In both the Forrester (2000)
article and our book by Whetten and Cameron (2011) the idea of Empowerment is
looked at through ways it has succeeded and failed. Forrester states that the idea of empowerment
comes from the idea that employees could be trusted to make decisions about
their work and would even acquire knowledge in the process. Whetten and Cameron (2011) define empowerment
as the use of acquired power to give others power in order to accomplish
objectives.
Forrester (2000) talks about six
short circuits of empowerment: precipitous empowerment mandates, overreliance
on a narrow psychological concept, one-size fits all empowerment, negligence of
the needs of power sharers, piecemeal approaches, distortions of
accountability. All of these are a
result of giving away power just for the sake of it and not to people who can
handle or deserve it. Empowerments works
when the people who are being empowered have the skills necessary to use it. A company who assigns power because they are
told that is what needs to happen will ultimately not benefit from it.
Whetten and Cameron (2011) identify
three inhibitors of empowerment: attitudes about subordinates, personal
insecurities and a need for control. All
three of these causes are directly related to a feeling held by a manager not
actual performance of employees. They
also point to insecurities in the managers about their own abilities, if they
are unable to let go of power and acknowledge that subordinates are capable of
more then they need to look at themselves and ask why.
To counter balance the six short
circuits of empowerment, Forrester (2000) offers the six channels to higher
voltage empowerment: enlarge power, be sure of what you want to do,
differentiate among employees, support power sharers, build fitting systems,
focus on results. In all six of these
elements the employee is the focus, they aren’t just generic blanket
rules. Once managers recognize each
employee’s strengths they can delegate accordingly. This will have a much higher success rate
overall.
Similarly, Whetten and Cameron
(2011) have nine principles for developing empowerment: articulating a clear
vision or goal, fostering personal mastery, modeling, providing support,
creating emotional arousal, providing necessary information, providing
necessary resources, connecting to outcomes and creating confidence. These principles are all about teaching the
employee how to handle and use power to their advantage. When you give people the tools and knowledge
to be successful they can learn how to grow and become a better employee.
Empowerment is about employees not managers;
it is about wanting employees to be capable of making decisions and handling
responsibilities. If empowerment is
looked at as a program needing to be implemented rather than an chance for
success it can go badly. When it is
looked at as an opportunity to broaden horizons it can be helpful as well as
meaningful. Empowerment is really all
about what you make of it, the more you put in the more you will get out. I have been in situations where people have
been given power simply because a spot needed to be filled, this did not end
well as the person assigned was not ready to take on the responsibility. I have also seen a situation where a manger
took the time to groom an employee until they were ready and then gave them the
opportunity to move up. This was a very
rewarding experience for both the employee and the manager.
Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent
idea. Academy of
Management Perspectives, 14(3), 67-80.
Whetten, D.A., & Cameron, K.S. (2011).
Developing management skills (8th ed).
Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
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