friends can anybody help me by providing necessary information about employee empowerment so that i can present it before class plz thanking u sanil
From India, Mangaluru
1From India, Mangaluru
hi sunil,
Empowerment must be provided to those who have proved themselves in the organisation and or if appropriated training has been provided to the person. When you give more freedom to your employees, you enable to think for themselves and to be more creative, more enthusiastic and more productive. Employees also feel that the org. trusts them.
Important
"Given the speed with which org are expected to be responsive in todays environments, org will increasingly need to empower their employees and not just delegate".
with employee expectation rising and the young work force ready to take on the onslaughts of the corporate word, empowerment it here to stay"
stronger leadership and accountability is demanded in an org that seeks to empower employees.
Limitation
when given freedom to do worker it finds their way can be risky and there will be failures.
workers want more freedom and flexibility and they expect their managers to link arm in arm it is some time very harmful
workers misusing of powers and some mistakes are creating .
employee empowerment is ver vast study.....best luck
Altaf Sayyed
From India, Pune
Empowerment must be provided to those who have proved themselves in the organisation and or if appropriated training has been provided to the person. When you give more freedom to your employees, you enable to think for themselves and to be more creative, more enthusiastic and more productive. Employees also feel that the org. trusts them.
Important
"Given the speed with which org are expected to be responsive in todays environments, org will increasingly need to empower their employees and not just delegate".
with employee expectation rising and the young work force ready to take on the onslaughts of the corporate word, empowerment it here to stay"
stronger leadership and accountability is demanded in an org that seeks to empower employees.
Limitation
when given freedom to do worker it finds their way can be risky and there will be failures.
workers want more freedom and flexibility and they expect their managers to link arm in arm it is some time very harmful
workers misusing of powers and some mistakes are creating .
employee empowerment is ver vast study.....best luck
Altaf Sayyed
From India, Pune
SANDEEP,
HERE ARE SOME USEFUL MATERIAL.
EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT
Employee empowerment is a term used to express the ways in which non-managerial staff can make autonomous decisions without consulting a boss/manager. These self-willed decisions can be small or large depending upon the degree of power with which the company wishes to invest employees. Employee empowerment can begin with training and converting a whole company to an empowerment model. Conversely it may merely mean giving employees the ability to make some decisions on their own.
The thinking behind employee empowerment is that it gives power to the individual and thus makes for happier employees. By offering employees choice and participation on a more responsible level, the employees are more invested in their company, and view themselves as a representative of such.
For employee empowerment to work successfully, the management team must be truly committed to allowing employees to make decisions. They may wish to define the scope of decisions made. Building decision-making teams is often one of the models used in employee empowerment, because it allows for managers and workers to contribute ideas toward directing the company.
Autocratic managers, who are micromanagers, tend not to be able to utilize employee empowerment. These types of managers tend to oversee all aspects of others’ work, and usually will not give up control. A manager dedicated to employee empowerment must be willing to give up control of some aspects of work production.
When employees feel as though they have choice and can make direct decisions, this does often lead to a greater feeling of self-worth. In a model where power is closely tied to sense of self, having some power is a valuable thing. An employee who does not feel constantly watched and criticized is more likely to consider work as a positive environment, rather than a negative one.
One easy way to begin employee empowerment in the workplace is to install a suggestion box, where workers can make suggestions without fear of punishment or retribution. However, simply placing a suggestion box somewhere is only the first step. Managers must then be willing to read and consider suggestions. They might provide a forum where questions or suggestions receive a response, like a weekly or monthly newsletter. In addition, managers can hold a once monthly meeting open to employees where all suggestions are addressed.
At least some suggestions have to be approved in order for employees to feel that they are having some impact on their company. Failure to approve or implement any suggestions reinforces that all the power belongs to the managers and not the workers. Employee empowerment of any form can only work when managers are willing to be open to new ideas and strategies. If no such willingness exists, employee empowerment is likely to be non-existent.
================================================== =====
When Employee Empowerment Does Not Work
Empowerment must be carefully planned and implemented so as not to lose its focus of value creation for the customer. It can be a victim of the very problems that made it desirable in the beginning . Some of the internal and external threats encountered to a successful achievement of empowerment are briefly described below:
Internal threats due to inadequate assumptions, knowledge and attitudes
Conflicts may emerge between employees and managers when defining power. The decision-making authority expected by employees might not be the same one managers are willing to accept. Employees could stop the efforts, lose interest and become cynical.
Managers might not be willing to give up the necessary power. They can oppose empowerment because they can see it as a loss of authority and less job satisfaction.
Employees might resist empowerment. Some may not be comfortable with taking new responsibilities. They prefer to depend on the decisions of others. They might refuse to ``get with the program.''
