Employee empowerment, an effective tool to unlock the potential of employees

Research Project Report

Submitted to

Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of

Master of Business Administration

Prepared by: Training Supervisor:

Purnima Singh Mrs. Neetu Singh
MBA 3rd Semester (Senior Lecturer)
Roll Number: 1404070030 Department of Business Administration
Enrollment No.

2015-16

Department of Business Administration

Technical Education & Research Institute
Post-Graduate College, Ghazipur 233001 (U.P.)
 Certificate

This is to certify that Purnima Singh, pursuing MBA 4thSemester

from this institute, has prepared the research Project Report
entitled Employee empowerment, an effective tool to unlock
the potential of employees in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the degree of Master of Business Administration
from Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow, for the session
2015-2016.

This report is based on research project undertaken by Purnima

Singh Under my Supervision of during the course of fourth
semester and fulfills the requirements of regulations relating to the
nature and standard of MBA course of U.P.Technical University.

I recommended that this project report may be sent for

evaluation.

Mr. Rahul Anand Singh Dr. Neetu Singh

Asst.Professor &Head, Lecturer,
Dept. of Business Administration Dept. of Business Administration
 Declaration

I, Purnima Singh, hereby declare that this research project Report

entitled Employee empowerment, an effective tool to unlock

the potential of employees has been prepared by me on the basis

of research done during the course of my fourth semester of MBA

programme under the supervision of Miss. Fati Shafaat.

This research project report is my bona fide work and has not been

submitted in any form to any University or Institute for the award

of any degree or diploma prior to the under mentioned date. I bear

the entire responsibility of submission of this project report.

20th April 2016

Purnima Singh
MBA 4th Semester
Dept. of Business Administration
Technical Education & Research Institute
P.G.College, Ghazipur
Preface
 Acknowledgement
As a student I learn many things but unless I put all with the practical knowledge as to

how things really work and what are the problems generally arise, I can not expect to be

an efficient MBA. So I think summer project is an indispensable part of the course.

The project work bears the imprint of several persons. I have a deep sense of gratitude

and honour toward them. First of all I would like to pay my gratitude and thanks to Dr.

Neetu Singh, incharge training and placement of TERI, P.G.College, Ghazipur, for her

constant inspiration and encouragement whose thoughts were helpful in preparation of

the project.

Secondly, I would like to thanks Miss. Fati Shafaat, the faculty member of Technical

Education & Research Institute Ghazipur, who supported me during the completion of

research project report and gave all valuable suggestion which made my report effective

I would also like to pay my thanks to Dr. Rahul Anand Singh, H.O.D. of TERI

and also pay my thanks to the my colleagues Rekha, Shriti for helping in data collection.

Best efforts are made to cover all the aspects related to the project to provide a

complete and brief knowledge to the readers.

.
 Purnima Singh
MBA 4th Semester
Technical Education & Research Institute
P.G.College, Ghazipur.

Chapter 1

Introduction
 Introduction Empowerment
It seems that empowerment has become a dirty word, and work on empowerment has

been supplanted by engagement (which, in practical terms, has the same result).

Perhaps that is natural for anything that has been a fad, or perhaps most people do not

realize that empowerment is aimed at the bottom line as well as the employees. Both

explanations seem to work, since the same principle is still promoted, using different

kwords (e.g., "flattening the organization").

Pushing power down to the lowest possible level - that is, empowerment - is quite handy,

though. Senior executives can enjoy higher productivity and the flexibility that comes of

being able to make fast changes. Managers do not have to do it all themselves, and are

not bombarded with trivial authorizations. Employees find that their jobs are a better

match for their abilities, and are more likely to stay where they are, despite a hot job

market.

Here is why it works:

When people are given the power to make decisions and take action on their own,

managers are not constantly being called in for their authority, which saves them

time and avoids constant distraction.

 When people can take reasonable action without needing to wait for approval,

improvements take place more quickly. In addition, people are more likely to

observe problems and fix them, because they have more personal involvement.

Increased responsibility leads people to become more involved in their jobs,

which make it less likely they will move to another organization. That saves

money in several different ways - for example, by cutting back on recruiting and

training costs, and by avoiding the disruption of personnel changes. Companies

with less desirable jobs have to pay higher salaries to attract (and keep) the same

caliber of employee.

When people are involved in their jobs and invested with the power to do what

they know best, large-scale change is also more likely, because all the local, small

changes needed to support the large change are easier to implement. People can

see what needs to be done, and act accordingly.

There is lots of evidence that, when people are given clear direction, authority, and

responsibility, it usually works out well. The job enrichment literature is full of examples

of cases where, for example, having employees check and fix their own work reduces

costs and increases speed. The principles have been applied to everyone from janitors to

engineers. We refer you to the out-of-print New Perspectives in Job Enrichment for

details.

One interesting method of empowerment, which is practiced at the Toyota/GM joint

venture NUMMI (which builds Toyota Corollas), is providing employees who make

suggestions with the power to see them through. In one simple stroke, NUMMI solved
two problems - how to motivate factory workers, and how to make continuous

improvement work over the long term. After all, the problem in most change efforts is not

coming up with ideas - it's getting action.

Whatyoucando
While people tend to think employees can only be empowered by senior managers, many

of the limits on our personal power at work are caused by our own perceptions. Back

when empowerment was still a popular fad, many managers no doubt said they had tried

to empower their employees, to no avail. Since empowerment is as much a state of mind

as a structural issue, this is not surprising.

I have helped to empower many people without making a single change to their working

environment. Sometimes, it's as simple as asking what they want to do, then "why don't

you do it?" One of my most rewarding consulting experiences involved a training session

with half the members of a small organization, representing all levels from administrative

staff to upper (but not senior) management. The training (in customer service) was side-

tracked by tough questions along the lines of "I can't do anything to change it, so why are

you telling me this?" Over time, and with my facilitation, people began to realize that

they could make fundamental changes. Where the help of other people was needed, they

learned that the other people had wanted to make the same changes. Though the training

only lasted eight hours, the effects on the behavior of the participants was impressive.

People started to work together to eliminate long-standing nuisances, so they could be

more effective in their jobs.

It is ironic that professionals, who have much latitude in their work, often do not feel

empowered. Helping professionals to go to the limits of their power, to bring their

authority up to their responsibilities is both rewarding and a good way to quickly increase

the effectiveness of the organization.

What is an Employee Empowerment Tool?

Hummingbird Coaching Services is one example of an Employee Empowerment Tool.

Hummingbird offers computerized programs for keeping employees healthy and on the

job. Diet, exercise, risk management and lifestyle advice are available to employees so

they can take charge of their own health and well being needs. Hummingbird programs

(and others like it) give all the necessary information to employees so that they can make

lifestyle changes to benefit both themselves and their employers.

How can Employee Empowerment Tools Make a Difference?

Eighty-one per cent of American businesses with fifty or more employees are currently

using some form of employee empowerment tools for health care. Healthier employees

have fewer sick days and lose less time at work. Companies, large and small can only

operate if their employees are on the job. Medical insurance is expensive and can be

abused by dishonest people from all sides of a business. Employee Empowerment Tools,

on the other hand, are less expensive and very practical when it comes to maintaining a

healthy workforce. Putting employees in charge of their own well being seems to be

working for those companies who use it.

Overview
Providing employees with the software to improve and protect their own health can be

the best investment an employer can make! The empowerment programs have

information on diet, exercise, medications, even how to quit smoking. Using the

programs is proving beneficial for both the health of the employees who have been

empowered and the companies they work for. Employee Empowerment Tools are

creating a healthier work force, less reliant on medical technology after an illness begins

than being able to prevent it before the fact. MyHealthCoach, Hummingbird, and

QuenchUSA are Employee Empowerment programs that can keep people healthier and

make our businesses run better. Modern technology is providing us with new means of

both treatment and prevention that will have great benefits for everyone

Freedom of information as a tool for empowerment: Enabling

protection and achievement of other rights

A fundamental premise for promotion of freedom of information is the tangible impact

that the right to know can have on peoples lives, by facilitating the fulfillment of other

rights. Timely access to information empowers people by allowing them to participate in

an informed way in decisions that affect them, while also holding governments and others

accountable. It enables individuals to learn about their rights and so exercise them and act

against their infringement. Free flows of information can also help uncover the misuse of

funds that should be allocated for public benefit and positively impact on the quality of

delivery. There are indeed success stories to illustrate how this has worked for many

people. It is also clear that vital information does not reach the disadvantaged in many

cases. For more widespread empowerment results through the right to know, there is a

pressing need to foster information demand by the public, and particularly by the poor
and vulnerable, women, youth and other groups that may suffer disproportionately from

lack of information access.

News media can help build awareness of the right to know and its benefits, and

disseminate information related to essential matters such as access to public services,

social development programs, income-generating activities and protection against

domestic abuse, among others. Further, media can allow people to voice dissatisfaction,

channel demands for accountability and responsiveness, and provide ways to participate

in public debate. The role of community media enhanced by ICTs is particularly relevant

in reaching the marginalized, especially those in areas not usually served by private

commercial media.

The significant role that the news media can have in advancing the right to know and

empowerment presupposes that users of information channeled through them need to be

equipped with sufficient capacity to critically receive it, assess it and use it. Thus,

information and media literacy is an important pre-requisite. It provides people with

skills to analytically interpret and engage with media content, and permits their learning

on how to use key instruments facilitating freedom of information today.

Employee Empowerment: How to Empower Employees

Employee empowerment is a strategy and philosophy that enables employees to make

decisions about their jobs. Employee empowerment helps employees own their work and

take responsibility for their results. Employee empowerment helps employees serve

customers at the level of the organization where the customer interface exists.
Employee Empowerment, Empower Employees, Empowered Employees

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. Empowerment rules as a

development strategy. Learn more about what empowerment is and is not.

Top 10 Principles of Employee Empowerment

Looking for real management advice about people? You want to create an environment in

which people are empowered, productive, and happy. Don't hobble them by limiting their

tools or information. Trust them to do the right thing. These are the most important

principles for managing people. They reinforce employee empowerment,

accomplishment, and contribution. These actions enable people to soar.

Top Ten Ways to Make Employee Empowerment Fail

Empowerment is a panacea for many organization ills, when empowerment is

implemented with care. Managers and employees say they want empowerment.

Organizations see empowerment as a strategy to develop employees and serve customers.

If empowerment is great for customer service and employee motivation, why is

empowerment not implemented effectively? Here are my top ten reasons why

empowerment fails.

Inspirational Quotes for Business: Empowerment and Delegation

Looking for an inspirational quote or a business quotation about empowerment for your

newsletter, business presentation, bulletin board or inspirational posters? These

empowerment and delegation quotes are useful to help motivation and inspiration. These

quotes about empowerment and delegation will help you create success in business,

success in management and success in life.

Team Building and Delegation: How and When to Empower People

Employee involvement is creating an environment in which people have an impact on

decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Team building occurs when the manager

knows when to tell, sell, consult, join, or delegate to staff. For employee involvement and

empowerment, both team building and delegation rule. Learn more.

True Empowerment Wins!

Confused about the legitimate role of employee teams and committees in a non-union

work setting? If so, you are not alone. Employers have been cautious for years. A new

NLRB decision may shed some light. Truly empowered teams rock! Read more!

How to empower employees

Empowerment means letting go of the authority to make certain decisions. This is partly a

good management practice and partly about facing reality - the reality that modern

employees won't accept jobs where they have no say in their day to day operational

decisions. Still, old habits die hard and some managers will struggle for awhile to change

their roles from prime decision maker to facilitator. Several factors contribute to effective

empowerment. Your organizational culture must support empowerment. It won't work if

managers feel threatened by a loss of authority, for example. There is also the question of

what to empower and when. In addition, self-awareness is essential to be sure that you
are not actually disempowering employees. Read on to learn how to empower employees

and how to overcome barriers to empowerment

Top 7 Methods to Empower Employees by Chris Anderson

How many times have you asked someone to do something like draw up a plan for such

and such project? Your employee completes the plan, but then you say, That is not

what I wanted or That is not how you do it. And so the employee thinks: you didnt

tell me exactly how you wanted it done.

If you find yourself having back and forth misunderstandings with your

employees, then you might have a communication problem. And this could be creating

bad feelings, low morale and inefficiencies. To remedy this, perhaps its time you

thought about creating a Policies and Procedures Manual.

Lets look at 7 methods to strengthen communication and performance.

1. Implement Effective Policies and Procedures

A Policies and Procedures Manual is a communication tool designed to empower

employers, managers and employees with a consistent approach to accomplishing their

daily tasks. It provides a set of policies, plans, reports, forms, and work routines that

convey the pulse of the organization.

A properly developed manual focuses your everyday business communications between

employees and management on what is really important to get the job done. This focus is

the first step in empowering your employees. Empowerment requires a shared vision, the

communication of necessary information and adequate training.

2. Convey Management Policy and Vision

A manual should be used to communicate both corporate policies and the appropriate

procedures for implementation of the policy in a combined style format. If employees

know the vision, then they feel confident to make decisions. Keep in mind, though,

policies should not be confused with procedures.

Policy - A definite course or method of action to guide and determine present and future

decisions. A policy is a guide to decision-making under a given set of circumstances

within the framework of corporate objectives, goals and management philosophies.

Procedure - A particular way of accomplishing something, or an established way of

doing things. A procedure is a series of steps followed in a definite regular order that

ensure the consistent and repetitive approach to actions.

3. Improve Communications and Efficiently Run Operations

A manual serves to translate the company's business philosophies and desires into action.

A well-designed manual is an invaluable communication tool for efficiently running

operations within departments and bridging the gap between interrelated departments. If

a department has specific information that it requires to process a task, then this

information is easily captured in a form that accompanies the task. In business forms are

commonplace, acting as a guide for such things as purchase orders, employment

applications or asset requisitions.

4. Reduce Business Process Training Time

A policies and procedures manual is a functional guide for training new and existing

employees. It prevents difficulties in performing duties due to lack of understanding or

inconsistent approaches from personnel changes. And it will assist you in developing a

consistent method in handling any task.

5. Improve Productivity and Decision Making

Policies and procedures speed up employee decision making by having a handy,

authoritative source for answering questions. Well-developed and documented manuals

can ensure compliance with regulatory agencies affecting your business, including the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Food and Drug Administration

(FDA), government contracting authorities and independent certification organizations

(i.e. ISO).
6. Strengthen Organization and Quality

A comprehensive manual covering all departments within an organization can become a

"quality" manual for the whole company. This will help ensure optimal operations and

consistent delivery of the finest in product or service from the company.

It will "empower employees to make decisions independently without the need or time

delays of involving various levels of management. A well thought out manual will

enable just about everyone in the organization the ability and flexibility to make the right

decisions in his or her job responsibilities.

For example, a customer service representative should be able to handle a customer's

problem and have the authority to resolve the problem right on the spot. In addition, a

production team should be able to diagnose a quality problem and formulate and resolve

the problem in conjunction with engineering without having to go through various

channels up and down the corporate ladder.

7. Meet Objectives with Policies and Procedures Manual

The goal of the policies and procedures manual is to identify the ways and means of

communicating, as well as getting the service performed or the product manufactured at

the least cost in the minimal amount of time. Not only will it be used to empower the
organization, but it will have the added benefit of increasing job satisfaction and

employee morale

The next step is to add employee motivation, employee empowerment and employee

development to our business model.

