Employee Empowerment in the Workplace - Essay Example

Employee Empowerment in the Workplace Introduction Globalization has increased the competition in the national and international market. It is pressurizing organizations to be effective, innovative, to reduce costs and improve quality of products and services. One of the important aspects in performance is the organizational effectiveness. Organizations have been trying to increase the individual and organizational effectiveness by unleashing the creative and innovative energies of employees, by motivating the employees to cater to their needs for self-determination and be in control. Empowerment has been accepted as an important organizational factor in satisfying the psychological needs of the employees in the workplace. Empowerment is seen as a process that results in individual employee enjoying autonomy while performing their jobs. This also ensures accountability on their part and thus develops a sense of ownership and increases the sense of fulfillment, while achieving shared organizational goals. Employee Empowerment has grown in importance in public administration. Early concern for employees as human resources and for the social aspects of work grew into the Quality of Work Life movement and such other efforts (e.g., McGregor 1960; Peters and Pierre 2000). The new public administration and the reinventing government movements have emphasized empowering employees (Marini 1971; Osborne and Gaebler 1992; DeWitt et al. 1994). Empowerment has become "one of the buzzwords of the hour" (Clark 1999, 5) (Lacerda Ramos Eduardo 1995). There were instances of efforts in stimulating employee empowerment in the history "Since World War II, the movement for worker empowerment has steadily gained momentum, certain countries have attempted (and in some cases sustained) experiments in various cooperative form of empowerment. With state support, the communal kibbutzim of Israel and Palestine have existed for over eight decades. In Latin America, major national trials in workers' ownership were initiated by the government in both Chile and Peru. In Europe, workers' firms came to constitute a major portion of Italian cottage industry, as well as French small- to medium-sized firms - especially in professional services such as printing, architecture, and engineering" (Lacerda Ramos Eduardo 1995). The present project work is an attempt to describe the importance of employee empowerment for employees as well as the organization. It takes an descriptive approach to illustrate the direct relationship between employee empowerment and their contentment and improved performance. Employee Empowerment- Meaning In common parlance, the term 'empowerment' refers to the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one's own destiny. In the organizational context, this term is used with the term 'workers' to denote a changed work atmosphere where employees are at liberty to take decisions on their work and given the responsibility for the performance or otherwise at work place. In other words, employee empowerment is the process of granting the authority to employees with non-managerial capabilities to take decision in an autonomous way. Employee involvement and participative management are similar concepts used in the context of empowerment, but are not interchangeable. In fact, empowerment is the act of strengthening an individual's beliefs in his or her sense of effectiveness. In essence, then, empowerment is not simply a set of external actions; it is a process of changing the internal beliefs of people (Conger and Kanungo, 1988). Individuals believe themselves powerful when they feel they can adequately cope with environmental demands-that is, situations, events, and people they confront. They feel powerless when they are unable to cope with these demands. Conger and Kanungo (1988) were among the first to define psychological empowerment. They described empowerment as "a process of enhancing feelings of self efficacy among organizational members through the identification of conditions that foster powerlessness and through their removal by both formal organizational practices and informal techniques of providing efficacy information" (p. 474). Significance The modern approach to management ensures employee involvement and empowerment. Employees and management admit that many obstacles to achieve organizational goals can be overcome by employees themselves if they are provided the necessary tools and authority to do so. There is a direct relationship between the concept of employee involvement and employee empowerment and organizational growth and development. HRD is a continuous and dynamic process in organizations. Dynamic people can build dynamic organizations. HRD has multiple goals. These include employee competency development, employee motivation and organizational climate development. Empowerment means creating an environment in which employees receive more authority for accomplishment of their work tasks in exchange for accepting responsibility for work outcomes. Identifying factors that enhance the feelings of empowerment is imperative for human resource development. A significant contributor would then be the HR function and the impact it has on people within that organization. A useful tool to understand people's perception of HR function is the HRD climate in the organization. In a competitive environment in which