Employee Empowerment - Article Example

Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………3 Employee Empowerment………………………………………………………………………..3 Managers and Employee Empowerment…………………………………………………….....4 Advantages & Disadvantages of Employee Empowerment...……………………………........6 Gender Differences in Employee Empowerment…………………………………………...…8 Organizational Factors that Encourage/Discourage Employee Empowerment……………10 Employee Empowerment and Customer Satisfaction…………………………………..……12 Fortune 100 Best Places to Work and their HR Practices Including Empowerment……...12 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………14 References…………………………………………………………………………………….....15 Introduction Employee empowerment is a broad term which encompasses many factors. It is a philosophy which allows employees to make decisions about their work. It helps the employees to take responsibility for their work as well as its end-point i.e. the outcome of the job. In this paper we discuss in detail about employee empowerment and its various facets. Employee Empowerment To understand employee empowerment, we first need to understand what empowerment is? Empowerment is a process through which an individual gets the authority to think, act, take actions and make decisions in an autonomous way. It is the feeling of being in control of the situation. So employee empowerment is a process through which employee i.e. the non managerial staff can make decisions in an autonomous manner without consulting a manger. Thinking of empowerment as something that is given by the manager to the people, who report to him, is a wrong concept. Instead of giving empowerment to the employees as yet another task, the whole company should be converted to an empowerment model. This would simply mean to give the employee the ability to control his actions and work and take decisions in an independent manner. The environment of the organization should be such which fosters confidence in the employees to take responsibility of their work and all barriers which hinder employees to act in empowered ways should be removed. Hence, an empowered employee is one which has the ‘attribute of empowerment’ i.e. empowerment comes from within the individual (Menon, 2001). Employee Empowerment also has a favorable effect on team performance. While the team leader plays the role of a manager or head, the performance of team members is equally important. Success depends equally on the leader as well as the team members’ willingness and ability to step up and perform better to achieve greater results. It is observed that the more a team’s members experience team empowerment, the more effective it will be (Ozaralli, 2003). Managers and Employee Empowerment All managers do not have a positive view about employee empowerment. Many managers are against the concept as they don’t want to hand down empowerment to their employees. In doing this, they overlook the various advantages that both the manager and employee and the organization on the whole would receive from this process. The more that top management wants commitment from its employees, the more it must empower their employees and involve them in setting objectives, achieving them and taking decisions (Tony Carter, 2009). Both the manager and employees will work better and excel if an empowered and productive environment is created. Managers should trust employees to do the right thing. There are various ways to empower employees and foster an empowerment and accomplishment pro environment. Methods such as suggestion systems, manufacturing cells, work teams. Kaizen (continuous improvement) events and meetings, corrective action processes and discussions with supervisor are used to empower employees. Let us discuss them in detail. A manager should always value his/her employees. This principle should not only apply to the work done by the employee. Rather, a manager should respect and always appreciate each individual for the value they bring to the organization. An employee shouldn’t be only restricted to his job requirements. Other than that, he should also be made a part of the organization’s vision and strategic objectives. Trust is a very important component of empowering employees. A good manager always trusts his employees to do the right thing or take the right decision which would work for the company. A manager should give clear instructions and state his expectations to the employees. All relevant information that is required for the task should be given. After that, he should relax and let them do the job. A manager’s job is to delegate work to the employees and some managers hand over all the grunt work to their employees while they want to take credit for all the important and interesting work. A good manager who wants to empower his employees would not follow this. A good manager delegates some important meetings and certain projects that would be noticed. This will help both the manager and the employee. The employee will develop new skills and perform better. The manager would feel more relaxed by sharing his work and will get more time for the more important jobs and excel in them. Constant feedback should be provided to the employees. It’s good to place trust in them and letting them do the job, but it’s equally important to guide them so they can perform better. Constructive feedback always helps in work improvement. A good manager should not blame his employees for any problems that occur. Rather, he should discuss it out and try to find out problem with the process or the system which caused the problem first. Empowering employees is good for them, but it could also be difficult and confusing especially in the beginning for new employees. Always keep open to questions and problems that occur. While one should give employees the freedom to work within their space, they should also be given the idea that the manager is available for questions and problems that come across while handling the job. Empowering employees is not a benefit or means of compensation for them, and should not be treated so. It’s a form which is helpful for the employees, mangers and the organization as well. So, employees should be given recognition for their extra work and effort. For empowerment, this plays a major role. Hence, we see that employee empowerment is a detailed process which can be implemented by making changes in the organization throughout. Such changes will help the organization as a whole and will help the managers and employees to excel, alike. Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Empowerment There are always two sides of a coin. So, while we see that employee empowerment offers a number of benefits to the organization, it has several disadvantages too. Let us first look at some more of its advantages before moving onto the shortcomings. They are: Increased employee education and training because employees are given various types of tasks to handle. Lower absenteeism and greater productivity as employees are more in control of the work they are doing. Increased employee satisfaction, as employees have a say in goal making and decision taking. Decreased costs to the company as middle-management positions would decrease because of this procedure. Better work relationship between the managers and employees as employees feel a sense of importance by the work they are doing, and by the organizational environment which is created as a result of employee empowerment. All these make employee empowerment, a very favorable process for the organization. But it has several disadvantages too which should be dealt with properly to achieve the maximum benefits that employee empowerment has to offer. The disadvantages are: Some employees are not ready for the amount of hard work or the sense of empowerment given to them. They are happy with going along with their particularly assigned job. Some employees may be ready but they are not suitable for the job. They might not be knowledgeable enough or have the ability of decision-making. Empowering employees is good, but some might mis-use the power assigned to them. This may create a problem. While cost-cutting takes place in terms of less middle-management posts, it increases in terms of training and education and that is a continued cost. Training of managers is also required which is another added cost. Moreover, managers need to be appropriately trained to empower employees and handle them post-empowerment. In such a procedure, teamwork becomes important. This may pose certain problems like certain employees like to focus on personal success so it may not suit them. Moreover, this and other factors may increase conflict and power struggle amongst employees. Therefore, we see that implementing employee empowerment is not as easy as it may seem to be. Each employee is different and this may cause the biggest problem for implementing this process. However, making it a part of the organization rather than just a process, understanding each employee and providing appropriate training and constant monitoring can help to implement this process successfully and be beneficial for the organization and everyone included in this process. Gender Differences in Employee Empowerment Gender differences are gaining a lot of interest in organizations as more women are joining the work-force at all job levels. In terms of employee empowerment, these differences can be seen in two aspects. One would be the differences between male and female managers in empowering employees and the other would be the difference between male and female sub-ordinates being empowered. Men and women have different personalities. These personalities then reflect in their managerial styles and their style of empowering employees. Generally, men have a more autocratic style of working and women adopt a democratic approach. The approach may differ from person to person. We are just discussing the basic idea here. Women managers tend to encourage participation, and share power and information with her subordinates. This style leads to enhancing an employee’s self-worth and motivation to work. Men, on the other hand, have a directive style towards work. Based on these styles, we see that women managers are more empowering as compared to men or they easily adapt the empowerment process. However, we see that as employee empowerment is being implemented in more and more organizations, both male and female managers are discovering its usefulness and moving towards it. Their strategies in empowering employees maybe influence by their respective styles. In terms of subordinates, we see that work motivation becomes the basis for differences amongst both genders. Men and women have different expectations from work. While men place more importance on factors like salary, personal success etc, women focus on factors like inter-personal relationships, balancing work/family life, getting respect in the work-place etc. Again these factors may vary from person to person. In a general context however, empowerment would be favored by women because it will increase job satisfaction other than material means. But the added responsibilities that come with it might not be welcomed by them. As for men, the chances of growth that would come with empowerment and being in control would be appreciated, but sharing and teamwork might not go too well with them. So, we see that motivation levels differ between men and women but a certain factor would be more important for one than the other. Overall, empowerment provides an excellent way of enhancing the attitude of people and the organization for both genders (Finegan, Laschinger & Heather, 2001). Organizational Factors That Encourage/Discourage Employee Empowerment In some organizations it is impossible or not desirable to implement employee empowerment. The structure of certain organizations is such that it becomes a barrier for people to act in empowered ways. Some factors that discourage employee empowerment are: A bureaucratic culture in an organization is the biggest hindrance in the way of empowering employees. In such a system, change is not possible. It has different levels of hierarchy i.e. a top-down management which lacks vision and has no support for real change to take place. In such a culture, learning and change are strongly inhibited and hence empowerment cannot be put into practice. In certain organizations, a conflict is present at various levels of the organization. Such conflicts sidetrack the employees from recognizing the need of change and empowerment cannot take place. Such conflicts can be amongst peers, between managers and sub-ordinates or about the various functions of the organization. Time constraints are another factor which hinders the implementation of employee empowerment. These constraints can be of the organization i.e. the extra time required in training and bringing a change to the organization by the process of employee empowerment. Employees