Managers might assume that employees already have the required skills to start a good empowerment program. To fully train employees to be able to make their own decisions could be time consuming and expensive, which could be considered large barriers to fast success.
Impatience will also not help. The efforts could take long to show results and could burn up important resources.
External threats due to unexpected circumstances
Reductions in the workforce. Sometimes economic and competitive environments call for a labor force cutback. This could then be used as an excuse not to implement empowerment.
Changing senior management. Empowerment efforts could be injured if any new senior manager is about to take office. Even though everything might be running smoothly, new senior leaders have a tendency to move things around.
Mergers and acquisitions. These types of company ``mixtures'' can always threat empowerment. Both organizations will not always come to the integration process with the same degrees of programs implemented. A lot of changes can take place to make a uniform empowerment process .
================================================== ====================================
Employee Empowerment.
Employee empowerment is a two sided coin. For employees to be empowered the management leadership must want and believe that employee empowerment makes good business sense and employees must act. Let us be clear about one thing immediately, employee empowerment does not mean that management no longer has the responsibility to lead the organization and is not responsible for performance. If anything the opposite is true. Stronger leadership and accountability is demanded in an organization that seeks to empower employees. This starts with the executive leadership, through all management levels and includes front line supervisors. It is only when the entire organization is willing to work as a team that the real benefits of employee empowerment are realized.
For an organization to practice and foster employee empowerment the management must trust and communicate with employees. Employee communication is one of the strongest signs of employee empowerment. Honest and repeated communication from elements of the strategic plan, key performance indicators, financial performance, down to daily decision making.
If an organization has not be actively cultivating employee empowerment, it may take considerable time and effort before employees start to respond. Often the first efforts and communications are met with employee derision and mockery. Those who are only interested in trying the latest management fad will give up when met with this response. A good rule of thumb for communications to employees is to enumerate what management considers adequate and then multiple by a factor of ten. When considering employee understanding and acceptance of decisions consider how long it takes for the management team to discuss and then make a decision. Allow several multiples of this time for employees to think about the issue.
For management wanting employee empowerment the evidence will not come across the board with wide spread acceptance. A small number will accept the invitation to become more involved, say 3-5 per cent. The rest will be watching every move to see what happens. Every communication, decision and action by management will be viewed as either supporting a move to employee empowerment or not. Probably nothing demonstrates the commitment or lack of commitment to employee empowerment more than promotions and selection for leadership positions. Employees know those that attempt to “shine up while dumping down”.
For an organization to enjoy the returns from employee empowerment the leadership must diligently work to create the work environment where it is obvious to all that employee empowerment is desired, wanted and cultivated. Management’s responsibility is to create the environment for employee empowerment.
When organizational leadership has started to take actions to encourage employee empowerment it is then up to the employees to decided if they wish to take advantage of the opportunity or not. It is not unusual for only a small minority to accept the challenge initially. Also it is very likely that some fraction will never respond. It is the large middle group that must be convinced to practice employee empowerment.
Most organizations have exactly the level of employee empowerment the management wants. This is demonstrated by the amount of communications, level of training provided employees, opportunities for personal growth, the solicitation and implementation of ideas, the recognition and reward system, promotion and advancement criteria, and uncountable little signals from management that demonstrate whether employees are valued or not.
Unless there is employee motivation to accept and act on the opportunities little will change.
Employee empowerment is evidenced by working with a project team to understand the changes coming out of the project. Being a participant using improvements found by others is a form of empowerment.
Employee can demonstrate empowerment by suggesting areas or processes that might be candidates for a project. Part of employee empowerment is the recognition by management that often people who most know of pressing needs for improvement are those who have to work in the process.
Employee empowerment can take the form of being asked to bring expert knowledge to projects. Even if not a full time member of the project team the fact that competence and first hand experience are valued and an employee is willing to help demonstrates a level of empowerment.
One of the strongest signs from employees is when they take the lead to advance their skills and knowledge with education and training either provided by the organization or outside the organization.
Management has the obligation to create the environment that fosters employee empowerment, employees have the duty to accept the opportunity and demonstrate they are willing and capable.
Empowerment is based on the belief that employees have the ability to take on more responsibility and authority than traditionally has been given to them, and that heightened productivity and a better quality of work life will result.
Different words and phrases are used to define empowerment, but most are variations on a theme: to provide employees with the means for making influential decisions.
Empowerment means different things in different organizations, based on culture and work design. However, empowerment is based on the concepts of job enlargement and job enrichment.
Job enlargement: Changing the scope of the job to include a greater portion of the horizontal process.
Example: A bank teller not only handles deposits and disbursement, but also distributes traveler's checks and sells certificates of deposit.
Job enrichment: Increasing the depth of the job to include responsibilities that have traditionally been carried out at higher levels of the organization.
