The problem with empowerment is that, deep down,
managers do not want to empower their subordinates,
and subordinates do not want to be empowered,
Discuss.

In this essay I intend to show that in general there is unwillingness amongst managers to
empower their subordinates and an equal unwillingness amongst subordinates to be
empowered. My goal, however, is to show that this unwillingness to accept
empowerment is not the fundamental problem at hand but rather a symptom caused by an
accumulation of other problems and causes.

To achieve this I will first define empowerment and some of the terms associated with it.
Then I will cite a selection of real life examples of best practice from the workplace
where empowerment strategies have been implemented successfully. I will compare and
contrast these successes with several examples of failed empowerment strategies. These
examples will be taken from two sources; the first being the traditional academic
literature available on organizational behaviour, the second being a series of presentations
and interviews conducted by and with a range of currently practicing managers.

As a result of these successes and failures I will be able to distinguish the factors that are
necessary for the successful implementation of empowerment strategies and thus show
that the absence of these factors causes an unwillingness to accept empowerment,
therefore proving that the unwillingness to accept empowerment strategies is not the core,
fundamental problem but rather the symptom caused by an amalgamation of other
problems, namely the absence of the right environment into which empowerment
strategies should be implemented.

In order to frame the thesis of this essay I must first define the terms to be used. There is
a plethora of definitions for empowerment within traditional organizational behaviour
literature; Buchanan and Huczynski define it as "a general term describing organizational
arrangements that give employees more autonomy, discretion and unsupervised decision-
making responsibility." (Buchanan and Huczynski 2004: 267) whereas Fiona Wilsonrefers to it as 'the giving of power.' (Wilson 2004: 166) and Fincham and Rhodes refer to
it as "a repackaging of elements of job enrichment."

There are also a number of different terms used to define empowerment in different
contexts; individually it can be known as empowerment or delegation, in a team setting it
can be known as autonomous or semi-autonomous work groups, high performance work
systems, team working and self managed teams. All of these are methods of
empowerment that have emerged from the quality of working life movement in an
attempt to move away from Taylorist and Fordist practices. (Rollinson: 2005)

Of the three managers that I interviewed Manager A of a small management consulting
firm grouped these terms together by saying that "they all had the same underlying
principal" which was "the passing of power from manager to subordinate that gives
control over the execution of their tasks." It this underlying principal present in all
methods of empowerment, both on an individual and group context, that I will use to
form the basis of this essay.

The first and perhaps most important element that I believe is necessary for true
empowerment to take place is that of information sharing. Kanter suggests that in order
for an organization to be empowering they must "make more information more available
at more levels through more devices." (Sprietzer, 1995) After an in-depth study of ten
different companies and their attempts to implement empowerment Alan Randalph offers
two examples where information sharing was crucial to the empowerment initiative. Both
companies Infoserv and Bankco used different strategies for their implementation. Both
found a higher level of resistance to the movement than they had original anticipated,
they found that "It was not until senior managers began sharing sensitive financial
information about the company that the seeds of empowerment began to grow and the
teams became truly self-directed." (Randalph, 1999)

In a later article by the same author offers the example of a retail food company whose
senior management became "intrigued with idea of empowering their people." In thiscase however middle managers were scared about losing control and therefore withheld
critical information from their employees. As a result, within two months the senior
management had decided that empowerment "would not work for them" and they
scrapped the idea. (Randalph, 2000)

Randalph goes on to highlight a similar problem within a cable TV company looking to
"start the movement to empowerment." In this case the employees "lacked sufficient
information to participate effectively in clarifying the vision and to give it meaning
related to their jobs." They were more concerned with why the change was necessary
than what would be the end result for the company (Randalph, 2000)

Information sharing also needs to occur cross functionally for empowerment initiatives to
be successful. Manger C, an operations manager expressed that there needed to be
"excellent communication between the sales and the ops side." She mentioned how her
employees were expected to work for "the internal customer." Without information being
widely available across departments it was "impossible to make fully empowered
decisions that fit with the values and goals of the organization."

It is clear that access to information across an organization is crucial for empowerment
strategies to be successful. Where it is absent empowerment strategies break down. On
the whole it allows employees to "see the bigger picture of the organization" and where
they fit in to it, it develops a sense of "meaning and purpose" and it "enhances
individuals ability to make and influence decisions that are in line with the organizations
goals." Spreitzer (1996)

Another result of information sharing across an organization is the increase in the level of
trust between managers and their subordinates and cross functionally between employees
in different departments. Trust is another key element for the successful implementation
of empowerment.Fiona Wilson (2004) claims that "To empower, managers are asked to create an
atmosphere that supports and fosters mutual trust." Manger D, a small business owner
believes that trust can be most easily developed in a small company of approximately ten
to fifteen employees. He believes that you will not see successful implementation of
empowerment within large bureaucracies or organizations with a tall rigid hierarchy
because the prevalent culture created by such an organizational structure is not an
environment that will allow for trust to develop.

Mangers need to "trust employees with information and in their ability to achieve tasks."
(Luthans, 2005) The problem is that this causes a "dilemma of dealing with two cultures"
for middle managers. The first being to trust their subordinates enough to relinquish
control and the second is to maintain control to make sure that levels of productivity
don't decrease and that subordinates tasks are being completed. (Luthans, 2005) As
Mullins (2002) puts it this way "The sum of trust and control is constant." For
empowerment to succeed the goal is to find the "balance between trust and control" a
level of "optimal trust."

