POINTERS IN OPERATION MANAGEMENT

Rationale for Empowerment

The importance of empowerment to the organization can be summarized in the following

points:

• Improved Work Outcomes. An empowered employee is attentive to details, efficient,

and self confident since s/he doesn't need to stop working and consult a manager every
time a decision must be made.
• Increased Employee Satisfaction. An empowered employee finds his/her job satisfying
since s/he has a voice in the execution of his/her tasks.
• Cost Benefits. Empowering employees improves employee retention resulting to lesser
cost incurred by the organization in terms of recruiting, hiring, and training of new
employees.
• Career Development. Empowering employees provides opportunities for the employees
to develop their skills and take on greater challenges and roles in the organization.

Manager’s Roles in Empowerment

The manager’s roles in empowerment are as follows:

• Commitment. A manager consistently supports empowerment programs and reinforces them

in tangible ways.

EXAMPLE: Google offices serve free food for day and night for all employees through “Google
Cafés” which are designed to encourage interactions between employees within and across
teams, and to spark conversation about work. It is one of the initiatives of Google that targets
to increase employee satisfaction in their work environment which may eventually lead to
empowerment.

• Leadership. A manager promotes empowerment by being a consistent role model, mentor,

and trainer.

EXAMPLE: Apple company has established 400 Apple distinguished schools in 29 countries all
over the world to promote leadership and educational excellence that demonstrates Apple’s
vision for learning with technology. This shows how Apple consistently applies leadership
through empowering the next generation of leaders.
• Facilitation. A manager constantly monitors employees to ensure that they are being
empowered and acts quickly on employee recommendations.

EXAMPLE: Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon believes that it is important to empower people in
order to avoid bureaucracy in the organization. Amazon also believes in the capabilities of
individuals and small groups in their organization to make high judgement in decision-making.
Through this culture, the company was able to innovate based on employee recommendations
that bring them their success today.

Implementing Empowerment

The widely used methods in the implementation of employee empowerment are as follows:

• Brainstorming. The process requires managers to serve as facilitators in drawing out

recommendations from group members. Participants are encouraged to share ideas that would
contribute in the process improvement of the organization. In this method, all ideas are
considered valid. After all ideas have been recorded, the participants will go through the list
one item at a time, weighing the relative merits of each. The process of selection will be
repeated until the group decides on the most effective idea that would help improve the
current practices of the organization.

• Nominal Group Technique. It is a sophisticated form of brainstorming involving five (5) steps.

• Quality Circles. It is a group of employees that meets regularly for the purpose of identifying,
recommending, and making workplace improvements.

• Suggestion Boxes. This involves placing of vessels in convenient locations into which
employees may put written suggestions for the process improvement of the organization.

• Walking and Talking. It requires managers to simply walk around the workplace and solicit
inputs or suggestions from the employees for the process improvement of the organization

How to Recognize Empowered Employees

Managers may recognize empowered employees through the following comparisons:

• Waiting to be told versus taking the initiative. Empowered employees face ambiguous
situations by taking the initiative to define the problem, consider alternative solutions, and
move ahead with a solution rather than wait for an order from the management to do so.
• Seeing only problems versus seeing opportunities. Empowered employees treat problems as
opportunities for improvement, learning, and professional growth rather than complain about
the problem and do nothing.

• Accepting input at face value versus thinking critically. Empowered employees apply logic,
use reasoning, and apply their experience to challenge assumptionsrather than accept an input
without analyzation.

• Pass decisions up the line versus building consensus for solutions. Empowered employees
take the initiative to propose for solutions rather than pass the ball to the management to
make decisions.

Empowerment Errors to Avoid

The following precautions will help organizations avoid the most common empowerment
errors:

• Unclear meaning of empowerment. Managers must establish a certain level of

boundary or limitation to the employees in applying the concepts of empowerment. For
instance, employees are given the task to ensure high customer satisfaction. In doing so,
a decision must be made that would require huge amount of expenses for the company.
In this case, the decision must still be made by the management.
• Lack of training of the employees. Managers must provide training for all the
employees in the aspect of critical thinking and good decision-making. The training must
include hands-on simulations that reflect the types of situations employees are likely to
face and the types of decisions they may have to make when empowered.
• Lack of patience in the implementation of empowerment. Managers must extend
patience in the implementation of empowerment since employees need time to
develop their skills, attitudes, and perspectives in an empowered way.

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR QUALITY

Leadership for Quality

Leadership for quality is based on the philosophy that continually improving people, processes
and products will eventually increase value, productivity, service, market share, longevity,
return on investment and business expansion.