Example: The teller also has the authority to help a client fill out a loan application, and to determine whether or not to approve the loan.
As these examples show, empowerment of employees will require:
Training in the skills necessary to carry out the additional responsibilities.
Access to information on which decisions can be made.
Initiative and confidence on the part of the employee to take on greater responsibility.
Empowerment also means giving up some of the power traditionally held by management, which means managers also must take on new roles, knowledge and responsibilities.
It does not mean that management relinquishes all authority, totally delegates decision-making and allows operations to run without accountability. It requires a significant investment of time and effort to develop mutual trust, assess and add to individuals' capabilities and develop clear agreements about roles, responsibilities, risk taking and boundaries.
What does an empowered organizational structure look like?
Empowerment often also calls for restructuring the organization to reduce levels of the hierarchy or to provide a more customer- and process-focused organization.
Empowerment is often viewed as an inverted triangle of organizational power. In the traditional view, management is at the top while customers are on the bottom; in an empowered environment, customers are at the top while management is in a support role at the bottom.
================================================== =====
SOME SIMPLE STEPPED UP APPROACH TO EMPOWERMENT
STEP 1
A. Provide Employee tools that empower employees
to manage their own career paths and professional development.
THIS STEP works because employees are motivated to update their own information regularly—whether they have just completed a project or a course of study. They know that they receive something valuable in return: real-time feedback on their individual employability, career options, training and development resources.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEP 2
B. Motivate and Innovate employees skills/knowledge.
1. Easily update their professional information any time—in minutes—to tell the company about their new skills, projects, career expectations, ideas and outside activities.
2. Automatically receive suggestions for additional career development, future jobs and roles on projects matching their updated skill sets.
3. Review their skill fits and gaps for target positions.
4. Find training resources to cover gaps and meet actual business needs.
5. Explore career paths and apply for posted job openings.
6. Access personal progress reports on their employability and contributions to business needs.
THIS STEP works because it’s simple and user-friendly, requiring almost no time or effort from employees.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEP 3
* Up-to-date usable employee data at no extra cost.
• Insight on what drives employee career and training decisions.
• Proactive and visible talent management across the organization.
• Opportunities to match the individual career aspirations with business needs
THIS STEP helps employees gain a sense of control. They manage their own data directly and gain an unprecedented view on possible career paths.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEP 4
Integrate new hires quickly so they become productive right away.
• Help new employees develop any critical skills they lack.
• Stay in touch with new employees through career management tools
STEP Employee provides the company with
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employee Empowerment
Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one's own destiny.
When thinking about empowerment in human relations terms, try to avoid thinking of it as something that one individual does for another. This is one of the problems organizations have experienced with the concept of empowerment. People think that "someone," usually the manager, has to bestow empowerment on the people who report to him.
Consequently, the reporting staff members "wait" for the bestowing of empowerment, and the manager asks why people won't act in empowered ways. This led to a general unhappiness, mostly undeserved, with the concept of empowerment in many organizations.
Think of empowerment, instead, as the process of an individual enabling himself to take action and control work and decision making in autonomous ways.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Empowerment comes from the individual.
The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment which helps foster the ability and desire of employees to act in empowered ways. The work organization has the responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in empowered ways.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employee involvement and participative management are often used to mean empowerment. They are not really interchangeable.
The Credo of an Empowering Manager
Looking for real management advice about people? Your goal is
-to create a work environment in which people are empowered, productive, contributing, and happy.
-Don't hobble them by limiting their tools or information.
-Trust them to do the right thing.
-Get out of their way and watch them catch fire.
================================================== =====
These are the ten most important principles for managing people in a way that reinforces employee empowerment, accomplishment, and contribution. These management actions enable both the people who work with you and the people who report to you to soar.
1. Demonstrate You Value People
Your regard for people shines through in all of your actions and words. Your facial expression, your body language, and your words express what you are thinking about the people who report to you. Your goal is to demonstrate your appreciation for each person's unique value. No matter how an employee is performing on their current task, your value for the employee as a human being should never falter and always be visible.
2. Share Leadership Vision
Help people feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves and their individual job. Do this by making sure they know and have access to the organization's overall mission, vision, and strategic plans.
3. Share Goals and Direction
Share the most important goals and direction for your group. Where possible, either make progress on goals measurable and observable, or ascertain that you have shared your picture of a positive outcome with the people responsible for accomplishing the results.
4. Trust People
Trust the intentions of people to do the right thing, make the right decision, and make choices that, while maybe not exactly what you would decide, still work.
5. Provide Information for Decision Making
Make certain that you have given people, or made sure that they have access to, all of the information they need to make thoughtful decisions.
