A520.5.3.RB - Empowerment

Empowerment comes in all shapes and sizes. Indeed, from a management standpoint empowerment can be double edged sword; especially if not implemented correctly. The class text, Management Skills for Leaders, outlines the dimensions of empowerment by providing a framework for the act of empowerment as well as some benefits of empowerment (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). A few benefits are self-efficacy (being confident in self) and self-determination (sense of having a choice). There are others but those are the most important as I feel trust, personal consequence, and meaning flow from feeling that you are competent and in control of a situation. At its core, empowerment seeks to give subordinates a greater sense of self and ownership in an organization's direction. It lets them feel directly linked to the organization's successes and failures. Over time this breeds very loyal employees and more competent teams. Much is written about synergy, and I've touched on it when discussion small team management, and I think that synergy is also derived from empowerment. By letting a person or team take ownership and control they feel compelled to produce more than the sum of their parts. Whetten and Cameron go on to discuss how to implement empowerment and much of their guidelines boil down to setting a goal and allowing the empowered person to first feel connected to it and then to own it. After that it a manager needs to provide resources otherwise the empowerment is doomed to fail.

There are a few other pitfalls associated with empowerment. Russ Forrester in his article "Empowerment: Rejuvenating a Potent Idea" shares some of these pitfalls. Narrow focus, precipitous mandates, and one-size-fits-all are three of the traps mentioned. (Forrester, 2000) They are all unique but I want focus on one-size-fits-all as I think this would be a major barrier for myself and the broader implications strike at fundamental problems managers may face.

When seeking to implement empowerment programs you have to work towards a goal in mind, If your goal is better customers service you have to set metrics by which to measure success. Likewise for less waste in production, or less turnover in front-line personnel. One trap of one-size-fits-all is that measures are implemented across the board and it is hoped that metrics follow. This is setting yourself up for failure. Different business units have different needs, different employees have different needs, and customers (both internal and external) have different needs. Empowering everyone equally leads to chaos. There has to be a measure of discretion when deciding whom to empower and why. Also, be careful to not empower two groups in such a fashion that they compete for resources. Empowerment is a great tool but everyone has to be playing from the same set of rules.

Great football teams win when they realize that everyone from the special teams to the quarterback have separate roles to play but those roles are intertwined. A good set of plays from the quarterback, even if not ending in a touchdown, can place the kicker in a good position. Strong defense allows the offensive advantageous starting positions. Each of these units is empowered to train and coach in their own way but they are guided by an overarching philosophy and constrained by a framework set in place by the coach. In this way the units are guided to work together for mutual benefit. So it needs to be with empowering business units. Accounting needs to understand how they support production and their guidelines for empowerment should be different than the guidelines that empower the administrative personnel in human resources. They have different functions but the same goals. Empowerment is a wonderful tool to use in any organization but you must tailor your approach to the needs of each unit and then provide a framework for each unit to work together. Then you must provide support for those units and work towards results.



Whetten, D., & Cameron, K. (2011). Management skills for leaders. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. The Academy of Management Executive,14(3), 67-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4165660?uid=3739904&uid=2134&uid=378680471&uid=2&uid=378680461&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21103403490471