Empowerment

The Essence of Empowerment: A Broad Organizational and Managerial View

Empowerment is a multifaceted construct, and there is much deliberation with regard to its meaning and focus. Discussions regarding its meaning include questions of whether it is merely the sharing of power, a more general concept of decentralization, or a psychological motivational concept regarding the person's feelings of worth. The focus or target of the empowerment process may be employees, the end users/clients/public, or institutions/organizations/subnational governments.

As control and power are regarded in the management literature from either a relational perspective or a motivational perspective, the concept of empowerment too can be seen from these two different points of view. From the relational perspective, power is a function of dependence and/or interdependence of parties, and thus empowerment is a process in which a leader or manager shares his or her power with subordinates, making them less dependent on him or her. In accordance, empowerment is practiced, by those adopting this perspective, through participative management techniques such as goal setting by subordinates and quality circles. From a motivational perspective, power is an intrinsic need for self-determination or a belief in personal self-efficacy. Thus, empowerment is the creation of conditions enhancing a strong sense of self-efficacy. Kenneth Thomas and Betty Velthouse (1990) built on this psychological-motivational definition and argued that empowerment is a multifaceted concept of four cognitions: (1) meaning, (2) competence, (3) self-determination, and (4) impact. Meaning is a match between the job requirements and the person's beliefs, values, and behaviors. Competence is the person's belief in his or her own capability to perform the job well. Self-determination is related to autonomy in initiating and continuing work behaviors and processes. Finally, impact is the extent to which a person can influence strategic, administrative, or operational outcomes. These cognitions are shaped by the person's work context and personality characteristics and in turn motivate individual behavior. Thus, empowerment processes under this perspective will encourage self-managing or cross-functional teams and will provide information about the organization's goals and strategy to give the workers a sense of ownership. Similarly, according to David Bowen and Edward Lawler (1995), empowerment entails a high-involvement approach. Thus, organizations are encouraged to change their policies, practices, and structure in order to create and sustain empowerment, and this change must distribute power, authority, responsibility, information, knowledge, and rewards throughout the organization.

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