Employee Empowerment Essay

Employee empowerment is one of the management practices in today’s corporate business environment. It is a habit of allocating ideas, profit, recognition and control the costs with employees. According to the management theory of Kanter, mentioned by Rodriguez (2011) that by sharing power it will not only improve personal job satisfaction but also benefit the organization as a whole. The involvement and participation will allow them to gain greater job satisfaction and more committed to the organization’s goal (Lashley 2001). However, this management style also has some drawbacks like all leadership styles. One of the most important benefits of employee empowerment is the improvement in productivity in an organization. Employees who are empowered are more dedicated to the organization because of their active engagement. They are more responsible for the outcomes of their action, and better able to achieve job demands in an effective manner. In fact, commitment, accounta bility and the intention of fulfilling job demands are the qualities of an empowered employee (Kelleher, 2013). A satisfied employee will do their job successfully and also meet their personal target. Furthermore their responsible actions will make the success for the company and fulfil mutual commitment. That means by meeting personal targets the organisations economy is also boosted (Watson 2012). Engaged employees are dedicated to their job and have enthusiasm about their responsibility that means they love to do their duty. Another benefit is that empowered employee can have a great contribution to reduce the costs for an organization.For example, when employees have the authority to deal with customer complaints when they occur, and have the freedom to suggest a solution to the problem, that makes the employees self sufficient. This is efficient as it has less reliance on higher management approval (The Saylor foundation 2014). As a result, the organization encourages the employees to think creatively and critically which will allow them to communicate with their colleagues regarding the related problems and share innovative ideas, so it can cuts the cost of training and any overhead costs in some cases (Lashley 2001). For instance, a problem which can be easily solved by an empo wered employee could in other circumstances end up in court or compensation which could cost a lot of money for the company. The efficient use of resources by the employees can also reduce the cost. Even so, the work environment has a significant effect on how effective the employees can use the resources (Lashley 2001). The  three main desired aspects of work environment are, namely: undisturbed environment, easy accessibility and sufficient appropriate equipment to perform their job. For instance, comparing to construction work where people need protective uniforms for their job, in business there must have a computer network with Wi-Fi. These will make the employees independent and maximize the productivity of the company. The employees fell valuable and important, so there will be long-term employees who are loyal to the organization and this will reducing employee turnover costs (Owen.et.al.2014). However, the three main areas of concern regarding employee empowerment are as follow. Firstly, in a time of changing ownership or uncertain situation, it could make the decision making process lengthy (HE ATHFIELD 2014) because the rules and regulations can be different from previous as either the new management is coming or the condition is unstable where company might close down. Secondly, it could drive to disorder because the empowered employees have different solutions (HEATHFIELD 2014) for the same problem which may breach conduct according to the company policy. Thirdly, by empowering the employees the private information of the company become unprotected, this could damage the company if exposes because of the personal greed of the employees (HAMLIN 2014) while the information might be valuable to the competitors or it can create embarrassment. Though there are some disadvantages of employee empowerment, the increasing productivity and cost effectiveness can make this management style desirable for employees to work and mangers to control. Throughout the following paragraph the roles of mangers in past and present , will be discussed and how modern managers can apply these roles to find a possible solution for the problems faced by empowered environment. The role of the manager varies from company to company and time to time. However, the main responsib ilities are planning, organising, delegating, observing and evaluating (MURRAY 2014). In the past, the traditional style of management was disciplined and strictly following a chain of command. It was driven by the power of order(Gollakota,2014),but it has been developed over time.The modern managers support empowerment because it develops product and services more effectively, increases the satisfaction with colleagues, and overall it leads to create a unique place of work with advanced performance capabilities. SOURCE By applying these management skills modern managers can be able to make solutions for the  problems of employee empowerment.Fon instance, in a case where the ownership due to change and the situation is unstable,the modern managers can assure the employees about management support to recover the difficulties.Also,the managers should be able to make an adjustment(Liraz,2014) about the changes so that the employees are always up to date with the situation and sufficient training has been given to manage the situation with confidence. In an empowered environment where the solutions from employees varies from customers to customers, a modern manager can be mor e communicative about sharing the innovative thoughts and ideas by organizing frequent staff meetings with feedback.As a result, the employees are known from their colleagues about all the possible solutions to complains made by customers and also customers will have a choice. Also, there will not have any misunderstanding between the customers about the received solution from a company.Furthermore,though it seems impossible to protect a company’s secret information modern managers can use their initiatives with the help of technology.Such as, a special type of software called â€Å"content management† allows the employees to access the data according to the length of employment, to add on, DLP-Data Loss Prevention can be used for inspecting sensitive outgoing data in a company’s network (FORD 2011). Overall, due to the protection of data managers can closely monitor the activities of the empowered employees and also can make a law which will not allow to bring the personal technologies at work so it could ensure the safety of company’s secret information. There are different ways of developing the employees. For example, Managers have to be passionate about their job (SCHAPPEL 2013) because if they do not show any attention or spirit, they will not be able to motivate the employees to contribute to the targets. Also, managers should always have appreciation for the employees so the employees feel they are valuable to the company.HEATHFIELD (2014) states, as an employee they wish respect and favour to support their thinking. So managers should give recognition for an achievement, but if employees are likely to follow a wrong direction managers can resolve that with a positive attitude. Furthermore, HEATHFIELD(2014) says, managers could involve the employees in the decision making.For example, promotions of new product, or improvement meetings, which will make them feel more involved than in their usual job responsibility.Furthermore Schappel (2013) emphasised on how the  mangers can make the work place comfortable for the employees t o work .After allocating the task managers can observe the progress, also give guidance and support if needed. The managers can share the target and forecast with the employees. As they could have a better idea not only to support and share the target but also a possible solution for overcoming any difficulties that could occur. Moreover, by sharing thoughts they can make it achievable as a team (HEATHFIELD 2014) (SCHAPPEL 2013). To empower the employees is not an easy task because it needs a atmosphere of belief and cooperation from the management of a company ( Quast,2011).Also management should have the practice of welcoming any failure from the employees so that the lessons will help others in future development. Employee empowerment is considered to be the best way to keep customers satisfied, because the employees have the authority to take a possible solution for a situation and their main priority to keep the customer satisfied 11 (Quast,2011).Though this management style can be time consuming for some organizations because of the traditional frame of management and also the dependenc e on managers for every instruction,however, the creativity, teamwork,communication and innovative ideas from an empowered employee can help to achieve success and challenges from competitors. No referencein conclusion Reference list: 1.RODRIGUEZ, P,F. , 2011. 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