Faculty Empowerment and the Changing University Environment - Research Paper Example

Faculty empowerment and the changing university environment Empowerment is an essential requirement for the employees of an organization because of its immense contributions in improving the productivity of the employees. The hidden potential of the employees can be taken out only through empowerment programs. Empowerment acts as a lubricant in reducing the workloads or job stresses of the employees with respect to their profession. Globalization and Liberalization has increased the requirement of empowerment because of the diversity of workforce working in the current organizations. Leadership styles are changing day by day in organizations because of the immense changes happening in the business world at present. Many of the traditional management concepts were given way for scientific management principles at present. For example, earlier, most of the organizations encourage autocratic management styles in their workplaces in order to derive maximum out of the employees. Moreover traditional organizations encouraged only the individual works. However, modern organizations adopt democratic style management in their workplaces and they also encourage team work in their workplaces. Relationship building is accepted as the core of every organizational function at present. Without employee empowerment programs it is difficult for organizations to prepare their employees capable of meeting the present and future challenges. Most of the prominent organizations are working at an international environment at present. For example most of the prominent universities have diverse instructors and students. For example, in many of the American and British universities, both the students and faculties constitute people from all over the world. Many Indian and Pakistani students and faculties are studying and working in these universities at present. Because of such extreme diversity in such campuses, the needs of the local students and foreign students may clash each other. Even the diverse faculties face difficulties in their profession because of the cultural differences between their country and that of other countries. Empowerment is the only way to prepare the faculties capable of meeting their professional challenges in diverse environment. “Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes” (Empowerment, 2009). It is difficult for a person to achieve the desired targets in his personal and professional life without seeking help from other sources. Moreover, the complexity of the job functions are growing day by day and without proper guidance, it is difficult for the employees to complete their tasks independently. Some employees may have better ideas; however, in order to convert such ideas in to practice, empowerment is required. For example, it is difficult for a professor to excel in his profession if he fails to update his knowledge. A physics professor who is around 50 years old may not have many ideas about the current developments in electronics or computer science. The inventions happening in the electronic world is huge and without empowerment or training, that professor cannot update his knowledge. “Empowerment is a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. It is a process that fosters power in people for use in their own lives, their communities and in their society, by acting on issues they define as important (Page & Czuba, 1999) Empowerment is a general term which is applied in almost all the segments of life activities nowadays. It is now applied as a core concept in education, politics and economic circles. Human often tries to improve the quality of all the life segments. The quality improvement of life is not possible without empowerment. For example, nowadays people talk about quality education. Quality education is possible only if the educational aids and the infrastructure facilities provided in the campuses are matching with the current developments. It is difficult for a professor to take classes without seeking help from computers and internet at present. A professor who tries to rely only on academic books or his teaching abilities may not succeed in his profession if he fails to utilize the immense up to date knowledge provided by computers and internet. Empowerment programs will be helpful to a professor who does not have previous computer knowledge. Knowledge is bursting from all the corners and it is difficult for the employees of an organization to keep in pace with the knowledge explosion. Only a lighted candle can enlighten other candles. In the academic world, the instructors and the students can be considered as candles. Empowerment makes the professors or instructors as lighted candles. In other worlds, in the absence of empowerment, the faculties would be just like an unlighted candle which cannot enlighten other candles or students. Literature review: Empowerment “When people refer to "empowerment" in the workplace, they generally mean the concept of arming workers with the knowledge and resources to take control of their own theoretical "helm" and do a better job by doing it themselves, instead of relying on a superior (Prater, n.d)” Apart from helping the employees to execute their jobs more easily, empowerment will enable the employees to act positively even in other situations in which their involvement normally does not require. For example, in academic world, most of the people believe that the only duty of the professors is to teach the students. However, according to the modern educational theories, the duty of the professor is not limited to teaching alone. It is the duty of the professor to prepare the student capable of meeting his/her future life challenges. It is necessary to empower employees to act positively