EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment - meaningEmpowerment is the process of enabling

employees to set their own work related goals, make decisions and solve problems within their spheres of responsibility and authority.

Ex: person empowered as team leader – given freedom to guide his team members, solve problems within the team, set goals for the team and he is less controlled.

Allows people, individually and in groups, to use their talents and knowledge to make decisions that affect their work.

Empowerment is not a program. It’s a cultural change done in an organization.

Authorizes an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision-making in autonomous ways.

Leads to creativity, introduction of new methods or even innovation.

Organization has responsibility to provide an environment that helps employees to act in an empowered way and should remove the barriers for the same, immediately after it goes for empowering employees.

DEFINITIONS

Empowerment is the process coming to feel and behave as if one is in power(autonomy and control) and to feel as if he/she owned the firm”

- Richard Kathnelson

Employee Empowerment predominantly about encouraging front-line staff to solve customer problems on the spot, without constant recourse to management approval”.

- Goldsmith et al

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT RESULTS IN Allows each individual to work to his highest

capacity. Provides freedom to take initiative, to create, to

solve problems and to assume the responsibility of completing the task with success, accountability and satisfaction.

Changes the manager’s mind set. Leaves them with more time to engage in broad thinking, visioning, and nurturing, focusing on emerging opportunities and empowered employees.

Well-managed organization with strong growth potential.

greater commitment and cooperation.increases organizational effectiveness and success.Direct and Indirect cost savings.

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT CAN BE DONE BY

Encouraging sharing of information and resources

Seeking advice from employeesFacilitating employees to try their ideas of

their ownImproving the communication skills of

employees.Allow employees to participate in the

decision-making process.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EMPOWERED EMPLOYEES

Enhances the beliefs in employees that they are also the influential contributors for the organizational success.

Employees perceive meaning in work (feel work is important and take care of what they do).

Employees believe that they have an impact on important decisions and others would listen to it.

PRE-REQUISITES FOR EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment works only when employees are given the necessary resources, proper training and effectively managed. Only then, they will be able to successfully perform and make effective decisions.

Managers should assume more leadership and work hard to provide employees the resources and working conditions they need to accomplish the goals they’ve agreed to.

SOME IMPORTANT OBJECTIVES OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

Bring in employee involvementFacilitate quick decision makingSolving complex problems.

PROCESS OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

IDENTIFYING REASONS FOR EMPOWERMENT AND LEVEL OF EMPOWERMENT

- managers should decide why should they empower employees - say to improve customer service, reduce cycle time or improve product quality and this must suit the strategic goals, mission and objectives of the organization. - Clearly intimate employees about whether they are empowered only to resolve customer complaints or only determine work and vacation schedules or only to resolve problems or only in handling operations or so. It has to be specific.

DETERMINING IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE DECISIONS - What decisions manager are willing to hand over. - deciding where it makes sense to have employees

more directly involved. - Trusting employees is very critical. But empowerment with trust enables good decisions. - It takes time for employees to learn to make

good decisions and for them to trust that manager’s

will abide by the decisions they make.

WORKING IN TEAMS - Together, Everyone Achieves More. - will help empowered employees

clearly understand the impact of their decisions on other

people. SHARING INFORMATION - Empowered employees should have

access to information such as cost to make a

product, average cycle time, customer

complaints, annual sales goals, etc.

SELECTION OF RIGHT EMPLOYEES - Taking initiative as well as able to get along with

people PROVIDING TRAINING - on decision making, conflict management, problem solving, diversity, safety and to improve technical

skills. SETTING GOALS FOR EMPOWERED EMPLOYEES TO

ACHIEVE.** STRONGEST SIGN OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT** Empowered people start developing skills and

knowledge through training provided in the organization or out

side the organization.

WAYS TO EMPOWER EMPLOYEESEmpowering employees at lower level

who especially need it than anybody else. Say in customer satisfaction, repairing a machine or so.

Must have optimum no. of rules to have certain level of control on employees.

Allowing independent decision making.Allowing more access to information.Providing freedom to access the

information and other resources.

LIMITATIONS Employees in many organization do not have even basic knowledge about the organization.Hurts non-empowered employees.Employee Empowerment can become a major

problem to the organization if the following are not available: - Increased organizational commitment and OCB. - Proper intimation of level of empowerment and proper and required control. - Employee’s experience / smartness to learn quickly. - Leadership quality and mingling with others in the team like a person, one among them. - Continuous and keen monitoring of the

organization and empowered employees.

TYPES OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

Structured Empowerment – Close control and clear rules.

Flexible Empowerment – Certain boundaries set and guidelines rather than rules. Expecting employees to use their

experience or common sense.

EMPOWERMENT CONTINUUM