...Managers-Net Empowerment “A Japanese worker produces, on average, twenty seven improvement ideas a year. A US worker produces one idea every thirty seven years” - SUNDAY TIMES Empowerment can be summed up by this reflection: An empowered organisation is characterised by: * a strong sense of direction and purpose, shared by all staff; * well understood values and beliefs, explicitly or implicitly stated, that form the basis for management behaviour; * a focus on customers, processes and improvement techniques, so that people can concentrate on adding value and pleasing customers; * pro-activity, learning, problem solving and innovation at all levels; * a high degree of trust in each other, in management, and in other functions and departments; * people who are highly motivated, and who possess a great sense of self-worth and achievement; * managers who listen, encourage, develop and help their people. The difference between delight and disappointment can be very fine. Illustration: A woman rang a department store to ask the weight of a parcel requiring collection, because she was pregnant. The person dealing with the enquiry immediately offered to have the parcel delivered ................... resulting in a delighted customer. Clearly evidence of an empowered employee. Empowering managers: * coach their people to develop their capability; * practice good communication, both downwards, upwards and across the organisation structure, and...
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...How Does Empowerment Affect an Employee's Motivation & Performance? Raises Self Confidence An empowered employee becomes a confident employee. She gains experience in making tough decisions that prove to her she can handle any situation. This new confidence might compel her to work harder and at a higher level than before, when she did not have much authority. The more empowered the worker becomes, the more enabled she feels, which, in turn, allows her to explore ways to increase efficiency in her job. Increases Contentment Empowerment can give a sense of contentment to an employee. Knowing that management believes a worker can direct himself allows that person to relax. When you do not micromanage the staff member, his sense of peace in the workplace increases and that makes the job more enjoyable for him. According to Entrepreneur, an employee who has a supervisor constantly monitoring him will not take responsibility for his own work. He can never grow and will display only minimal effort. The happier an employee is the more likely he is to want to work and to perform at a high level. Creates Valued Mindset When you empower employees to direct themselves, you let them know that you trust their abilities and decisions. The employees thus feel valued by you and by the company as a whole. This appreciation and respect translates to good work habits and the willingness to do above and beyond what is required. Empowered employees frequently strive to excel in areas, including...
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...When you think of the word empowerment, what comes to most peoples mind is power or at least that is what comes to my mind. In the American Heritage College dictionary fourth edition, it is a noun of the word “empower”, they describe it as “1.to invest with power esp. legal power or official authority, and 2. To equip or supply with an ability; enable.” (Empower, 2010, 2002, p. 460) In my research on the subject, I found that people use the word in different context in different fields of study or genres of practice but it all comes back to some person having a feeling of power therefore empowerment. In one study on ”the empowerment of youth as a strategy to reduce crime in Nigerian society” they say, “In recent years, almost all governments of countries of the world, including advanced countries have sought new approaches to harness the potential of young people and address the problems facing them. The concept of youth empowerment has gained increasing attention. Youth empowerment means involving young people in decision making processes on issues that affect them, as well as entrusting them with the knowledge and skills necessary for them to effectively and meaningfully participate.” (Olaleye, 2010, p. 104) In another article from the Journal of marketing published by American Marketing Association entitled the psychological effects of empowerment strategies on consumers’ product demand, “since the internet is here companies now utilize that as a tool to involve customers...
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...EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT Employee empowerment is creating a working environment where an employee is allowed to make his own decisions in specific work-related situations. It helps in giving platform to the employees for their words. It makes a healthy environment in a organization. Guidelines for effective employee empowerment • Select the right managers. • Choose the right employees. • Provide training. • Offer guidance. • Hold everyone accountable. • Build trust. • Focus on relationships. • Transform mistakes into opportunities. • Reward and recognize. • Share authority instead of giving it up. • Encourage disagree. • Give it time. • Share information. • Realize that empowerment has its limitations. • Watch for mixed messages. • Involve employees in decision-making. • Be prepared for increased variation. Employee empowerment is good because of job satisfaction, motivation, productivity, creativity and innovation. Whilst it increases the efficiency in employees. Employees when empowered become more entrepreneurial and start taking more risks. Greater the risk, greater are the chances to succeed. As with the positivity there exist negativity, similarly there are many disadvantages of empowerment. • Egotism / arrogance • Security • Risks • Industrial democracy Therefore the best executives are one who has the sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. WHAT’S BEHIND...