Every business and work process eventually requires that people make decisions to do the

right thing. For employees to act appropriately there must be employee motivation that

is a natural growth from employee development and employee empowerment. Usually

an active employee development training program is required to develop employee

empowerment. As human beings we are all created with a free will and the capability to

make decisions. When employees are not making the correct decisions, no matter how

well the process or system, problems will soon develop. Active employee development

and employee empowerment will help create the environment where employee

motivation can develop so more of these decisions beneficial to your organization. Every

level of needs to understand employee development and employee empowerment. A

consistent training plan that starts with executive coaching and includes management

training as well as supervisor training while offering leadership skills development

for all employees will speed realization of empowered employees.

There are an almost infinite number of small details that no one except the person

actually doing the work can ever know. Without employee empowerment it is difficult

to take advantage of this knowledge. All of this knowledge is valuable and waiting to be
tapped for your organization's benefit. Many organizations make a halfhearted attempt at

employee empowerment with the Suggestion Box that is never opened. The last one I

had opened contained several gum wrappers and one suggestion; it was over six months

old. While this may fool some into thinking they have an avenue for participation and

employee empowerment, others are successfully tapping this resource.

Frequently assumptions are made about employee attitude and willingness to participate

based not on the actual employee motivation but employee reaction to the way they are

treated by supervision. In many organizations there is essentially no employee

empowerment, no freedom to make even basic decisions. These same employees are

community leaders, serve on church boards, are elected officials, do volunteer work, have

their own businesses, and in a variety of other ways demonstrate a capability far above

what is used in their work. What could happen to your business if through employee

development and employee empowerment your employees brought the same

dedication, effort and thought to work that they freely give away outside of work?

Improvements in productivity of 25% to 50% have been demonstrated when employers

are willing to engage their employee and create an environment where employee

motivation is the norm not the exception..

The synergy of work processes /system improvements can be amazing. A proven

effective way to get involvement is to focus on the cycle time of important work

processes. Even with uninspired and hesitant team members it is common to have 35+%

reductions in cycle time. The importance of cycle time reduction goes much deeper than
just being able perform in a process in less time without adding effort. In an organization

dedicated to learning how to improve itself, every cycle is an opportunity to learn and

improve. An organization with a 33% advantage in cycle time not only has the advantage

of lower costs (time is always money) and the ability to do more with the same or fewer

resources but also they get three opportunities to learn for every two opportunities for

their competitors. In soccer terms that is getting three shots on goal for every two from

your opponent. Benefits continue to feed on themselves and the advantages grow bigger

and bigger.

Teaching people how to use relatively simple problem solving tools and techniques is the

easy part of employee development. Usually after just a little training and experience

with one or two work related problems the basic tools are mastered well enough for most

to start using them on their own. Even high motivated employees need the necessary

tools to do a good job. When placed in teams they are prepared to make use of the many

specifics that only they know to improve products and work processes. If your

organization is going to approach six sigma performance levels (less than 3.4 ppm error

rate) you will have to get your employees actively involved using problem solving tools.

Even the best training/development programs can not assure that all employees will get

involved. One of the prime jobs of supervision and management is to create the climate

and the systems for employee motivation. Organizations need empowered employees

involved from the neck up and not just from the neck down. This is not to say that all will

chose to do so. The obligation is provide the opportunity and the means. It is then the
duty of the employee to take advantage of the employee development opportunity. Most

employees when they believe in and trust their management/supervision will leap at the

opportunity to make higher level contributions to the organization.

In addition to basic problem solving skills training an employee development process is

needed. This process should stimulate thinking and encourage employees to make

positive change in their behavior, attitude and habits of thought about work. Frequently

however the biggest changes in these areas have to occur at the management and

supervision levels. Turf protection, arbitrary rules, inflexible systems, capricious

authority, poor listening, and reservation of the right to make all decisions diminish the

likelihood that employee will contribute even a fraction of their capability. True

management skill involves the ability to direct, coach, delegate and mentor individuals

and teams depending upon the situation and the employee's need. Developing

management and supervision with the skill and confidence to behave in this way is not a

trivial task. For this reason we strongly recommend that the employee development start

at the top of the organization with a consistent philosophy and approach backed up with

observable behaviors.

With Six Sigma Plus this area of personal development receives significant attention.

Even when no new technical skills or tools are taught improvements are often impressive.

This is especially true when a coordinated effort starts at the Executive Level in the

organization and moves through the Managers, Supervisors and Employees working on

the same concepts and approach.

Many organizations spend time and money on training efforts to teach new skills to

employees who are using a small fraction of the skills developed in past training. Efforts

at developing employees and allowing those who want to become more involved (which

are most of them) usually will have much higher returns. An additional benefit is they are

then more valued employees whose change in attitude is reflected in their work.

Every activity or job has some level of technical skill that must be mastered in order to

perform at an acceptable level. Without these it is much like trying to turn a screw into a

board without a screwdriver. Demonstrated knowledge and skills are essential. In some

cases employees come to the job with all of those skills. More commonly your employees

will have a certain base level of competence but still will require additional training and

development before they can make a positive contribution. Sometimes it can take years

for the contribution to pay back the time value of the investment made in an employee.

An obvious improvement would be to reduce the amount of time (cycle time) that it takes

for new employees to reach the point of net return.

The attitude that employee have on the work place can be as important than the actual

technical skill level. Most of the time when we speak of an employee having an attitude it

goes without saying that we are talking about a poor attitude. When speaking of a

positive attitude it is always preceded with the good descriptor. Our experience confirms

that poor attitude is one of the more common concerns in the work environment. Actually

it is not the attitude that is the problem, rather the behaviors that results from that attitude
is of concern. When someone is described as having a bad attitude and you press for how

anyone else can know if someone has a bad attitude the responses are fairly typical.

Attendance problems, marginal quantity or quality of work, interpersonal problems with

co-workers or supervisors, poor communications, lack of cooperation in any activity, etc.

The list is remarkable similar no matter what the job, company, industry, or part of the

world.

Our behaviors are how other people decide what kind of attitude they think we have.

Almost everyone will make the connection between behavior and attitude.

Our study indicates that attitudes tend to drive behavior and are a result of our internal

values and beliefs, many of which were imprinted at a very early age. We have to live

with the early messages for the rest of our lives. That means that if we as individuals are

going to change our attitudes we must find a way to over come that early conditioning.

Fortunately we can make a conscious choice to add to the values and beliefs system we

have imprinted. Each of us can make the conscious decisions to enlarge our individual

inventory of experiences. In the correct environment individuals can examine values and

beliefs and chose if they want to make a change. The change is not always easy, but the

beginning of change lies in changing the habits of thought, our self-talk.

The sequence is that our habits of thought (self-talk) drives our attitudes and our attitudes

drive our behavior. All three will have a certain amount of harmony or agreement. To

make a conscious decision to change we need to change the way we think--change our
habits of thought.

Changing someone else's attitude is an impossible task. What can be done is to over the

circumstances where if someone wants to make a change it is possible. Lasting

motivation comes from within. Some things can be done in the short term, but long term

motivation and change is a personal event.

In order to help people learn one must understand that most people learn based on three

basic inputs.

First is a significant emotional event. Almost all of us can remember where we were and

what we were doing for some common major events. As a test, if you are old enough,

Where were you when you first heard that JFK was shot? What were you doing when you

heard about or saw the TV pictures of the Challenger explosion? These are significant

events that do not require effort on your part to remember. They are events that impact us

and we remember them for the rest of our lives with no effort or conscious decision to so.

Each of as individuals has a number of unique significant events that are part of us no

matter what we do. These types of experiences are almost impossible to predict or create

and thus are difficult to use a method of planned learning.

A second method is the "Aha, I have it!". Discovery of a principle or concepts on you

own. You see this depicted in the cartoons as the light bulb turning on in someone's head.

Most of the time this is highly unpredictable and also very difficult to use as a method for

planned learning.
The third method is to take advantage of spaced repetition. A little test can demonstrate

that for you. All questions to be answered in less than 2 seconds. (3times 2=? ) ( 4 times

4=? ) Now try (16 times 18.27=?) While there may be some that can answer all three in 2

seconds or less most of us are going to get the first two but not the third. I contend it is

because at some point we learned our multiplication tables though a process of drill and

spaced repetition, now they are automatic and we don't have to think to get the answer.

Using this principle of spaced repetition is one predictable way to have planned learning.

Single exposures have a retention of about 2% after 16 days. If on the other hand you can

get six exposures over six consecutive days the retention rate soars to 62% after 15 years.

This is why most corporate communications and seminars have little lasting impact. Six

Sigma Plus training or any other kind of training/development that is not spread out over

time and does not have repeated exposure between sessions has little chance of success.

Employee empowerment is one of those terms that everyone thinks they understand,

but few really do. Ask a dozen different people and you'll get a dozen different answers

to the question, "What is employee empowerment?". In fact, research a dozen

organizational theorists and you'll get as many answers to the same question. This paper
seeks to answer that question in a way that it can be understood by a greater number of

people. Some writers indicate that empowerment consists of sharing power and

authority. Others say that empowerment occurs when the organization's processes are

set-up to allow for it. If you keep in mind the secondary dictionary definition of "to give

faculties or abilities to: enable" with all that this word implies, then you will be on the

right track for the purposes of this paper.

This paper also seeks to answer the question above in such a way that people who

work within organizations can apply the information to enhance employee

empowerment. "Why would we want to enhance employee empowerment?" you may be

asking. That detailed answer will be provided in the in the literature review section under

the heading "benefits of employee empowerment". However, it has been shown that

employee empowerment results in increased employee satisfaction, increased

productivity, and increased customer satisfaction.

"Aren't there some strong objections to the implementation of an empowerment

program which must be overcome if we are to receive these benefits?" The short answer

is yes. Empowerment, if it is to be implemented effectively, calls for a culture change for

the typical organization. Leaders must learn to be visionaries who can provide an idea to

which employees will want to dedicate themselves. Supervisors must change their ways

of supervising and learn to be coaches and mentors. All members of the organization

must dedicate themselves to sharing information and to training. Each of these issues

will be addressed in turn.

While there are few theorists who have delved very deeply into what makes up

empowerment, what they have mined is rich. There are more researchers who have
attempted to provide a framework for what they have observed; their ideas which have

merit will be addressed.

Implementation of empowerment programs seems to be the biggest challenge

organizations face. The popular press often writes about "failed" empowerment efforts.

What has become evident to me is that there are some speed bumps on the road to

empowerment; often these so called failures are only rough patches which will be

overcome. However, it is also evident that the implementation often takes years,

especially if the organization has a bureaucratic culture. It also seems that empowerment

implementation efforts are often haphazard. By providing an easily understood definition

of empowerment, some information about what must take place, an assessment of how

empowering your workplace is, and a model for implementation based upon what is

commonly understood as an apprenticeship system, I hope to address unmet needs with

this paper.

Definition of Empowerment

The common dictionary definition of empowerment, "to give official authority to:

delegate legal power to: commission, authorize" is the one most understood by most

people. As an example, Gandz (1990) writes, "Empowerment means that management

vests decision-making or approval authority in employees where, traditionally, such

authority was a managerial prerogative." However, this is not the definition of what is

usually called employee empowerment. One author notes empowerment is, "easy to

define in its absencealienation, powerless, helplessnessbut difficult to define

positively because it 'takes on a different form in different people and contexts'" .When

most people refer to employee empowerment they mean a great deal more than
delegation. It is for this reason that many authors provide their own definitions.

Some of these are vague, and meant to be so. Block (1987) describes empowerment

as "a state of mind as well as a result of position, policies, and practices." One has to read

an entire chapter to understand what he means when he says,

"To feel empowered means several things. We feel our survival is in our own hands. . .

.We have an underlying purpose. . . .We commit ourselves to achieving that purpose,

now." Other authors (Blanchard, Carlos & Randolph, 1996; Blanchard & Bowles, 1998)

use their entire book to define empowerment. Still others provide an excellent

perspective of effective empowerment without mentioning the word even once

(Freedman, 1998).

Other author provided definitions are simplistic on the surface, but have far greater

implications than a first reading would suggest. For example, Caudron (1995) articulates

empowerment as, "when employees 'own' their jobs; when they are able to measure and

influence their individual success as well as the success of their departments and their

companies.") The casual reader may think that owning one's job is what the postal

worker's union seeks to provide their members. Most would agree, however, that job

security is not empowerment. Many employees must measure their jobs by submitting

reports. Seeking one's own individual success is what the American dream is all about.

And knowing that one makes a contribution to the success of the department and the

company is a given in all but the largest organizations. It is only when these ideas are

taken together in one package that they approach a definition of employee

empowerment. Ettorre's (1997) definition of empowerment as, "employees having

autonomous decision-making capabilities and acting as partners in the business, all with
an eye to the bottom-line" is more accessible to many readers. While many employees

understand their contribution to the work at hand, how many know their contribution to

the bottom line?

It is this essential ingredient, information with which to make decisions, from which

empowerment is created. Bowen and Lawler (1992) indicate, "We define empowerment

as sharing with front-line employees four organizational ingredients: [the first being]

information about the organization's performance. . . .[another is] knowledge that enables

employees to understand and contribute to organizational performance". The other two

ingredients Bowen and Lawler note are, "rewards based on the organization's

performance [and] power to make decisions that influence organizational direction and

performance." In a later article these authors conclude that, "research suggests that

empowerment exists when companies implement practices that distribute power,

information, knowledge, and rewards throughout the organization." The authors go on to

note that, "if any of the four elements is zero, nothing happens to redistribute that

ingredient, and empowerment will be zero."

Another author uses this type of combination of concepts to define empowerment.

Spreitzer (1995) indicates, "psychological empowerment is defined as a motivational

construct manifested in four cognitions: meaning, competence, self-determination, and

impact. Together these four cognitions reflect an active, rather than a passive, orientation

toward a work role." Spreitzer notes, "the four dimensions are argued to combine

additively to create an overall construct of psychological empowerment. In other words,

the lack of any single dimension will deflate, though not completely eliminate, the overall

degree of felt empowerment." This additive construct is distinct from Bowen & Lawler 's
(1995) construct noted above which is multiplicative, indicating that the absence of any

one of their four elements (power, information, knowledge, and rewards) will completely

eliminate empowerment.

Researchers tend to provide definitions of the concept of empowerment which reflect

observed end results or their research into concepts which are known and are or may be

precursors to empowerment. In his 1995 dissertation, Menon indicates, "the empowered

state was defined as a cognitive state of perceived control, perceived competence and

goal internalization. . . .The empirical results supported the view that empowerment is a

construct conceptually distinct from other constructs such as delegation, self-efficacy and

intrinsic task motivation.". In this case the constructs of delegation, self-efficacy and

intrinsic task motivation are known quantities, each with its own previously tested

validity. Conger and Kanungo (1988) note in their literature review that, "scholars have

assumed that empowerment. . . .[Is] the process by which a leader or manager shares his

or her power with subordinates. Power, in this context, is interpreted as the possession of

formal authority or control over organizational resources. . . .This manner of treating the

notion of empowerment from a management practice perspective is so common that often

employee participation is simply equated with empowerment.". However, they also note,

" We believe that this approach has serious flaws." Instead, the authors offer this

definition, "empowerment is. . . a process of enhancing feelings of self-efficacy among

organizational members through the identification of conditions that foster powerlessness

and through their removal by both formal organizational practices and informal

techniques of providing efficacy information." .Implied here are new roles for managers

and supervisors, that is, removing conditions that foster powerlessness and providing
feedback about performance, in other words mentoring.

