Empowerment and Organizational Behavior - Essay Example

Running head: Empowerment and organizational behavior. What is the impact of empowerment on the factors of organizational behavior in five star hotels in the USA? Name: Student Ref: University: Course: Aim: The research will analyze in This study is aimed at establishing the impact of empowerment on organizational behavior factors in USA Five star hotels so as to enable managers to implement empowerment programs effectively. Objectives: Give recommendation to both the industry and the academia. To determine the impact of empowerment on the factors of organizational behavior in five star hotels in the USA. To establish the nature of relationship between empowerment and organizational behavior in five star hotels in the USA. To determine if empowerment influences organizational behavior in five star hotels in the USA. To offer suggestions on ways in which empowerment can be used to improve organizational behavior in five star hotels. To provide answers which will be adapted by five star hotels in the use to improve empowerment? Literature Review: Introduction This section of the reviews relevant literature regarding the impact of empowerment on factors affecting organizational behavior with a special reference to USA hotels. Empowerment It is defined as the process of offering employees the freedom to carry out their activities at job with an aim of achieving optimal performance, Whitener, Ellen M. (2000). Empowerment has become a global trend and only those hotels which properly empower their employees will succeed. Research carried out by, Wagner Iii, John A. (1994) found the following as impacts of empowerment: Meaning Results Challenge and an opportunity to learn Respect and recognition Freedom at work Affiliation. According to Betttencons, Lance E. A and Steven W.Brown (1978), empowerment in USA hotels has been implemented to some degree of success in some states. In a subsequent study on New York hotels, Fasa (1995) critically analyzed how empowerment can drive businesses to excel. In his findings he came up with three important levels of empowerment in organizations: employee-employer relations, employee – customer relations as well as the employee-job. Empowerment and Organization behavior. In a study conducted on empowerment in Canada, Whitener, Ellen M. (2000. p 234) observed that: “Workers are empowered through giving them authority and responsibility to make decisions affecting their work with a minimum of interference and second guessing by managers.” Role of employee empowerment Hotels depend on employee interactions with customers to earn business. Whether a hotel is going to continue attracting customers or not depends very much on how its employees interact with customers. Therefore, customer perception on an organization is very much dependent on behavior of the workers .It can therefore be argued that, the behavior of employees working in hotels must constantly be assessed and modeled to ensure that it reflect the hotels standard and mission. In line with suggestions by Bowen and Lowler (1992), empowerment is very critical where by a job values a relationship with its customers as opposed to a case whereby the contact is a one time off involving one transaction. This is very applicable for Hotels which look up to repeat orders. William M. Trochim (2004) describes as prosocial behaviors any helpful behavior exhibited by employees towards customers while at work. Hartline and Ferrell (1996) divided Empowerment of workers into 3 levels Employee-Manager. Employee-Role Employee-Customer Spreitzer, G.M. (1995) views empowerment as a managerial control tool crucial to employers if self efficacy, as well as optimum job participation are going to be realised.The aforementioned are crucial in ensuring that workers portray the right behavior towards customers. A study by Zellars, Kelly L.; Tepper, Bennett J. (2001) found that empowerment plays a crucial role in shaping behaviors and job attititudes amongst workers. Empowerment of service workers has been suggested to be a very efficient strategy Spreitzer, G.M.; Kizilos, M.A.; Nason, S.M. (1997). It is argued to be one of the best ways to bring out the full potential or behaviors in workers. Empowerment involves breaking out the red tape in communication and flow of information especially from bottom to up or vice versa. There is no replacement for empowerment; Spreitzer, Kizilos (1997) added that: “Flat organizations, employee empowerment, cross-disciplinary approach and cross-department strategy are essential for success of any organization”. Quality improvement resulting from empowerment has been found to be effective than improvements resulting from other efforts, Meyer, J., Smith, C., (2000) . However, not every one is of the opinion that empowerment brings about improvements, Pil, Frits K.; Macduffie, Paul (1996) suggested that empowerment is not as profitable for hotels as it is in the service delivery organizations. Peters, M. (2005) adds that “empowerment is not as profitable as widely advocated”. Therefore empowerment is advocated by some and rejected by others. In a fast globalizing economy, empowerment has become a must-do for most organizations. Hotels in the USA have not been left behind. Commenting on the journal of Hospitality, Maurer, T., Pierce, H., Shore, L., (2002) noted that, “the working dynamics in hotels are dynamic and challenging to warrant employees to be managed in the best way possible.” Organizational behavior is useful in businesses in terms of meeting challenges work Organizational Behavior. Organizational behavior is defined as the behavior of human beings in the work place, Wagner I, John A. (1994). Factors of organizational behavior are; right attitude, necessary skills, important values and business tools Gardner, Philip D. (1994). Specifically regarding the hotel industry, empowerment of employees has been found to increase the level of output amongst employees and therefore the profits of the company, Birdi, K., C. & Warr, P. (1997) reckons that when employees are empowered they are able to concentrate on their job and are more likely to show commitment towards their