Is empowerment a valuable tool for increasing efficiency and effectiveness in todays organisations - Essay Example

Is Empowerment a Valuable Tool for Increasing Efficiency and Effectiveness in Today’s Organizations? of the Management of the Concerned Professor 25 November 2012 Introduction There is no denying the fact that most of the organizations use only a miniscule of their employees’ total potential and many a times employees feel that their skills and abilities remain under utilized. In order to inculcate efficiency driven organizational attitude the organizations need to give way to a setup that encourages employees to grow and learn and make an optimal use of their overall potential (Sahoo 2010). It is only in such organizations that a space for innovation, efficiency and effectiveness could be created because the employees’ in such empowerment driven organizations do get a chance to make the best of their abilities and to develop new skills and attitudes that innovation requires (Sahoo 2010). Hence, in empowering organizations employees do feel an urge to go beyond their sphere of duty so as to put in an extra effort aimed at meeting the organizational goals. The employees in empowering organizations see their extra effort as an investment rather than being dissatisfied and wait for the highest bidder. In most of the successful organizations it is the ability to encourage the untapped potential in the employees that enables them to compete in the markets and allows them to successfully retain the experienced and skilled talent (Sahoo 2010). In that context it is a myth to assume that the learning potential within organizations tends to be innate and once the employees are trained and introduced to their job responsibilities, they will learn new skills and behaviors on their own. That is why an empowering audit allows the organizations to learn about the immediate skill levels and motivation of their employees, and what could be done to inculcate new skills and behaviors. In that sense empowerment is a positive force that has immense relevance in varied processes and opportunities going on and available within organizations. How Organizations Disempower Employees Before understanding the role of empowerment in boosting organizational effectiveness and efficiency, it is a must to have an insight into how the organizations disempower employees and what are the significant traits of the disempowering organizations. The disempowering organizations do believe in fixing the blame rather than solving the key issues and problems (Elloy 2012). In such organizations, it is considered normal to blame employees for failures and the employees are mostly marred by a victim mentality. Going by this culture of blame, the employees scarcely aspire to innovate and desist from taking decisions that are central to organization’s efficiency and effectiveness. In disempowering organizations one could rarely trace an aversion on the part of the employees to participate in the organizational decision making. New ideas in such organizations are seldom given an importance and such organizations are given to box thinking. Even if a disempowering organization has viable leaders, the employees perceive their leadership not as participatory, but are rather more prone to take it as a leader versus employee scenario (Elloy 2012). Not to mention, the work environment in disempowering organizations is mostly negative and prone to much hesitation and cynicism. The employees feel psychologically burned out and tired and an attitude of apathy creeps in the organizational culture (Elloy 2012). The employees feel really hesitant to express their thoughts and feelings, fearing that such an approach could invite much retaliation. The learning opportunities in disempowering organizations either tend to be scarce, or even if they are present, the employees scarcely feel like pursuing them. The employees feel really not appreciated and may indulge in back biting and gossip. The contributions of the good employees mostly go unrecognized and after some time even the most motivated of the employees tend to give up. The top talent within disempowering organizations most of the times leaves to avail the better opportunities (Elloy 2012). No wonder, when one takes into consideration these attributes of the disempowering organizations, it gets easier to understand as to how empowerment within organizations could boost effectiveness and efficiency by negating most of the above mentioned negative attitudes and behaviors. Even if one assumes that empowerment does not add much positive, still, even if it manages to sterilize the organizations of the disempowerment generated negativities, it will be commonsensical to expect that such an attitude will boost efficiency and effectiveness. Characteristics of Empowering Organizations In empowering organizations the individual employees and teams do not hesitate from owning the blame for their decisions and are not given to a victim mentality. The leadership within empowering organizations evinces a genuine concern for the good and well being of the employees. No wonder, the employees in empowering organizations feel needed and cherished and consider it their duty to cooperate with and heed to the organizational leadership (Nathan 1993). One hallmark of the empowering organizations is that in such organizations there are viable vertical and horizontal channels of communication. The employees do not hesitate from coming out with their views regarding the organizational issues and processes, which gives way to an efficiency and effectiveness driven organizational culture. The managers see the mistakes made by the sincere and dedicated employees as a part of the overall learning experience and the conclusions drawn out from these mistakes are openly discussed and analyzed, thereby enhancing the organizational efficiency. The empowering organizations are mostly appreciative of open and creative thinking, and new ideas are not only welcome within such organizations, but are rather approved and practically applied. Trust is an essential ingredient of an empowering organizational culture. The employees are seldom averse to adopting new behaviors and skills because they tend to have a firm faith that their management and organization will stand behind them (Dew 1997). There prevails an authentic sense of goodwill, which encourages and nurtures effectiveness and efficiency (Dew 1997). The individuals in organizations that are given to an empowering management are encouraged to learn and adapt to new behaviors and skills that are conducive to the organizational efficiency and organizational growth needs (Dew 1997). In