Other researchers have attempted to classify what has been written and practiced

previously, and found it lacking. Quinn and Spreitzer (1997) provide two such

classifications. In the, "mechanistic approach" managers and researchers "believed that

empowerment was about delegating decision making within a set of clear boundaries. . . .

Delegate responsibility; and Hold people accountable for results." In the, "organic

approach to empowerment" researchers and managers "believed that it [empowerment]

was about risk taking, growth, and change. . . .understanding the needs of the employees;

model empowered behavior for the employees; build teams to encourage cooperative

behavior; encourage intelligent risk taking; and trust people to perform." However, they

found these two approaches lacking; some combination of the two was needed. In the

end, they indicate, "empowerment must be defined in terms of fundamental beliefs and

personal orientations. . . . Empowered people have a sense of self-determination. . .

.Empowered people have a sense of meaning. . . .Empowered people have a sense of

competence. . . . empowered people have a sense of impact." The most comprehensive

definition of empowerment in the literature can be found in Thomas and Velthouse's 1990

article entitled "Cognitive elements of empowerment: An 'interpretive' model of intrinsic

task motivation". The definition they provide is:

To empower means to give power to. Power, however, has several meaningsauthority,

so that empowerment can mean authorization. . . .capacity. . . .However, power also

means energy. Thus to empower also can mean to energize. This latter meaning best

captures the present motivational usage of the term. Our perception is that the word

empowerment has become popular because it provides a label for a nontraditional

paradigm of motivation. . . .change [has] forced a search for alternative forms of

management that encourage commitment, risk-taking, and innovation. . . .the newer

paradigm involves relaxed (or broad) controls and an emphasis on internalized

commitment to the task itself. . . .We use the word empowerment to refer to the

motivational content of this newer paradigm of management.

In her excellent literature review of employee empowerment, Linda Honold indicates,

"to be successful, each organization must create and define it [empowerment] for itself.

Empowerment must address the needs and culture of each unique entity." It is in this

spirit that I offer my own definition of empowerment. I have drawn on several of the

authors noted above and below for concepts. I will provide credit in the appropriate

sections below.

Apprenticeship Empowerment Defined

Employee empowerment is a process whereby: a culture of empowerment is

developed; informationin the form of a shared vision, clear goals, boundaries for

decision making, and the results of efforts and their impact on the wholeis shared;

competencyin the form of training and experienceis developed; resources, or the

competency to obtain them when needed to be effective in their jobs, are provided; and

supportin the form of mentoring, cultural support, and encouragement of risk-taking

is provided.

Every employer uses employee empowerment to some extent, though it is often

thought of as delegation. No organization of more than one person can survive without

some employee empowerment. When the owner of a Mail Boxes, Etc. hires someone to
work the weekends, that person is empowered. When a manager hires an accounting

graduate to maintain the departmental ledger, that person is empowered. When the

director of advertising chooses which slogan should go on the web banner, that person is

empowered. In each of these instances the empowered person has been provided with the

training and experience they need to be effective in their position. Each has the

information to know how their decisions will impact the larger whole. Each has access to

the resources he or she needs to be effective. And the assumption is that each will be

supported in the decisions they make.

Empowerment is a process of becoming, not a task or end result in and of itself, Just

as with continuous improvement, no organization is ever done with its empowerment

implementation; no person is ever "completely empowered". Empowerment becomes

part of the culture of the organization. Empowering others becomes a transparent act,

nobody within the organization notices when an act of empowerment is exercised. It may

be noticeable in the extreme to outsiders, but, if the implementation effort has been

successful, it will be second nature to those acculturated within the organization.

Clearly, empowerment is neither quick nor easy, except in the case of a newly formed

organization where the leaders understand it and have committed themselves and the

organization to it. Given that this is the case it becomes necessary to demonstrate the

benefits and provide an implementation strategy which builds upon a clear understanding

of all that employee empowerment entails.

Benefits of Empowerment
 That employee empowerment benefits the organizations which implement it

effectively is widely noted in the literature. The popular press accepts the belief of

benefit almost without question. Thomas Petzinger, in his column "The Front Lines" in

the Wall Street Journal, is a big advocate for empowerment. He writes, "As a society we

know the best way to organize people is freeing them to organize themselves. Why

should it be any different in business?" Also in the Wall Street Journal, Aeppel asks the

rhetorical question, " What better way to tap into workers' brains as well as their brawn

than to encourage them to think on the job, to bring to it a greater sense of

professionalism and self-motivation and to feel committed to the company's success?"

Freeman (1998) writing in Inc. about applying Marine Corps values in the growing

corporate workplace advocates a form of empowerment where training is key and, within

clear missions, risk-taking is rewarded.

However, a bunch of business writers jumping on a bandwagon was not sufficient for

me to believe that empowerment is beneficial. I wanted evidence and I found it. A

number of writers cited Kanter (1979) as the source of information about the efficacy of

employee empowerment. Kanter writing about positional power indicates,

"Organizational power can grow, in part, by being shared. . . .By empowering others, a

leader does not decrease his power; instead he may increase it--especially if the whole

organization performs better." (Kanter then uses the logic that, "The productive capacity

of nations, like organizations, grows if the skill base is upgraded. People with the tools,

information and support to make more informed decisions and act more quickly can often

accomplish more."

Many authors cite, "anecdotal and case evidenceto show that empowerment does
produce more satisfied customers and employees." However Bowen and Lawler go

beyond this and provide additional evidence, "considerable research on practices such as

gain sharing, communication programs, work teams, job enrichment, skill-based pay, and

so on has shown the results of these practices are consistent and positive." (They go on to

cite survey research conducted by,

The Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern Californiato

determine the degree to which firms are adopting practices that redistribute power,

information, knowledge, and rewards, and the effects. . . . The datasuggest that

empowerment may have a positive impact on a number of performance indicators.

Respondents report that empowerment improves worker satisfaction and quality of work

life. Quality, service, and productivity are reportedly improved as a result of employee

involvement efforts in about two-thirds of the companies. Approximately one-half of the

companies also report that profitability and competitiveness have improved; this is

supported by the finding of a relationship between empowerment and the firms' financial

performance.

This is the hard evidence most skeptics are seeking.

For those of us seeking softer evidence, Bowen and Lawler (1992) indicate

empowered employees provide, "quicker on-line response to customer needs during

service delivery; quicker on-line responses to dissatisfied customers during service

recovery; Employees feel better about their jobs and themselves; employees will interact

with customers with more warmth and enthusiasm. . . . When employees felt that

management was looking after their needs, they took better care of the customer; great

word-of-mouth advertising and customer retention" Randolph (1995) indicates, "A more
subtle, yet very powerful benefit" of employee empowerment was increased "trust in the

organization". When employees trust that the company is not out to suck their blood and

is providing a competitive produce or service they will respond positively, "people who

have information about current performance levels will set challenging goals--and when

they achieve those goals they will reset the goals at a higher level." .

A number of authors also indicate that the increasing competitiveness of the global

marketplace calls for better service and the benefit of drawing upon the entire pool of

employees for creative ideas. An example of this would be a consumer products

company looking to expand into less developed countries using custodial staff who

immigrated from those countries for marketing ideas and possible distribution contacts.

One never knows if someone has an uncle or aunt in his or her home country who owns a

chain of grocery stores, unless one asks. An empowered organization would think to ask,

or would at least encourage the employees to make helpful suggestions.

Objections Overcome

Management's fear of letting employees make decisions which can impact the

profitability of the company is a major factor in the ineffectiveness of many

empowerment programs, and yet is still a major objection. Even Kanter (1979) who, as

noted above, is often cited as providing evidence of the effectiveness of empowerment

indicates,
One might wonder why more organizations do not adopt such empowering strategies.

There are standard answers: that giving up control is threatening to people who have

fought for every shred of it; that people do not want to share power with those they look

down on; that managers fear losing their own place and special privileges in the system

and so forth. But I would also put skepticism about employee abilities high on the list.

(p. 74)

This objection can be overcome if the managers in question can be assured that the

employees are ready for the level of authority being placed with them.

The apprenticeship model emphasizes the growth and training of the employee into

readiness to be empowered. Only when employees are trained in the ramifications of

their actions and are able to see the big picture should they be allowed and encouraged to

make decisions. The role of the supervisor is as mentor and coach. The worker must be

given the opportunity to make decisions about less significant things and then the

outcomes of these decisions reviewed so that learning can occur.

For example, when residential life staff members at the University of Hartford plan a

bar-b-que meal for the residents of a building they are given a budget and encouraged to

shop for sufficient food to feed the number of people expected. If the worker has little

experience, a list of items to purchase is discussed prior to the shopping trip, however the

quantity and brand selection are left to the worker so that the budget can be maximized in

the store. A common mistake less experienced workers make is purchasing brand-name

soda in cans. This is a very expensive way to ensure that drinks are available. As a result

less food is able to be purchased within the budget provided. The worker learns that

brand-name canned soda is quickly drunk by the people who arrive first and then no
drinks are available to later attendees. It is better to buy inexpensive soda in bulk bottles,

or some sort of drink mix, than to provide brand-name soda because it meets the need and

does not inspire greed. This lesson is best learned through direct experience and review

of the results with the supervisor. Being told this reality is not nearly as effective.

Just as we would not expect a person with an associate's degree to articulate ground-

breaking new theories in their field; so too we should not expect untrained employees to

make decisions which affect the bottom line. The manager who has been involved in the

training of the worker will have greater confidence that the worker will make a decision

which is in the best interests of the company. The benefit of empowerment is that it

allows each employee to bring his or her experience and creativity to bear on the

decision.

Middle managers often object to employee empowerment because they perceive that

the effort will take power away from them. The view is, as Blanchard & Bowles (1998)

indicate, "Managers mustgive up the levers of control they've worked a lifetime to get

hold of". I call this the "hazing theory of management". One of the reasons initiation

activities and hazing are still a part of many fraternal organizations is that the current

members want the opportunity to do onto others as was done onto them. If, as a pledging

member, they had to run errands for the brothers then they want the opportunity to have

pledges run errands for them once they become brothers. Running errands are the "dues"

pledges must pay in order to join the brotherhood. Working for the organization for years

and being subjected to the decisions of others are the "dues" middle managers have paid

to obtain their positions.

This type of thinking is called zero sum change. That is, in order for you (the worker)
to gain something I (the manager) must lose an equivalent amount of that thing, in other

words, win-lose thinking. In order for an employee empowerment implementation to be

successful, managers with this objection must change their attitude. Ward (1996) asks the

questions these managers might ask, "How can I give up control when I am accountable

for the results? How can I give greater decision-making authority to employees, yet

ensure the results are of good quality and are consistent with corporate objectives? How

can I manage the empowerment process so employees feel the project is their own?" .

The answer to these questions, and the way this needed change is accomplished

through training. Managers must see that they still have a role despite authority being

shared with empowered employees. This new role is as mentor, coach, and facilitator.

Training should be provided for each aspect of this role. Acting as mentor comes easily

to some people, however others have difficulty seeing themselves as able to offer

anything beyond direction. Proper training can show the reluctant mentor how to

improve his or her skills. Coaching is another skill some people have difficulty with.

Again, training is called for in this instance. Because empowered employees often are

formed into self-managing teams they often need someone to facilitate their discussions

until this skill is developed among the members of the groupthis initially becomes the

role of the manager. Later on, as cross-functional teams are formed, the manager's

facilitation skills are called for again. Many managers will require training to enhance

their ability to facilitate discussions.

Managers who take on these new roles of mentor, coach, and facilitator begin to

recognize that they are still needed. A new win-win attitude replaces the old win-lose

attitude in those managers who are successful at implementation of empowerment. As

the benefits of empowering employees become apparent, the properly trained manager

will become a strong proponent of empowermenthe or she will recognize the value

inherent in taking advantage of everyone's experience and creativity. If one accepts the

premise that empowered employees are more satisfied with their jobs, and the premise

that satisfied employees result in satisfied customers, then logic dictates that managers

will seek empowerment opportunities in an effort to grow the business and increase

revenues.

Bowen & Lawler (1992) note other objections which are raised by management as a

result of these proposed changes, "a greater dollar investment in selection and

training. . . . higher labor costs. . . . slower or inconsistent service delivery. . . . violations

of 'fair play'. . . . giveaways and bad decisions." (Still other management objections are

noted by Conger & Kanungo (1988), "Specifically, empowerment might lead to

overconfidence and, in turn, misjudgments on the part of subordinates.". These

objections are valid in some respects; proper training will overcome some of them, but

not all. However I believe the benefits of employee empowerment outweigh the

detriments.

Union leaders often express some of the same reservations regarding employee

empowerment as do middle managers. Most union contracts call for seniority as the

guiding principle for increased benefits. If one perceives decision-making authority as a

benefit, then the union will argue that those with the most seniority should receive it

before those with less. If a team is made up of employees of varying seniority, and all are

empowered to make decisions after simultaneous training then the union may object to

less senior members receiving a benefit at the same time as more senior members.
 Unions perceive that their power comes from collective bargaining with management

on behalf of the workers. Employee empowerment breaks down barriers to

communication between individual workers and the organization's management thereby

reducing the role of the union. It has been my experience that unions object when their

roles are reduced.

Both of these objections may be valid. Both call for a shift in the focus of the union

and an emphasis on new roles. Instead of using seniority as a guiding principle, unions

may be convinced of the increased organizational viability resulting from a guiding

principle of ability. That is, those with the greatest skills, rather than those with the

longest tenure, should receive benefits first. Most managers, I think, would agree that

what is best for the organization to continue its competitive position is a greater focus on

ability over seniority. Unions are in the business of ensuring jobs for their members. If

union jobs are lost because an organization goes out of business as a result of inflexibility

on the seniority versus ability issue, then the union has not been successful. If, however,

the union changes its focus to ability, and the organization grows, more jobs will be

created.

Beyond the issue of seniority versus flexibility, unions can change the focus of their

efforts from communicating with management on behalf of employees to providing

training and pre-qualification of skill-sets for an empowered workforce. Trade unions

already serve this function; witness the carpentry trade. The carpenter's union provides

training opportunities for apprentice carpenters, and the union bestows journeyperson and

master status onto workers who have completed established parameters. These

parameters may be number of hours on the job, completion of training programs,

demonstration of skills and abilities, etc. A union contract for a given job will call for a

set number of master level, journeyperson level, and apprentice level carpenters; the

union is then able to provide appropriately trained individuals to fill the positions

available. This could be the case for other unions as well. For example, a manufacturer

might have need for workers skilled in a specific process. The union runs a training

program which teaches workers the skills needed for this process and certifies their level

of training. Workers are then assigned to work on this process based upon their level of

training and upon that which is needed at that time.

Employees, too, sometimes object to empowerment efforts. Aeppel (1997) noted that

one of the complaints by Eaton employees is the responsibility the group has for each

individual, "with everyone watching everyone else, it can feel like having a hundred

bosses" (p.1) Another common employee objection is that they don't want any more

responsibility than they already have. My experience is that an employee with this

complaint is already not sufficiently motivated, and some management response is called

for. Perhaps she or he is not aware of the benefits which accrue to the organization

because of her or his work. Perhaps the employee lacks the understanding that

purposeful work is often less demanding than what she or he may already be doing.