Characteristics of Quality Leaders

The characteristics possess by quality leaders are as follows:

• Sense of Purpose. Successful leaders know their areas of responsibility that will
contribute to the organization’s success.
• Self-discipline. Successful leaders avoid negative self-indulgence and inappropriate
displays of emotion such as anger.
• Honesty. Successful leaders are open and upfront with other members of the
organization and with themselves.
• Credibility. Successful leaders are consistent and fair in adhering to the same standards
of performance and behavior expected of others.
• Common Sense. Successful leaders know what is important in a given situation. They
know when to be flexible and when to be firm in making decisions.
• Stamina. Successful leaders maintain energy, endurance, and good health.
• Steadfastness. Successful leaders are committed to finish a task despite of difficulty.

Leadership Styles

A leadership style is a leader’s way of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating
people.

The leadership styles which can be observed at different organizations are as follows:

• Autocratic Leadership. It is also called directive or dictatorial leadership. Leaders who take
this approach make decisions without consulting the employees. Leaders always provide orders
and expect that employees will comply obediently.

• Democratic Leadership. It is also called consultative or consensus leadership. Leaders who

take this approach involve the employees in decision making. The leader will only make the
final decision after receiving the inputs and recommendations of team members.
• Participative Leadership. It is also known as open or non-directive leadership. Leaders who
take this approach exerts little control in the decision-making process. The leader allows the
team members to develop strategies and solutions to the problem of the organization.

• Goal-Oriented Leadership. It is also called results-based or objective-based leadership.

Leaders who take this approach ask team members to focus solely on the goals at hand. The
leader only gives attention to strategies that make a definite and measurable contribution in
accomplishing organizational goals.

• Situational Leadership. It is also known as fluid or contingency leadership. Leaders who take
this approach selects the leadership style that seems to be appropriate based on the
circumstances that exist at a given time. The leader will consider several factors like his
relationship with the employees when deciding on the best leadership style.

How to Lead Change

The following steps for change implementation is designed to help leaders systematically
overcome the various factors that inhibit organizational change:

• Develop a Change Picture. Leaders must develop a clear picture of what the organization is
going to look like after the change. They must also be able to articulate the goal of the
organization in implementing change.

• Communicate the Change Picture to Stakeholders. Leaders must deliver the change picture
in writing to ensure that everyone in the organization gets the same message. Afterwards, the
managers must organize a meeting to provide an opportunity for all the employees to ask
questions, seek clarification, state concerns, and vent feelings which is critical in order to
achieve the success of the change initiative.

• Conduct a Comprehensive Roadblock Analysis. Leaders must conduct face-to-face meetings

with the employees in order to identify all potential roadblocks that might impede
implementation of the change initiative. It is important that employees support the initiative so
they will participate in eliminating the roadblocks during the carrying out of change.

• Implement the Change. Leaders must design a plan that contains a comprehensive list of all
tasks that have to be completed, schedule and deadlines of each task, and a responsible party
assigned for each task.

• Monitor and Adjust. Leaders must closely monitor the progress of change implementation
and quickly take any action necessary to remove barriers or make some adjustments to keep
the process moving
Best Practices in Leadership

Leaders must use the following strategies in order to promote the best leadership practices:

• Keep the organization’s vision and values uppermost in your mind. Leaders must always
consider the core values and guiding principles of the organization when considering a
recommendation from a follower.

• Encourage, promote, and reinforce truth telling. Leaders must look for advisors who would
honestly tell the truth no matter what the situation is, even when faced with an issue.

• Set the right example. Leaders must lead by example in terms of being the role model of
what they profess to believe.

• Delegate duties and responsibilities. Leaders should delegate responsibilities to their

subordinates in order to ensure that all tasks will be fulfilled based on a set timeline

Leaders as Mentors

One of the best ways to help people improve is to mentor them. Mentoring can provide a
number of benefits for the employees and for the organization as a whole.

The following are the potential benefits of mentoring:

• Facilitates relationship building and improves teamwork

• Gives employees a stronger connection to the organization
• Promotes communication
• Enhances employee performance
• Improves the organization’s retention rate
• Develops the next generation of leaders
• Enhances employee job knowledge and skills

Building Effective Teams

In order to build an effective team, leaders must follow the necessary steps below:

1. Establish leadership. Team leaders must exercise their leadership skills by promoting
honesty and transparency in the workplace as the foundation in building a team.

2. Establish relationships with each employee. Team leaders must identify the potential team
members by assessing the skill set of the employees. This will help team leaders match each
employee’s expertise and competencies to specific problems, which will help increase
employee’s productivity and job satisfaction.

3. Build relationships among employees. Team leaders must examine the collaboration of
team members and must support in the improvement of communication, cooperation, and
trust among the team. This will help minimize conflicts among team members.

4. Foster teamwork. Team leaders must encourage team members to share information among
themselves and the wider scope of the organization. This will encourage team spirit and
cooperation among the members of the team.

5. Set ground rules for the team. Team leaders must set team policies and promote team
values in order to establish order within the group.

