participation and empowerment
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
1/16
Participation and Empowerment
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
2/16
Introduction to participation and empowerment:
One of the most important foundations of OD is the
participation and empowerment model.
These pillars of OD practice are validated by research and
practice.Research on group dynamics was found to overcome
resistance to change.
Increase commitment to the organization, reduce stress
levels & make people feel better about themselves.Participation is good for people and performance
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
3/16
To empower is to give someone power/authority.
Participation is an especially effective form of empowerment.
Participation enhances empowerment and empowerment inturn enhances performance and individual well-being.
OD interventions are deliberately designed to increaseinvolvement & participation by org leaders & members.
Eg: autonomous work groups, quality circles, teambuilding, survey feedback, quality of work life programs,search conferences etc are all predicated on the belief thatincreased participation will lead to better solutions.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
4/16
Rules of thumb such as:
involve all those who are a part of the problem or
part of the solution
have decisions made by those who are closest tothe problems.
OD interventions are basically methods for increasingparticipation.
The entire field of OD is about empowerment.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
5/16
Robert Quinn and Gretchen Spreitzer found 2different views about empowerment:
Mechanistic: top down delegation of decision making
with clear boundaries and strict accountability thatincreases managerial control.
Organic:bottom-up and less controlling. They believed
that this view was about risk taking, growth and change.
The authors feel that this view is the more usefulperspective.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
6/16
The additional sources of information aboutEmpowerment:
James Belasco gives numerous examples in
which leaders reap extraordinary gains byempowering their employees. He believes that:
1. Only massive changes will suffice needed changes.
2. People will not naturally embrace the needed change
&
3. Empowerment is the key to getting people to want to
participate in change.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
7/16
Belasco uses a simple 4 step model to describethe empowerment process:
1) Preparation
2) Create tomorrow
3) Vision4) Change
Of these vision is the most important ingredients of
empowerment.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
8/16
Kouzes and Posnor conducted few leadership seminars andasked participants to describe a personal best leadershipsituation from their own experience. Analysis of theseleadership stories led to identifying 5 leadership practices.They are:
1. Challenging the processSearch for opportunitiesExperiment & take risk
2. Inspiring a shared vision
Envision the futureEnlist others
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
9/16
3. Enabling others to actFoster collaboration
Strengthen others
4. Modeling the way
Set the examplePlan small wins
5. Encouraging the heart
Recognize individual contributionsCelebrate accomplishments
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
10/16
Donald Peterson describes the organizational redesign of Ford Motor Co.Peterson was the president CEO & chairman of Ford during the
turnaround of that 370,000-person company.
They produced high quality products, made big profits & created the Ford
Taurus one of the best selling cars in American history.
The primary vehicle for the turnaround was employee involvement,
participation, & empowerment.
The net-effect was the significant change in the companys culture frombeing a top-down, autocratic, functionally oriented company to one that
gave responsibility & power to cross functional teams at all levels of the
organization.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
11/16
Tom Peters is one of the strongest advocates on the
American scene for participation and empowerment.In his books he describes that one of the attributes for
characterizing excellent, innovative companies is
productivity through people.
He says: excellent companies pay attention to 4 things:customers, innovation, people, & leadership.
In another book by Tom Peters Thriving on Chaosthe same
themes appear i.e.,
Creating total customer responsiveness,
Pursuing fast-paced innovation,
Achieving flexibility by empowering people,
Learning to love change &
Building organization system that support the first 4 themes.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
12/16
Peters offers the following prescriptions for achievingflexibility by empowering people:
Involve everyone in everything
Use self-managing teams Listen/celebrate/recognize
Spend time lavishly on recruiting
Train & retrain
Provide incentive pay for everyone
Provide an employment guarantee
Simplify reduce structure
Reconceive the middle managers role &
Eliminate bureaucratic rules & humiliating conditions.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
13/16
Peters continued to advocate the importance of empowered
people, customer satisfaction, innovation & visionary
leadership.
But he introduces an important new insight: he takes aim at
todays organization structures. Todays jobs are best accomplished through
empowered people working in highly autonomous
project teams, he says, & organizations must be
redesigned to allow that happen.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
14/16
James Belasco teamed up with Ralph Stayer, former CEO ofJohnsonville Foods, to explore empowerment in his book.
It contained the insights describing Stayers leadership journey from
authoritarianism to abdication to letting his employees lead.
Johnsonville Foods became a classic example of how empowerment
stimulates individual growth & organizational improvement.
Empowerment is an important ingredient in high-performance
organizations.
The effect of involvement & empowerment is especially whenempowered employees are formed into empowered teams.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
15/16
The concept of open-book management as a possible
way to run business is receiving a great deal of attention
in management circles today.This concept pushes the idea of empowerment to the extreme,
usually with excellent financial results.
It allows every employee of a company to think like an owner of
the business & start acting like one.
Open-book management rests on several simple
principles:
1) Every employee in an open-book co. sees & learns to understand-
the companys financials along with all the other numbers that
are critical to tracking the businesss performance;
2) Employees assume that whatever else they do, part of their job is
to move those numbers in the right direction;
3) Employees have a direct stake in the companys success.
PARTICIPATION/EMPOWERMENT WORKS.
-
8/8/2019 Participation and Empowerment
16/16