Idea 18 - Empowerment
The history
of modern business practice began with 'scientific management', which wanted
the very opposite of empowerment. Until then, each skilled workman had done his
job in his own idiosyncratic fashion. Scientific management's Frederick W.
Taylor insisted that they drop all that and carry out the task in the 'one best
way', which had been measured and timed to perfection. Empowerment just wasn't
in it for Taylor, though he did introduce one small vent for self-expression -
the suggestion box.
The history of empowerment in the workplace has, in a way,
simply been a journey back to the status quo ante. Its history is not lengthy.
In 1977, when Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote Men and Women of the Corporation, a
study of power and the role of women in a large organization, there still
didn't seem to be much of it about. The book was in the vanguard of a movement
to give employees some discretion over their work (a reasonable definition of
empowerment), to emancipate them from rigid hierarchies, and generally loosen
things up. Today many more studies have claimed to show a link between treating
subordinates more like grownups, and their developing more initiative,
motivation, well-being and 'engagement'.
Engaged employees have a stronger emotional bond to the
company. They are more likely to recommend the firm to others, to put in time
and effort to help it succeed and to come up with their own innovative ideas
and solutions to problems. Kanter tells a revealing story of a fabric company
that made complicated woven materials. Yam breakage during production was a
long-standing problem, adding to cost and representing a competitive
disadvantage. A new executive, who believed in opening the search for ideas and
innovation to all employees, held a meeting to discuss the need for change. A
veteran worker, who had joined as a young immigrant, tentatively suggested an
idea for ending the breakage - and it worked. When asked how long he had had
that idea, the worker replied, 'Thirty-two years.
'It's only
a job' Working as part of a team, towards a common purpose, can be
more motivating too, and Western companies learnt from Japanese structures like
Kaizen teams. A Gallup study in 1999 demonstrated that engaged employees could
bring a broader range of benefits to the company. It said they were more
productive, more profitable, and more customer-focused. They also had, or
caused, fewer accidents and were less likely to head off in search of another
job. Some employees flatly don't want to be engaged - 'it's only a job' - and
never will be. Critics regard empowerment as a scam that squeezes more work out
of employees without actually giving them any meaningful power. However, the
balance of opinion is that a more enabling work environment has positive,
occasionally spectacular, results.
If it doesn't produce results, chances are it's not
empowerment. Managements are inclined to pay lip service to the idea -
'everyone's doing empowerment these days, aren't they?' - without walking the
walk. They may not even understand what it means. Merely asking people what
they think about something is not the same as enabling
them-to make decisions about their jobs. And second-guessing the decision you
have just empowered someone to make doesn't feel particularly enabling to the
decision-maker. Likewise, breathing down their necks doesn't display trust and
confidence in their abilities, though under-supervision suggests you aren't
really interested, which can be just as demotivating.
A recent study found that perceptions of the importance of
one's job and its place in the organization's endeavours had a bigger impact on
loyalty and customer service than all other employee factors combined. 'You're
not cutting stone; you're building a cathedral,' as one consultant puts it.
Employees need clarity as to what exactly is expected of them, along with the
necessary resources to deliver it. The ground rules need to be laid out: the
boundaries of empowerment, beyond which employees must not stray; governing
policies and principles; any corporate sacred cows. People have to know to whom
they are accountable and in what ways, as well as the consequences of success
or failure: promotion, bonus, a pat on the back or the sack (for some, a pat on
the back is worth more than a bonus). Once these guidelines are laid down, let
people decide the best methods and means to do the job, empowerment advocates
recommend.
Leadership
effect Empowerment is clearly a of leadership. Powerlessness
cascades down the organization. Managers who feel their own power is threatened
or diminished will often take it away from others wherever they can. 'The two
sides of power (getting it and giving it) are closely connected,' as Kanter
observes. Leadership specialist Warren Bennis describes empowerment as 'the
collective effect of leadership'. He believes that where there are good leaders
empowerment is evident in different ways. One is that people feel significant -
that they make a difference to the success of the organization. It may be a
small difference but it has meaning. They also value learning and competence,
as a good leader does, in personal development as well as work skills.
Bennis believes that empowerment and leadership create a
sense of community, even among people who don't especially like each other. He
points to Neil Armstrong and his Apollo team, who carried out a highly complex
set of interdependent tasks in order to land on the moon, noting: 'Until there
were women astronauts, the men referred to this feeling as
"brotherhood" ... I suggest they rename it "family".' He also
argues that, where there is empowerment, work becomes more stimulating, more
exciting, more fun. People become immersed in their work, doing it not because
they have to but because they want to. Bennis says that pulling rather than
pushing people towards a goal is important in organizational leadership. 'A
"pull" style of influence attracts and energizes people to enroll in
an exciting vision of the future. It motivates through identification, rather
than through rewards and punishments".
Reference: 50 Management Ideas You Really Need to Know
Book by Edward Russell-Walling
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