EMPOWERMENT

AND PARTICIPATION
introductio
Why do we need empowerment?
n
…to get rid of LOW SELF-EFFICACY...

Most organizations have employees or departments who are

dependent on others and their own efforts will have little
impact on performance.
The feeling of powerlessness contributes to the
experience of low self-efficacy (the feeling of people
that they cannot successfully perform their jobs or
make meaningful contribution)
 The nature of Empowerment and Participation
What is Empowerment
A.is any process that provides greater autonomy to employee through the
sharing of relevant information and the provision of control over
factors affecting job performance
B.helps removes the condition that cause powerlessness while enhancing
employee feelings of self-efficacy
C.authorizes employees to cope with situations and enables them to take control of
problems as they arises.

5 Broad Approaches to Empowerment

1.Helping employees achieve MASTERY

2.Allowing more control
3.Providing successful role models
4.Using social reinforcement and persuasion
5.Giving emotional support
What is Participation
It is the mental and emotional involvement of people in group situations that
encourages them to contribute to the group and share responsibility for them.

3 Elements of Participation
a.Involvement
b.Contribution
c.Responsibility
Involvement - Participation means meaningful (ego) involvement rather than mere muscular
activity, where persons who participates is ego-involved instead of merely task involved.

Contribution - People are empowered to release their own resources of initiative and creativity
towards the organization’s objective.

Responsibility - Participation encourages people to accept responsibility in their group

activities.
The Impact on Managerial Power

Leader - Member Exchange

- participation is a sharing process between managers and employee
- built upon leader-member exchange model of leadership
- leader selectively delegates, informs, consults...subordinate contributes to task performance

Two Views of Power

- increases power both managers and their employees
Contingency Factors
- influence the success of participative programs

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE - NEEDS - RESPONSIBILITY

A.Intelligence
- which is the combination of two personal abilities (self-awareness and self-management) and two social
competencies (social-awareness and relationship management)
- combination of abilities - to be aware of and understand one’s own
feelings , to realize why one is feeling that way, and to manage
one’s emotions effectively
- it uses leader’s empathy, compassion, optimism, humor, integrity,
caring and persuasiveness to build the kind of relationship
with employees
B.Differing Employee Needs for Participation
- Some employees desire more participation than others
- educated and higher-level workers often seek more participation
- the difference between an employee’s desire and actual participation gives measures of the potential
effectiveness of participation
“participatively deprived” - under participation
“participatively saturated” - over participation
C.3 Responsibilities of Employees and Managers
-the degree to which all employee recognize that the opportunities provided are accompanied by a set of
responsibilities
Programs for Participation
A.Suggestion Programs
- formal plans to invite individual employees to recommend work improvements
- limited to individual initiative instead of group problem solving

B.Quality Emphasis
Quality Circles
- voluntary groups that receive training in statistical techniques and problem solving skills to improve productivity and
working conditions
- the group meets regularly and generates solutions
TQM - Total Quality Management
- an approach which get s employee involved in the process of searching for continuous improvement
- Employees are provided with extensive training in problem solving, group decision making and statistical
method.

C.Managing Teams
- natural work groups that are given a large degree of decision-making autonomy

D.Employee Ownership Plans

- employees provides the capital to purchase control of an existing operation

E.Flexible Work Arrangement

Benefits of Participation

- brings higher output and a better quality of output

- tends to improve motivation because employees feel more accepted and involved
- established better communication as a people mutually discuss work problems

Limitations of Participation

Forces affecting the lesser use of Participation

A.Theory X belief by managers
B.Lack of support from higher level
C.Managerial fear of lost - in power, status and control
D.Lack of adequate training for managers and employees
E.Problems encountered in early stages
F.Substantial efforts needed to implement
The new Roles of Managers

As Stewards - where they serves as caretakers, guardians and developers

As Servants - where in servant leadership they are placing the needs of others above one’s own self interest.

Servant leaders’ key behaviour

1.They listen actively
2.They treat others with respect
3.They seek to engage in dialogue and often paraphrase to
ensure understanding
4.They affirm the worth and contributions of each participant
5.They are willing to admit mistakes and ask for help
6.They build trust by articulating values and acting
consistently with them
7.They place great emphasis on helping other people succeed
 Thank
your
presented by: RT Gepayo