whenever any emergency occurs even if that emergency has nothing to do with his area of expertise. The concept of business and organizational strategies is undergoing constant changes every day in order to cater the needs of changing trends in business especially in a globalized environment. As per the earlier trends complete professionalism were strictly observed in organizations in which each employee needs to concentrate fully on his work alone rather than interfering in other’s work. But as per the current trends organizations encourage their employees to act positively in critical situations, even though their responsibilities may not intended that. For example, as per the traditional concepts, the duty of a receptionist or an office secretary is to attend the telephone calls alone. However, as per the current trends, a receptionist should be capable of handling basic office duties independently even in the absence of superior. “Empowerment is the oil that lubricates the exercise of learning. Talented and empowered human capital is becoming the prime ingredient of organizational success” (Employee Empowerment, 2001). Empowerment will reduce the efforts required to exercise a professional job. For example, an illiterate clerk of computer operation can get his work eased if he is empowered with proper training in computers and software using in his organization. All the hard manual work done by him before the empowerment would be easier after the empowerment. “Empowerment refers to both a longitudinal dynamic of development and to attainment of a set of insights and abilities” (Rappaport et al, n.d., p.18). Some people may think that they are well qualified to perform certain jobs because of their academic qualifications. Such people may think that their academic qualifications alone will make them capable of delivering the goods. But in reality such concepts or way of thinking would not be correct. Employees need empowerment to make them aware of their hidden potential. Education alone cannot bring out the hidden potentials of the employees. Moreover empowerment sends a message to the employees that their job security is purely based on their performance rather than anything else. “Empowerment can be seen to fall into three broad categories: ‘self-regulatory’; ‘delegated’ and ‘stakeholder’ approaches” (Harvey, 2009) Self regulatory empowerment is by far the best option available for organizations since such regulation may not require much expensive training to the employees. A person who is able to regulate his actions without any involvement of his superiors or others may be beneficial more to his organization. The superiors don’t need to spend much time for empowering such employees. Self regulated employees will adapt themselves to most of the critical situations and hence they can be considered as an asset to an organization. In a delegated empowerment environment the workers need to perform within a frame work. Such workers need to take advices from the managers or supervisors for most of their actions. In such an environment the workers may feel of a local control and ownership, but their working freedom is limited compared to a self regulatory approach. “Stakeholder empowerment’ involves broad-ranging development and training of employees. It sees people as the key resource in the organisation, one that needs nurturing beyond the immediate utilitarian requirements imposed by seeing training as an investment requiring a return” (Harvey, 2009). In stakeholder empowerment the organizations visualize the training purposes of their employees as another corporate function itself like marketing, accounting etc. The organizations spend lot of money for training of its employees and in return, the organization expects better performances from its employees. In such cases the employees will be under immense stress to perform well since they cannot cite much excuses for their under performances. Once the managers or the leaders decide to empower their employees, they must formulate strategies for tackling various expected and unexpected problems which may arise at the time of empowerment. The employees may not readily cooperate with empowerment programs and hence the manager needs to convince and confront the employees in order to make them ready for such programs. The vision and mission of the organization through the empowerment program must be clearly transferred to the employees. Most of the employees may approach the empowerment programs with certain concerns. However after the empowerment programs, their difficult tasks and responsibilities would be eased and hence they will accept the empowerment programs without any concerns in future. Even a small amount spend on empowerment program can bring big success to the organization because of the increased productivity of the employees after the program. References 1. Rappaport J. Swift C. F. & Hess R (1984). Studies in empowerment. Publishers: Routledge, 1984. 2. Empowerment (2009), Retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTEMPOWERMENT/0,,contentMDK:20245753~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:486411,00.html 3. Page N & Czuba C. E., (1999), Empowerment: What Is It?, Journal of Extension. October 1999. Volume 37. Number 5Retrieved from http://www.joe.org/joe/1999october/comm1.php 4. Employee Empowerment, (2001), Retrieved from http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/employee_empowerment.html 5. Harvey, L., (2009), Analytic Quality Glossary, Quality Research International, Retrieved from http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/empowerment.htm 6. Prater L. Ph.D., (n.d.) Empowerment in the Workplace: Making the Office A Nicer Place to Be, Retrieved from http://www.kcdrinker.com/content/2004/05-2004/Articles-05-04/empowerment.htm Read More