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...What is empowerment ? ‘Empowerment is not about wresting power from an individual or group of individuals and handling it over to another. It is the means to an end, not an end in itself.’ (Schuler & Hashemi,1994) The dictionary defines empowerment as giving authority or power to others. As a general definition, however, we suggest that empowerment is a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. It is a process that fosters power (that is, the capacity to implement) in people, for use in their own lives, their communities, and in their society, by acting on issues that they define as important. We suggest that three components of our definition are basic to any understanding of empowerment. Empowerment is multi-dimensional, social, and a process. It is multi-dimensional in that it occurs within sociological, psychological, economic, and other dimensions. Empowerment also occurs at various levels, such as individual, group, and community. Empowerment, by definition, is a social process, since it occurs in relationship to others. Empowerment is a process that is similar to a path or journey, one that develops as we work through it. Other aspects of empowerment may vary according to the specific context and people involved, but these remain constant. In addition, one important implication of this definition of empowerment is that the individual and community are fundamentally connected. Our focus as leaders is on quality, productivity...
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...Empowerment "Employee empowerment" is a term that is used to express the ways in which non-managerial staff members can make decisions without consulting their bosses or managers. These decisions can be small or large, depending upon the degree of power with which the company wishes to invest employees. Employee empowerment can begin with training and converting a whole company to an empowerment model. Conversely, it might merely mean giving employees the ability to make some decisions on their own. Happier Employees The thinking behind employee empowerment is that it gives power to individuals and thus makes for happier employees. By being able to make choices and participate on a more responsible level, employees become more invested in their company. They often view themselves as representatives of the company. When employees feel as though they have choice and can make direct decisions, this often leads to a greater feeling of self-worth. In a model where power is closely tied to sense of self, having some power is a valuable thing. An employee who does not feel constantly watched and criticized is more likely to consider work to be a positive environment instead of a negative one. Open-Minded Managers For employee empowerment to work successfully, the management team must be truly committed to allowing employees to make decisions. Managers might want to define the scope of decisions that their employees can make. Building decision-making teams is often one of the...
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...WOMEN EMPOWERMENT “Women empowered means mother India empowered”. - Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru WHAT IS WOMAN EMPOWERMENT? What does it really mean to empower women? Is it political empowerment? Economic empowerment? Social empowerment? In fact, these categories are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing. Women’s political empowerment, usually envisioned as political participation in elections and government, is necessary to give women a voice in the policies that affect their lives. Women’s economic empowerment, which entails that women have the authority to make their own decisions regarding use of their resources, leads to prosperity for families and communities. Social empowerment, often achieved through public policy and education, liberates women from the mistreatment, exploitation, and oppression that inhibit women from reaching their full potential. HISTORY OF WOMAN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millenium. In early vedic period women enjoyed equal status with men. Rigveda & Upanishads mention several names of women sages and seers notably Gargi & Maitrey. However later the status of women began to deteriorate approximately from 500 b.c., the situation worsened with invasion of Mughals and later on by European invaders. Reformatory movements by Guru nanak, RajaramMmohan Rai, others did give some relief. It is not that Britishers didn’t do any thing for improving the condition of women...