6. Delegate Authority and Impact Opportunities, Not Just More Work
Don't just delegate the drudge work; delegate some of the fun stuff, too. You know, delegate the important meetings, the committee memberships that influence product development and decision making, and the projects that people and customers notice. The employee will grow and develop new skills. Your plate will be less full so you can concentrate on contribution. Your reporting staff will gratefully shine - and so will you.
7. Provide Frequent Feedback
Provide frequent feedback so that people know how they are doing. Sometimes, the purpose of feedback is reward and recognition. People deserve your constructive feedback, too, so they can continue to develop their knowledge and skills.
8. Solve Problems: Don't Pinpoint Problem People
When a problem occurs, ask what is wrong with the work system that caused the people to fail, not what is wrong with the people. Worst case response to problems? Seek to identify and punish the guilty. (Thank you, Dr. Deming.)
9. Listen to Learn and Ask Questions to Provide Guidance
Provide a space in which people will communicate by listening to them and asking them questions. Guide by asking questions, not by telling grown up people what to do. People generally know the right answers if they have the opportunity to produce them. When an employee brings you a problem to solve, ask, "what do you think you should do to solve this problem?" Or, ask, "what action steps do you recommend?" Employees can demonstrate what they know and grow in the process.
10. Help Employees Feel Rewarded and Recognized for Empowered Behavior
When employees feel under-compensated, under-titled for the responsibilities they take on, under-noticed, under-praised, and under-appreciated, don’t expect results from employee empowerment. The basic needs of employees must feel met for employees to give you their discretionary energy, that extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work.
================================================== ====
Why Employee Empowerment Fails
1.Managers pay lip service to empowerment, but do not really believe in its power. As with all management and business buzz words, employee empowerment can seem like a “good” thing to do. After all, well-respected management books recommend that you empower employees.
2.When you empower employees, they grow their skills and your organization benefits from their empowerment. Right. Employees know when you are serious about empowerment and when you understand and walk your talk. Half-hearted or unbelievable empowerment efforts will fail.
3.Managers don’t really understand what empowerment means. They have a vague notion that employee empowerment means you start a few teams that address workplace employee morale or safety. You ask people what they think about something at a meeting. Wrong. Employee empowerment is a philosophy or strategy that enables people to make decisions about their job.
4.Managers fail to establish boundaries for empowerment. In your absence, what decisions can be made by staff members? What decisions can employees make day-by-day that they do not need to have permission or oversight to make? These boundaries must be defined or employee empowerment efforts fail.
5.Managers have defined the decision making authority and boundaries with staff, but then micromanage the work of employees. This is usually because managers don’t trust staff to make good decisions. Staff members know this and either craftily make decisions on their own and hide their results or they come to you for everything because they don’t know what they really can control.
You can help staff make good decisions by coaching training, and providing necessary information. You can even model good decision making, But, what you cannot do, unless a serious complication will result, is undermine or change the decision you had empowered a staff person to make. Teach the employee to make a better decision next time. But don’t undermine their faith in their personal competence and in your trust, support, and approbation. You discourage empowerment for the future.
6.Managers need to provide growth and challenge opportunities and goals that your staff can aim for and achieve. Failure to provide a strategic framework, in which decisions have a compass and success measurements, imperils the opportunity for empowered behavior. Employees need direction to know how to practice empowerment.
7.If managers fail to provide the information and access to information, training, and learning opportunities needed for staff to make good decisions, don’t complain when empowerment efforts fall short. The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment that helps foster the ability and desire of employees to act in empowered ways.
Information is the key to successful employee empowerment.
8.Managers abdicate all responsibility and accountability for decision making. When reporting staff are blamed or punished for failures, mistakes, and less than optimum results, your employees will flee from empowerment. Or, they'll publicly identify reasons why failure was your fault, or his fault, or the other team's fault. Fail to publicly support decisions and stand behind your employees. Make staff feel deserted. You can make empowerment fail in sixty seconds. I guarantee it.
9.Allow barriers to impede the ability of staff members to practice empowered behavior. The work organization has the responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in empowered ways. These barriers can include time, tools, training, access to meetings and teams, financial resources, support from other staff members, and effective coaching.
10.When employees feel under-compensated, under-titled for the responsibilities they take on, under-noticed, under-praised, and under-appreciated, don’t expect results from employee empowerment. The basic needs of employees must feel met for employees to give you their discretionary energy, the extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work..
If you dole out more responsibility than their positions should require and cause employees to feel overworked or underpaid for the work expected, you need to make adjustments. People want empowerment, but they don’t want you to take advantage of them, nor do they want to feel as if the organization is taking advantage of them. Ensure that the responsibilities match the job, that the person is doing the job in the job description – or change it.
Employees often believe that "someone," usually the manager, has to bestow empowerment upon the people who report to him. Consequently, the reporting staff members "wait" for the bestowing of empowerment, and the manager asks why people won't act in empowered ways.
