Empowermentis the key

Power…..Empower

• The paradox….– to wield power, one must give it away — that is — to

empower

• Rechargeable battery– Charge it up and it energizes your cell phone or

laptop. Forget, and it will ultimately fail you.

What?• Not just a management buzzword!

• New way of managing organizations– Competitive and complex future

• Enable employees to do their best

• For this you need to trust them

• Delegate responsibility– Lowest level of organisation

Why?• Human resource

– Most important asset of the organisation

• Employee involvement• Employee commitment• Value creation for the customer• Improvements in quality & productivity• Improved business relationships with other

departments • Motivation for survivors of downsizing.

Benefits

1. The organization: harnesses individual talents to the full

2. The department / team: becomes more enthusiastic, active, and successful

3. Employees: entrusted new responsibilities and are stretched beyond what they previously thought they could achieve

More….

• Releases the individual wisdom, creativity and energy of employees

• Facilitates teamwork and harnessing of collective power of employees

• Changes the managers' mind-set and leaves them with more time to engage in broad-based thinking, visioning, and nurturing.

Embodies…

Intrinsic Motivation

Integration for Problem

Solving

Shared Responsibilitie

s

Internal Justification for Decision-

Making

Involves…

• Trusting and communicating the employees

• Stronger leadership and accountability

• Becoming:– Coach, Advisor, Sponsors and Facilitators

• Decision making authority in the domains of responsibility

Two common traits needed

1. Desire to employ people with greater skills or knowledge than they themselves possess

2. Ability to develop people into leaders themselves

                                                                                  

                                                           

Cultural Integration

• Empowered people change cultures

• 4 stages:– 1. I am doing this because my job depends on it.

– 2. I am doing this because seeing others I know it is the right thing to do.

– 3. I am doing this because it is right and the culture supports it.

– 4……….and I will coach others to do the same.

The culture model

Compliance with written policies

& procedur

es

Builds up

knowledge bank and int. motivat

ors

Develops his own

behavioral

routine.

Mimicking the

behavior of others

More….

• As employee matures….

• Integrates with co workers for problem solving…

• And teaches others too

• Thus culture adopts less formal values and traditions

Motivation

• Extrinsic: Employee is rewarded for actions

• Intrinsic: decision making freedom– Employee has internal justification for his or

her actions– Should guide towards the “Mission”

Expanding Job Description

– Everybody in the organisation

– A salesman of the product or the service

– “This is not my job” attitude does not

work any more.

– Accept responsibility

• Intranet– Learn about different job functions– Learn to work together

• Self Management Work Teams– 10 to 15 people….take on responsibility of

their former supervisors– Group performance is better than individuals’

performance

• Corporate Employee Suggestion Schemes– Formalized mechanism for

• Promoting participative management

• Employee involvement

• Management delayering– Remove the redundant layers

• Measurement of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)– Labour turnover

– Absenteeism

– Accident rate

– Lost time due to various factors

• Business Planning

– As more people understand the business and

where it is planning to go…..

– More involvement and

– Commitment towards organisational goals and

objectives

• Six Sigma & TQM

– Numerous opportunities of empowerment

– Employees suggesting areas and processes

– Employees share their first hand experiences

– Provide expert knowledge

• ESOPs: ESOPs enable the employees in identifying themselves as the

owner’s of the organization.

• CRM: Empowers employees while enhancing customer loyalty and

value.

• Company wide culture-change programs: Workshops, &

events to raise awareness & empower individuals & teams. E.g.. Quality

circle movement

Companies that have Empowered

• GE:Everybody has to know everything, so they

can make the right decisions by themselves

• Godrej: just in time information

More…

• INTEL(TQM)• FORD (TQM)• SATURN (TQM)• Scandinavian Airline Systems (TQM)• Harley Davidson (TQM)• Eastman Kodak Co.(SMTs)

And the list goes on……

Delta Airport Inn• “License to Please”• Free hotel nights to customers who are unhappy

with guaranteed house keeping.

United Airlines Inc.• Resolve customer complaints on the “first contact”• Expense refunds, meals, ground transportation

vouchers

HOW?

Internal Threats

* Clashes can occur between development team members due to overlapping responsibilities.

* Conflicts can arise between development team members and management over authority.

* Managers must evaluate the amount of authority they want to give to development team members. Many managers have difficulty giving up authority.

* Employees may resist empowerment (the "it's not my job" attitude).

* Employees may need assistance in understanding or accepting new responsibilities.

External Threats

• Reduction in Workforce– Due to competitive environment….labour force

cutback….become an excuse for not empowering

• Mergers and Acquisitions– Cultural Integration faces problems

• Changing Senior Management– Might want to move things around