RETHINKING EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

1 Introduction

There is a great controversy on the concept of empowerment since it emerged in 1990s.Critics regard employee empowerment as a “freestyle” in workplace.They concern that it may give workers too much freedom and make chaos in the organization.In recent years，there are increasing researches suggesting it is an innovative business approach by creating a humanized organization and promoted productive.The essay aims to explore the reasons for employers to consider employee empowerment，analyse it challenges，and find ways to better implement it in practice.

2 Reasons for employers to consider developing empowerment program

The thriving global market and advanced technologies put great emphasis on employees prompt responses，innovation and imagination.The new management philosophy，empowerment offers employers an approach to tap employees potential and enable them to make good discretion and decisions.The underpinning logic of empowerment is employees have actual or potential capability to tackle problems promptly and make good decisions.Compared to employers，experienced employees have harnessed skills，more detailed insight on work and are better aware of the weakness within the organization.They are “a well spring of novel ideas and a stimulus to innovation”.The employee is also the key component between organizations and customers and suppliers.By harnessing employees skills and maximizing their potential，employee empowerment can help organizations create good relations with both suppliers and customers and have better performance by transferring efficiency to effectiveness.

On the other hand，compared with traditional hierarchical structure in an organization，setting regulations on employees behavior，informing them what they can do and not，making them work as machines，empowerment creates a humanized environment by giving employees more trust and respect.It makes a great step in solving organizational problems，such as employee psychological problems，absenteeism，and high labor turnover rate，which are generated by dehumanized scientific management.

It increases productivity，effectiveness and efficiency because “a happy worker is a productive worker”.Linjuan Rita Men did a research to look into how empowerment influenced production in Chinese companies.It turned out that empowered employees had better job satisfaction and were more confident and hard working.

Empowerment encourages employees to communicate and corporate with other colleagues，establish their own pace of work，take more responsibilities of their job and make decisions in the workplace.The new managerial philosophy helps employers to tap the potential of both employees and organizations，promoting the competitiveness of the organization.It also increases workers job satisfaction and gains employee commitment.Therefore，empowerment creates a “win-win” situation for both employees and employers.

3 Challenges and solutions for empowerment in practice

The implementing process faces many challenges.When setting up empowerment program，the management team should draw a clear picture of its definition，the group to be empowered，and the extent of empowerment.Some critics argue the definition of empowerment is too broad to convey.Yukl and Becker reviewed the past 50-year literature of empowerment and concluded there were “many faces of empowerment”，such as psychological empowerment，participatory leadership，redesign organizational structure or organizational culture，employee skills and traits，leadership selection and assessment and so on.So before making any changes，managers need to choose a definition of empowerment which suits the best for the organization，and make sure it can be communicated and discussed clearly among the organization.If it is failed to be done，there is a great probability for stakeholders to hold their understanding and work on their own behalf.Moreover，the group to be empowered should be specified clearly，reviewed and rebalanced to keep a consistency in practice.If the responsibility is not clear among different managerial layers or workers，the result is set overlap rather than organizational reform.In addition，the extent of the empowerment implementation should not be ambiguous，which ranges from “directed autonomy” to a modest and pragmatic way of reorganization.The management should make it clear to what extent the empowerment will be given.One of the most famous successful case is Googles "20% time." They encourage employees to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google，in addition to their regular projects.The basis of successful implementation is they have set up a very clear empowerment philosophy based on the organizational culture，its characteristics，employees capacities and competences.

Successful implementation also needs to deal with the“fundamental paradox” between empowerment and the existing managerial form.Traditional hierarchical management assumes that employees are lazy，self-centered，and can not be relied on.Empowerment，however，put great emphasis on employees talent.The contradiction makes it difficult for traditional managers，who always turn to Taylorim for help，to fully trust employees，especially when empowerment only offers a “paradigm shift” rather than solutions.Under the circumstance，management will be trapped： those regulates employees tightly runs the risk of endangering the employees creativity and commitment to management goals，while empowering is at the risk of reducing management control.Another problem associated with Taylorism is some managers do not know how to share power for the afraid of loosing power.They regard power as a representative of domination，a zero sum game，so empowerment enables employees to grab resources and shake their dominate positions，finally create chaos in an organization.However，there is a large number of evidence showing employees did not appear to seek power in the political sense，they only want power to make certain decisions by themselves and responsible for their own work.Therefore，when implementing empowerment program，managers need to change the pre-existing structure from the top to the bottom，and from the perspective to the organizational structure.In this process，the perspective of the change leaders plays a key role in reforming.If empowerment initiatives have the same target and believe the changing process is inevitable，there will be much less hinders on the implementation way.Unpredictable things always happen in the changing process.If the changing view is taken for granted among change leaders，they would collaborate to find solutions rather than argue against change when the knotty situation occurs.Sharing a same target will integrate managers in different subcultures，according to their background，management approach and their supervisory level，to collaborate and support with each other.

4 Conclusion

A lot of researches and empirical evidence show that empowerment helps to create a “win-win” situation for both employees and employers in the organization.It inspires employees to be innovative and creative，promote productivity，transfer efficiency to effectiveness，increases job satisfaction，and thus gains employees commitment to the organization.However，there are a lot of obstacles for employers to implement the program，such as the ambiguous definition，the unclear link between power and empower，the fundamental paradox between empowerment and the pre-existing organizational structure and even the possible divergence among change leaders.

To make it easier for employers to access empowerment，the management needs to draw a clear picture of its definition，the group to be empowered，and the extent of empowerment，based on the organizational culture，its characteristics，employees capacities and competences.Moreover，the fundamental changes from the traditional perspective in scientific management，and a strong willingness among the change leaders play a key role in integrating the organization and deal with unpredictable changes in the reforming process.

作者簡介

楊婧（1989.04—），性別：女；民族：漢；籍貫：武漢；單位：江漢大學；職稱：無；學歷：研究生。