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Empowerment - The Key To Unleash Human PotentialsEditorial CommentsThe study of Empowerment is made to research employees opinions on empowerment conditions and the degrees of Empowerment Practice within the Government sector and the Private sector. A total of 384 employees (sample size) from the Product, Service, Education, and Government sectors told us how they perceived and preferred Empowerment Conditions and Practices at their work places. Understand how employees at different levels feel and prefer about their working conditions may help businesses to develop an effective work culture that may unleash and promote the highest level of employee performance. Keeping in mind that employee feelings and preferences do vary within an individual, work group and type of industry, and they are, as proven by this thesis, have a direct correlation with how companies and managers implement empowerment practices at the work places. The results of this study however reveals many common dominant preferences from all four industries groups. As revealed in this study, Empowerment practice is not a guessing game, but a science that managers must master and be able to integrate its requirements into their daily operations effectively. To unlock the limitless potentials of your employees or yourself, and to see how representing employees of your industry feel about empowerment, we have made possible for you to order a copy of this complete manuscript as follows: Send a check for $250 for a copy the complete study to the following address: Ankhoa & Associates - 5821 Jones Ave - Westminster, CA 92683 We hope that you will extract valuables information from this study and find them helpful as we have during our six month laborious research and collection of these invaluable data. The following are highlights of this study:
Chapter I. Problems of Empowerment IssuesWhat is empowerment? Although it is a popular term often used in speeches, not too many people really understand its true meaning. Hence, there is no assurance that a correct empowerment practice is taking place. While the causes are numerous, inability to unleash employees unlimited intellectual power is cited as one of the most critical reasons (Sherman,1993). When frequent and improper use of the term empowerment is made by management, and without actual belief and action to back it up, most employees may see empowerment as a buzz word with a hollow meaning. When proper training and understanding of empowerment are lacking, employees may see empowerment as a management's exploitation tool to make employees do more with less. On the other hand, traditional managers may think of empowerment as a threat to their own job security. Actual empowerment policy and practice are therefore rarely carried out. In a practical sense, if empowerment would actually cause managers to relinquish their control and authority, and employees to accept more responsibilities and assume consequences for their own actions, empowerment certainly would not be popular. If this is truly the case, empowerment would not be used as one of the criteria in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, nor could it deserve growing endorsements from many forward thinking corporations and U.S. government. Interview of 800 executives nationwide reveals that more than half of corporate leaders will be organizing their work forces into self-directed work teams within the next five years (Green,1994). Juran (1991) reveals empowerment and team management are the most important contributors of success for winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award as reported by a study of companies receiving this honorable award. If this is not convincing enough, consider what Jack Welch, General Electric's Chairman of the Board, has to say about the winning principle (Nikkei Business, 1994:11) "A company's and country's success is tied to productivity. I believe that the companies and the countries that win in the decade and century ahead will be those that get more output for less input...To be the best in everything you do, you have to engage and involve every mind in your enterprise. The old command and control structures built around military structures of the past don't engage every mind and involve every person. You have to have a fluid, boundariless organization." Literature review of over fifty studies and reports on empowerment reveals that empowerment practice when effectively applied has helped companies of all types achieve impressive improvement in productivity, cost containment and new marketable inventions over pre-empowerment years. What then is empowerment? Empowerment is the process of sharing information, training and allowing employees to plan, organize, and control their jobs in order to obtain positive results (Denton, 1994). The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award defines Empowerment criteria as the extent to which employees are given the authority to act on their own to increase quality (Hayes, 1994). Empowerment, thus, has been regarded by leaders of modern corporations as one of the most important tools to enable companies to grow productively and to become cost effective. Moreover, a successful empowerment practice seldomly exists in its original term, it assumes many simpler forms and processes. They are often known as employee involvement, self-directed, multi-functional work team, flexible work force or boundariless organizations. Hence, empowerment in itself is a process and an integral part of a business culture. It must be accompanied by clear actions that are conducive for all employees to commit themselves to a higher level of achievements. In order to do this, management requires to have a motivating business atmosphere in which employees know their rewards are truly commensurate to their efforts and contributions. Nevertheless, empowerment remains not as a simple task to implement, even for those who embrace it Aside from its obvious absence in traditional and backward organizations, there is a vast difference between rhetoric and trust, between ideals and effective programs. There are inherently behavioral barriers and problems in carrying out an empowerment practice. People are afraid of change. Front-line employees are either not trusting the real intention behind the speeches, or simply not wanting to assume more responsibilities, or to make decisions that turn out to be bad ones. Will management be there for them when they make these mistakes? At the other end, managers have to wrestle with the idea of giving up their power and authorities. What are they going to do if not to control and making sure things get done their way? Are their jobs safe? After managers master the full meaning of empowerment and