can also have certain time constraints as initiating something new would be stressful for them and would reduce time for their personal life. Such constraints are part of the organization process. A smoothly running organization would not want to bring changes, no matter how important they feel employee empowerment is to the organization. But there are certain organizational characteristics which facilitate employee empowerment. They are: In organizations where the vision is clear cut and properly defined, it acts as a lever for implementing empowerment. When top-management is clear about the vision, specific information about the strategic direction of the organization can be given to the employees. In this way, employees can work autonomously rather than waiting for information and permission. When the strategic direction of the organization is clear, it becomes challenging for the employees to work harder and prove themselves. An organizational culture which gives importance to the human assets of its organization can empower them easily. In a culture, where employees feel a sense of participation in decision making and feel that their ideas are valued, empowerment breeds effortlessly. Discipline and control in an organization also plays a role in effective implementation of empowerment. When uncertainty and ambiguity are reduced in an organization, employees are clear about their tasks and boundaries set for them. In such a situation, where proper control is present, chances of chaos are reduced and empowerment takes place. A sense of support and security is also vital for an organization who wants to have empowered employees. When employees are supported well and are encouraged to take risks without fear of punishment, they work with greater ease and learn and grow better. If initiatives taken by employees are punished then disempowerment would take place. In order to have an empowering environment, the integration of all these factors and dedication to them by managers is required (Quinn & Spreitzer, 1999). Employee Empowerment and Customer Satisfaction Employee Empowerment, if implemented successfully, has a very positive impact on customer satisfaction and in effect the business of the company. When employees of a company are empowered and satisfied, they feel a part of the organization rather than just employees. In such a situation, they perform better and give their best to the company. Service quality increases as a result and customers are satisfied (Naeem & Saif, 2010). Greater customer satisfaction has twofold benefits for the organization. Increased customer satisfaction increases sales and hence the profits of the company. Moreover, greater customer satisfaction improves the reputation of the company and increases its value. Fortune 100 Best Places to Work and Their HR Practices Including Empowerment Fortune Magazine names top 100 companies to work for every year. This is a huge achievement for companies since it prepares this list based on the company’s performance but also on how they treat their employees. Employees are the most important asset of any organization and should be treated as one. SAS Company, which is the leader in business analytics, was rated no.1 this year in 2010. SAS has made this list for the past 13 years since it was established in 1998. This company has been in the top ten and top five frequently and finally made it to No. 1. Google is another company which makes the list. Being No.1 in 2008, it retains position no. 4 in 2009 and 2010. Edward Jones, Cisco, Nuggets Markets etc are some companies which continue to be in the top 10. All these companies offer great healthcare and benefits, and most of them are still hiring. Moreover, the organizational culture of the companies supports employees in fulfilling their teams and goals while nurturing a healthy-work life balance for its employees. Google’s hr policies include appreciating change and making it happen effectively. Any engineer is the company has a chance to create a new feature or product. Google also encourages it employees even in times of failure, which is a good tool for empowerment. SAS Company did not have any layoffs this year. Even in a tough economy, SAS maintained its innovative culture which keeps the employees challenged as well as provide work-life balance. Nuggets Market also gives great benefits and has an encouraging organizational culture. It has always recognized that its employees are the reason of its success. Hence, we see that these companies are using best HR policies, by creating an environment where the employees enjoy benefits and autonomy and as a result are providing great returns for the companies in various ways. Conclusion Employee empowerment can be summarized as the process of giving authority to the employees to make decisions and make ‘right’ decisions. It should not only be a process but a way of life for any organization. When implemented properly, it results in increased productivity and better quality of work-life. Different organization structures, different types of managers and many other factors come in the way of employee empowerment. However, to overcome these barriers and understand the true benefits of employee empowerment, an organization can excel in many ways. References Finegan, J.E., Laschinger, S. & Heather, K. (2001, October). The Antecedents and Consequences of Empowerment: A Gender Analysis, Journal of Nursing Administration, Volume 31, Issue 10, pp 489-497. Gomez, C. (2001, March). The Leader-Member Exchange as a Link between Managerial Trust and Employee Empowerment, Group Organization Management, Vol. 26, No.1, 53-69. Menon, S.T. (2001), Employee Empowerment: An Integrative Psychological Approach, Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(1), 153-180. Naeem, H. & Saif, M.I. (2010, August), Employee Empowerment & Customer Satisfaction: Empirical evidence from the banking sector of Pakistan, African Journal of Business Management, Vol. 4(10), pp. 2028-2031. Ozaralli, N. (2003), Effects of transformational leadership on empowerment and team effectiveness, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Vol. 24, Issue 6, pp 335-344. Tony Carter, J.D. (2009), Managers Empowering Employees, American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 1(2), 39-44. Quinn, R. & Spreitzer, G. (1999, February), The Road to Empowerment: Seven Questions Every Leader Should Consider, Centre for Effective Organizations, pp 1 – 16. Read More