Empowering Employees
The concept of empowering employees refer to the practice of giving the employees some level of authority in their different roles to enable them to perform with some degree of freedom. Employee empowerment has become one of the most effective approaches used by the organization in performing up to the desired standards. Vujić et al. (2019) defined employee empowerment as the process by which an organization offers its employees a certain degree of autonomy and control in their daily activities. In Kotter’s eight stage process, the idea of empowering employees entails enabling their abilities by providing them with the necessary resources that will allow them to perform to their best standards. It is thus the process of removing barriers that hinder performance by enabling achievement. The key principle of empowering employees is is providing them with the means for making crucial decisions and assisting in ensuring that the decisions are correct. In this context, it then means that empowering employees is not simply a matter of providing them with some level of autonomy but also equipping them with the right skills through training so that they can perform at the desired level and help the organization achieve its objectives in the long run.
One of the benefits of employee empowerment is setting them up to make their own decisions while paving their individual path to success, thus establishing an effective workplace culture. Every manager needs employees who are autonomous and effective in actualizing the given responsibilities, and this can only be achieved when the employees are empowered with the skills and authority over their roles. The other benefit of empowering employees is that it promotes a sense of accountability in the process of decision-making among the employees. Kundu et al. (2019) mentioned that empowering the employees to make decisions and accomplish tasks with reasonable judgment increases their trust. Empowering them hence creates the belief that they are intelligent enough to manage their duties and help the organization become successful. Employee empowerment also helps in increasing job satisfaction among the employees because the staff recognizes that the management values and trusts them (Lee et al., 2018). There is a close association between employee empowerment and job satisfaction. Empowered employees often feel they are in the right space and are intelligent to use their skills in helping the organization succeed (Lee et al., 2018). In turn, this leads to increased employee commitment and engagement, which are key factors in innovative and successful organizations.
A personal experience associated with employee empowerment was once witnessed in an organization I worked as an intern in an insurance brokerage company. I joined when the existing manager believed that the only way employees could perform to the desired standards is by applying the hands-on approach with the employees. Most of the employees were always unhappy in their roles because we worked under strict rules and administration, which could not allow us to get out of our way in meeting the clients’ needs. With time, this led to a high turnover rate as people were seeking to work in an environment where they were trusted and not closely monitored as if they are not aware of their responsibilities. It is from this experience that I learned that employee empowerment demonstrates that the management values people and appreciates their unique value. In other terms, empowering employees is not simply about delegating tasks, but also allowing the employees to work with a sense of autonomy that will enable them to make decisions associated with achieving the set objectives (Cai et al., 2018). Nonetheless, empowering employees does not offer unsupervised freedom. The management must offer feedback and train employees on areas they feel they are not performing well.
References
Cai, D., Cai, Y., Sun, Y., & Ma, J. (2018). Linking Empowering Leadership and Employee Work Engagement: The Effects of Person-Job Fit, Person-Group Fit, and Proactive Personality. Frontiers In Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01304
Kundu, S., Kumar, S., & Gahlawat, N. (2019). Empowering leadership and job performance: mediating role of psychological empowerment. Management Research Review, 42(5), 605-624. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-04-2018-0183
Lee, A., Willis, S., & Tian, A. (2018). When Empowering Employees Works, and When It Doesn’t. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 20 April 2020, from https://hbr.org/2018/03/when-empowering-employees-works-and-when-it-doesnt.
Vujić, D., Novaković, S., Maksimović, M., & Karabašević, D. (2019). The role of the leader in empowering and supporting employees towards sustainable development. Vojno Delo, 71(5), 117-125. https://doi.org/10.5937/vojdelo1905117v