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    Re-Thinking Empowerment Why Is It So Hard To Achieve

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    Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 29, No.2, pp. 4-107, 2000 (© 2000 Elsevier Science, Ine. ISSN’ 0090-2616 /1/5-see Frontmatter It S00%0-2616(00}00017-6 Re-thinking Empowerment: Why Is It So Hard to Achieve? ‘W. ALAN RANDOLPH TT, date mpowerment 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. Its 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- es, 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, pos W. Alan Randolph is professor of management in the Merrick Schoo! of Business, University of Batimore, He fe igo a consulting partner with the Ken Blanchard Companies, Escondido, California. Alan holds a bachelors in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Tech- nology and a master's and Ph. in business ‘administration from the University of Massa chusetts, He has published in a variety of ro fessional and academic journals on topics tke empowerment, leadership, project manage- ‘ment, and international management. In 1895 he published "Navigating the Jourey to Em- ppowerment” in Organizational Dynamics. Recent books include The 2 Keys to Em: powerment: Release the Power Within People for Astonishing Results, with Ken Blanchars and Jotn P. Carlos (Berrett-Koohler, 1998), Empowerment Takes More Than A Mint, with en Blanchard and John P, Carlos (Berrett~ Koehler, 1996), Getting the Jab Done! Manag ing Project Teams and Task Forces for Success, ‘with Bary 2. Posner (Prentice-Hall, 1992), He recently published a 10-booklet discussion se- res titled Power Up for Team Results, with Ken ‘Blanchard, John P. Carlos, and Peter B. Grazier (Gerrtt-Koehler, 2000). Randolph engages in Consulting work on empowerment, pertor- ‘mance management processes, project man- ‘agement, and selt-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-making isa 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- erent. 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 responsibility 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 2000 95, 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 sutficient; 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 cononitment 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 diternal commitment, peo- ple engage in relations 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 theit 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- iment from scratch—by starting a new com- pany—think again. Although it may be eas- jer 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 commanc-and- control thinking. Incleed, most of us are quite accustomed to operating in ways that are consistent with extemal commitment. ‘The 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 invested a lifetime in learning answers to these questions that meet the expectations of hicrarchical thinking and assumptions. We are far [ess accustomed to dealing with the questions of internal commitment. “How do T want to contribute to the needs of my fam- ily? What do | want to learn from this school? How will [know | have learned something I can use? What do [ 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 exernal 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 goals?” 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- n 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 US. citizen working for a North American company You learn that your company has been pur- chased by 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 | ever do that? What does that really mean for me? And will | be able to make the changes that will be necessary to succeed in the new culture?” Moving toa 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 ong 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: rate 200 97 Hierarchical Culture Empowerment Culture Planning Visioning Command and Partnering for control performance Monitoring Self-monitoring Individual Team responsibility responsiveness Pyramid structures Cross-functional structures Workflow processes Projects Managers Coaches/team leaders Employees ‘Team members Participative Self-directed teams ‘management Do as you are told Own your own job Compliance Good judgment ‘As you compare the words in the two lists, the differences in attitude, norms, ex- ppectations, 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 fone 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 isthe ‘manager's job. “Own your own 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— toa 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- 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 environment 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 fat le 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 she 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 veteran 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, itis strewn with mul- tifaceted, counterintuitive, and_ nonlinear processes. The change demands that manag- ers and employees unleamn 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° 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, procedures, 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 employing counterintuitive techniques and. evolving plans unique to each organization and its people. It means understanding and appre-

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