Empowerment is power sharing, the delegation of power or authority to subordinates in an organization (Daft, 2016). Increasing employee power heightens motivation for task accomplishment because people improve their own effectiveness, choosing how to do a task using their creativity. Empowering employees involves giving them four elements that enable them to act more freely to accomplish their jobs: information, knowledge, power, and rewards.
- Employees receive information about company performance. In companies where employees are fully empowered, all employees have access to all financial and operational information (Daft, 2016).
- Employees have knowledge and skills to contribute to company goals. Companies use training programs to help employees acquire the knowledge and skills they need to contribute to organizational performance (Daft, 2016).
- Employees have the power to make substantive decisions. Empowered workers have the authority to directly influence work procedures and organizational performance, often through quality circles or self-directed work teams (Daft, 2016).
- Employees are rewarded based on company performance. Organizations that empower workers often reward them based on the results shown in the company’s bottom line (Daft, 2016).
Empowerment can mean encouraging workers’ ideas while managers retain authority, or it can mean employees have the freedom and power to make decisions and exercise initiative. Current methods fall along a continuum from no discretion for workers to full empowerment where workers participate in formulating strategy (Daft, 2016).
How does empowerment provide the two conditions (vitality and learning) for a thriving workforce that are described in the chapter? Do you see any ways in which a manager’s empowerment efforts might contribute to demotivation among employees? Discuss.
200 words please
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