Think about employee empowerment, not as something a manager bestows on employees, but rather as a philosophy and a strategy to help people develop talents, skills, and decision making competency. This growth helps employees feel competent, capable, and successful. Competent, capable, successful people best serve your organization.
MANAGERS SHOULD avoid these ten employee empowerment traps.
================================================== ============
WHEN YOU LOOK AT EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT, YOU MUST ALSO
LOOK AT THE ORGANIZATIONAL EMPOWERMENT SIMULTANOUSLY
TO SEE THE IMPACT.
I HAVE NOT TOUCHED '' EMPOWERED ORGANIZATION'' THIS TIME.
================================================== ======
REGARDS
LEO LINGHAM
From India, Mumbai
HERE ARE SOME USEFUL MATERIAL.
EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT
Employee empowerment is a term used to express the ways in which non-managerial staff can make autonomous decisions without consulting a boss/manager. These self-willed decisions can be small or large depending upon the degree of power with which the company wishes to invest employees. Employee empowerment can begin with training and converting a whole company to an empowerment model. Conversely it may merely mean giving employees the ability to make some decisions on their own.
The thinking behind employee empowerment is that it gives power to the individual and thus makes for happier employees. By offering employees choice and participation on a more responsible level, the employees are more invested in their company, and view themselves as a representative of such.
For employee empowerment to work successfully, the management team must be truly committed to allowing employees to make decisions. They may wish to define the scope of decisions made. Building decision-making teams is often one of the models used in employee empowerment, because it allows for managers and workers to contribute ideas toward directing the company.
Autocratic managers, who are micromanagers, tend not to be able to utilize employee empowerment. These types of managers tend to oversee all aspects of others’ work, and usually will not give up control. A manager dedicated to employee empowerment must be willing to give up control of some aspects of work production.
When employees feel as though they have choice and can make direct decisions, this does often lead to a greater feeling of self-worth. In a model where power is closely tied to sense of self, having some power is a valuable thing. An employee who does not feel constantly watched and criticized is more likely to consider work as a positive environment, rather than a negative one.
One easy way to begin employee empowerment in the workplace is to install a suggestion box, where workers can make suggestions without fear of punishment or retribution. However, simply placing a suggestion box somewhere is only the first step. Managers must then be willing to read and consider suggestions. They might provide a forum where questions or suggestions receive a response, like a weekly or monthly newsletter. In addition, managers can hold a once monthly meeting open to employees where all suggestions are addressed.
At least some suggestions have to be approved in order for employees to feel that they are having some impact on their company. Failure to approve or implement any suggestions reinforces that all the power belongs to the managers and not the workers. Employee empowerment of any form can only work when managers are willing to be open to new ideas and strategies. If no such willingness exists, employee empowerment is likely to be non-existent.
================================================== =====
When Employee Empowerment Does Not Work
Empowerment must be carefully planned and implemented so as not to lose its focus of value creation for the customer. It can be a victim of the very problems that made it desirable in the beginning . Some of the internal and external threats encountered to a successful achievement of empowerment are briefly described below:
Internal threats due to inadequate assumptions, knowledge and attitudes
Conflicts may emerge between employees and managers when defining power. The decision-making authority expected by employees might not be the same one managers are willing to accept. Employees could stop the efforts, lose interest and become cynical.
Managers might not be willing to give up the necessary power. They can oppose empowerment because they can see it as a loss of authority and less job satisfaction.
Employees might resist empowerment. Some may not be comfortable with taking new responsibilities. They prefer to depend on the decisions of others. They might refuse to ``get with the program.''
Managers might assume that employees already have the required skills to start a good empowerment program. To fully train employees to be able to make their own decisions could be time consuming and expensive, which could be considered large barriers to fast success.
Impatience will also not help. The efforts could take long to show results and could burn up important resources.
External threats due to unexpected circumstances
Reductions in the workforce. Sometimes economic and competitive environments call for a labor force cutback. This could then be used as an excuse not to implement empowerment.
Changing senior management. Empowerment efforts could be injured if any new senior manager is about to take office. Even though everything might be running smoothly, new senior leaders have a tendency to move things around.
Mergers and acquisitions. These types of company ``mixtures'' can always threat empowerment. Both organizations will not always come to the integration process with the same degrees of programs implemented. A lot of changes can take place to make a uniform empowerment process .
================================================== ====================================
Employee Empowerment.
Employee empowerment is a two sided coin. For employees to be empowered the management leadership must want and believe that employee empowerment makes good business sense and employees must act. Let us be clear about one thing immediately, employee empowerment does not mean that management no longer has the responsibility to lead the organization and is not responsible for performance. If anything the opposite is true. Stronger leadership and accountability is demanded in an organization that seeks to empower employees. This starts with the executive leadership, through all management levels and includes front line supervisors. It is only when the entire organization is willing to work as a team that the real benefits of employee empowerment are realized.
