A520.5.3.RB - Forrester's Empowerment
In your blog, prepare a summary that compares and
contrasts the concepts discussed to those discussed in the text.
Empowerment is a lot of
responsibility. It isn’t something that can be dropped off as an initiative one
day and implemented the next. I think that most leaders really do not
understand the time and true investment it takes to truly empower their
employees in word and deed. At work, I have heard the shop folks being
encouraged by our leadership to report changes they see a need for but when
they submit the proper (and mind-numbingly bureaucratic) documentation, they
never hear anything back. Management thinks that they have done their part in
empowering the folks in the shop and they go about their merry way. But these
people are busy; they are milling huge pieces of metal risking life and limb to
make wings for airplanes that will fly families around the globe and back…for
decades. They have a lot to think about and are under a lot of pressure to not
make mistakes – and stay safe while doing it. The mill operators do not have
the time to bird-dog requests, they just need to have their needs heard and
acted upon so that they can do their work better, safer, and with better
quality. “[A] strong sense of self-determination is associated with a variety
of positive outcomes in the workplace…less alienation in the work environment,
higher levels of work performance, more entrepreneurial and innovative
activity, high levels of job involvement, greater work motivation, and less job
strain.” (Whetten, 2016)
Forrester’s article tells the story of the empowerment concept and how some leaders just took at face
value and then left in the dust when the implementation failed. Empowerment wasn't then and isn’t
now a bad idea; it is a very powerful idea…if
understood and implemented effectively. Just talking about empowering your
employees and following guidelines in a textbook isn’t going to guarantee
success with an employee empowerment initiative. “Empowerment is not free”
(Forrester, 2000) is a very simple but true warning to those organizations who
think they can just hold a few meetings, put up a few posters and call it good.
Empowering your employees is an investment in them and in turn, they reinvest
in the organization. It is an organic and symbiotic relationship that requires
advocates and fostering of previously untapped leadership potential in new
delegates. “Skills need to be built, relationships formed, technology adapted,
organizations reshaped, systems modified. The final threshold question is
whether people in the organization have the stomach to go through a difficult,
complicated, and lengthy change process.” (Forrester, 2000)
It’s also important to differentiate
between those employees who want the extra work empowerment brings and those
who either do not want it or are not quite ready for it. When leadership sees a
progressive or new fad kind of idea and try make something that is a
cookie-cutter, generic, off the shelf version fit their unique organization, it
is like just assuming that no matter what size shoe you put on your foot…it’s
just going to fit. We all know that isn’t true so why do leaders think that
what’s good for one organization must absolutely be good for theirs? When a
directive to “…empower the employees for crying out loud!” comes down the
organization chart, the initial reaction is to hot-potato it through the ranks
and then call it a successful implementation. Meanwhile, people who were
first-line managers are trying to calm the chaos that all of the additional
work has caused to the factory workers and everything has run amok. “Employees
nervously looked the other way, complaining a bit that the promised power never
arrived, but making no move to claim it.” (Forrester, 2000) I have seen this
happen…power with no guidance or training or support is not power…it is
paralyzing to the workforce who now feel even more disheartened. Maybe power,
to them, means something different. Maybe they just want to be able to dictate
their work schedule and just need to understand who the customer is, what the
customer needs, what the department goals are, and maybe how their flow/performance
impacts the value stream. Maybe they even want to help set the department goals
based on their experience running the machines or driving the vehicles. I find
it difficult to believe that, where I work anyway, the mill operators haven’t
had extensive conversations amongst themselves, maybe even over a beer, about
how they could do their jobs better “if only…”. Understanding that power means
different things to different people, just like people are motivated by
different things: money, title, responsibility, free pizza…everyone is unique
and to ignore that fact is fatal when trying to empower the workforce. “The
notion of differentiating among employees may appear at odds with the earlier
criticism of a piecemeal approach, but it is not. The flaws in the piecemeal
examples were in the organization’s systems. Employees were given one element
of the power they needed but not another.” (Forrester, 2000) Employees, in
those examples, were given responsibilities to make decisions but not the
access to the data needed to make good decisions. Giving people the choice and
the options to explore the power they are ready for, as well as giving them the
tools and access needed to be successful, is the responsible way to show
employees that an organization is serious about investing in their future
leadership. “The organization makes a contract with its employees: This is the
result you must produce, under these conditions; and within these terms you may
exercise your power.” (Forrester, 2000) This takes time and effort and as
mentioned before…the stomach for the work it will take to accomplish.
Perhaps if there was only
one thing an organization got right about empowering their employees, it should
be to follow the SMART goals system as described by Whetten:
S
– Specific Goals, M – Measurable goals, A – Aligned goals, R – Realistic goals,
and T – Time based goals.
When employees have
goals, clear and concise goals, expectations and the support from leads and management
to see their skills being developed and coached into a self-functioning team of
professionals, empowerment will become part of the fabric and values of that
organization. “The impetus for real change in an individually tailored process
is that real power breeds power. Those who establish a surer expertise
gravitate toward greater responsibility, and it gravitates toward them.”
(Forrester, 2000) I think that is true no matter what level you are on the
organization chart. I used the example in the discussion board this week about
my boss having me represent him in more and more meetings. With every meeting
and also the workshops I’ve been recommended for, I gain confidence and seek
out more responsibility because I am not afraid of having that responsibility
anymore.
I don’t know what will happen
when I transfer jobs to South Carolina next month. The core competencies will
be the same but I’ll be going from fabrication and those production flows to
final assembly and their process flows. I have no idea what that will be like –
except more intense and that’s terrifying and exciting! I hope I can bring with
me the confidence that I’ve gained over the last year but also the humility to
know that empowerment, even from within, takes time and patience. In our text,
in the margin next to the passages, “Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma
Gandhi are examples of individuals who, despite the absence of the attributes
of power, maintained complete empowerment in dismal circumstances…[i]ts source
is within the individual, not as a result of social acceptance, political
support, or title. You accept and create empowerment for yourself.” (Whetten,
2016) I wrote, “Self-fulfilling prophesy?” Perhaps. I hope so.
References:
Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment:
Rejuvenating a Potent Idea. The Academy
of Management Executive (1993-2005), 14(3), 67-80. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165660
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S.
(2016). Developing management skills (9. global ed. ed.). Boston, Mass. [u.a.]:
Pearson.
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