Perhaps there are difficulties in other aspects of that employee's life which could benefit

from timely intervention by a caring supervisor. In any case, it is likely that this

objection can be overcome.

Conger and Kanungo (1988) raise the possibility of, "major organizational changes

seriously challenge[ing] employees' sense of control and competence as they deal with

the uncertainty of change and accept new responsibilities, skills, and guidelines for action
and behavior." .Bridges (1991) indicates, "Stability through change demands clarity about

what you are trying to do. . . .[there must be] a clear sense in people's minds of how their

activities contribute to the entire undertaking." It is the responsibility of the leader to

provide the vision which assists employees to have this peace of mind.

At the Eaton plant noted above, an additional objection is, "The plant's emphasis on

fitting into the group can seem almost cultish. . . .Some people do well with all the

physical aspects of the work, but fall short by other measures--such as their

communications skills.". In response to this objection I bow to the more articulate Linda

Honold (1997) who states, "The critiques of employee empowerment emanate from what

appears to be half-hearted attempts by employers that allow for a very limited degree of

decision making and control by employees." .

A Culture of Empowerment
An organization's culture is a complex thing, not easily described. Yet it is upon this

foundation that empowerment is built. The organizations which successfully implement

employee empowerment will have certain values at their core from which the process of

empowerment can flow. Among these values are respect and appreciation for individuals

and the value they bring to the organization. Values alone do not make up an

organization's culture, and respect for individuals is only one of the outward signs of an

empowered culture.

Edgar Schein defines organizational culture as,

a pattern of basic assumptionsinvented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it

learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integrationthat has
worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members

as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.

However coherent this definition seems, the concept is much more complex. Schein uses

the bulk of his book Organizational Culture and Leadership to provide a more complete

understanding of what culture really is. Such in depth study of this single concept is

beyond the scope of this paper and I would refer the reader to Schein's book for a deeper

understanding.

Nonetheless, the culture of the organization must support the thrust of empowerment

if there is any chance for success. I am resolved to discuss the "'artifacts' and 'values' that

are the manifestations or surface levels of the culture" since that is within the scope of

this thesis. Other authors try to get at this essence that is organizational culture which

must be supportive for empowerment to succeed. By Schein's definition, they tend to

focus on the surface manifestations, though several try to imply the greater depth.

For example, Quinn and Spreitzer (1997) indicate, "empowerment must be defined in

terms of fundamental beliefs and personal orientations", which is an apt description of

organizational culture. Yet they go on to note the manifestations, "Empowered people

have a sense of self-determination. . . .Empowered people have a sense of meaning. . .

.Empowered people have a sense of competence. . . . Empowered people have a sense of

impact.". Other manifestations these authors note in an earlier article include, "actual

barriers to change present and the social support available to the manager from his/her

boss and peers." , these barriers are aspects of culture. Another example is provided by

Gandz (1990), "A set of shared values is needed. . . .beliefs about the way things should

be done, the standards of behavior that are appropriate, the ethics of organizational
actions. . . .Such values compel and propel behavior"significant cultural artifacts which

will lead to empowerment.

Ford and Fottler (1995) provide a model of how empowered an individual is on two

scales, job content and job context. The aspects of job context are manifestations of

culture; they indicate, "Job context is much broader. It is the reason the organization

needs that job done and includes both how it fits into the overall organizational mission,

goals, and objectives and the organizational setting within which that job is done.

Organizational structure, rewards systems, mission, goals, objectives and so forth make

up the rich tapestry of job context.". Organizational structure and reward systems are

often put into place with the unknowing and unquestioned basic assumptions which are

part of the culture of the organization. Shein's position supports this view thusly, "If

culture has developed in this sense, it will affect most of the aspects of an organization

its strategy, its structure, its processes, its reward and control systems, and its daily

routines."

An organization seeking to implement empowerment is likely to examine its structure

and reward systems, however if the culture is not also examined by the change agents,

replacement structures and systems are likely to reflect the old assumptions. One such

assumption is whether individuals or groups (teams) should be rewarded for their efforts.

Many organizations in the United States hold that country's value of individualism. If, on

the one hand, teams are being promoted as a tool of empowerment, and on the other

hand, individuals are being rewarded for the work of the team, then employees will

unconsciously (or consciously) pick-up on the cultural norm and will be reluctant to

dedicate themselves to the teaming concept where their work may not be recognized and
rewarded. In other words, empowered organizations put their money where their mouth

is.

Mallak and Kurstedt (1996), perhaps more articulately, express this sentiment when

they write, "Managers who understand how empowerment integrates with organizational

culture are motivated to lead employeesand help them internalize the values and

traditions [of empowerment]. These managers help create a work environment where

employees take action for intrinsic reasons more so than for extrinsic reasons." . Mallak

and Kurstedt provide a four stage model for cultural integration, because they understand

how important the organization's culture is to the successful implementation of

empowerment.

Shipper and Manz (1992), in their description of W. L. Gore and Associates,

demonstrate how committed to empowerment that company is by describing the cultural

manifestations. Some examples include: there are no position titles, all employees are

called Associates; every associate has one or more sponsors who provide training, act as

coach or mentor, and advocate with the compensation committee for the employee's pay

increases; all associates are encouraged to apply their creativity, even to the extent of

finding their own job within the organization after being hired. While these tactics far

surpass what another organization interested in empowering its employees is likely to do,

they do reflect what has been successful for Gore. The cultural values which brought

about this unique organizational culture are the result of the personal values of Gore's

founder. Schein notes, "Founders usually have a major impact on how the group defines

and solves its external adaptation and internal integration problems." , these are essential

components of the development of culture.

 Other authors provide less articulate, though no less powerful, demonstrations of the

importance of organizational culture to employee empowerment. Witness: Blanchard

and Bowles (1998), "It's the understanding, not the work. It's how the work helps others,

not units dealt with.", "Creating a vision of greatness [is] the first step toward

empowerment ; Gnnodo (1997) "Empowerment serves a purpose. It's not a feel-good

program. It's about accomplishing business objectives. It's a means to an end, not an end

in itself. Empowerment helps employees help the organization and themselves."

(p.12).

By now, it should be clear that the organization's culture is important to employee

empowerment. If an organization's culture does not already support empowerment it

must be changed, However, as Schein points out, "we may be suggesting something very

drastic when we say, 'Let's change the culture'" .nd you may be asking yourself, "How

would we go about changing the culture, should we decide we need to do so?". A very

good question indeed. Fortunately, Schein provides some insight into this. He notes,

"Leaders create culture, but cultures, in turn, create their next generation of leaders.". If

the leader is acting in a growing organization, he or she needs, "both vision and the

ability to articulate it and enforce it." If, however, the organizational culture is mature, "If

it is to change its culture, it must be led by someone who can, in effect, break the tyranny

of the old culture." This is accomplished through replacement of assumptions. "If an

assumption is to be given up, it must be replaced or redefined in another form, and it is

the burden of leadership to make that happen." Schein makes a distinction between

leaders and managers. I make that distinction as well in the section on the manager's role
below. Schein also provides a useful table of organizational, "Growth Stages, Functions

of Culture, and Mechanisms of Change"

Management Role
In an empowered organization the managers and supervisors take on a different role

than they usually would in most organizations. The literature is unanimous on this point.

It may be obvious that one aspect of this role change is the sharing of power and

authority. Yet, many managers and supervisors already do this, either actively or

passively, through delegation or abdication, neither of which is empowering people.

Empowerment implies a great deal more. There is an active role for managers and

supervisors rather than the passive one of abdication. There are stages an employee must

go through before he or she should have authority delegated to him or her. There should

also be a recognition that while the employee may be ready to have one aspect of the job

delegated to her or him, she or he may not be ready for delegation in other functional

aspects of the job (Blanchard, Zigarmi & Zigarmi,1985). Managers and supervisors must

reframe their perception of their roles because, "The primary task of supervision is to

help people." Block (1987) also tells us, "As managers we become more powerful as we

nurture the power of those below us."

So what are these new, active roles for managers? First we must understand that,

"Managers and supervisors need to be empowered, too" (. One use of manager's new

found empowerment should be to allow them to remove barriers to employee

empowerment. Conger and Kanungo (1988) describe this as, "providing autonomy from

bureaucratic constraint". Harari (1997) asks us to, "imagine that your job is to create an

environment where your people take on the responsibility to work productively in self-
managed, self-starting teams that identify and solve complex problems on their own."

Ginnodo (1997) tells us this, "involves articulating a vision, values, strategies and goals;

aligning policies, practices and business plans; improving processes; organizing,

communicating and 'walking the talk' of total quality. . . .and removing barriers that

prevent outstanding performance"[italics are mine] . Gandz (1990) indicates, "Managers

need to be willing and capable of changing their roles from supervisors and work

directors to visionaries and coaches."

This new role of coach is also nearly universal in the literature. Coaching is defined

as, "teaching and practice focused on taking action, with celebration when things go well

and supportive redirection when things go wrong, while all the time creating excitement

and challenge for those being coached" .ard (1996) indicates of coaching, "The objective

is to keep giving employees responsibilities which move them along the capability

continuum, eventually reaching 'fully capable of the task'. Naturally, the manager must

be careful to keep adjusting his or her leadership style as the employee becomes more

capable." "Managers also have to learn how to nurture and reward good ideas." Conger

and Kanungo (1988) discuss the importance of the employee's sense of their own abilities

as a factor in their empowerment. These coaching, or, "empowerment strategies[are]

aimed not only at removing some of the external conditions responsible for

powerlessness, but also (and more important) at providing subordinates with self-efficacy

information". Among the coaching strategies noted are, "(a) expressing confidence in

subordinates accompanied by high performance expectations, (b) fostering opportunities

for subordinates to participate in decision making, (c) providing autonomy from

bureaucratic constraint, and (d) setting inspirational and/or meaningful goals.omas and
Velthouse (1990) indicate events such as, "inputs from supervisors, staff peers, and

subordinates, for example, performance evaluations, charismatic appeals, training

sessions, mentoring advice, and general discussions of ongoing projectsprovides data

on which to base task assessments.". Task assessments are those perceptions by the

employee of his or her ability to perform, or interest in, the task. That is, management

can change the environment to make completion of the tasks rewarding intrinsically (for

example, through praise and recognition or increased opportunities), or management can

work as a mentor to help the employee perceive his or her contribution as valuable.

Mallak and Kurstedt (1996) echo this mentoring approach for employees, "and help

them internalize the values and traditions [of the organization]. These managers help

create a work environment where employees take action for intrinsic reasons more so

than for extrinsic reasons.". Another aspect of mentoring is role modeling. Block (1987)

indicates, "One way we nurture those below us is by becoming a role model for how we

want them to function.". Other authors use a sports analogy to get this same point across.

"By setting the key goals and values, you define the playing field and the rules of the

game. You decide who plays what position. Then you have to get off the field and let the

players move the ball." If a manager does not perceive her or his role is to help those .he

or he supervises to grow, then any empowerment implementation effort will not be

successful. A change in role perception is called for in this instance when implementing

employee empowerment. The supervisor must see potential in the employee and work to

bring that potential out. The process is best described as mentoring or coaching and it

entails:

determining the skill level of the employee

 sharing information about the goal to be achieved and why it is important to the

organization as a whole

providing for employee training as needed

depending upon the employee's skill level, providing appropriate supervisory support

a directing style for those tasks for which the employee has a low skill level

coaching for those tasks with which the employee has some skills but is lacking

experience or motivation

a supporting style for those tasks where the employee knows what to do but is still

lacking confidence in their abilities

a delegating style for those tasks where the employee is motivated and fully capable.

(Blanchard, Zigarmi & Zigarmi,1985)

ensuring that the employee is consistently growing in skill by providing new

responsibilities for which a higher level of supervision is needed

mentoring the employee such that they absorb both the organizational culture and the

value of empowerment

Removing barriers to empowerment present in the organizational structure

ensuring that appropriate resources are available for the employee, or ensuring that the

employee has the appropriate skills to obtain needed resources

providing support for the continued empowerment of the employee

And sharing information about the employee's and the organization's effectiveness.

Information Sharing

Information is what the organizational culture is made of initially. Information is the

gatekeeper to power. The literature is unanimous on this point as well, every author
indicated a need for increased information sharing. Each author provided a different way

of describing the importance of sharing information, "The first key is to share

information with everyone. . . .People without information cannot act responsibly." "[if

information shared] is zero, nothing happens to redistribute[it], and empowerment will

be zero." "Communication and information are the lifeblood of empowerment.". In the

absence of information employees do not know the ramifications of their actions and

therefore are not responsible.

Caudron (1995) in reporting about, "How to get the best from employees[in Eastern

European countries]" indicated, "managers gave employees information about the

business, invested in new skills training, set goals for employees and gave them ongoing

feedback on how they were meeting those goals." .he author reports that the results in this

case study are, "nothing short of amazing. . . .Job satisfaction is high, most employees

appear to trust management, and when you ask Berry [director of human resources] if he

thinks workers have become empowered, he answers with an emphatic 'Yes.'" . Despite

the workers having never been exposed to this type of involving management, and

perhaps never having trusted management before, the effort was a successdue to the

power of information sharing.

Block (1987) advises, "Share as much information as possible. . . .Most supervisors

think part of their role is to shield their subordinates from bad news coming from above.

When we shield our people we are acting as their parents and treating them like children.

If we are trying to create the mind-set that everyone is responsible for the success of this

business, then our people need complete information." .n important part of employee

empowerment is demonstrating confidence in the worker, yet many managers hesitate to

just let people go on their own. This may be a call for some limitations in the form of

shared information.

Blanchard, Carlos and Randolph's (1996), "second key is to create autonomy through

boundaries." This statement sounds counterintuitive, however the authors explain that

when employees understand the boundaries they are then free to take any action within

those boundaries; they can bring their own creativity to bear on the task at hand and

perhaps improve its effectiveness. Other authors cite the need for boundaries, "The third

lever is discipline and control. . . .While they [employees] have autonomy, they are

aware of the boundaries of their decision-making discretion." ,Setting clear boundaries

tells people what they're authorized to do" . Bowen and Lawler (1995) also address the

issue of, "setting reasonable boundaries for employee heroism" when responding to a

service failure or the customer's needs. Shipper and Manz (1992) in their case study of

W. L. Gore and Associates note one of the four principles all employees are expected to

abide by is, "Consult with other Associates prior to any action that may adversely affect

the reputation or financial stability of the company. . . . associates can (and are

encouraged to) make decisions on their own as long as the downside risk does not

threaten the organization's survival.". Creating boundaries avoids one of the objections

noted in the section above, that is, that employees will become overconfident and exceed

their authority.

Sharing information about goals and, "Effective communication about the

organization's plans, successes, and failures." (may seem commonplace, however its

importance cannot be undervalued. Randolph informs us that, "researchrevealed that

people who have information about current performance levels will set challenging goals
and when they achieve those goals they will reset the goals at a higher level."

Spreitzer (1995) provides additional evidence of this value; she notes,

Hypothesis 2d: Access to information about the mission of an organization is positively

related to psychological empowerment

Hypothesis 2e: Access to information about the performance of a work unit is positively

related to psychological empowerment. . . .

Hypothesis 2f: An individual-performance-based reward system is positively related to

psychological empowerment. . .