willing to embrace change, they still have to face with the question of how to go about empower their employees? How do organizations avoid a reversible trend from managers who have not been able to personally commit to the principles of empowerment, and to completely let go of their control and insecurity? On both extremes, too much empowerment creates a chaotic organization, and too little empowerment results in bureaucratic or compliant organizations (Maccoby, 1992). When companies and managers fail to have a uniform and effective empowerment practice, or when managers flip flop between empowerment and control, inconsistent empowerment problems result. Therefore, businesses should be aware of the three forms of ineffective empowerment practices, 1) under-empowerment, 2) over-empowerment, and 3) inconsistent empowerment; and should have on-going processes in place to measure and correct these conditions whenever they occur. Specifically, for companies which do not have an effective empowerment training program in place, common problems associated with empowerment are being observed in the ways in which it is carried out. Over-empowerment exists when employees do not have commensurate skills to effectively carry out the task that has been delegated to them. Under-empowerment, on the other hand, results from either employees lacking of authority, or unwilling to take charge, and sticking to the rules and delegating upward whenever they are in doubt; or when managers refuse to give up authority. Lastly, inconsistent empowerment is resulted when untrained managers failed to specifically apply a uniform empowerment practice for their work groups, or to change the degree of empowerment according to their moods or to their own understanding. These aggregate the problems, send conflicting signals, and cause confusion to the employees. Thus, become a disbenefit to the company. Psychologically, empowerment problems may be grouped into two types, 1) Pre-empowerment barriers and 2) Post empowerment barriers. Pre-empowerment syndrome occurs prior to the implementation of, or training on empowerment is taking place. These syndromes exist mainly due to insecurity, fear of changes, and fear of the unknown which in turn create uncertainties. Therefore, they create psychological barriers to accepting empowerment. Only once a clear understanding of, and commitment for, empowerment are made that such a pre-empowerment syndrome may disappear. Note that pre-empowerment syndrome as a psychological process, is dynamic by nature. Therefore, a reverse to pre-empowerment syndrome may easily occur when a manager or an employee experiences any post contradictories to the previously communicated and understood empowerment messages. Post empowerment barriers occur after employees understand and accept the principles and purposes of empowerment. However, persistent conflicts with poor management practices and problems are the main causes for post empowerment barriers. These unresolved difficulties cause the employees to withdraw and have doubts about the validity of empowerment, or the management intention. This self-doubt may reverse the employees back to the pre-empowerment stage where empowerment idealism is no longer valid. Therefore, it is utmost important for managers and leaders to understand the existence of these psychological barriers. Efforts to improve working conditions or to change management style may lead to a permanent path of empowerment effectiveness. The ability to remove these barriers lies not in the good intention and the messages, but in the employees and managers' own on-going actions via their personal commitment to its underlying principles. These types of empowerment problems will be revisited within the frame work of Chapter 2, Literature Review. In order to make a valid study and recommendations for empowerment, a research study must identify the concerning problem areas causing the study to take place. This research study reviews over 50 published studies and reports on empowerment, and reports its findings on both successful models and practices of empowerment as well as the problems surrounding empowerment issues. This study surveys employees from both the private and government sectors on the conditions and levels of empowerment in order to find effective solutions to the identified problems. Are businesses successful in 1) persuading employees to assume more responsibilities and take charge? 2) Can managers let go of their own control and effectively empower their peoples? 3) Are there any significant improvements in productivity, customer service and financial performances at the presence compared to those of the pre-empowerment years? 4) Are there any proven methodologies that can be adopted to benefit businesses? 5) What are the pitfalls to be avoided? It is assumed that the levels of employee agreement and disagreement (approval and disapproval) to existing empowerment conditions will vary proportionally to the degrees of empowerment practice. Chapter I. Research Purposes
The primary purposes of this research are: The secondary purpose of this study is to employ invaluable data and results of the study to offer suggestions to help managers and companies avoid common pitfalls, and to help establish an effective empowerment process or an people management system where perhaps, better utilization of employee intellectual properties can be maximized. To be able to direct such a level of energy toward the attainment of business excellence is the job of an effective manager. Chapter I. Background of EmpowermentGlobal competition, down-sizing, and process of re-engineering have been transforming most companies to lean and mean operations, and with an ever-larger employee-to-manager ratio and geographical responsibilities. The only effective tool available for managers to manage this type of work force is, coincidentally, the empowerment practice, or the art of allowing employees to manage themselves to achieve optimum results. As managers realize the old control and command structures are no longer valid and the need to do more with less, multi-functional and self-directed work teams become an ever-increasing popular business tool. It is this type of work practice that enables U.S. auto-makers to achieve production records, from a design concept to a working model in a mere three years as compared to 7 years of the past (i.e., Chrysler's Viper and present U.S. automobile productions). These inevitable organizations force today's managers to master both people skills and technological skills. Those that are not borderless in their behavior and clinging to the old control and dictate styles are eventually weeded out. Jack Welch, CEO of G.E. sums it all up "If you're not boundariless, you can't integrate an organization. If you have an