organizations must be faster, learner, provide better service, be more efficient and ultimately more profitable, an empowered and proactive workforce is thought to be essential [Block, 1987; Bowen and Lawler, 1992] whether people feel empowered can have consequences for individuals and organizations. Perceptions of empowerment can enhance the value of work for empowerment can enhance the value of work for individuals, increase job satisfaction and contribute to work productivity and success. Empowerment has been shown to effect managerial and organizational effectiveness [Spreitzer, 1995] and it is presently recognized as one means by which managers can effectively manage today's organizations, which are characterized by a greater variety of influence channels, a growing reliance on horizontal structures and peer network, a blurred distinction between managers and workers and a diminished attachment of employees to organizations [Kantu, 1989. Thomas and Velthouse (1990) suggested that empowered workers have higher levels of concentration, initiative, and resiliency, and are, as a result, more effective in their jobs. Other studies provide evidence suggesting that empowerment-related cognitions should be positively related to increased effort, higher levels of performance, and improved job satisfaction. Similarly, it has been suggested that disempowerment acts and a sense of powerlessness are associated with lower levels of performance and job satisfaction. Work environments fostering support-based relationships, defined here as relationships which are characterized by helping, participation, trust, and/or involvement, are argued to result in worker empowerment. Leaders must ensure that risk taking is not punished while working with subordinates to help them understand the reason for mistakes and reducing the risk of their recurrence. An environment of fear and distrust breeds lost pride and self-protective behaviors among workers. In contrast, when working in a positive environment based on supportive and caring relationships with co-workers, the organization and the customer, it is likely workers will be more empowered. In these relationships, employees submit to authority and are denied self-expression. In these unsupportive environments, fear and turnover are both high. Fear of separation from others is believed to be the causes for people to be suspicious, avoid risks, and withdraw from responsibility. How Employee Empowerment is made possible Employee Empowerment has been perceived by authors in different ways. Zimmerman (1995) insisted that empowerment does not mean the same thing to everyone, so it would be inappropriate to try to develop a universal measure of empowerment. Emphasizing the need for qualitative research, he maintained that empowerment can be studied only as the participants understand it and only in the context of their lives. Other theoreticians support this belief. For Honoid (1997) and Brower and Abolafia (1997) maintained that each organization must define empowerment for itself and for each employee. Following are commonly used variables with which employee empowerment can be measured and judged. It is worth notable in this context that, the application of these benchmarks are organization specific and within the organization situation specific. Open lines of communication The way managers and employees communicate has no screen between them in an organization that push up employee participation and empowerment. When the communication channel is very stringent and rigorously formal, the room for democratic organization is very less. Clear job objectives When employees are given individual job objectives and that of group to which they belong, they are at liberty to decide and work on their own and are ready to take the accountability of the non-performance of the job assigned. Transparent organization culture It is a prerequisite for developing an empowerment atmosphere within the organization as it reduces the distance between managers and employees. Shared ethical value Ethics should not be something that is applicable to only a group of people. In an empowered work atmosphere, managers and employees should try to do their maximum to share moral and ethical values. Scope for creative world The degree of empowerment can be measured in terms of the emphasis that an organization put on creativity. The possibilities of creativity and innovations are high in an empowered atmosphere, which further develop the employee performance. An equal code of conduct This is another measure of employee empowerment. The extent of employee involvement and empowerment can be judged in terms of how efficiently and effectively managers and employees follow their code of conduct. Open and fair appraisal system There is no universally accepted performance appraisal system for all organizations. A large number of factors such as abilities of employees must be taken care of before formulating and implementing an appraisal system. Sharing responsibility Employees are held responsible for the works they have done and they must made accountable for all discrepancies in their work. An empowered culture in the organization encourage sharing of responsibility among employees and managers. Employee Empowerment- The Procedure Employee empowerment requires the cooperation of employees and encouragement from managers, which work together to develop a democratic work