job. Aryee, S., Budhwar, P., & Chen, Z. (2002) adds that empowerment creates a free working environment where employees can initiate activities as well as take responsibilities for their actions. According to Tsui, Anne S.; Pearce, Jone L.; Porter Lyman W.; Tripoli, Angela M. (1997) , empowerment should go beyond the call of duty into carefully adapting employee behavior to job demands whether forced by situations or by customers. Aryee, S., Budhwar, P., & Chen, Z. (2002) have asserted that, in service priding organizations, human resource need to be treated differently than in the goods sector. They recommend the following measures: Involving employees in planning. Recognizing the effects of work environment on workers. Understand that human resource practices can greatly influence experience of customers. In the following section, the research method to be adopted for this study is discussed, and future study areas are suggested. Conclusion If applied carefully, empowerment can have positive impact on organization behavior leading to more profits. If applied systematically and continuously could improve the competitiveness edge of a hotel A review of empowerment related literature leads to the following conclusion: That, empowering employees can improve performance of employees hence quality service delivery and secondly that the feeling amongst employees affects service delivery. Justification: Within the Hospitality industry, empowerment and how it impacts on organizational behavior is very relevant given the fact, successes or failure of the hospitality industry depends on customer- employee contact. Methodology: The study will utilize an inductive approach to collect data. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods shall be used. To collect quantitative data, probability sampling technique will be used to collect data from a sample of 5 hotels selected randomly. Out of the 20 hotels targeted by the study, stratification will be used to come up with the six on which the study is to be based. For the qualitative data, non-probability technique will be utilized especially the snowball and quota sampling. The research is going to employ two tools: Questionnaires with mostly closed questions. Oral interviews with open-ended questions. Both tools will be pre test through conducting a pilot study aimed at correcting any design problems as well as establishing their reliability. The questionnaire is based on Likerts scale1the interview will mainly focus on managers and it will comprise of both formal structured as well as informal interviews. The information gathered thereof will serve the purpose of primary data. As earlier mentioned, reliability of the study will be ensured by designing and carrying out a pilot study. Finally, a statistical analysis software (SPSS) will be used to analyze the quantitative data. Thereafter the researcher will use regression methods to establish meanings of the data. Anticipated findings: Based on the literature review, the researcher expects a positive correlation between empowerment and organizational behavior. The findings will underscore the significance of empowerment in the USA hotels. REFERENCE Aryee, S., Budhwar, P., & Chen, Z. (2002) « Trust as mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes: test of a social exchange model ». Journal of Organizational Behavior, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23, p. 267-285 Birdi, K., C. & Warr, P. (1997). « Correlates and perceived outcomes of four types of employee development activity ». Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 72, p. 845- 857. Gardner, Philip D. (1994) « Organizational Socialization: It’s Content and Consequences », Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 79, no 5, p. 730-743. Fache, W. (2000) Methodologies for innovation and improvement of services in Tourism. Managerial Audit Journal 10 (6), 356-366. [Online] Available: Published by MCB University Press. ISSN 0960-4529 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0960-4529 Maurer, T., Pierce, H., Shore, L., (2002) « Perceived beneficiary of employee- development activity: A Three-dimensional social exchange model ». Academy of Management Review, vol. 27, no 3, p. 432-444. Meyer, J., Smith, C., (2000) « HRM Practices and organizational commitment: Test of a mediation model », Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, vol. 17, no 4,, p. 319-331. Peters, M. (2005) Entrepreneurial skills in leadership and human resources management evaluated by apprentices in small tourism business. Managerial Audit Journal 47 (8/7), 575-591. [Online] Available: Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. ISSN 040-0912 www.emeraldinsight.com/0040-0912.htm Pil, Frits K.; Macduffie, Paul (1996) « The Adoption of High-Involvement Work Practices », Industrial Relations, vol. 35, no 3, p. 423-455. Spreitzer, G.M. (1995) « Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. » Academy of Management Journal, vol. 38, no 5,, p. 1442-1465. Spreitzer, G.M.; Kizilos, M.A.; Nason, S.M. (1997) « A dimensional analysis of the relationship between psychological empowerment and effectiveness, satisfaction, and strain ». Journal of Management, Jai Press inc., vol. 23, no 5, p. 679- 704 Tsui, Anne S.; Pearce, Jone L.; Porter Lyman W.; Tripoli, Angela M. (1997) «Alternative approaches to the employee-organization relationship: does investment in employees pay off? » Academy of Management Journal, volume 40, numéro 5, Octobre, ABI/NFORM Global, p. 1089-1121 Wagner Iii, John A. (1994) « Participations Effects on Performance and Satisfaction: A Reconsideration of Research Evidence », Academy of Management Journal, vol. 18, no 2, p. 312-330. William M. Trochim (2004) Research Methods Knowledge Base. Cornell University. Whitener, Ellen M. (2000) «Do "high commitment" human resource practices affect employee commitment? » Journal of Management, volume 27, Elsevier Science Inc., p. 515-535 Zellars, Kelly L.; Tepper, Bennett J. (2001) «Beyond Social Exchange: New Directions for Organizational Citizenship Behavior Theory and Research», Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, volume 22, p. 395-424 Read More