Spreitzer supports hypothesis 2d and 2e with this information, "Information about

mission is an important antecedent of empowerment because (1) it helps to create a sense

of meaning and purpose and (2) it enhances an individual's ability to make and influence

decisions that are appropriately aligned with the organization's goals and mission." .

As noted in the management role section above, one of the skills of this new role is

sharing feedback about the employee's effectiveness. Cauldron (1995) indicates,

"empowerment programs fail because HR initiates the process the wrong way. . . .

empowerment isn't something you do to people. . . . [rather it is developed by] creating an

empowering environment--one in which employees are given goals, information,

feedback, training, and perhaps most importantly, positive reinforcement. [italics mine]".

Conger and Kanungo (1988) use nearly the same words to express the same sentiment,

"The employment of these strategies is aimed not only at removing some of the external

conditions responsible for powerlessness, but also (and more important) at providing

subordinates with self-efficacy information (p. 474). Without this positive reinforcement

employees do not easily come to realize how skilled they really are and how important
their work is to the success of the organization, "Empowered people have a sense of

competence . . . empowered people have a sense of impact." . The importance of,

"Performance management systems that provide a clear understanding of job

responsibilities and methods for measuring success." "is fundamental to reinforcing a

sense of competence and believing that one is a valued part of an organization."

To make employee empowerment work, not only do we need to give them information

about their own work, we must, "Give employees information about the business and

demonstrate how their work fits in. . . .'Everyone wants to feel they do something of

value. When you demonstrate the value individuals bring to the business, people want to

grow.'" "Empowerment must be placed in a context of responsibility to the larger whole."

Managers must help employees understand that their work is, "directly aligned with

strategic goals and individual accountability [is maintained] all the way along the line to

senior management, customers and stockholders." and that they are considered, "partners

in the business, all with an eye to the bottom-line implications." (p. 1). Empowered

employees will only understand these bottom line implications if organizational

information is shared with them.

The Value of Vision
The value of providing a compelling vision of an empowered workplace should not be

underestimated. Because empowerment is often poorly understood, and usually

has not been experienced by employees, it is the vision of what is possible that

brings their commitment to it. Vision is perhaps the most visible component of

organizational culture; it is through the vision of what is possible that leaders can

inspire employees to apply their skills, knowledge, and creativity towards its

achievement. Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can

achieve.

Charismatic leaders understand the power of vision; Thomas and Velthouse

(1990) report, "the most important motivational aspect of

charismatic/transformational leadership is the heightened intrinsic value of goal

accomplishment produced by the articulation of a meaningful vision or mission."

(p. 668). Witness President John F. Kennedy's vision of a man on the moon by

the end of the decade of the 1960s. Because JFK was able to envision the

possible, and to articulate it effectively, he was able to marshal the resources of

the entire country to achieve it.

There are numerous examples of the importance of providing a vision in the

literature. Block (1987) identifies, "Creating a vision of greatness [as] the first

step toward empowerment." (p. 99). Vision provides employees with that sense

of "what do we do next" which can inspire creativity; Bowen and Lawler (1995)

describe this as, "Awareness of the context." (p. 75). It also allows for employees

to not make decisions which are in the direction opposite that of which the leaders

of the organization believe is right. On the importance of organizational vision

Gandz (1990) indicates, "There needs to be a shared vision. . . .lacking buy in to

such visions, employees can hardly be expected to be self-directing in their

fulfillment." (p. 75). Quinn and Spreitzer (1997) identify, "The first lever" of

"organizational characteristics [which] facilitate employee empowerment. . . .is a

clear vision and challenge." (p. 43).

Blanchard and Bowles (1998) use the term "values" in place of vision. They

indicate, "Values guide all plans, decisions and actions." (p. 171). The authors

make a distinction between goals and values: "Goals are for the future. Values

are now. Goals are set. Values are lived. Goals change. Values are rocks you can

count on. Goals get people going. Values sustain the effort." (Blanchard &

Bowles, 1998, p. 171).

Some other authors indicate that the vision is articulated through the basic

values of the organization. At W. L. Gore these basic values are, "1. Try to be

fair. 2. Use your freedom to grow. 3. Make your own commitments, and keep

them. 4. Consult with other Associates prior to any action that may adversely

affect the reputation or financial stability of the company." (Shipper & Manz,

1992, p. 51). Within these values is the vision of a growing, profitable concern

which has instilled employee empowerment to its core.

The question of what vision to instill is answered by Gandz (1990), "There are

many appealing visions such as the provision of excellent customer service, that

are the precursors of profit, productivity and market share growth; but they must

be articulated as such for them to be compelling. (p. 75). In short, employees

 must understand and share the vision of the organizaIn short, employees must

understand and share the vision if they are to empowered.

Developing Competency

In order to implement employee empowerment the employees must be competent.

Competency goes beyond developing job-task specific knowledge. Bowen and Lawler

(1995) cite the importance of "training in which employees are familiarized with how

their jobs fit into upstream and downstream activities." (p.80). "Employees must be

properly trained. It does not make sense to empower employees to do things such as

make decisions or approve or initiate action if they are not properly trained." (Gandz,

1990, p. 76) Byham (1997) indicates that among the "Characteristics of an empowered

organization" (p. 25) are, "Empowering leadership/training. . . .Job and technical

skills/training. . . .Interpersonal and problem-solving skills/training. . . .Front-line

customer service skills/training. . . .Empowering support groups/training." (p. 28-30).

Gandz (1990) indicates, "Technical training, decision making skills, group process skills,

all are required if empowerment is to be accepted and produce results." (p. 76).

Authors indicate the importance of training throughout the literature. Caudron (1995)

indicates, "Once employees understand what needs to be done to improve the company,

they must have all the skills and resources necessary to be able to accomplish those

improvements." (p. 32). Kanter (1979) notes, "spreading power means educating people

to this new definition of it." (p. 73) Ginnodo (1997) indicates, "Empowerment training is
more than remedial; it prepares people for collaboration and higher level performance,

and sends a message to employees: we're spending money on you because this is

important to the organization's future." (p. 13). Ettorre (1997) defines empowerment, "as

employees having autonomous decision-making capabilities and acting as partners in the

business, all with an eye to the bottom-line implications." (p. 1). One must then ask,

"Where do employees get those decision-making capabilities and information about

bottom line implications?" The answer, of course, is through training.

Training does not come cheaply. Not only must empowered organizations invest in

training materials and facilitators, they must value training sufficiently to release

employees from regular work duties to attend. Gandz (1990) reports, "it is a common

experience for organizations that seek to empower employees to find that their training

and development budgets are woefully underfunded. (p. 75).

However, it is not only the responsibility of the training department and supervisors to

provide training. "There must be procedures and occasions for empowered individuals

and teams to learn from each other." (Bowen & Lawler, 1995, p. 81) In an empowered

environment more experienced, "employees tend to take a more active role in intervening

in the actions of newer employees and offering feedback regarding culture-consistent

behaviors." (Mallak & Kurstedt, 1996, p. 8). "In short, these newly empowered

participants empowered their associates through their actions. They shared success

stories and helped one another diagnose situations to develop appropriate coping

strategies." (Quinn & Spreitzer, 1997, p. 43)

"Stories make information easier to remember and more believable." (Morgan &

Dennehy, 1997, p. 495) Freedman (1998) reports that for the U.S. Marines, "Sea stories
are the very best way to" (p. 60) pass on learning and recognition of problem patterns.

The marines have institutionalized organizational storytelling, these sea stories, as a valid

way to train employees. A good story which emphasizes the value of errors is the one

about the 3M engineer who was trying to formulate a new adhesive. Unfortunately the

glue was not sufficiently sticky and pieces of paper glued with it could be pulled apart.

The engineer could have decided his effort was a failure, however 3M has a corporate

value of risk-taking and encourages workers to find other applications for their products.

The engineer described the failed glue's properties one day in a group meeting and was

asked by another worker if the adhesive could be applied to bookmarks. It seems that the

second worker was a member of a church choir and his bookmarks would often fall out of

his choir book making it difficult to find the next song they were to sing. His thought

was that if the bookmarks had a removable glue applied they would stay in place and yet

still be movable to the next week's song selections. The engineer agreed to provide the

choir with some pieces of paper with the adhesive applied. The engineer also kept some

of these removable notes to use on memos and such. Soon he was supplying all the

workers in his area with pads of these removable notes. One day someone said, "we

should market these!" and so was born the post-it note. The engineer learned that what

seems like a mistake one day can be of tremendous benefit the next. Now the Post-It?

note is one of 3M's biggest sellers.

"Another approach is through interventions that provide unusually dramatic,

memorable examples of high task assessments and, thus, are more likely to shift a

person's global assessments. This approach is analogous to the one taken in such

programs as Upward Bound." (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990, p. 679) This may be an
example of challenge and support training.

Challenge and support (Sanford, 1962) is a concept used in the field of student affairs

to describe how to help students learn and grow. The concept proceeds from the

perspective that people do not learn or grow when they are comfortable. Nor do they

learn when they are too uncomfortable.. The lack of interpersonal skills training in the

Eaton company is a situation where too much challenge and insufficient support were

provided, "new workers are required to give speeches before new employees and

managers and to attend training seminars about saying 'we,' never 'I' or 'you,' when being

critical, to avoid sounding accusatory." (Aeppel, 1997, p.10). If this is the extent of their

communications skills training, then it leaves a great deal to be desired. The plant

manager indicates, "It can be taught...but the worker has to want to learn it." (Aeppel,

1997, p.10). And, as this company has learned, must be taught if empowerment is to be

well received.

When past coping behaviors or understandings of the-way-things-are become

insufficient for the present circumstances people experience feelings of discomfort. This

uncomfortable feeling is called cognitive dissonance. At the point of cognitive

dissonance people are ready to learn a new way of coping or to develop a new

understanding of the-way-things-are. This is "the teachable moment". It is at this point

that employees will be most receptive to learning something new.

If we choose to help people to grow it is incumbent upon us to challenge them to the

point of cognitive dissonance. We can then use the teachable moment to provide new

information that the person can use to change their perspective on the-way-things-are.

However, if too much challenge is provided, people will revert to old ways of coping and
avoid the learning experience all together. Because the environment often provides so

many challenges that the learning individual can become overwhelmed, we must provide

sufficient support to them so they do not regress.

Challenging and supporting then become new roles for the teaching supervisor. We do

not want to allow people we are trying to empower to grow too comfortable in their roles

such that there is no reason for them to expand their knowledge and grow in their

empowerment. Nor do we want to provide so much challenge that the employee tosses in

the towel and decides to work elsewhere. Rather we want to provide sufficient challenge

to allow for growth and sufficient support to avoid overwhelming our associates.

Just as individuals must be developed through the apprenticeship stages noted below,

teams, too, must be supported and trained as they go through stages. Blanchard, Carlos

and Randolph (1996) indicate, "You have to start by giving them what they need at the

place where they are."(p. 63) That is,

groups, like individuals, go through predictable stages of development. They need

different kinds of leadership at each stage. . . .the orientation stage. . . is a time when a

team needs strong, clear leadership. . . .dissatisfaction stage. The reality of working as a

team always seems to be more difficult than team members expect. . . .need continued

strong, clear leadership. But they also need support. . . .resolution [stage]. . .when

members begin to learn to work together we start to rotate the role of team coordinator

among team members. . . .production stage. . . .A self directed team acts to direct and

support individual efforts itself." (Blanchard, Carlos, & Randolph, 1996, p. 100-101).
Importance of Resources

In many organizations access to resources is controlled by supervisory staff. If employee

empowerment is to be implemented successfully, those controls must be removed and

resources placed under empowered employees' control. "Resources include items such as

funding, access to support staff, or experts who have knowledge on which the employee

can draw." (Ward, 1996, p. 22) Typically restriction of access to resources is in place to

avoid employee abuse. However, if information about the costs and effect on the bottom

line procurement of resources has is shared with employees they are not likely to abuse

them. Caudron (1995) notes, "Once both employees and managers have received proper

training, the next step is to give employees control of the resources needed to make

improvements. Nothing is more demotivating or disempowering than being stopped in

your tracks because you either don't know how to proceed or lack the tools necessary to

do a good job." (p. 31).

Bowen and Lawler (1995) describe what happens if insufficient resources are

provided. Relying on people to provide service improvements without resources is called

the human resources trap. "The HR trap occurs when managers expect their front-line

people to provide better and better service without simultaneously trying to improve the

core service offering itself, enhance the tangibles, make available state-of-the-art

technology and market research, and so on. It can result in unreasonable responsibility

for damage control placed on the front-line workers in a poorly designed, inadequately

coordinated service system." (Bowen & Lawler, 1995, p. 82)

Release of control to employees demonstrates management trust and confidence in

their competence. This is very empowering.

Assessment Questions and Associated Responses

Based on the research cited in the Assessment Instruments section above, and keeping

in mind my definition of empowerment (culture, information, competency, resources, and

support), there seems to be a need for an assessment instrument which leaders can use to

assess the empowerment level of their organization within the constructs of the

apprenticeship model. I would argue that assessing is only half of the effort needed to

successfully implement empowerment. The other half is responding with organizational

changes and competency development. The assessment questions below are the starting

point. The training responses in the next section are cross-referenced by question

number, then lettered to provide the appropriate response based upon the answer to the

question. For example, after answering question 237, the organizational leader can look

for the appropriate response under 237A, 237B, or 237C depending upon the what fits

best given the organizational circumstance present. If this instrument was based on a

computer, hyperlinks could be created from the possible answers directly to the

appropriate response.

Any survey of this type has its drawbacks. I address these first so that an

understanding can be achieved that these questions and the associated training responses

in no way represent the only possible way to implement an empowerment program in a

given organization. It is possible that the individual or group which uses the assessment

instrument do not know the organization sufficiently well to be able to answer the

questions; or that they will want to make the organization look good and skew the results.

As in any assessment instrument, the terms used within are subject to interpretation by

the users, this could cause confusion and thereby not address the needs of the

organization. A significant event in the life of the organization could completely change

how the questions are answered or whether the training responses are appropriate.

Certainly, the ability of the instrument users to implement or recommend change or

training might make the entire exercise worthless. Nonetheless, I believe the instrument

and the suggested responses to be useful.

Assessment Questions
1. Can a consensus be reached by any group of organizational members as to the
definition of empowerment?
YES NO DON'T KNOW

2. What perquisites become available as climbs up in the organizational hierarchy?

NONE FEW MANY DON'T KNOW

3. Who are your mentors within the organization?

MANY FEW NONE

4. In the course of a week, how may times does a low-level, front-line employee need to
seek approval for an action she or he believes is the correct one?

NONE FEW MANY

5. Can any given employee accurately answer the question, "How is the organization
doing"?
 YES NO DON'T KNOW

6. What is the vision of the organization?

EASILY ANSWERED DON'T KNOW

7. In what aspects of your job have you reached master status?

SEVERAL FEW NONENEW TO ORG. NONENO EFFORT

8. Are you providing training to anyone within the organization?

YES NO

9. In what aspects of your job do you continue to grow?

SEVERAL FEW NONE

10. When was the last time a project or work effort was delayed due to lack of resources?

LONG TIME AGO RECENTLY ALL THE TIME

11. If your supervisor was away and a customer or another department asked you to
complete a project for which you knew there was capacity to complete, would you be
able to agree to complete the project and access the needed resources?

YES YES, AFTER SEEKING APPROVAL NO

12. If the above request slightly exceeded the known capacity to complete, what would be
your supervisor's boss's response if you decided to accept the project anyway?

