Employee Empowerment

 Acc . to Nancy Foy,

 “Empowerment is simply gaining the

power to make your voice heard, to
contribute to plans and decisions that
affect you, to use your expertise at
work to improve your performance and
with it the performance of your
organization.”
Introduction
 Means allowing a person to run the show by himself.

 Empowered employees become “self directed” & “self

controlled”.

 Possible only when there is mutual trust between the

superior & his subordinates.

 Superior has full faith that his subordinates will not do

anything, which is detrimental to the organization.
 Similarly, the subordinate has confidence in his superior that he will
support his decisions and actions.

 Empowered manager treats his employees with respect and dignity.

 He puts authority, responsibility and resources at the most appropriate

level for each job.

 Empowerment may be defined as providing employees at all levels the

authority and responsibility to make decisions on their own.
 Empowerment is different with delegation of
authority.

 Delegation is actioned by the manager

whereas empowerment is actioned by the
subordinate.

 In delegation the superior exercises control

but in empowerment the subordinate
exercises self-control.
Types of Empowerment
 Two types of empowerment:
1. Individual level
2. Group level

Individual level empowerment:

Degree of control exercised by individual
employees over work setting.

Group level empowerment:

Amount of control exercised by the group as a
whole over the work setting.
Elements of Empowerment:
Main elements of empowerment are as follows:
 Self – sufficiency or Competence
It means that one is capable of performing a particular task.
Employees will not accept responsibility for making decisions until they are confident of
their abilities.

 Meaningfulness
It means the feeling that the task is valuable both to the organization and to oneself.

 Personal control
 Impact
It refers to the belief that one has an influence
on decisions of the organization.
Approaches to Empowerment
1. Job Mastery

2. Control

3. Role models

4. Social Reinforcement & Persuasion

5. Emotional Support
1. Job Mastery
Job mastery can be achieved by:
1. Giving training
2. Coaching
3. Guided experience

2. Control
Allowing more control by:
1. Giving employees discretion over job performance.
2. Making them accountable for the performance outcomes.
3. Role Models
Providing successful role models by:

 Allowing them to observe peers who are performing

successfully on the job.

4. Social reinforcement & Persuasion.

By:
 Giving Promise,
 Encouragement,
 Verbal feedback to raise confidence.
4. Emotional Support
By:
 Reduction of stress and anxiety through
better role prescription,

 Task assistance,

 Personal care.
Importance of Empowerment
1. Knowledge workers

2. Cut throat competition

3. Speed and flexibility

4. Globalization

5. Human resource development

1. Knowledge
 Knowledge employees are not prepared to
accept the old command and control systems.

 They want job envt. which provides them

opportunities for exercising control over work
related decisions.

 Organisations which fail to provide such

opportunities continuously lose their best
employees.
2. Cut throat competition
 To survive & grow in competitive era, organisations must
meet the needs of customers more effectively.

 For this, cross functional working and close cooperation

is required.

 Empowerment can provide such cooperation.

 When customers demands rapid action it is easier to

meet the demand through employee empowerment than
through changes in process and technology.
3. Speed & Flexibility
 Growing turbulence of envt. requires quick response
which is not possible under the old command and control
model of organizational functioning.

 Empowerment encourages innovation & creativity on the

part of staff.

 Empowered managers can focus more on external

changes than internal problem-solving.
4. Globalization
 Economic globalization & liberalization are leading to
downsizing, delayering & decentralization.

 In order to achieve coordination and control in the new

economy, staff must exercise much greater
responsibility.
5. Human Resource Development
 Empowerment helps to reveal and utilize untapped
potential of employees.

 Thus executive empowerment helps to develop a

flexible, responsive and adaptive organization.

 It represents a major cultural change representing the

way an organization defines itself, its priorities and
values and the way it deals with its people to change
their mindsets.
Barriers to Empowerment
1. Incongruent Organizational Culture

2. Love for Authority

3. Fear of Retribution by superiors

4. Fear of Retribution by subordinates

5. Dependency of Subordinates
1. Incongruent Organizational Culture
 An authoritarian organizational culture works as an
impediment to employee empowerment.

 In such a culture, authority is centralized at the top and

there is lack of meaningful sharing of authority.

 Most of the decisions are made at higher levels and

there is lack of involvement of lower level staff.

 Unless this type of organizational culture is changed,

empowerment cannot be effective.
2. Love for Authority
 Power hungry managers cannot empower the staff.

 Such managers are autocratic.

 They want to make their importance felt in the

organization.

 They expect their subordinates to come frequently to get

their decisions approved.

 They maintain tight control over subordinates.

3. Fear of retribution by superiors
 A manager may not empower his employees if he is
punished for each and every failure or mistake of his
subordinates.

 The typical example is that of firing a coach if the team

fails to win a match.
4. Fear of retribution by subordinates
 Empowerment cannot flourish when there is fear in the
mind of subordinates that they will be punished for
taking initiative.

5. Dependency of Subordinates
 Some subordinates always feel comfortable with
command and control by the boss.
 They may have external-locus-of-control personality or
may be under prolonged autocratic leadership.
 Empowerment will be difficult with such subordinates.
Making Empowerment Effective
1. Impact

2. Competence

3. Meaningfulness

4. Choice