Locations of Empowerment:
Access to Resources at Collective and Personal Levels
Nasha London-Vargas
Workplace Institute
Empowerment, as understood by most organizations, is the act of giving
employees the freedom to make decisions that will improve the organization's
bottom line (Ettorre, 1997). In today's work environment, employers and workers
have fumbled over the notion of empowerment. According to (Cunningham, Hyman,
& Baldry, 1996), "empowerment suggests that everybody can have some
input into decision making, representing a significant cultural change for
organizations." However, organizations have fallen short of making their
employees feel as if they are in a working "partnership," because they
are unclear of what empowerment should mean and how to effectively measure and
evaluate empowerment in the workplace. In fact, employees are feeling more
alienated and less empowered (Ettorre, 1997).
The goal of empowerment is for employers to give their workers control over
their existence within their place of work. Thus, providing conditions for
workers to experience work as an "extension of themselves, as an occasion
for self-expression as well as for the pursuit and satisfaction of personal
desires and interests that converge with those of the organization" (Spreitzer,
1995). Spreitzer contends that a comprehensive model of intrapersonal
empowerment in the workplace mediates the relationship between the social
structural context and behavioral outcomes. As a means of moving organizations
and workers to a mutual place of empowerment, a comprehensive model based on
shared materials and ideas (resources) should be established to create work
activity and products through will and intelligence.
There are four domains by which empowerment can occur or not occur: (1)
interpersonal communication, (2) process, (3) social structure, and (4)
environment. When these are absent, the intelligence of individuals and
organizations is weakened. Each of these described in more detail below.
1. Interpersonal communication: Persons who are coworkers
empower each other by sharing resources which include the personal resources of
social support, friendliness, and decency.
Examples:
a. Simple common-sense decorum or respect.
b. Shared recognition of status, achievements and rewards.
c. Equity in honoring the individual as a source for innovation and
continuity of work process.
d. Evaluations that recognize essentially the areas of development and
encouragement of self-designed development.
e. Self-selection for training and upgrading of skills.
Expressions:
Provide release time for study, or payment for study. Give time off for
personal development. Build "the coffee or tea time culture." Have a
half-hour space during which all are invited to hang around to mingle before or
after actual work hours. Structure award ceremonies to include family and
friends. Implement work circles or groups where individual skills are supported
and utilized.
2. Process: This refers to the ways in which work gets done and
to the ways, by which responsibility is acknowledged, generated, and shared.
Examples:
a. Standardized distribution lists for information that affects the
performance of the unit and individual.
b. Openness to the leadership of individuals/groups to lead in new
directions.
c. Co-leadership/participation of managers and workers as equals on projects
that require both vantage-point input and the giving and taking of authority to
act.
d. Rules of secrecy and/or access to personal records and public disclosure
e. Standardized locations for "libraries" of resources.
Expressions:
Publish locations for information on web sites that are accessible to all
workers/managers. Offer extra stipends for work groups that participate in the
planning and implementation of creating portable documents for downloading from
computers.
3. Social structure: This location expresses the
institutionalization of roles and responsibility in clearly marked or indicated
sites such as the personnel office, accounting, and committees. The social
structure speaks to the relative stability of forms or contexts.
Examples:
a. Availability of organizational handbooks for all workers and managers.
b. The articulation of the manifest goals of the organization in relationship
to its products, its workers and its environment. Also, latent intentions for
the well being of workers, their families, and the environment should be
expressed.
c. Mutually designed organizational/community plans should include
indications of opportunities for individual or personal development.
Expressions:
At workplaces, the flexibility and multifunctionality of roles should be
incorporated. Within the workplace, workers could be trained and challenged by
managers increasing the number and complexity of their tasks. As workers and
managers work collectively towards meeting the organization's goals, research
procedures should be implemented, by which both the workers and managers can
diagnose the effectiveness and the meaning of the changes or proposed changes.
4. Environmental: This refers to the host environment of the
state, city, or other specific community and its capacity to support the worker,
and the capacity of the worker to be home in his/her community as a citizen of
the organization/neighborhood or town.
Examples:
a. Invitation of high school seniors to intern.
b. Workers becoming involved with public school curriculum design and
support.
c. Partnerships between organizations and specific public sites.
d. Public use of private research and consultants.
e. Environmental beautification.
Expressions:
The softening boundaries between home and work now occurring in many sectors
of the economy must include the recognition that the segregation of business
concerns and community concerns should also soften. The community at work may
become the community in which workers live and create families and other social
ties. Sponsored activities such as neighborhood block athletic events,
performances, construction and repair of housing and restoration of
environmentally sensitive habitats are expressions of such partnerships.
Conclusion
Empowerment is the result of appropriate experiences that bring confidence
and capacity. Organizations have the ability to empower their workers when the
work environment is intentionally designed to develop co-leadership skills,
interpersonal empowerment, organizational community building, and citizenship
development. Creating a work environment that promotes continued education for
adult development empowers workers at all levels with the tools needed to
effectively engage in organizational growth.
References:
Cunningham, I., Hyman, J., and Baldry, C. (1996). Empowerment: The power to
do what? Industrial Relations Journal, 27(2), 143.
Ettorre, B. (1997). The empowerment gap: Hype vs. reality. HR Focus, 74(7)
1.
Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). An empirical test of a comprehensive model of
intrapersonal empowerment in the workplace. American Journal of Community
Psychology, 23(5) 601.
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