PRAISE DON'T KNOW ANGER

13. How would such a decision affect the organization?

POSITIVELY NEGATIVELY DON'T KNOW

14. What would you do if another member of your department disagreed with you about
the decision to accept the project?

DISCUSS TO RESOLUTION GO OVER HIS/HER HEAD

15. Who are your friends in the organization?

MANY FEW NONE DON'T KNOW

Training Responses
1A. YES: Good for you! Your organization is making progress toward empowerment.
Keep doing what you have been doing.

1B. NO: Discussions about what empowerment is and how it will impact the
organization need to begin. Without at least some shared understanding of the concept of
empowerment there will be confusion in the organizational ranks and your empowerment
effort will be sidetracked if not derailed.

1C. DON'T KNOW: Go and find out. If consensus can be reached see 1A, if not see
1B. But first, read the thesis so at least you'll have some understanding of the concept.

next question

2A. NONE: Great! Keep up the effort to eliminate perquisites which are not available
to everyone.

2B. FEW: Work to eliminate them or make them available for everyone. Discuss with
those who benefit from the perquisites how they felt when they were in a position where
they were unavailable. Ask them if they think those who do not receive these added
benefits feel the same way they did. Encourage honest reflection.

2C. MANY: Work to eliminate them or make them available for everyone. If a culture
of empowerment is to be achieved then those who receive perquisites must demonstrate
their belief in it by equalizing the organizational environment.

2D. DON'T KNOW: Try to find out and then address as noted above. Hint: if no one
will discuss perquisites with you then there are probably many of them.

3A. MANY: Congratulations! The value of mentors is manifold. Be sure that you are
acting as a mentor to others as well.

3B. FEW: Work to increase the number of people you can look to for advice, training,
and cultural clues; also be sure to be offering mentoring to others with less experience
than you.

3C. NONE: The empowerment effort in your organization is probably off-track or non-
existent . As a first step, find yourself a mentor who can show you the ropes and enhance
your skills. Continue to find people who can provide mentoring advice, and offer
mentoring advice to those with less experience.
4A. NONE: Good. The organization has probably established clear boundaries for
decision-making for these employees. This is also an indication that trust has been placed
in their ability to make good decisions, generally this type of trust comes from effective
competency development, clear vision, and good information about the impact of
decisions on the bottom line. It also indicates that appropriate resources have been made
available to these individuals.

4B. FEW: Work to increase these individuals' skills and understanding of their impact
on the work of the organization. Establish clear boundaries for their decisions and share
the organization's vision with them. Ensure that the resources they need are at their
disposal.

4C. MANY: Does your organization consider itself an empowering one? If so, then this
is an important place to begin demonstrating commitment thereto. These front-line
workers interact with your customers so empowering them will enhance your customer
service. Implement whatever changes are needed in higher levels of your organization,
then follow the suggestions in 4B.

5A. YES: Your organization is probably sharing information about the bottom line and
how that individual impacts it. This is very empowering.

5B. NO: Work to increase information sharing. Empowered individuals understand how
their work impacts the bottom line. If employees don't know what that bottom line is
then they cannot possibly know their impact upon it. Of course, employees will need to
be trained to understand whatever information is shared with them, so developing this
competency is an important step as well.

5C. DON'T KNOW: This is probably an indication that they don't. Refer to the
suggestions in 5B.

6A. EASILY ANSWERED: Very good. Sharing a vision is an important aspect of

empowering employeesit allows people to think about how their work fits into the
larger picture and provides opportunity for them to apply their creativity to help achieve
that vision.

6B. DON'T KNOW: Work to develop a vision for the organization, or at least for your
unit. Help employees to see where the organization hopes to go so they can help to get it
there.

7A. SEVERAL: Great! This is an indication that you have been developed to this
point. Be sure that you are training journeypersons and apprentices in what you know.
Also, keep challenging yourself to achieve master level in other aspects of your job or in
tasks beyond your current responsibilities.

7B. FEW: Continue to work to achieve this level. See suggestions in 7A as well.

7C. NONE, BECAUSE I AM NEW: Continue to work to achieve this level. See
suggestions in 7A.

7D. NONE, NO EFFORT MADE: Work to enhance your skills. Seek out mentors and
people with additional skills and information who can help you to grow professionally.
Even if your job responsibilities seem menial, you have an impact on the organization's
bottom line so enhancing your skills will be of benefit to the organization.

8A. YES: Good. Continue to develop the skills of others as you continue to develop
your own.

8B. NO: If your organization is an empowering one, you must ask yourself "Why not?".
If you consider yourself too busy, reconsider. Think of your responsibilities for the future
needs of the organizationwill you ever be less busy if you don't train others to do what
you do? If you don't think you have sufficient stills to teach anyone anything, think
again. Perhaps you are the most inexperienced person in your department, but are there
people in other areas with whom you could share what little experience you do have. Do
you have talents which are not apparent in the organizational setting? If so, share those
with your colleagues so that the balance is maintained.

9A. SEVERAL: Very good. This demonstrates a recognition of the importance of

developing competency. Even if you are a master at all aspects of your current job, you
are seeking opportunities to learn aspects of other jobs. Even if you are the CEO you
recognize that you don't know everything. Allowing an employee at a lower level to
provide the CEO with training is tremendously empowering to them.

9B. FEW: Unless you are relatively new to your position, this is still good. See ideas in
9A.

9C. NONE: Probably not an empowering organization. Work to develop the

apprenticeship model within your organization. Seek out opportunities to develop your
competency to the point of mastery. Or, if you have achieved mastery in your area of
specialty, seek out opportunities to grow in other areas.
10A. LONG TIME AGO: Good. Empowering organizations provide the resources
needed for employees to get the job done, or the employees have developed the
competency to obtain needed resources themselves.

10B. RECENTLY: Unless this was an unusual circumstance, work to develop systems
or competencies which make the needed resources available to empowered employees.

10C. ALL THE TIME: Probably not an empowered organization. Work to make needed
resources available to employees. Develop employee competency such that they can
obtain resources they need. Work to develop trust in employees such that higher-ups will
have confidence that resources will not be squandered.

11A. YES: This is a clear indication that you are empowered. Continue doing whatever
brought you to this point and work to enhance other's ability to reach it.

11B. YES, WITH APPROVAL: This is either an indication that you are new and still
developing competency, or that the organization is not empowered. If you are still
developing ask the approving individual what factors she or he took into consideration
when making the decision. If not an empowered organization, work to develop
employees competency such that they would be able to make the decision for
themselves. If the answer is going to be yes, better that those closest to the customer
have all the information needed to give the answer more quickly.

11C. NO: Either you are still developing competency, or the organization is not
empowered. See suggestions in 11B.

12A. PRAISE: Great! This demonstrates support for risk-taking and is very
empowering. It also provides the opportunity for continued challenge and ever
increasing goals to become the norm.

12B. DON'T KNOW: This may be an indication of lack of support for risk-taking and
could be disempowering. It is also an indication that insufficient communication is
occurring about the organization's vision and between levels of the organization.

12C. ANGER: Very disempowering. Unless there is a clear explanation of why this was
a bad decision and how it negatively impacted the organization, no learning will take
place. Keep in mind the benefits to the customer of allowing employees at the lowest
level possible to make decisions. Also, work to develop an understanding of continued
incremental challenges inherent in the apprenticeship model.
13A. POSITIVELY: This demonstrates an understanding of the bottom line implications
of one's work and the presence of a clear vision. There also seems to be support for risk-
taking. Good!

13B. NEGATIVELY: Well, at least there is an understanding of the implications of one's

work. This may be an indication of a disgruntled employee who is working to sabotage
the organization's success, and knows how to do it. It may also be an indication of
insufficiently developed competency. Work to develop competency to make this type of
decision such that it has positive impact on the bottom line.

13C. DON'T KNOW: This is an indication of insufficient information sharing and lack
of clear vision. Employees must have access to the information about how their work
impacts the organization as a whole if there is any hope of a successful empowerment
implementation.

14A. DISCUSSION TO RESOLUTION: Good. This is an indication that employee

competency has been developed in the skills of communication among an empowered
group. There is also evidence that the environment is supportive and this will enhance
empowerment.

14B. GO OVER HER/HIS HEAD: This is very disempowering. Work to develop the
competencies needed for employees to be able to discuss differences of opinion and learn
from each other's perspective. Also, work to develop an environment which is supportive
of employee risk-taking.

15A. MANY: Good. This may be an indication of a supportive environment within

which employees can challenge themselves to grow.

15B. FEW: If you are new to the organization, this is probably OK. If tenured, then this
is a sign of a lack of a supportive environment and could be disempowering. Work to
develop an organizational value of friendliness and cooperation.

15C. NONE: May be a bad sign for organizational empowerment. Even if you are a
brand new employee, there should be somebody with whom you are friendly. Work to
change the organizational culture to make friendliness a value.

15D. DON'T KNOW: Look out! If you don't know who your friends are in the
organization, the they all may be enemies. Empowerment depends, in part, upon a
supportive environment. This doesn't sound like one, or it is an indication that this issue
has not been evaluated. Work to ascertain who your friends are in the organization. Be
friendly and approachable yourself. Offer assistance and mentoring advice, if
appropriate. Work to change the organizational culture to make friendliness a value.
Balance between top down & bottom up approach
In the era of globalization of market economy, hyper-competition, & uncertainty of

rapidly changing environment the success of an organization depends upon how to

balance top-down control with bottom-up empowerment. Research conducted by Malone

found that the dramatically decreased cost of information technology altered the

economics of decision making, thereby resulting in decentralized control at the

workplace. In todays knowledge-based economy, decentralized decision making is likely

to play a significant role. The toughest challenge confronting todays manager is the

design of decentralized system & the process of managing the equilibrium between

empowerment & control. According to Malone mastering this challenge can bring out the

difference between organization who have succeeded & those which fail. Thus,

empowerment is emerging as one of the most familiar business buzzword.

Business Definition for: Bottom-up Approach

a consultative leadership style that promotes employee participation at all levels
in decision making and problem solving. A bottom-up approach to leadership is
associated with flat organizations and the empowerment of employees. It can
encourage creativity and flexibility and is the opposite of a top-down approach.

Additional Resources
In search of the triple bottom line.
Jun 13, 2003 (The Advertiser - ABIX via COMTEX) Australian investors are now
demanding a triple bottom line approach from companies. This includes financial
responsibility and transparency, as well as environmental and social responsibility.
People are now demanding that basic old-fashioned virtues play more...
International Marketing at the Bottom of the Pyramid
International marketers have been turning increasingly to markets in developing
countries as markets in developed countries reach saturation point. Generally one
targets the wealthy elite and the expanding middle class in such countries. Rarely
do one targets the masses in these countries who account for 65% of the world's
population....
An Introduction to Bottom-Line Human Resource Management
"This article explains to managers and academics a new approach to human
resource management, what I call "Bottom-Line Human Resource Management."
Bottom-line human resource management starts by positing clear organizational
goals, and in this way differs from strategic human resource management, which
starts with analysis of the organization's human resource...
A Holistic Approach To Realizing Sustained Results
While strategic sourcing point initiatives have provided significant benefits to
date, an integrated supplier relationship management approach is needed to fuel
sustainable, cross-enterprise cost savings. . Many of these companies have already
zeroed in on the sourcing process and purchased software tools or run hosted e-
auction events that have yielded...
EMS : A Strategic Business Approach to Managing the Environment and the Bottom Line
The relationship between business and the environment is closely connected: The
environment is the source of much input as well as a sink for outputs. So as to
minimize harmful impact on the environment, businesses must take a strategic
environmental management approach. What exactly is "the environment"?

Top Down versus Bottom Up

Looking up business literature of the last decade reveals a number of different business process improvement approaches. Most of
them can be grouped in tow categories: Predominantly Top-Down or Bottom-Up oriented.

Top-Down
approaches
represent the
strategy-oriented
school of business
reengineering. The
main focus is on
determining the
enterprise strategy
and realigning all
processes
consequently to
achieve strategic
goals.
Unfortunately,
many Top-Down
projects fail to
provide desired
results because the
reality of the
enterprise, namely
people and
 existing enterprise
culture tend to be
overlooked.

Bottom-up
approaches on the
other hand aim at
implementing
step-by-step
improvements of
business
processes.

The main focus is on using people involved in the process to identify improvement
possibility and to continuously improve their own process. Unfortunately, many Bottom-
Up projects fail to exploit the full potential because strategic goals are not always known
to the people working on improvements.

To make business reengineering work it is therefore necessary to combine both

approaches to something we call the 'down-up'-approach to business reengineering. It is
described in the MOTION methodology, a toolbox Schuh Complexity Management has
developed in cooperation with the Technical University of Aachen (Germany), the
University of St.

The different strategies used in empowering the employee

Effective Employee Empowerment: 5 Strategies
2009 June 12
tags: communication, empowerment
by Craig Angus

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The hot air balloon is a strong metaphor for empowerment; you don't have absolute
control, but you can guide, oversee, adjust as needed to ensure a great ride. However, if
fear dominates your thoughts, you will simply miss a great ride.

Here we go with the Friday Five Craigs Top Five List.

Empowering employees is supposed to be a valuable strategy: after all, if you didnt need
your fine complement of employees to work to their full capacities, why would you hire
them in the first place. Certainly not so they can watch you work. On this premise alone,
we can agree that empowerment in a good thing. Quite simply, empowerments lustre
is bloodied because of the casual, random manner in which managers introduce this
most excellent opportunity. So on this fine Friday, I am offering five practical
strategies that can be applied to ensure that empowerment works effectively in your
workplace:

1. Buy-in: By involving your employees in the design of your empowerment

initiative, it becomes theirs. The team will always outperform the individual and
you will develop a powerful empowerment model. Or you could waste a lot of
time and develop your model in secret; your employees will feel that the program
is moderated and controlled right from the beginning not a good start.
 2. Boundaries: Raise your concerns and fears with your employees as you are
developing the model; of course, this presumes that they have not demonstrated
their competence by already highlighting any red flags that would need a
boundary. To assist the high school principal we met on Monday
overwhelmed by urgent e-mails, what strategy would address his concern? I
would suggest three guidelines: (1) empower department heads to deal with
staffing issues in their areas; (2) when a need for an absence arises, require all
teachers to directly contact their department head by phone (or now text), using
the impersonal e-mail only where there is no other option; and (3) have
department heads report weekly or even monthly on staffing shortages or the
effectiveness/ abuse of the system.
3. Communication: Communication is your security blanket it allows you to
build confidence in the system. To illustrate this point, I refer to a time years ago
when my teenage daughter pressured me relentlessly for a later and later curfew.
Loving her as I did and knowing from personal experience that the later a child
stayed out the greater chance of some form of crisis, I resisted her approaches.
However, through consultation we eventually came up with a compromise that we
both found satisfying. Her part of the bargain was a series of boundaries that she
would learn and teach to her peers. Her requirement was to communicate these to
me and demonstrate that her friends also knew them. Further, it was
communication that convinced me that the system was working. In your
workplace, you will require feedback in terms of how the system is working and
what tangible results are being produced. With this information, you will know
what is working and what needs to be fixed. Although your employees may
resist, I prefer too much information rather than too little. The success of the
model depends on your level of confidence.
4. Correction: One of the boundaries that I would suggest is quite simply that
nothing is cast in stone. Right from the beginning, your staff should understand
that the nature and degree of empowerment either to the team or to individuals is
subject to change. There are times when changes will be dictated merely by a
clumsy model; at other times, changes will be necessitated by poor performance.
5. Ownership: Empowerment is not a right; it is a privilege. It is earned through
performance and accountability to the system and the supervisor. Within this
framework, I found that ownership is strengthened when each employee has a
piece of the pie. The piece of the pie is determined through individual capacity
and performance. In addition to that component of the work that the manager
believes the individual can handle, I like to build in just a little stretch a
challenge to grow to the next level. When work is successfully completed, the
employee deserves recognition from you, from peers, from other organizations
and from senior management. This sends the message to employees that they are
values, not just by you by by the organization. Employees who are recognized
will commit more strongly to the empowerment model they have developed with
you.