Characteristics that Promote Successful Teamwork

The characteristics that must be possessed by individuals in order to promote successful

teamwork are as follows:

• Selflessness. It pertains to the willingness of an individual to put the team’s interests

ahead of their own.
• Dependability. It refers to being reliable in accomplishing tasks efficiently in consistent
manner.
• Enthusiasm. It is the eagerness of an individual to accomplish tasks with team spirit.
• Responsibility. It pertains to being accountable for their actions, decisions, and
performance.
• Cooperativeness. It pertains to the ability of an individual to work together towards a
common goal.
• Resourcefulness. It is the initiative of an individual to propose ideas and find ways to
accomplish the tasks in spite of an apparent lack of resources.
• Perseverance. It pertains to the personal outlook of the people to remain positive in
overcoming obstacles that they may encounter.

Teams are Coached - Not Bossed

Managers and supervisors need to realize that members of the team must be coached and not
be bossed around. Bosses are only in-charge to plan work, provide orders, monitor programs,
and evaluate individual performances. Bosses approach the job in commanding the team and
reprimanding mistakes. Coaches are the facilitators of team development to continually
improve performance. Coaches approach the job from the perspective of leading the team in
such a way that it achieves peak performance levels on a consistent basis.

Rewarding Team and Individual Performance

The most successful compensation systems combine both individual and team pay as follows:

• Individual-based compensation. It is the fixed amount of money or the traditional

regular pay of an employee.
• Individual incentive compensation. It pertains to the additional income of an employee,
which s/he receives on top of the base pay for surpassing goals set for his/her individual
performance.
• Team-based incentive compensation. It refers to the additional income received by
employees on top of other company benefits for hitting a goal set for team
performance.
• Non-monetary rewards. It pertains to other tangible rewards that employees receive
apart from money like movie tickets, gift certificates, concert tickets, airline tickets, and
electronic or household products among others.
• Intangible rewards. It pertains to the rewards that employees receive in the form of
recognition and appreciation for a good performance. The recognition strategies include
creating a “Wall of Fame” in the office to honor outstanding performance, designating
the best parking space in the lot for the “Employee of the Month,” and publicly
acknowledging the efforts of the employee.

Recognizing Inhibitors of Communication

The most common inhibitors of effective communication are as follows:

• Differences in meaning. It can cause problems in communication because people have

different backgrounds, levels of education, and cultures. As a result, words, gestures,
and facial expressions could have different meanings to different people.
• EXAMPLE: In the Philippines, a headshake is a sign of disagreement, and a nod is a sign
of agreement while in India, a headshake during a conversation is a sign of agreement
and a nod is a sign of disagreement to a particular condition.
• Lack of Trust. It can cause problems in communication when receivers do not trust
senders because they may be overly sensitive and guarded. As a result, they might
concentrate so hard on reading between the lines and looking for hidden agendas that
they miss the message.
 • EXAMPLE: An employee has a history of making up stories every time he will be absent
for work. In return, the next time the employee will not be able to report to work, his
boss would assume that he is lying even if he is already telling the truth.
• Premature judgments. It can cause problems in communication when either the sender
or the receiver makes premature judgement. As a result, they will not be able to
maintain an open mind and will stop listening at the point after they make the
judgment.
• EXAMPLE: A student is reporting a topic about religion. Another student disagrees about
a point in the middle of the discussion. As result, he already stopped listening after that
point in the reporting.
• Interference. It can cause problems in communication when a simple background noise
or complex atmospheric interference with satellite communications distorts or
completely blocks out the message.
• EXAMPLE: A noise of an air conditioning unit during a classroom discussion or a weak
signal from the satellite that causes static line on a phone conversation.
• Poor listening skills. It can cause problems in communication when the sender does not
listen to the receiver and vice versa.
EXAMPLE: An employee has a habit of not listening to the details of his boss’ orders.
Consequently, the employee produces an incomplete output all the time.

Management Strategies for Interpersonal Relationships

The following are the steps that managers can take to ensure that members of the workforce
have sufficient interpersonal relations to be effective communicators:

• Recognition of the need. Managers must recognize the need for the employees to have good
interpersonal skills. Managers must include having good interpersonal skills as part of the
staffing requirements of the organization aside from the traditional technical skills and paper
credentials.

• Careful selection. Managers must carefully screen new employees to determine whether they
have interpersonal skills such as listening, patience, empathy, open-mindedness, friendliness,
ability to get along in a diverse workplace, and also to be positive agents in helping other
employees get along with each other.

• Training. Managers must initiate skills development for the employees to acquire
interpersonal skills to listen better, empathize with different types of people, and facilitate
positive interaction among fellow employees.
• Measurement and reward. Managers must consider interpersonal skills to be measured as
part of the normal performance-appraisal process in order to recognize and reward employees
with good interpersonal skills.