For an organization to practice and foster employee empowerment the management must trust and communicate with employees. Employee communication is one of the strongest signs of employee empowerment. Honest and repeated communication from elements of the strategic plan, key performance indicators, financial performance, down to daily decision making.
If an organization has not be actively cultivating employee empowerment, it may take considerable time and effort before employees start to respond. Often the first efforts and communications are met with employee derision and mockery. Those who are only interested in trying the latest management fad will give up when met with this response. A good rule of thumb for communications to employees is to enumerate what management considers adequate and then multiple by a factor of ten. When considering employee understanding and acceptance of decisions consider how long it takes for the management team to discuss and then make a decision. Allow several multiples of this time for employees to think about the issue.
For management wanting employee empowerment the evidence will not come across the board with wide spread acceptance. A small number will accept the invitation to become more involved, say 3-5 per cent. The rest will be watching every move to see what happens. Every communication, decision and action by management will be viewed as either supporting a move to employee empowerment or not. Probably nothing demonstrates the commitment or lack of commitment to employee empowerment more than promotions and selection for leadership positions. Employees know those that attempt to “shine up while dumping down”.
For an organization to enjoy the returns from employee empowerment the leadership must diligently work to create the work environment where it is obvious to all that employee empowerment is desired, wanted and cultivated. Management’s responsibility is to create the environment for employee empowerment.
When organizational leadership has started to take actions to encourage employee empowerment it is then up to the employees to decided if they wish to take advantage of the opportunity or not. It is not unusual for only a small minority to accept the challenge initially. Also it is very likely that some fraction will never respond. It is the large middle group that must be convinced to practice employee empowerment.
Most organizations have exactly the level of employee empowerment the management wants. This is demonstrated by the amount of communications, level of training provided employees, opportunities for personal growth, the solicitation and implementation of ideas, the recognition and reward system, promotion and advancement criteria, and uncountable little signals from management that demonstrate whether employees are valued or not.
Unless there is employee motivation to accept and act on the opportunities little will change.
Employee empowerment is evidenced by working with a project team to understand the changes coming out of the project. Being a participant using improvements found by others is a form of empowerment.
Employee can demonstrate empowerment by suggesting areas or processes that might be candidates for a project. Part of employee empowerment is the recognition by management that often people who most know of pressing needs for improvement are those who have to work in the process.
Employee empowerment can take the form of being asked to bring expert knowledge to projects. Even if not a full time member of the project team the fact that competence and first hand experience are valued and an employee is willing to help demonstrates a level of empowerment.
One of the strongest signs from employees is when they take the lead to advance their skills and knowledge with education and training either provided by the organization or outside the organization.
Management has the obligation to create the environment that fosters employee empowerment, employees have the duty to accept the opportunity and demonstrate they are willing and capable.
Empowerment is based on the belief that employees have the ability to take on more responsibility and authority than traditionally has been given to them, and that heightened productivity and a better quality of work life will result.
Different words and phrases are used to define empowerment, but most are variations on a theme: to provide employees with the means for making influential decisions.
Empowerment means different things in different organizations, based on culture and work design. However, empowerment is based on the concepts of job enlargement and job enrichment.
Job enlargement: Changing the scope of the job to include a greater portion of the horizontal process.
Example: A bank teller not only handles deposits and disbursement, but also distributes traveler's checks and sells certificates of deposit.
Job enrichment: Increasing the depth of the job to include responsibilities that have traditionally been carried out at higher levels of the organization.
Example: The teller also has the authority to help a client fill out a loan application, and to determine whether or not to approve the loan.
As these examples show, empowerment of employees will require:
Training in the skills necessary to carry out the additional responsibilities.
Access to information on which decisions can be made.
Initiative and confidence on the part of the employee to take on greater responsibility.
Empowerment also means giving up some of the power traditionally held by management, which means managers also must take on new roles, knowledge and responsibilities.
It does not mean that management relinquishes all authority, totally delegates decision-making and allows operations to run without accountability. It requires a significant investment of time and effort to develop mutual trust, assess and add to individuals' capabilities and develop clear agreements about roles, responsibilities, risk taking and boundaries.
What does an empowered organizational structure look like?
Empowerment often also calls for restructuring the organization to reduce levels of the hierarchy or to provide a more customer- and process-focused organization.
Empowerment is often viewed as an inverted triangle of organizational power. In the traditional view, management is at the top while customers are on the bottom; in an empowered environment, customers are at the top while management is in a support role at the bottom.
