Practices That Enhance Empowerment - Essay Example

The paper "Practices That Enhance Empowerment" is a good example of an essay on management. Employee empowerment is the belief that one has the ability to make informed decisions and take the necessary course of action. It is also a way of delegating decision-making authority down to the lower levels within an organization and also giving employees the necessary skills and resources to use that authority effectively. Delegation by itself does not empower employees if they are not provided with additional authority. To feel empowered, employees have to feel a sense of competence, self-determination, meaning, and influence. Employees perceive the sense of self-determination as the freedom to make choices, and their actions are not subject to policies, systems, or managerial dictates. Providing more autonomy for employees helps them to feel a sense of self-determination. The higher the level of employee competence, the more they appreciate and succeed when given more autonomy. On the other hand, new employees within the organization that require getting new skills have to develop a sense of confidence in their abilities before getting empowered by autonomy.

Several researchers have shown that empowered employees are as a result of the job/workplace environment and also things about the employee. In order to empower a job, one has to portray positive leadership skills (e.g. trust, support, authenticity), high-performance managerial practices (recognition, training, rewards, participatory decision making), political/social support (e.g. fairness, access to resources, information sharing), and work characteristics (interesting working environment)
Some of the best practices that enhance empowerment include:
Self-responsibility-: employees are taking responsibility to have their team, job function, and organization the way they wish to be.
Caring- organizational leadership demonstrating tangible ways of concern for individuals where this inspires employees to give their very best effort to the organization
Trust- employees feeling safe enough to take risks without fear of being put down or reprimand by the superiors Read More