Empowered self-management
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm Empowered self-management and the design of work teams
Empowered self-management Richard Cooney
Department of Management, Monash University, Caulfield East, Australia
Keywords Empowerment, Team working, Job design
Abstract This paper explores the theoretical implications of empowered self-management as a teamwork design concept. It explores the multiple definitions of empowerment and self-management that have been used in the design of work teams and it attempts to locate empowered self-management within the relevant traditions of work design. The paper provides a critical appraisal of empowered self-management as a team design concept arguing that its unique contribution to the work design literature, has been the development of concepts that focus upon task enlargement as the basis of enhanced role accountabilities within teams. Empowered self-management as a team design concept has little to say about employee or group autonomy but in fact reflects the design of teams to provide for the normative self-regulation of employees within management directed systems of control.
Introduction
The empowerment of employees to enhance self-management has become a catch cry of modern management. Empowerment is one of those broad ranging management ideas that cover a wide variety of practices that are deployed in a wide variety of contexts. Empowerment has been seen as a property of organizations (Byman, 1991), of organizational teams and groups (Katzenbach and Smith, 1994) as well as a property of individual employees (Ford and Fottler, 1995).
Empowerment has been viewed from many different perspectives and it has drawn upon a variety of sources for both practical and theoretical inspiration. Empowerment has been approached from
Empowered self-management Richard Cooney
Department of Management, Monash University, Caulfield East, Australia
Keywords Empowerment, Team working, Job design
Abstract This paper explores the theoretical implications of empowered self-management as a teamwork design concept. It explores the multiple definitions of empowerment and self-management that have been used in the design of work teams and it attempts to locate empowered self-management within the relevant traditions of work design. The paper provides a critical appraisal of empowered self-management as a team design concept arguing that its unique contribution to the work design literature, has been the development of concepts that focus upon task enlargement as the basis of enhanced role accountabilities within teams. Empowered self-management as a team design concept has little to say about employee or group autonomy but in fact reflects the design of teams to provide for the normative self-regulation of employees within management directed systems of control.
Introduction
The empowerment of employees to enhance self-management has become a catch cry of modern management. Empowerment is one of those broad ranging management ideas that cover a wide variety of practices that are deployed in a wide variety of contexts. Empowerment has been seen as a property of organizations (Byman, 1991), of organizational teams and groups (Katzenbach and Smith, 1994) as well as a property of individual employees (Ford and Fottler, 1995).
Empowerment has been viewed from many different perspectives and it has drawn upon a variety of sources for both practical and theoretical inspiration. Empowerment has been approached from
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