================================================== =====
SOME SIMPLE STEPPED UP APPROACH TO EMPOWERMENT
STEP 1
A. Provide Employee tools that empower employees
to manage their own career paths and professional development.
THIS STEP works because employees are motivated to update their own information regularly—whether they have just completed a project or a course of study. They know that they receive something valuable in return: real-time feedback on their individual employability, career options, training and development resources.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEP 2
B. Motivate and Innovate employees skills/knowledge.
1. Easily update their professional information any time—in minutes—to tell the company about their new skills, projects, career expectations, ideas and outside activities.
2. Automatically receive suggestions for additional career development, future jobs and roles on projects matching their updated skill sets.
3. Review their skill fits and gaps for target positions.
4. Find training resources to cover gaps and meet actual business needs.
5. Explore career paths and apply for posted job openings.
6. Access personal progress reports on their employability and contributions to business needs.
THIS STEP works because it’s simple and user-friendly, requiring almost no time or effort from employees.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEP 3
* Up-to-date usable employee data at no extra cost.
• Insight on what drives employee career and training decisions.
• Proactive and visible talent management across the organization.
• Opportunities to match the individual career aspirations with business needs
THIS STEP helps employees gain a sense of control. They manage their own data directly and gain an unprecedented view on possible career paths.
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STEP 4
Integrate new hires quickly so they become productive right away.
• Help new employees develop any critical skills they lack.
• Stay in touch with new employees through career management tools
STEP Employee provides the company with
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Employee Empowerment
Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one's own destiny.
When thinking about empowerment in human relations terms, try to avoid thinking of it as something that one individual does for another. This is one of the problems organizations have experienced with the concept of empowerment. People think that "someone," usually the manager, has to bestow empowerment on the people who report to him.
Consequently, the reporting staff members "wait" for the bestowing of empowerment, and the manager asks why people won't act in empowered ways. This led to a general unhappiness, mostly undeserved, with the concept of empowerment in many organizations.
Think of empowerment, instead, as the process of an individual enabling himself to take action and control work and decision making in autonomous ways.
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Empowerment comes from the individual.
The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment which helps foster the ability and desire of employees to act in empowered ways. The work organization has the responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in empowered ways.
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Employee involvement and participative management are often used to mean empowerment. They are not really interchangeable.
The Credo of an Empowering Manager
Looking for real management advice about people? Your goal is
-to create a work environment in which people are empowered, productive, contributing, and happy.
-Don't hobble them by limiting their tools or information.
-Trust them to do the right thing.
-Get out of their way and watch them catch fire.
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These are the ten most important principles for managing people in a way that reinforces employee empowerment, accomplishment, and contribution. These management actions enable both the people who work with you and the people who report to you to soar.
1. Demonstrate You Value People
Your regard for people shines through in all of your actions and words. Your facial expression, your body language, and your words express what you are thinking about the people who report to you. Your goal is to demonstrate your appreciation for each person's unique value. No matter how an employee is performing on their current task, your value for the employee as a human being should never falter and always be visible.
2. Share Leadership Vision
Help people feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves and their individual job. Do this by making sure they know and have access to the organization's overall mission, vision, and strategic plans.
3. Share Goals and Direction
Share the most important goals and direction for your group. Where possible, either make progress on goals measurable and observable, or ascertain that you have shared your picture of a positive outcome with the people responsible for accomplishing the results.
4. Trust People
Trust the intentions of people to do the right thing, make the right decision, and make choices that, while maybe not exactly what you would decide, still work.
5. Provide Information for Decision Making
Make certain that you have given people, or made sure that they have access to, all of the information they need to make thoughtful decisions.
6. Delegate Authority and Impact Opportunities, Not Just More Work
Don't just delegate the drudge work; delegate some of the fun stuff, too. You know, delegate the important meetings, the committee memberships that influence product development and decision making, and the projects that people and customers notice. The employee will grow and develop new skills. Your plate will be less full so you can concentrate on contribution. Your reporting staff will gratefully shine - and so will you.
7. Provide Frequent Feedback
Provide frequent feedback so that people know how they are doing. Sometimes, the purpose of feedback is reward and recognition. People deserve your constructive feedback, too, so they can continue to develop their knowledge and skills.
8. Solve Problems: Don't Pinpoint Problem People
When a problem occurs, ask what is wrong with the work system that caused the people to fail, not what is wrong with the people. Worst case response to problems? Seek to identify and punish the guilty. (Thank you, Dr. Deming.)
9. Listen to Learn and Ask Questions to Provide Guidance
Provide a space in which people will communicate by listening to them and asking them questions. Guide by asking questions, not by telling grown up people what to do. People generally know the right answers if they have the opportunity to produce them. When an employee brings you a problem to solve, ask, "what do you think you should do to solve this problem?" Or, ask, "what action steps do you recommend?" Employees can demonstrate what they know and grow in the process.
