Empowerment

Workplace empowerment
Empowerment of employees in the work place provides them with opportunities to make their own decisions with regards to their tasks. Nowadays[when?] more and more bosses andmanagers are practicing the concept of empowerment among their subordinates to provide them with better opportunities.[citation needed] According to Thomas A Potterfield[19], many organizationaltheorists and practitioners regard employee empowerment as one of the most important and popular management concepts of our time. Companies ranging from small to large and from low-technology manufacturingconcerns to high-tech software firms have been initiating empowerment programs in attempts to enhance employee motivation, increase efficiency, and gain competitive advantages in the turbulentcontemporary business environment.[citation needed]
Ciulla discusses an inverse case: that of bogus empowerment.[20]
[edit] Empowerment in management
In the book Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, theauthors, Ken Blanchard, John P. Carlos, and Alan Randolph, illustrate three keys that organizations can use to open the knowledge, experience, and motivation power that people already have. The threekeys that managers must use to empower their employees are:
1. share information with everyone
2. create autonomy through boundaries
3. replace the old hierarchy with self-managed teamsAccordingauthor Stewart, in her book Empowering People she describes that in order to guarantee a successful work environment, managers need to exercise the “right kind of authority” (p.6). To summarize,“empowerment is simply the effective use of a manager’s authority”, and subsequently, it is a productive way to maximize all-around work efficiency.
Share information with everyone – this is the first key toempowering people within an organization. By sharing information with everyone, one gives them a clear picture of the company and its current situation. This fosters trust; by allowing all of the...