Participation and Empowerment

8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment

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Participation and Empowerment


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Introduction to participation and empowerment:

One of the most important foundations of OD is the

participation and empowerment model.

These pillars of OD practice are validated by research and

practice.Research on group dynamics was found to overcome

resistance to change.

Increase commitment to the organization, reduce stress

levels & make people feel better about themselves.Participation is good for people and performance


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To empower is to give someone power/authority.

Participation is an especially effective form of empowerment.

Participation enhances empowerment and empowerment inturn enhances performance and individual well-being.

OD interventions are deliberately designed to increaseinvolvement & participation by org leaders & members.

Eg: autonomous work groups, quality circles, teambuilding, survey feedback, quality of work life programs,search conferences etc are all predicated on the belief thatincreased participation will lead to better solutions.


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Rules of thumb such as:

involve all those who are a part of the problem or

part of the solution

have decisions made by those who are closest tothe problems.

OD interventions are basically methods for increasingparticipation.

The entire field of OD is about empowerment.


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Robert Quinn and Gretchen Spreitzer found 2different views about empowerment:

Mechanistic: top down delegation of decision making

with clear boundaries and strict accountability thatincreases managerial control.

Organic:bottom-up and less controlling. They believed

that this view was about risk taking, growth and change.

The authors feel that this view is the more usefulperspective.


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The additional sources of information aboutEmpowerment:

James Belasco gives numerous examples in

which leaders reap extraordinary gains byempowering their employees. He believes that:

1. Only massive changes will suffice needed changes.

2. People will not naturally embrace the needed change

&

3. Empowerment is the key to getting people to want to

participate in change.


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Belasco uses a simple 4 step model to describethe empowerment process:

1) Preparation

2) Create tomorrow

3) Vision4) Change

Of these vision is the most important ingredients of

empowerment.


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Kouzes and Posnor conducted few leadership seminars andasked participants to describe a personal best leadershipsituation from their own experience. Analysis of theseleadership stories led to identifying 5 leadership practices.They are:

1. Challenging the processSearch for opportunitiesExperiment & take risk

2. Inspiring a shared vision

Envision the futureEnlist others


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3. Enabling others to actFoster collaboration

Strengthen others

4. Modeling the way

Set the examplePlan small wins

5. Encouraging the heart

Recognize individual contributionsCelebrate accomplishments


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Donald Peterson describes the organizational redesign of Ford Motor Co.Peterson was the president CEO & chairman of Ford during the

turnaround of that 370,000-person company.

They produced high quality products, made big profits & created the Ford

Taurus one of the best selling cars in American history.

The primary vehicle for the turnaround was employee involvement,

participation, & empowerment.

The net-effect was the significant change in the companys culture frombeing a top-down, autocratic, functionally oriented company to one that

gave responsibility & power to cross functional teams at all levels of the

organization.


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Tom Peters is one of the strongest advocates on the

American scene for participation and empowerment.In his books he describes that one of the attributes for

characterizing excellent, innovative companies is

productivity through people.

He says: excellent companies pay attention to 4 things:customers, innovation, people, & leadership.

In another book by Tom Peters Thriving on Chaosthe same

themes appear i.e.,

Creating total customer responsiveness,

Pursuing fast-paced innovation,

Achieving flexibility by empowering people,

Learning to love change &

Building organization system that support the first 4 themes.


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Peters offers the following prescriptions for achievingflexibility by empowering people:

Involve everyone in everything

Use self-managing teams Listen/celebrate/recognize

Spend time lavishly on recruiting

Train & retrain

Provide incentive pay for everyone

Provide an employment guarantee

Simplify reduce structure

Reconceive the middle managers role &

Eliminate bureaucratic rules & humiliating conditions.


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Peters continued to advocate the importance of empowered

people, customer satisfaction, innovation & visionary

leadership.

But he introduces an important new insight: he takes aim at

todays organization structures. Todays jobs are best accomplished through

empowered people working in highly autonomous

project teams, he says, & organizations must be

redesigned to allow that happen.


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James Belasco teamed up with Ralph Stayer, former CEO ofJohnsonville Foods, to explore empowerment in his book.

It contained the insights describing Stayers leadership journey from

authoritarianism to abdication to letting his employees lead.

Johnsonville Foods became a classic example of how empowerment

stimulates individual growth & organizational improvement.

Empowerment is an important ingredient in high-performance

organizations.

The effect of involvement & empowerment is especially whenempowered employees are formed into empowered teams.


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The concept of open-book management as a possible

way to run business is receiving a great deal of attention

in management circles today.This concept pushes the idea of empowerment to the extreme,

usually with excellent financial results.

It allows every employee of a company to think like an owner of

the business & start acting like one.

Open-book management rests on several simple

principles:

1) Every employee in an open-book co. sees & learns to understand-

the companys financials along with all the other numbers that

are critical to tracking the businesss performance;

2) Employees assume that whatever else they do, part of their job is

to move those numbers in the right direction;

3) Employees have a direct stake in the companys success.

PARTICIPATION/EMPOWERMENT WORKS.


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Documents

Participation and Empowerment