The Essence of Empowerment Empowerment is certainly not a new idea.
In fact, its concept has been around since the.
1960's when American car manufactures suddenly realized that they were .
losing their butts to the Japanese producers. An extensive and extremely.
well-funded investigation for answers to the recurrent question, how do I.
get more out of my employees while simultaneously lowering my costs, did.
produce some implementable and constructive results. The topic I have.
chosen to investigate is the application of employee empowerment and how.
to get the most out of this HR "buzzword." Within my scope of discussions.
are topics which include effective implementation, the role of the.
organization, and incentives to achieve and sustain actuation. Employee.
empowerment, in its most basic definition, is effective delegation. The.
new twist that upper management has been trying desperately to achieve, is.
to involve the lowest level of employees in the decision-making process.
while making them responsible for the results of their decisions. There.
have been many documented examples of anxiety, mistrust and complacency in.
employees when this wave of "new-and-improved, successful management.
strategies" have been suddenly thrown upon them. Change of any kind will.
usually inspire resistance, especially when you are talking about.
extracting power from management to place in the hands of "subordinates." .
There are obvious methods to achieving the results that the.
stakeholders of an organization demand through empowerment. Increases in.
profitability, productivity, creativity, and a shorter time-to-market are.
all feasible results of empowerment. In fact, "empowerment is an.
extremely cost-effective means of bringing about desired changes in.
performance and operational effectiveness." It takes only a stout.
devotion of the entire organization, from the top levels downward. That's.
all. There are, however, key factors to its success.