Empowerment has been the major thrust in management philosophy. Empowerment at work is the availability of opportunities at the work place for the employees to be able to make their own decisions about their tasks at work. Many business houses are practicing empowerment with their employees in order to offer better opportunities at work and to create an environment conducive to employee satisfaction.
Empowerment entails, amongst other things, some autonomy. There are many theories and much research material on empowerment. However, it believe that true empowerment lies is a superior’s ability to manage himself WHILE HIS SUBORDINATE is exercising autonomy. The degree of autonomy may vary as per time, place and the situation – but autonomy remains at the core.
The “trust deficit” and the negative fantasies of “existential risk” in the superior’s mind strike at the heart of true empowerment.
The success of any organization depends on the ability of its organization structure and management to empower the lower hierarchy. This is a given. However, the flip side to this statement is that the success of any organization depends on the ability of its organization and management to
a) Trust their own HR department about the quality of the employees that it offers positions to
b) Trust the organizational structure and its systems of checks and balances
c) Trust themselves and replace their insecurities and fears with a positive mindset
True empowerment fails when the above core ingredients are missing
Copyright - Nitesh Kotecha
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