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...Introduction What are motivation and empowerment? Motivation is the set Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to achieve the goal. It can be result from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factor such as intensity of need, incentive or reward of the goal and expectation of the individual or peers. Empowerment is a process that provides greater autonomy to employee through sharing information and the provision of control over factor affecting job performance, like delegate the power or authority to the subordinate in the organization. Motivational methods – Goal Setting Theory Goal Setting Theory is involves the department or supervisor plan to motivate an employee toward the goals. This theory helps employee to be motivated and they are stimulated and interested to achieve the goal. For example if the sale team can achieve the sale target. The team will get a 10% bonus of their wage. Motivational methods - Job Enrichment Job Enrichment is a theory that changes in job duties to increase employee’s authority and responsibility, the employees feel like their work has meaning and is important to the company. There are two different way, the first is vertical loading. It involves increasing job depth by adding responsibilities, like planning and controlling, previously held by the supervisors. The second is horizontal loading...
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...Participant Empowerment BSHS/411 August 27, 2013 Participant Empowerment Reflection In reflecting on my internship at the Simonka Place I feel that it is going well. The first couple of days I was feeling insecure and very nervous answering the phones. I knew what I was to say, but the words kept getting tangled together. By the third day they had be on the phones completely alone as the other girls supervised me. I began to get more confident as time went on. The one difficulty I do need to work on is to learn everyone’s names, so that when someone calls for them I know which page button to push. Definition of Weekly Core Competency This week’s core competency is participant empowerment, empowerment is the goal that is set for the client’s we are trying to help. Empowerment defies us and our basic assumptions about power, helping, achieving, and succeeding (Czuba, 1999). It is helping the participant to lead a self-determining life by providing the support and information necessary to build self-esteem and assertiveness to make decisions. Participant empowerment is used at the Simonka Place to help the client to make good choices. The rules and the programs that are provided for the clients are there to help them to obtain a better life for themselves. When they come to the Simonka Place they have no power within themselves at all. This is where the caseworkers come in and help them to get turned around. Each client that comes in has the choice to choose whether...
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...EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY Abstract: This paper is organized as follows. First we explain the theory on psychological empowerment and various leadership theories to develop a relationship between empowering leadership and employee creativity. Secondly it provides case studies to support the empowerment theories. We argue that the use positive psychology, specifically empowering leadership, contributes to employee success within an organization. The paper cites research by various highly esteemed professors and the primary sources were various internet articles, journals and websites. Introduction The use of positive psychology, originally proposed by Martin Seligman in his 1998 Presidential Address to the American Psychological Association, has been garnering support in recent studies. It focuses not on why people fail, but rather why they flourish and excel. Recent studies have shown that Empowering Leadership can affect employee creativity. By use of the word “creativity” we refer to the “out of the box’ ideas used in production and problem solving. Professor Alex Linley of the University of Leicester maintained that part of the empowering process calls for the leader to delegate authority which empowers the employee to make decisions and implement actions without direct supervision. This expression of confidence in the employee results in developing the employees feeling of self-efficacy which manifest “in four cognitions: meaning, competence...
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...Women’s Empowerment Principles www.unwomen.org /en/partnerships/businesses-and-foundations/womens-empowerment-principles Empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors is essential to build stronger economies, achieve internationally agreed goals for development and sustainability, and improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities. The private sector is a key partner in efforts to advance gender equality and empower women. Current research demonstrating that gender diversity helps businesses perform better signals that self-interest and common interest can come together. Yet, ensuring the inclusion of women’s talents, skills and energies— from executive offices to the factory floor and the supply chain—requires intentional actions and deliberate policies. The Women’s Empowerment Principles offer practical guidance to business and the private sector on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Developed through a partnership between UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact, the Principles are designed to support companies in reviewing existing policies and practices—or establishing new ones—to realize women’s empowerment. In brief, the Principles are: 1. Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality 2. Treat all women and men fairly at work—respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination 3. Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers ...