Please let me know what your thoughts are and what experience has been with
empowerment
 Employee motivation and employee empowerment
are part of employee development.

The next step is to add employee motivation, employee empowerment and

employee development to our business model.

Every business and work process eventually requires that people make decisions to
do the right thing. For employees to act appropriately there must be employee
motivation that is a natural growth from employee development and employee
empowerment. Usually an active employee development training program is
required to develop employee empowerment. As human beings we are all created
with a free will and the capability to make decisions. When employees are not
making the correct decisions, no matter how good the process or system, problems
will soon develop. Active employee development and employee empowerment
will help create the environment where employee motivation can develop so more of
these decisions beneficial to your organization. Every level of needs to understand
employee development and employee empowerment. A consistent training plan
that starts with executive coaching and includes management training as well as
supervisor training while offering leadership skills development for all employees
will speed realization of empowered employees.

There are an almost infinite number of small details that no one except the person
actually doing the work can ever know. Without employee empowerment it is
difficult to take advantage of this knowledge. All of this knowledge is valuable and
waiting to be tapped for your organization's benefit. Many organizations make a
halfhearted attempt at employee empowerment with the Suggestion Box that is
never opened. The last one I had opened contained several gum wrappers and one
suggestion; it was over six months old. While this may fool some into thinking they
have an avenue for participation and employee empowerment, others are
successfully tapping this resource.

Frequently assumptions are made about employee attitude and willingness to

participate based not on the actual employee motivation but employee reaction to
the way they are treated by supervision. In many organizations there is essentially no
employee empowerment, no freedom to make even basic decisions. These same
employees are community leaders, serve on church boards, are elected officials, do
volunteer work, have their own businesses, and in a variety of other ways
demonstrate a capability far above what is used in their work. What could happen to
your business if through employee development and employee empowerment
your employees brought the same dedication, effort and thought to work that they
freely give away outside of work? Improvements in productivity of 25% to 50% have
been demonstrated when employers are willing to engage their employee and create
an environment where employee motivation is the norm not the exception..

The synergy of work processes /system improvements can be amazing. A proven

effective way to get involvement is to focus on the cycle time of important work
processes. Even with uninspired and hesitant team members it is common to have
35+% reductions in cycle time. The importance of cycle time reduction goes much
deeper than just being able perform in a process in less time without adding effort. In
an organization dedicated to learning how to improve itself, every cycle is an
opportunity to learn and improve. An organization with a 33% advantage in cycle
time not only has the advantage of lower costs (time is always money) and the ability
to do more with the same or fewer resources but also they get three opportunities to
learn for every two opportunities for their competitors. In soccer terms that is getting
three shots on goal for every two from your opponent. Benefits continue to feed on
themselves and the advantages grow bigger and bigger.

Teaching people how to use relatively simple problem solving tools and techniques is
the easy part of employee development. Usually after just a little training and
experience with one or two work related problems the basic tools are mastered well
enough for most to start using them on their own. Even high motivated employees
need the necessary tools to do a good job. When placed in teams they are prepared to
make use of the many specifics that only they know to improve products and work
processes. If your organization is going to approach six sigma performance levels
(less than 3.4 ppm error rate) you will have to get your employees actively involved
using problem solving tools.

Even the best training/development programs can not assure that all employees will
get involved. One of the prime jobs of supervision and management is to create the
climate and the systems for employee motivation. Organizations need empowered
employees involved from the neck up and not just from the neck down. This is not to
say that all will chose to do so. The obligation is provide the opportunity and the
means. It is then the duty of the employee to take advantage of the employee
development opportunity. Most employees when they believe in and trust their
management/supervision will leap at the opportunity to make higher level
contributions to the organization.

In addition to basic problem solving skills training an employee development process

is needed. This process should stimulate thinking and encourage employees to make
positive change in their behavior, attitude and habits of thought about work.
Frequently however the biggest changes in these areas have to occur at the
management and supervision levels. Turf protection, arbitrary rules, inflexible
systems, capricious authority, poor listening, and reservation of the right to make all
decisions diminish the likelihood that employee will contribute even a fraction of
their capability. True management skill involves the ability to direct, coach, delegate
and mentor individuals and teams depending upon the situation and the employee's
need. Developing management and supervision with the skill and confidence to
behave in this way is not a trivial task. For this reason we strongly recommend that
the employee development start at the top of the organization with a consistent
philosophy and approach backed up with observable behaviors.

With Six Sigma Plus this area of personal development receives significant attention.
Even when no new technical skills or tools are taught improvements are often
impressive. This is especially true when a coordinated effort starts at the Executive
Level in the organization and moves through the Managers, Supervisors and
Employees working on the same concepts and approach.

Many organizations spend time and money on training efforts to teach new skills to
employees who are using a small fraction of the skills developed in past training.
Efforts at developing employees and allowing those who want to become more
involved (which are most of them) usually will have much higher returns. An
additional benefit is they are then more valued employees whose change in attitude is
reflected in their work.

Every activity or job has some level of technical skill that must be mastered in order
to perform at an acceptable level. Without these it is much like trying to turn a screw
into a board without a screwdriver. Demonstrated knowledge and skills are essential.
In some cases employees come to the job with all of those skills. More commonly
your employees will have a certain base level of competence but still will require
additional training and development before they can make a positive contribution.
Sometimes it can take years for the contribution to pay back the time value of the
investment made in an employee. An obvious improvement would be to reduce the
amount of time (cycle time) that it takes for new employees to reach the point of net
return.

The attitude that employee have on the work place can be as important than the actual
technical skill level. Most of the time when we speak of an employee having an
attitude it goes without saying that we are talking about a poor attitude. When
speaking of a positive attitude it is always preceded with the good descriptor. Our
experience confirms that poor attitude is one of the more common concerns in the
work environment. Actually it is not the attitude that is the problem, rather the
behaviors that results from that attitude is of concern. When someone is described as
having a bad attitude and you press for how anyone else can know if someone has a
bad attitude the responses are fairly typical. Attendance problems, marginal quantity
or quality of work, interpersonal problems with co-workers or supervisors, poor
communications, lack of cooperation in any activity, etc. The list is remarkable
similar no matter what the job, company, industry, or part of the world.

Our behaviors are how other people decide what kind of attitude they think we have.
Almost everyone will make the connection between behavior and attitude.

Our study indicates that attitudes tend to drive behavior and are a result of our
internal values and beliefs, many of which were imprinted at a very early age. We
have to live with the early messages for the rest of our lives. That means that if we as
individuals are going to change our attitudes we must find a way to over come that
early conditioning. Fortunately we can make a conscious choice to add to the values
and beliefs system we have imprinted. Each of us can make the conscious decisions
to enlarge our individual inventory of experiences. In the correct environment
individuals can examine values and beliefs and chose if they want to make a change.
The change is not always easy, but the beginning of change lies in changing the habits
of thought, our self-talk.

The sequence is that our habits of thought (self-talk) drives our attitudes and our
attitudes drive our behavior. All three will have a certain amount of harmony or
agreement. To make a conscious decision to change we need to change the way we
think--change our habits of thought.

Changing someone else's attitude is an impossible task. What can be done is to over
the circumstances where if someone wants to make a change it is possible. Lasting
motivation comes from within. Some things can be done in the short term, but long
term motivation and change is a personal event.

In order to help people learn one must understand that most people learn based on
three basic inputs.

First is a significant emotional event. Almost all of us can remember where we were
and what we were doing for some common major events. As a test, if you are old
enough, Where were you when you first heard that JFK was shot? What were you
doing when you heard about or saw the TV pictures of the Challenger explosion?
These are significant events that do not require effort on your part to remember. They
are events that impact us and we remember them for the rest of our lives with no
effort or conscious decision to so. Each of as individuals has a number of unique
significant events that are part of us no matter what we do. These types of
experiences are almost impossible to predict or create and thus are difficult to use a
method of planned learning.

A second method is the "Aha, I have it!". Discovery of a principle or concepts on you
own. You see this depicted in the cartoons as the light bulb turning on in someone's
head. Most of the time this is highly unpredictable and also very difficult to use as a
method for planned learning.

The third method is to take advantage of spaced repetition. A little test can
demonstrate that for you. All questions to be answered in less than 2 seconds. (3times
2=? ) ( 4 times 4=? ) Now try (16 times 18.27=?) While there may be some that can
answer all three in 2 seconds or less most of us are going to get the first two but not
 the third. I contend it is because at some point we learned our multiplication tables
though a process of drill and spaced repetition, now they are automatic and we don't
have to think to get the answer.

Using this principle of spaced repetition is one predictable way to have planned
learning. Single exposures have a retention of about 2% after 16 days. If on the other
hand you can get six exposures over six consecutive days the retention rate soars to
62% after 15 years. This is why most corporate communications and seminars have
little lasting impact. Six Sigma Plus training or any other kind of
training/development that is not spread out over time and does not have repeated
exposure between sessions has little chance of success.

advantages & disadvantages of empowerment

Employee Empowerment is giving employees responsibility and authority to make

decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer service.
Some of the disadvantage of employee empowerment include: employees can abuse
the increased power given to them; it is too much responsibility for some employees;
employees who focus on their own success rather than group's may leave; managers
must be better trained to facilitate through sharing of information, cooperation, and
referrals to appropriate resources; all employees must "buy in" to the concept for it
to be effective; there is an increased cost to the organization for training and
education; there is increased time in groups or committees which takes away from
regular jobs; there may be increased conflict or power struggle betweeen employees
due to group work; some employees may not be knowledgeable enough to make
good business decisions; decisions made on the basis of personality versus logical
reasoning.
Advantages of employee empowerment include: increased employee education and
training; employees participate in creating their own goals; increased employee
contribution; increased respect among employees secondary to teamwork; increased
power equals lower absenteeism and better productivity; employees have more
satisfying work; an increased depth of competence among employees secondary to
cross-training; less conflict with administration and managers; fewer middle
management positions means decreased cost to the company. Employees are more
likely to agree with changes if they participate in decision making.
There needs to be a balance between empowerment and traditional management.
The manager of the department needs to be sensitive to the employees' needs and
the company's needs and to know how to use a management style that will work
best to achieve desired outcomes.
sachidanand

Re: advantages & disadvantages of empowerment

In comparison to the earlier job holders, the newer generation shows much improved
potential in diagnosis, dexterity and also resilience. May be the result of better
education at colleges and more exposure to the society at large, better and faster
movement around and also the knowledge and skills imparted by the print media as
well as Visual communication. So, in an organisational context, one can find high
calibred staff, who are capable and keen to contribute in whatever manner possible.
It is also incorrect to believe that only the formal managers are managing the
Division- mostly they would be doing so with the involvement or assistance of such
capable contributors. Hence empowerment can easily be practised, if the
organisation bears the additional overheads on training and development, which
would immediatley get compensated by the enlarged span of control and flatter
system of organisation.

SACHI

Set

Re: advantages & disadvantages of empowerment

Empowerment is Educating and training your employees to take their own decisions.

Prerequisites are Willingness of the Senior Management, Clarity of objectives.

Advantages can be :

It enhances motivation.
It increases employee commitment
It increases team spirit
It frees the time of senior management and they can focus on more strategic desions

Disadvantages can be:

Not all staff is trained to operate in dynamic environment and hence take decisions
you cannot standardise the processes
conflict can increase - interpersonal relations may suffer coz there can be a clash
between employees

#################################
Secrets of empowerment
As the boss or manager of your company, do you frequently feel like things are spinning
out of control? If the answer is yes, youre not alone. All too often, employers find
themselves struggling to keep pace with the day in, day out responsibilities of the job. Yet
its usually their ownership of these responsibilities and the fear of letting go of them
that bogs down the workplace and stifles overall success.

If letting go has been a challenge for you, then consider the following five secrets to
empowering your people and becoming a better leader. Each has the ability to unlock the
power and potential of your team, enabling your company to achieve the success it
deserves.

1) Find an accountability coach. Just as you would consult an attorney on how to

handle your companys legal issues, find someone who is impartial to assess and improve
upon your leadership style, as well as hold you accountable for your own success. Tough
as it may be to let someone coach you on your current approach and make suggestions for
change, this person has one key, crucial mission: to help you achieve your full potential
as a leader. Businesses that fail to see the value of an accountability coach rarely instigate
crucial change on their own, or take their leadership and the company to a greater level of
achievement.

2)Become an empowering leader. To become an empowering leader, you must first

determine what kind of leader you are today, using whats called the empowerment
pendulum. On a scale of 1 to 10, do you lean toward the control side (1) of managing
your employees, or is your management style more on the empowerment side (10)?

Ideally, you want to empower others, and thats accomplished through training, coaching,
accountability, and supporting employees by providing the resources and opportunities to
learn from mistakes. Its also achieved by trusting your employees and making sure their
values align with your companys values.

Most importantly, you must demonstrate empowering behavior. All too often, company
owners or managers say, Hey, I want to be empowering! But when an employee asks
for help, they give them the answers, rather than require that person to seek the solutions
for himself or herself. Even worse, they do the employees job for them, wearing whats
called the Big Red S for Supermanager.

If youre doing everything yourself, its likely that youre wearing this Big Red S. Shed
this responsibility by getting the right people around you so you can delegate to your
team, hold each member accountable, and empower your staff. After all, accountability is
empowerment.

3) Establish and maintain fundamental business practices, policies and procedures .

In everything you say and do, you must stay focused on practical solutions. Ask yourself
what works and what doesnt because the answers to these basic questions will uncover
the secrets to running your business effectively. They will also shed light on the six
business fundamentals:

leadership, mission, vision, values, and strategies and goals. Ultimately, youll need to
define, establish, implement, track and evaluate each of these core fundamentals.

If this sounds like a massive undertaking, relax! The good news is you will not be the one
doing all the work for a change. Instead, youll be training and managing your team to
carry out these business fundamentals.

Through this effective leadership approach, youll be able to relinquish unnecessary

control of the company and turn your attention toward developing your business instead.

4) Focus on the companys vital factors. You know its important to monitor your
bodys health with regular checkups that measure and evaluate your vital signs. For
example, if you discover that your weight or blood pressure is too high, you change your
diet and exercise. This often has a domino effect, improving other vital signs as well.

When it comes to a companys health, an effective leader should also focus on vital signs,
or what is called the organizations vital factors. These are the crucial components that
must be measured and accomplished for an efficient system. As the boss or manager, its
your job to define both the companys and your employees vital factors, determine how
to impact these vital factors, and then teach your team to do so as well. This is most often
done by measuring and creating ways to improve, as well as using a planning checklist
that outlines how to fix each part of your companys system. As you repair the system,
youll start a chain reaction of change the domino effect that enables overall business
success.