integrity violation, we remove you immediately" (Nikkei Business, 1994:13). In large corporations, a common business practice is found in the use of non-technical managers to manage a technical workforce. While this is an undesirable business condition in general, it is in itself should not present a major problem when the managers have people skills and personally committed to improve themselves on mastering technical issues. However, when the manager shows lack of appreciation for technical contributions from his employees, he or she has committed one of the worse management mistakes. This represents not only a lost of employees' trust and motivation, but also a greater loss to the organization. The situation is worse when the manager is lacking of management prowess. This is a most common problem in utility corporations where a large number of managers are promoted upwardly by seniority, but not by management know-how's or formal business accomplishments. This problem becomes apparent during most technical dead-locks, when the non-technical manager is at a loss, not knowing which programs are to be implemented, and decides to join the politically influential side against the logical choice. As a result, the problems compounds and employees' morale runs low. Companies suffer greatest loss when non-technical managers exhibits their authoritarian power and suppress technical team members' ideas due to political reasons. This is the surest way to kill employees' incentives to contribute and to develop new ideas. Another common problem observed is the "legacy upward referral protocol". A non-technical manager ordered his subject matter expert (SME) to tell his end-users to upward refer their technical problems to their non-technical managers instead of the SME borrowing the need for the hierarchy protocol. He further instructed his SME to tell the end-users to ask their non-technical supervisors to call him when they could not help with the problem (this is often the case). When the actual situation occurred, it took more than three months for the managers to finally get to the SME for answers. This bureaucratic round-robin and time-consuming practice deserves no place in today's corporations. Interview with forward thinking managers reveal that the problem exists deeper than aforementioned conditions. They point out that the hiring and promotion practice of some of the large companies are the source of the problem. During the earlier years, most hiring personnel and managers look for the type of military managers who can control their employees, and to command obedience from their employees. Such a practice may work fine in the earlier days of a protected market (as opposed to a global market) and in an assembly-line industry where complex work processes are subdivided into many simpler tasks for employees to tackle. It may also work when the company's strategies and plans are sound and require no adaptations, or improvements. However, protected market economy and assembly work are things of the past, and strategies that require no refinements and adaptations are existed only in theory. For most companies, although it is preferred, managers often need not to master technical skills. They do, however, need to have general technological knowledge and management know-how's, specifically, the need master the art of managing people, to get the best out of each employee. Empowerment is one of the proven tools to enable managers to do just that. Beyond the need for empowerment, managers should try to avoid the following pitfalls:
In a global market, most leaders realize a technological and managerial advanced work force is the best competitive tool to help bring home the gold medals, and only through a borderless environment and continual refinement of empowerment practices that companies can unleash the unlimited brain power of their people (Otani:1994). During the past decade, corporate of America have been engaging into a re-engineering process where consolidation, downsizing, and continuing changes are the norms. While most of the forward thinking corporations change their focus from geographical based- to customer-focused organizations, and from independent local state operations into national and regional operations, few have been able to maximize the output of their work forces. Specifically, common U.S. corporations have not been able to raise profits purely from revenue generations via new marketable ideas and inventions. Most companies still have to deal with three most formidable challenges -- 1) Ability to unleash employees unlimited brain power via management prowess, 2) Ability to generate revenues without resorting to deep cost-cutting's, and 3) Ability to attain best quality and growth performances on a continuing basis. Most organizational experts believe only after U.S. businesses learn to effectively engage every mind of its employment pool to develop innovative and breakthrough products and processes, that they may be able to achieve the No.1 goal mentioned above. Studies of over 100 successful stories reveals that a combination of empowerment, open book and profit sharing plans is the best answer to the three aforementioned dilemma's (Chris, Christison, 1994). While an effective empowerment practice enables employees to achieve optimum results, it is the open book practice that help employees to have a clearer financial performance picture of their organization. However, it is the equitable profit sharing plan that motivates the employees to work harder. Since they know the degree of reward is commensurate to their contributions.. This effective on-going process will create a sense of urgency and motivate employees to do a responsible job in cost controlling, and to come up with more entrepreneurial and profitable ideas and programs. When effectively carried out, this program shall enable employees to do what is best for the business and, in turn, for themselves. The bottom-line effects will help instill employees' confidence and motivate them to move forward and take charge. This process will help U.S. businesses to overcome its second and last obstacles. One of the objectives of this study is therefore, to find out how empowerment practice can be beneficial to businesses and its employees in the days ahead. Research questions and hypotheses built on these concepts may help obtain key answers. Specific programs, then, can be developed and employed to turn these problematic areas into actual milestones. Moreover, literature review of over fifty articles and published works in this area will certainly shed light into the question of how other companies go about empowerment, and what benefits do they obtain. To order the complete transcript write to empower@ankhoa.com |
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