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...The medical model is used to understand what services for a patient’s or group’s needs by looking at their deficits. The empowering model, which follows the strength-based approach, understands a client’s or group’s needs by building from their strengths. Empowerment model emphasizes five components: creates and works from a collaborative partnership with the clients and social worker or therapist, emphasis was capacities rather than on incapacities, focus on the physical and social environment, views clients as active subjects, and the empowerment model builds from something rather than building from nothing (Bransford, 2011; Conger & Kanungo, 1988). The empowerment model can be used in various different fields in the helping profession for various different reasons, events, and situations. When groups are empowered, it effects them at all levels. When a groups is empowered, they empower themselves, micro level, the group empowers each other, mezzo level, and they can use what they learned to empower their communities, macro level. When groups are empower to overcome hardships that newly found empowerment can spread faster than the individual level within a short time than a whole community (Holcomb‐McCoy & Bryan, 2010; Bransford, 2010)....
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...and challenges is what it takes to be empowered. Gaining knowledge of yourself by taking charge of your life empowers an individual. As pointed out in the text, the empowerment of man comes when there is assistance in decision making, which makes it almost effortless (Rubin & Rubin, 2008). Therefore, the influence that empowerment has over a person’s life can make or break their behaviors. It’s the attitude that results in feeling empowered or not. Often times our trust in our ability is a matter of perception, and not necessarily the reality. When we are courageous enough to believe in the power of ourselves, and our voices, then we have taken charge of decision making for ourselves, or perhaps an organization(s) we may be affiliated with. The development and empowering process is affirmative, and has positive effects on individuals, as well as, society as a whole. To be empowered is to be stimulated and inspired to reach a specified goal; to broaden our horizons, and face adversities and challenges. As one is empowered, others should be too. Empowerment should be shared and spread to others as to help the continuum of an empowered society of people. The evidence of disempowerment may be situations of failed relationships, poor work performance, decreased or stagnant income. When we lack empowerment, it can cause doubt and fear of progression and benefits in our lives. People can be disempowered by others inadvertently. Discrimination in and of itself is a form...
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...Empowerment Approach to Human Services Management Paper Vanessa Cuffee September 5, 2014 BSHS/425 Heather Zuhurak The empowerment approach will ensure a client that help will be provided in a respectful and empowering way. Empowerment is used at my agency to lift and encourage clients to better their daily lives. In every aspect positive energy and approaches are used. The client’s strengths are building upon, and this helps strengthen his or her weaknesses. There are 12 basic principles in the empowerment approach. 1. Empowerment-oriented organizations create formal structures that support client’s participation in organizational decision-making. 2. Empowerment-oriented organizations create partnerships with program beneficiaries in which clients, staff, and board members are all treated equally. 3. In service delivery the purpose of involving the client is to decrease personal feelings of powerlessness, improve the quality of services, and the access to services. 4. Empowerment-oriented organizations will develop policies, programs, and procedures that will bridge cultural, ethnic, gender, and other demographic barriers to effective service delivery. 5. Empowerment-oriented organizations have managers who are 100% committed to the empowerment of staff members and program beneficiaries. 6. Empowerment-oriented organizations have specific strategies that will increase the psychological empowerment and workers motivation. 7. Team building and collaboration among...
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...Is empowerment a valuable tool for increasing efficiency and effectiveness in today’s organisations? In recent years, the degree of competition in the business world has increase dramatically, business has to be able to adapt with the change of the environment, law, and technology. Many managerial practices have been developed to enable the organisation to increase its efficiency and effectiveness. Empowerment as a tool that focusing on increasing employee motivation to contribute on the organisation has been discussed in widely for years, many scholars have conducted a large number of study on this regard. From various journal articles, this paper will define and discuss the benefit of the concept of empowerment on the organisation in three different aspects, first, the individual empowerment which personal perception on the workplace. Second, empowerment climate which is directly related to firm’s code of conducts as well as structures. Lastly, the relationship across two level or multi-level empowerment will be explained and discussed. The question that is the empowerment a valuable tool for increasing organisation’s efficiency and effectiveness will also be answered There are arguments on the definition of empowerment since this concept is complex and can be explained on multiple dimensions, levels, and disciplines. Definition of empowerment in general was explicitly given by Conger and Kanungo (1988) as “ a process of enhancing feeling of self-efficacy among organisational...
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