Without this optimal level of trust there will be empowerment inhibiting fear from both
management and employees. Managers may fear their subordinates are not capable of
doing the job correctly and therefore not relinquish control (Mullins, 2002) On the
reverse of the coin employees on the other hand will fear that they "do not have the
support and backing of their management," thus "limiting the employees flexibility and
in turn limiting empowerment." (Manager B)

A lack of trust will also cause an unwillingness amongst employees to "take ownership of
the organization." Manager A labels this a "renter mentality," if there is a lack of trust
then the employees will not choose to "personally invest in the organization," they will
"become detached and disinterested." An example of this occurred within the companies
Utilico and PowerCo. In both cases mangers held back news about cutbacks until the
layoffs were imminent this "inhibited trust, and employees stiffened in their resistance to
act as stakeholders in the company." Randalph (1999)It appears that trust within an organization and the access to information go hand in hand.
Information will not be shared unless there is trust yet one of the best ways to increase
trust is to grant better access to information. Without a successful weaving of these two
elements there will be an unwillingness amongst managers and their subordinates to
embrace empowerment.

The third reason that empowerment can often fail is relying on the assumption that
employees have the necessary skills to implement empowerment. "Sponsors often
assume that employees already have the skills needed to succeed in an empowered
environment." (Dover, 1999) Dover says the problem is that many of our institutions
have a "top-down management style." This includes schools, family structures and
religious institutions and, as a result, "few employees or managers can perform or even
identify the critical skills of an empowered workforce." (Dover, 1999) Alan Randalph
(1999) agrees by saying that whilst many employees "have the potential to succeed in an
empowering organization, most learned to operate in a disempowering bureaucratic
organization." They need to "unlearn bureaucratic habits."

What are these skills that are necessary for successful empowerment? Dover (1999)
offers the examples of expectations management, collaborative decision making and
systems. While Randalph (1999) offers a mix of hard and soft skills including negotiating
performance plans, decision making, conflict resolution, leadership, budgeting, and
technical expertise in several jobs."

Spreitzer (1996) adds that "Higher levels of education are critical for enhancing
empowerment, particularly in terms of providing skills and abilities individuals need to
feel competent." Without this competence employees "will not take the risks, and they
will not be comfortable with the necessary levels of internal commitment." For successful
empowerment an organization must proactively seek to provide its employees with the
necessary skills, "it is futile to wait for people to become empowered."It is clear from the wide range of research on the subject to see that given the right
environment, empowerment strategies can be implemented successfully. This
environment comprises of a number of different factors including but not exclusive to
access to information, trust and each employee skill set.

If any of these factors are missing it is likely that empowerment initiatives will fail as a
result of unwillingness from both managers and their subordinates to accept
empowerment. As I stated in my introduction however, this unwillingness to accept
empowerment is not because managers do not want to empower and their subordinates do
not want to be empowered, it is because any number of the factors that lead to successful
empowerment are missing. Therefore the unwillingness to accept empowerment is not the
core, fundamental problem but rather a symptom caused by the lack of the right
environment.Bibliography
Books
Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2004), Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory
th
Text, Prentice Hall/Financial Times, 5 edition

rd
Fincham, R. and Rhodes, P (1999), Principals of Organizational Behaviour, 3 edition,
Oxford University Press, 1999.

Luthans, F. (2005), Organizational Behaviour, McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA.

Rollinson, D. (2005), Organisational Behaviour and Analysis, Prentice Hall/Financial
rd
Times, 3 edition

Wilson, F. (2004), Organizational Behaviour: A Critical Introduction, Oxford University
Press

Journals
Dover, K. (1999), Avoiding Empowerment Traps. Management Review, 88(1), pp51-55

Randalph, W.A. (1995), Navigating the Journey to Empowerment. Organizational
Dynamics, 23(4), pp19-32

Randalph, W. A. (2000), Re-thinking Empowerment: Why Is It So Hard to Achieve?
Organizational Dynamics 29(2), pp94-107

Sprietzer, G. M. (1995), Psychological Empowerment in the Workplace: Dimensions,
Measurement and Validation. Academy of Mangement Journal, 38(5), pp1442-1468

Sprietzer, G. M. (1996), Social Structual Characteristics of Psychological Empowerment.
Academy of Management Journal, 39(2), pp483-505Appendix 1: List of interviews conducted by author

Manager A
Biographical: Male, late forties
Position: CEO, management consultancy firm
Size of Organization: 5 employees
Sector: Consulting

Manager B
Biographical: Male, early sixties
Position: Senior Management
Size of Organization: 60 Employees
Sector: Public, Charity

Manger C
Biographical: Female, forties
Position: Ops Manger
Size of Organization: 30 employees
Sector: RetailAppendix 2: Details of manager debates cited within essay.

Manager D
Biographical: Male, forties
Position: Business Owner-Manager
Size of Organization: 10 - 15 employees
Sector: Industrial Consulting

Manager E
Biographical: Female, thirties
Position: Business Development Manger
Size of organization: Medium
Sector: Engineering