atmosphere. The implementation of empowerment in an organization commonly follows the procedures below: Giving responsibility to employees Training employees to accept responsibility communicating and giving feedback Giving reward and recognition Process reengineering Employees involvement Total quality management (Source: Chaturvedi Vijit 2008) Benefits of employee's empowerment Crating and maintaining an employee empowerment atmosphere within the organization contributes the overall development of organization and employees. The benefits of employee empowerment are more or less similar as that of participative management, and employee involvement. They include: (Chaturvedi Vijit 2008) Development of interpersonal, analytical, and leadership skills. Instilling a quality consciousness among all employees Higher quality product More effective use of resources More individual job satisfaction Improved two-way communications between employees and their management Performance Appraisal- Comparison between the Traditional Methods and 360-degree Technique Today, the trend is towards greater transparency and increased participation while evaluating an individual's effectiveness in an organization. . The 360-degree appraisal technique now being applied in most well-known organizations proves to be an open worthwhile system of performance appraisal. An attempt has been made in this paper to assess 360-degree appraisal system in the context of development of human resources. Limitations of Traditional Appraisal Performance appraisal has long been regarded as one of the most critical yet troubling area of human resource management. Most of the appraisal systems are designed to evaluate past performance and stress less on future requirements such as employees' career aspirations, potential latent skills identification, and career planning training & development requirements to take up higher assignments. In many organizations, appraisal systems from other organizations have been copied and implemented blindly without any linkage with organizational requirements and its people's need. Moreover, no serious attempts are made in implementation leading to delays and haphazard reports, thereby diluting system effectiveness making it as mere annual ritual. Awareness of the system needs, familiarity, appraiser-appraisee meets, review session and counseling are mostly absent proving it to be a sheer drudgery of paper work. The traditional 90-degree performance appraisal done by the immediate boss judges the outcome of an appraisee's efforts but ignores the road taken. He focuses on achievements rather than the intrinsic qualities and strengths. 360-degree Feedback The 360-degree feedback is understood as systematic collection of performance data on an individual or group, derived from a number of stakeholders-the stakeholders being the immediate supervisors, team members, customer's peers and self. In fact, anyone who has useful information on how an employee does the job' may be one of the appraisers. Initially it started as fact finding self-development technique, perhaps in future it will be linked with reward system. The personality of each manager-his talents, behavioral traits, values, ethical standards, tempers, loyalties-is to be scanned, sorted out and stethoscoped. The 360-degree feedback provides a broader perspective about employees' strengths and weakness: It facilitates greater self-development to employees. It enables an employee to compare his or her perceptions about self with the perceptions of the assessors. Besides, 360-degree feedback creates an atmosphere of more openness, improved inter personal relations and teamwork. It makes employees feel more accountable to the internal and external customers. However, there are drawbacks associated with 360-degree feedback. Receiving feedback on performance from multiple sources can be intimidating. Further, selecting the assessors, designing questionnaires and analyzing data may be cumbersome and time consuming tasks. In addition, there might be difficulties in getting objective feedback due to personal differences and biases. Notwithstanding, more and more number of companies are using 360-degree feedback. It is essential that the organization should follow the abovementioned guidelines and create a conducive environment by emphasizing the positive impact of the technique on employees' performance and development. Conclusion Employee empowerment is one of the most effective ways of strengthening employees at all levels to use their creative abilities to improve the organization's performance, and indeed the quality of their own working life. Increasingly more and more organizations are realizing that people are central to an organization's excellence. While all the above traditional sources of competitive advantages can be replicated, a great workforce cannot be easily copied. However, to have a great workforce, one has to build a great organization; not great in terms of size, money, or past glory, but great in terms of work culture, environment and practices. The issue is not to satisfy the employees but to make their workplace experience a pleasant one. Every day should leave enough excitement in them, to be willing to come back next day with the same energy, enthusiasm and zeal. Work Cited Block, P (1987). "The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Week". 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