fact individuals in empowering organizations are actually rewarded for adopting new skills and behaviors. Both the individuals and groups in empowering organizational develop formal and informal protocols to resolve interpersonal differences and issues. The essential advantage of such an approach is that issues in the empowering organizations get resolved in a prompt and efficient manner. Hence, there is no denying the fact that empowering organizations tend to do away with many of the barriers to communication and inculcate an atmosphere where innovation and new ideas could thrive and grow. No wonder, such an approach towards people and issues not only make the organizations more efficient and effective, but also make the organizations more competitive and innovative. What do Empowering Organizations do? Empowering organizations mostly tend to have some sort of empowerment audit in place. Such an empowerment audit helps the management identify the possible barriers to a culture change, which if negated could encourage the employees to learn and grow and enhances the overall efficiency and effectiveness within and outside the organization. The managers and employees tend to assess themselves and their teams on a wide range of parameters like responsibility, caring and sharing, communication, individual and group process skills, etc. Such an audit help the organizations identify the barriers to change and promotes innovation and ingenuity. The first and foremost goal of the organizations is to give way to an organizational environment that encourages learning and growth (Johnson 2011). The second priority is to identify the new skills and values which if implanted within the organization could enhance employee satisfaction and encourages efficiency and innovation. The empowering organizations are proactive in their approach towards deciding upon and working on the behaviors and skills that are imperative to the organization in the light of the challenges and competition they face (Johnson 2011). Such organizations are also proactive in their approach towards designing the commensurate culture change initiatives and contriving the associated accountability protocols. The biggest challenge that the empowering organizations face is as to how to encourage their employees to give the best of their ability and commitment (Levine 1995). This becomes even more relevant in the contemporary organizational structures that are defined by complex organizational structures and systems. Empowering the employees allows them to take an initiative in contriving protocols and mechanisms which allow for a seamless sharing and cooperation between varied complex organizational systems (Seibert, Silver & Randolph 2004). The main thrust of the empowering organizations is to build upon and retain the best talent within the organization. In contrast the organizations that are not appreciative of empowerment have to contend with a range of problems marring the organizational efficiency and effectiveness like a lack of timely and prompt access to the required information and data, a highly politicized work environment, the limited skill base of the working employees and relatively poor relationship between the management and the employees (Seibert, Silver & Randolph 2004). One essential thing about empowering organizations is that the leadership within such organizations is committed to empowerment and the leaders have a clear cut notion as to how they could empower the groups and teams. The empowering leaders do always appreciate to influence their employees through context (Areiqat & Zamil 2011). They do their best to give way to an inclusive culture within their organization so that no employee feels sidelined and unappreciated. Such organizational leaders prefer to delegate control rather than usurping all control within their own hands. They extend all the requisite moral and logistical support to their employees so that they could function in a more efficient and effective manner (Nathan 1993). They make it a point to establish such communication protocols and processes that assure that all the employees have a thorough knowledge and insight into the organizational goals and processes. It is eventually the empowering leaders that give way to empowering organizations which are given to efficiency and growth. Last but not the least, it does need to be mentioned that employees working in empowering organizations do always have a perspective pertaining to empowerment (Areiqat & Zamil 2011). The empowered employees always prefer to keep all the channels of communication open and streamlined. They prefer to work in teams and rather feel more comfortable while working in group and team scenarios (Nathan 1993). The empowered employees do mostly have a higher tolerance for uncertainty as they mostly feel confident that they will not be blamed or penalized for the initiatives and approaches taken by them. Hence, they are always more willing to except responsibility and accountability. Conclusion The organizations working in the current scenarios marked by enhanced uncertainty and fast altering customer preferences and expectations have no other option but to rely on the optimal potential of their employees. Hence, empowerment means enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. Reference List Areiqat, AYM & Zamil, AM 2011, ‘The Role of Empowerment in Crisis Management in Business Organizations’, Asian Journal of Business Management, Vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 188-195. Dew, JR 1997, Empowerment and Democracy in the Work Place, Quorum Books, Westport, CT. Elloy, D 2012, ‘Effects of Ability Utilization, Job Influence and Organization Commitment On Employee Empowerment: An Empirical Study’, International Journal of Management, Vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 627-634. Johnson, M 2011, ‘Workforce Deviance and the Business Case for Employee Engagement’, The Journal for Quality and Participation, July 2011, pp. 9-16. Levine, DI 1995, Reinventing the Workplace, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. Nathan, J 1993, ‘Empowerment as a Workplace Strategy in Small Business’, Review of Business, Vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 28-30. Sahoo, CK 2010, ‘Employee Empowerment and Individual Commitment: An Analysis from Integrative View of Research’, Employment Relations Record, Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 40-67. Seibert, SE, Silver, SR & Randolph, WA 2011, ‘Taking Empowerment to the Next Level: A Multiple Level Model of Empowerment, Performance, and Satisfaction’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 332-351. Read More