Potential benefits greater than cost
Relevance to employee interests
Adequate employee abilities to deal with the subject
Mutual ability to communicate
No feeling of threat to either party
Restriction to the area of a job problem

Under participation
When employees want more participation than they
have, they are “participatively deprived”.

Over participation
When they have more participation than they
want, they are “ participatively saturated”.
Responsibilities of Employees and Managers:
Be fully responsible for their actions and their
consequences
Operate within the relevant organizational policies
Be contributing team members
Respect and seek to use the perspective of others
Be dependable and ethical in their empowered actions
Demonstrate responsible self-leadership

Benefits of Participation
-Participation tends to improve motivation because
employees feel more accepted by their employer and
more actively involved in the situation.

-Once the organizational culture is changed, then the

system as a whole becomes more effective.

Among the leadership styles mentioned a while ago,

which type is best applied in an organization to foster
employee’s maximum participation?
There are several key behaviours of a servant leader:
They listen actively and empathetically.
They engage in introspection to understand better own attitudes and
feelings.
They treat others with respect, as equals.
They admit mistakes, confess their own vulnerability, and ask for help
from others.

They seek to engage in dialogue and often paraphrase to ensure

understanding.
They affirm the worth and contributions of each participant.
They are willing to admit mistakes and ask for help.
They build trust by articulating their values and acting
consistently with them.

Thank you for listening!!!

God bless everyone…