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Weekly UpdatesThis checklist has been designed to help line managers move towards a culture of empowerment in their organisation.
Empowerment should be seen not as a one-off event, rather as a climate, atmosphere and culture in which responsibility and accountability for the job rest with the individual doing it. Empowerment can also be seen as a process or style by which people manage, requiring careful preparation, guidelines and clearly defined and understood boundaries.
Management Standards
This checklist has relevance to the MSC National Occupational Standards for Management: Key Role C--Manage People.
Definition
Empowerment is more than delegation--it is a genuine opening-up of the creative power that staff have. It is based on the belief that staff abilities are frequently under-used and--given the chance and the responsibility--people will want to make a positive contribution.
The aim is to bring staff more into the action at work and give them more power and authority to innovate, participate in problem-solving and decision-making, and work with the minimum intervention from their managers.
Empowerment is about:
* letting staff get on with the job
* allowing staff to take responsibility for the experience customer service
* letting those closest to customers take decisions they feel are right
* stripping away unnecessary bureaucracy
* encouraging and helping staff to put their ideas for improvements at work into practice.
Advantages of empowerment
Managed effectively, empowerment can:
* improve the commitment and motivation of staff as they take ownership of problems and generate their own solutions
* generate ideas for improving services--staff feel their ideas count
* help unearth staff talent that has previously lain dormant
* reduce the amount of time managers spend sorting out other people's problems
* improve customer service and organisational performance.
Disadvantages
If not handled effectively the empowerment process may:
* stir up resentment amongst managers who feel their role is being downgraded
* cause anxiety amongst those you want to empower
* lead to people innovating well beyond the normal span of their jobs
* lead to expectations that cannot be fulfilled, and so to frustration
* lead to resentment because extra responsibility is not accompanied by more pay
* cause a breakdown in the control of staff.
Action checklist
1. Check your own opinions, assumptions and attitudes
Clarify what you mean by empowerment and what you expect to get out of it. Is it an improved consultative process? Is it more active delegation? Is it extended responsibilities--with authority--for problem-solving and decision-making? Is your concern principally for developing people and expanding their job capabilities? Or is it improvements to the bottom line? Let colleagues and senior managers know what you are doing. Check whether their expectations meet your own.
2. Recognise the barriers to empowerment
Barriers may include:
* wrong organisational culture--many organisations are inherently controlling, bureaucratic and unreceptive to change
* psychological factors--managers may feel that empowerment means losing control, while staff may fear responsibility
* rigid routines which often encourage people not to take responsibility.
3. Be aware of the need for the right culture
There is no formula for the right culture, but it is important to recognise that some organizations' cultures are more conducive than others to enabling staff to make a positive contribution free from fear or blame. Consider the following archetypes, adapted from the work of Charles Handy (Understanding organizations, 4th ed, 1993) and Edgar Schein (Organizational culture and leadership, 1985):
a) the Role culture--with defined functions and specialisms, and set procedures and job descriptions. This is suitable in a stable environment.
b) the Task culture--job- or project-oriented, concerned to bring together the right resources and people and let them get on with the job. Reliant on the formation--and dissolution--of teams, the task culture is better equipped than the role culture to respond to--and generate--change.
c) the Fear culture where:
* decisions--and truth--come ultimately from the more senior people
* relationships are basically vertical and linear
* each person has a niche which cannot be invaded
* exchange takes place by agenda and prearranged appointment
* there is deference to rank and authority
* people use the formal communication process to "cover their backs".
d) the Trust culture where:
* ideas come from individuals
* people are responsible and motivated
* there is an air of informality and few closed doors
* people can make mistakes without fear of blame or recrimination
* there are constant opportunities for learning.
There are no magic tricks or techniques for changing an organisation's culture. It is both a lengthy and an expensive process. (See Related Checklists below on Change).
4. Establish the boundaries
Although empowerment allows staff extra autonomy, there should be a clear indication of where this stops (eg at the levels of consultation, participation or full decision-making). Set clear limits to the levels of responsibility and autonomy. Wherever the cut-off is defined, ensure a mechanism is retained to allow staff to refer problems and suggestions on the process upwards where necessary. When the boundaries have been set as clearly as possible, it will still be necessary to establish them in practice by "case law", so that staff learn when to do without telling, when to do and tell, and when to ask before doing.
5. Raise awareness
Before the process of empowerment begins, it is essential to raise the awareness of those around you of what is entailed in empowerment. Set up meetings and discussion groups so that everyone knows what is happening, why the process is being undertaken, what is expected of them, and what the results are likely to be and why the process is happening.
6. Reassure those involved and win support from others
Staff who are used to doing what they are told, rather than finding solutions for themselves or taking decisions, are likely to feel threatened or even suspicious about such a change in culture. Allow staff to air their anxieties and ensure they are comfortable with the processes involved and that channels of communication (essential to the empowerment process) are open and effective.
7. Evaluate the roles your staff currently undertake and compare the findings to formal job descriptions
Do a job analysis. Find out what staff do in their jobs at present. This will help you to see where their jobs can be extended or where they are already unofficially empowering themselves.
8. Carry out an audit of staff skills
Investigate what hidden talents staff have. Draw up a "talent rota" of currently under-used talents, including those which may formerly have fallen outside the working environment. Do ask people about themselves, rather than just make assumptions.
9. Ensure staff have the resources to take control
Responsibility for customers, complaints and operational changes will need to be re-thought, as will new responsibilities, and the levels and types of resourcing in order to allow people to carry out their jobs.
You will know whether empowerment is working if your staff:
* seem able to run things without your daily/hourly involvement
* take ownership of "their" customers
* come up with ideas for improving the service
* don't require you to solve "their" problems
and if your customers are better satisfied, and if the bottom line benefits.
10. Agree performance objectives and measures
Giving people real responsibility and resources to complete tasks is one thing--setting them adrift quite another. Empowerment encompasses agreeing objectives with your people and agreeing the measures of efficiency (speed), effectiveness (accuracy, relevance), cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness to deliver excellent customer service.
11. Launch the initiative
Staff may need a good deal of support in the early stages if they are afraid to take responsibility--but support has to be distinguished from "mothering". Managers too may need careful handling if they are not to respond to a perceived threat by retaining control by underhand means.
Once the ground has been prepared empowerment can start to take effect. Encourage the empowerment process by implementing or acting on new ideas which are suggested. To ensure the success of the scheme it is essential both to publicise what is happening and reinforce examples of good practice. Identify easy wins which show that empowerment can work and that you are committed to empowerment. It is sometimes best to start in one area where managers are known to be supportive and where quick results can be expected.
12. Monitor developments
Hold meetings to check progress, give and receive feedback, and gather ideas and other support. Establish communication networks to build success and keep the initiative going. Be prepared to live with the mistakes. They are useful learning experiences for the future--as long as the same errors don't keep happening.
Related checklists
* Mapping an effective change programme
* Implementing an effective change programme
* Developing passive people
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