Empowerment in an Organization
Empowerment in an organization Empowerments is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one's own destiny. In an organization, empowerment is the redistribution of power and decision making responsibilities, usually to employees, where such authority was previously a management prerogative. Empowerment is based on the recognition that employee abilities are frequently underused, and that, given the chance, most employees can contribute more. Empowered workplaces are characterized by managers who focus on energizing, supporting, and coaching their staff in a blame-free environment of trust (Fryer, J 2009). One account of the history of workplace empowerment in the United States recalls the clash of management styles in railroad construction in the American West in the mid-19th century, where "traditional" hierarchical East-Coast models of control encountered individualistic pioneer workers, strongly supplemented by methods of efficiency-oriented "worker responsibility" brought to the scene by Chinese labourers’. In this case, empowerment at the level of work teams or brigades achieved a notable but short-lived was demonstrated superiority (Heathfield. S, 2009). Empowerment in the workplace is regarded by critics as more a pseudoempowerment exercise, the idea of which is to change the attitudes of workers, so as to make them work harder rather than giving them any real power, and Wilkinson (1998) refers to this as "attitudinal shaping". However, recent research suggests that the opportunity to exercise personal discretion/choice and complete meaningful of work is an important element contributing to employee engagement and well-being. There is evidence that initiative and motivation are increased when people have a more positive attribution style. This influences self-belief, resilience when faced with
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