10. Help Employees Feel Rewarded and Recognized for Empowered Behavior
When employees feel under-compensated, under-titled for the responsibilities they take on, under-noticed, under-praised, and under-appreciated, don’t expect results from employee empowerment. The basic needs of employees must feel met for employees to give you their discretionary energy, that extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work.
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Why Employee Empowerment Fails
1.Managers pay lip service to empowerment, but do not really believe in its power. As with all management and business buzz words, employee empowerment can seem like a “good” thing to do. After all, well-respected management books recommend that you empower employees.
2.When you empower employees, they grow their skills and your organization benefits from their empowerment. Right. Employees know when you are serious about empowerment and when you understand and walk your talk. Half-hearted or unbelievable empowerment efforts will fail.
3.Managers don’t really understand what empowerment means. They have a vague notion that employee empowerment means you start a few teams that address workplace employee morale or safety. You ask people what they think about something at a meeting. Wrong. Employee empowerment is a philosophy or strategy that enables people to make decisions about their job.
4.Managers fail to establish boundaries for empowerment. In your absence, what decisions can be made by staff members? What decisions can employees make day-by-day that they do not need to have permission or oversight to make? These boundaries must be defined or employee empowerment efforts fail.
5.Managers have defined the decision making authority and boundaries with staff, but then micromanage the work of employees. This is usually because managers don’t trust staff to make good decisions. Staff members know this and either craftily make decisions on their own and hide their results or they come to you for everything because they don’t know what they really can control.
You can help staff make good decisions by coaching training, and providing necessary information. You can even model good decision making, But, what you cannot do, unless a serious complication will result, is undermine or change the decision you had empowered a staff person to make. Teach the employee to make a better decision next time. But don’t undermine their faith in their personal competence and in your trust, support, and approbation. You discourage empowerment for the future.
6.Managers need to provide growth and challenge opportunities and goals that your staff can aim for and achieve. Failure to provide a strategic framework, in which decisions have a compass and success measurements, imperils the opportunity for empowered behavior. Employees need direction to know how to practice empowerment.
7.If managers fail to provide the information and access to information, training, and learning opportunities needed for staff to make good decisions, don’t complain when empowerment efforts fall short. The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment that helps foster the ability and desire of employees to act in empowered ways.
Information is the key to successful employee empowerment.
8.Managers abdicate all responsibility and accountability for decision making. When reporting staff are blamed or punished for failures, mistakes, and less than optimum results, your employees will flee from empowerment. Or, they'll publicly identify reasons why failure was your fault, or his fault, or the other team's fault. Fail to publicly support decisions and stand behind your employees. Make staff feel deserted. You can make empowerment fail in sixty seconds. I guarantee it.
9.Allow barriers to impede the ability of staff members to practice empowered behavior. The work organization has the responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in empowered ways. These barriers can include time, tools, training, access to meetings and teams, financial resources, support from other staff members, and effective coaching.
10.When employees feel under-compensated, under-titled for the responsibilities they take on, under-noticed, under-praised, and under-appreciated, don’t expect results from employee empowerment. The basic needs of employees must feel met for employees to give you their discretionary energy, the extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work..
If you dole out more responsibility than their positions should require and cause employees to feel overworked or underpaid for the work expected, you need to make adjustments. People want empowerment, but they don’t want you to take advantage of them, nor do they want to feel as if the organization is taking advantage of them. Ensure that the responsibilities match the job, that the person is doing the job in the job description – or change it.
Employees often believe that "someone," usually the manager, has to bestow empowerment upon the people who report to him. Consequently, the reporting staff members "wait" for the bestowing of empowerment, and the manager asks why people won't act in empowered ways.
Think about employee empowerment, not as something a manager bestows on employees, but rather as a philosophy and a strategy to help people develop talents, skills, and decision making competency. This growth helps employees feel competent, capable, and successful. Competent, capable, successful people best serve your organization.
MANAGERS SHOULD avoid these ten employee empowerment traps.
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WHEN YOU LOOK AT EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT, YOU MUST ALSO
LOOK AT THE ORGANIZATIONAL EMPOWERMENT SIMULTANOUSLY
TO SEE THE IMPACT.
I HAVE NOT TOUCHED '' EMPOWERED ORGANIZATION'' THIS TIME.
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REGARDS
LEO LINGHAM
From India, Mumbai
Generally, people are a firm’s most underutilized resource. And that is why management tries to empower the employees. But employees often are afraid of taking this responsibility.
providing the authority and power to the employees to its the work task decision without asking the seniors.
From India, Gurgaon
providing the authority and power to the employees to its the work task decision without asking the seniors.
From India, Gurgaon
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Employee Empowerment.ppt
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