5) Create passion with your people.

This is the final secret to unlocking your teams power and potential. And, any leader can
do this by motivating and inspiring employees, but a truly effective leader goes one step
further and implements accountability. As mentioned, accountability is empowerment,
and empowerment breeds passion. This boils down to measuring employee performance
and taking appropriate, timely action.

Many employers fail to implement accountability out of fear or because they view
taking action as a negative. They believe this means pulling the employee aside to
discuss how he or she is not improving, despite training and numerous opportunities to
excel. But accountability can also be and should be a positive experience. For
example, when someone is doing a specific task right, you can give positive performance
feedback, yet still hold this person accountable.
Whether youre delivering negative or positive feedback, dont wait until performance
reviews to hold someone accountable. At that point, your feedback is usually old news.
Instead, impassion your employees with daily feedback whether its on the phone, in
the hallway or during project status discussions, etc. Vital factor meetings, where youre
discussing the companys health, can also foster an environment thats great for
performance checkups. Always be on the lookout for ways to proactively impassion your
team.

Accountability is the most underused tool on the part of mangers, yet its probably the
most important. By learning to let go of the reins a little bit and pass on responsibilities to
your staff members, you will unlock the power and potential of your organization

Factors which change the mindset of employees

Introduction through Motivation

Wilma Rudolf was dejected after doctor told her that she will not be able to put her legs
on ground and she would no more be able to walk and run like normal person. Her dream
to be fastest lady on earth seemed to be fading away and then a magic turned everything
upside-down.

Sachin Tendulkar was once told to quit cricket,but today we hardly know about this story
simply because Tendulkar is itself the name of success .

We all know about Thomas Alva Edison as a great scientist but we hardly know about his
story of failures.

Every successful person had a bad patch in his or her life .What was it that made Thomas
A. Edison a great scientist even after several failures ,what made Tendulkar a great living
legend, what was the magic that changed the life of Wilma Rudolf ;it was nothing but

MOTIVATION.

We all want to achieve something in our life and for our dreams to come true, we need to
have fire in our belly ,the true hunger for success. The story doesnt end here;
circumstances are rarely favourable for working on desires and then we need motivation
to drive us to right path.Motivation may be explicit or may be sometimes implicit.
Motivation may be internal or may be external.

World is changing proportionately with rapid changing needs of individuals, Business

which is very much dependent on consumers need, has to therefore cope up with this
change . And this is the greatest challenge before modern business today. Companies
need to be flexible in its operational and management approach to cope up with such
changes. Henceforth employees working in companies have to be motivated consistently
in order to channelize their potential for achievement of organizational objectives. Those
organizations face the problem of high attrition rate who fail to motivate their employees.
There's often a single element that differentiates companies with enthusiastic employees
from those that suffer high rates of dissatisfaction and turnover:...

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as

a Tool for Empowerment

Although most poor people are isolated from the new information revolution, shared cellular phones,
telecenters, and other innovative solutions are beginning to provide low-cost ways for them to access
ICT. Financial sustainability is indeed one of the main challenges for ICT projects and initiatives.
Rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and beneficiary impact assessments are needed to appraise whether
the benefits of ICT projects outweigh the costs.

The issues of content and community participation are key to realizing the empowerment potential of
ICT. To become truly relevant for poor people, ICT applications must be visual and graphic-oriented and
should make content available in local languages. Before launching any ICT initiative, the information
needs of a community should be thoroughly assessed, with the active involvement of the community,
and software should be developed taking into account local conditions. Community participation will
ensure continuity, while a top-down approach will probably lead to a waste of resources in the initial
start-up of projects, endangering future sustainability. Participation itself, however, should not be
introduced in a top-down, blueprint manner, and should also incorporate the local political and cultural
context.

This note highlights how ICT can empower poor women and men in four broad areas:

access to basic services

improved governance
support for entrepreneurship

access to financial services

 Information Disclosure

Informed citizens can take advantage of opportunities, access services, negotiate better deals
for themselves vis vis government and the private sector, exercise their rights, and hold
state and nonstate actors accountable. Disclosure of information about performance of
institutions promotes transparency in government, public services, and the private sector.
Rules on information disclosure must be institutionalized with the help of laws concerning
rights to information and a free press. Dissemination of this and other information in a timely
manner, presented in forms that are appropriate and easily understood, provides the basis for
the emergence of informed civic participation.

Many investment and institutional reform projects underestimate and underinvest in

information disclosure and dissemination; yet important and innovative efforts are taking place
in this field. This note highlights initiatives in the following areas:

The Freedom of Information Act in Romania;

The Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation, and Rating in Indonesia;
The public performance audit in Manila's Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage
System;
Information disclosure and dissemination practices in the Kecamatan Development
Program in Indonesia;
Private sector information disclosure: the case of Nike in Vietnam.

Full Text (52.7kb PDF)

Decentralization Strategies for Empowerment

Many countries throughout the world are undertaking some forms of decentralization by shifting fiscal,
political, and administrative responsibilities to lower levels of government. Decentralization is driven by
unique circumstances in each setting. In some countries it is linked to recent democratization, while in others
it is spurred by the failure of central government to deliver basic public services. The four elements of
empowerment put forward in this paper-access to information, inclusion and participation, local
organizational capacity, and accountability-are often integral components of successful decentralization.

In some countries, particularly those in the Europe and Central Asia Region, central governments have
decentralized responsibilities to local governments for another reason: to reduce national fiscal deficits. By
pushing expenditure functions down to local governments while retaining centralized tax bases,
governments maintain macroeconomic balance; yet service delivery often declines due to underfunding. In
these cases, the decentralization agenda is unlikely to achieve benefits unless it is modified to empower
local governments through greater resources and a sound intergovernmental framework, and empower
people so they can hold their local governments accountable.

The idea behind decentralization is that moving decision making closer to people will lead to public sector
decisions that better reflect local needs and priorities. This in turn will lead to greater efficiency in public
expenditures, improved governance, and greater equity. These results, however, are by no means automatic
or easy to achieve. Efforts to decentralize usually stop at the local government level and often go no farther
than the provincial or state level. Decentralization is unlikely to achieve its theoretical impact unless it
extends down to the population, permits informed input in public decisions, and motivates local government
to respond to this input. Further, as noted below, although empowerment can help achieve benefits of
decentralization and vice versa, these processes are only part of an effective poverty alleviation strategy.
There remains a strong role for central governments in ensuring adequate funding and incentives that target
the poor, along with a legal framework that enables them to live securely.

Read more:
http://www.brighthub.com/health/technology/articles/19075.aspx#ixzz0kgpKDjm2

Empowerment, motivation, training, and TQM program

implementation success.
By Prybutok, Victor

Publication: Industrial Management

Date: Monday, May 1 1995

You are viewing page 1

Training is widely recognized by organizational development experts as an important component in successful planned

change efforts. Training and education are important in preparing an organization for a change, in accomplishing the

change itself, and in institutionalizing it as a permanent part

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of the organization. The importance of training in the successful implementation of TQM programs is also widely

acknowledged because it provides an opportunity to reform employees about the goals of TQM, and it provides workers

with the skills and knowledge needed to achieve those goals.

In a recent Industrial Management article concerning the successful implementation of TQM programs, Whalen and

Rahim emphasized the importance of training, planning, management commitment, worker empowerment and motivation,

as well as measurement, evaluation, and feedback. The authors point out that "lack of understanding and proper training

[... are] a large contributor to worker resistance."

The outcomes of training, however, are not only knowledge and understanding as measured through objective learning

outcomes. Educators and psychologists agree that learning can also have emotional and motivational outcomes, as

measured through attitudes toward the learning itself or toward the change represented by the training. Thus, training can

also provide an opportunity to empower and motivate employees, reducing employee resistance and increasing the

chances of TQM success.

In an another recent Industrial Management article concerning TQM program success, and its relative scarcity, Tippett

and Waits point out, "TQM emphasizes improving and motivating a company's most valued asset, its workforce." The

authors develop a model that links employee empowerment with improved motivation. As a result, this directly impacts

project management and the ultimate success of the TQM efforts. Yet they acknowledge, "The presence of important

longer-term considerations such as motivation...and empowerment are often not closely monitored."

Worker empowerment is also important for keeping employees satisfied and productive, according to Harry Gaines,

another author in the same issue of Industrial Management. He suggests that a key component of achieving an

organizational transformation is to allow employees to get comfortable with change. He further points out that this comfort

level may be the most important result of having employees take charge of their own personal growth and satisfaction.

Moreover, this results in "numerous benefits to the organization. Employees feel they have more control over their careers

and their lives...like being on a more equal footing...with managers, able to share more responsibility, and reap the

benefits of improved motivation and morale among employees."

Methodology

How to Build Powerfully Successful Work Teams

Team work, effective work teams, and team building are popular topics in todays organizations. Successful teams and
team work fuel the accomplishment of your strategic goals. Effective work teams magnify the accomplishments of
individuals and enable you to better serve customers. Here is the information you need to develop team work and
effective work teams in your organization. Use this information for team building.

Twelve Tips for Team Building

People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, and my team, but few understand how to
create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team. Here are twelve tips for building successful work
teams.

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How to Build a Teamwork Culture: Do the Hard Stuff With Teams

Fostering teamwork is creating a work culture that values collaboration. In a teamwork environment, people understand
and believe that thinking, planning, decisions and actions are better when done cooperatively. People recognize, and even
assimilate, the belief that none of us is as good as all of us. (High Five) Its hard to find work places that exemplify
teamwork. Learn more.
Team Work Job Interview Questions
The following sample job interview questions about teams and team work enable you to assess your candidates skill in
working with teams. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews.

Team Building Activity: Radio-controlled Cars

Readers often send in ideas, initiatives, and team building activities and icebreakers that worked for them in their
organization. It's great to have examples, and in the spirit of this article, I value your collaboration and ideas. Recently, I
received a note from Keith Hamm which began: "You were asking about fun things in HR. A fun team building activity
was enclosed with his note.

The Five Teams Every Organization Needs

Team work, effective work teams, and team building are popular topics in todays organizations. Successful teams and
team work fuel the accomplishment of your strategic goals. Effective work teams magnify the accomplishments of
individuals and enable you to better serve customers. Here are the five teams that every organization needs. Read more.

Keys to Team Building Success: How to Make Team Building Activities Successful
Want to make your next team building activity or team building exercise live up to its true potential? Integrate the team
building with real-time work goals. Establish a systematic workplace integration and follow-up process - before you go on
the team building adventure. You need to make the good feelings and the outcomes from the team building activity last
beyond the final team building exercise.

Team Building, Teams, and Empowerment Article Index

Want to find information about team building, work teams, and employee empowerment and involvement fast? Check out
this one-stop directory of all the related articles on this site.

Top Ten Ways to Make Employee Empowerment Fail

Empowerment is a panacea for many organization ills, when empowerment is implemented with care. Managers and
employees say they want empowerment. Organizations see empowerment as a strategy to develop employees and serve
customers. If empowerment is great for customer service and employee motivation, why is empowerment not
implemented effectively? Here are my top ten reasons why empowerment fails.

Inspirational Quotes for Business: Team Building, Teamwork, Teams

Looking for an inspirational quote or a business quotation for your newsletter, business presentation, bulletin board or
inspirational posters? These team building and team work quotes are useful to help motivation and inspiration. These
quotes about team building and team work will help you create success in business, success in management and success
in life.

Harness the Power of an Employee Suggestion Program

The pitfalls of an ill-conceived employee suggestion program are multiple, legendary and most frequently - avoidable. A
carefully constructed suggestion program, launched with organizational commitment, clarity and ongoing communication
can positively impact your bottom line. With these tips and ideas you can implement an employee suggestion program
that will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Inspirational Quotes for Business: Empowerment and Delegation

Looking for an inspirational quote or a business quotation about empowerment for your newsletter, business
presentation, bulletin board or inspirational posters? These empowerment and delegation quotes are useful to help
motivation and inspiration. These quotes about empowerment and delegation will help you create success in business,
success in management and success in life.

Tips for Effective Delegation as a Leadership Style

Your leadership style is situational. Your leadership style depends on the task, the team or individual's capabilities and
knowledge, the time and tools available and the results desired. These six tips for successful delegation will help you with
employee involvement and employee empowerment as your selected leadership style.

Team Building and Delegation: How and When to Empower People

Employee involvement is creating an environment in which people have an impact on decisions and actions that affect
their jobs. Team building occurs when the manager knows when to tell, sell, consult, join, or delegate to staff. For
employee involvement and empowerment, both team building and delegation rule. Learn more.

Community - Gone? Or Just Harder to Find?

Community is breaking down in America with serious implications for volunteerism, charity-giving, religious practices,
neighborhoods, friendships, family, democracy, and society. There are implications for work, family, and self. Find out
more.
True Empowerment Wins!
Confused about the legitimate role of employee teams and committees in a non-union work setting? If so, you are not
alone. Employers have been cautious for years. A new NLRB decision may shed some light. Truly empowered teams rock!
Read more!

Center for the Study of Work Teams

The Center sponsors national conferences and provides responsible, up-to-date information about best practices for work
teams. TeamNet, the premier discussion list about work teams, is managed and moderated by the Center.

Creating Virtual and Geographically Dispersed Teams

Don't learn the hard way! The Millpond Group presents the steps to follow to make cyber-teams work. Find out about
start up meetings and team agreements.

Dispelling Myths about Teams: Lessons from 15 Years in the Field

Darcy Hitchcock, of AXIS Performance Advisors, Inc., provides an excellent article about her current thinking about
teams. Its not about teams, as an example; its about performance. Read her other newsletter issues while you visit the
site.

Processes to Move Groups Ahead

Use tools such as SWOT analysis, Force Field Analysis, and brainstorming to help your group or team make progress.
Read all about these and more!

Executive Team Leadership

Jim Clemmer of the Clemmer Group explores the role of executives in team leadership. Check out additional articles, at
this site, about developing the team mission, values, and purpose and about creating a personal mission statement. Good
reading.

Lessons Learned in 20 Organizations about Teams

The article explores best practices and lessons learned in 20 world-class organizations that implemented work teams.

Team Building: Developing a Productive Team

This article highlights what makes a team effective and provides a simple survey to measure the effectiveness of a team.
Characteristics of successful team building are also discussed.

Team Facilitation Tips

Ideas for starting the team meeting, keeping the team meeting on track, ending the meeting, dealing with conflict, and
general facilitation are provided in this article.

Team Motivation
There are six factors that influence the motivation of team members. Having a clearly defined purpose is one of them.
Feeling challenged is another. You'll discover the real facts about motivation in this article.

Corporate Philanthropy Propels Employee Motivation

Large corporations generally have well-defined corporate philanthropy programs that may include foundations, major
event sponsorship, and corporation-wide employee involvement in volunteerism and organized giving, often to a well-
organized community charity. But, corporate philanthropy presents an astonishing opportunity for employee involvement,
team building, promoting company pride and loyalty, projecting a positive corporate image, and recruiting employees for
the small to mid-sized company
Objective-
To know, how the companies withstand competition.

To know the factors which change the mindset of people?

To acknowledge, how to balance top-down control & bottom-up approach.

To know about different strategies used in empowering employees.

To know advantages of empowerment.

Challenges-
Decentralization of authority.

Process of managing equilibrium between empowerment & control.

Changing the beliefs of people internally.

In culture of high individuality, people are unwilling to cooperate & share

information.