Employee Empowerment

One of the major discussions in the business world is: How do we get our human capital assets more engaged in the organization? Current Gallup Polls state that 85% of our employees are not engaged within their organizations. Employee Empowerment fully analyzes this workplace condition, which is a major concern for most CEOs. The solution proposed by this book is the introduction of the TLS (Theory of Constraints - Lean - Six Sigma) Continuum Empowerment model, which comprises three levels of empowerment – Management, Cross-Functional Team, and Individual. The first is the empowerment that comes from upper management to the organization as a whole. The second level is the empowerment that comes from the various cross-functional teams and the final level is from the individuals themselves through their ability to take ownership in the processes in which they are involved. The end solution in the book is that if we can get the human capital assets to take ownership of the processes (that is, empower the front-line employees), it will increase the level of engagement. If they become more engaged they will empower the organization at all levels to introduce sustainable change management to resolve problems within the organization. One of the tools of individual empowerment is the use of the Six Sigma toolbox. This book makes the case that when human capital assets take ownership of the processes, then we have greater engagement, and thus a more empowered organization.

The complexities of employee empowerment have been largely underestimated and it is clear that organisations struggle with putting the concept into practice. Rozana Ahmad Huq recognises that effective utilisation of human resources is a strategic issue for organisations. Hierarchical organisations struggle to survive. The growing trend for downsizing and merging of organisations means that they can no longer maintain the 'command and control' approach and employees are given more responsibility and expected to take decisions. However, simply burdening employees with extra responsibility without empowering them does not deliver results. Drawing on her own research in organisations, Dr Huq investigates the concept of empowerment in a new way that combines themes from the disciplines of management and social work, the latter being a domain where empowerment is an important construct. This helps to bridge the gaps in knowledge in the management domain and draws attention to the positive and negative psychological implications for employees of the practice of empowerment that are often ignored by leaders and managers. Ultimately, the author offers a 'practice model' to help people in management and non-management understand the new roles and behaviours that they need to adopt if empowerment is to become a reality. This book is a resource for any business or other organisation genuinely interested in employee empowerment and for those with a responsibility for teaching about it.

Employee empowerment is thought to be both a solution to the problems associated with outdated 'command and control' workplaces and a way to stimulate creativity and innovation in organizations. Valuing people's dignity is at the heart of Dr. Huq's work and this led to her interest in conducting in-depth research into both the academic understanding of employee empowerment and what happens in practice. Divided into clearly defined sections are: a clear navigation of the management literature and explanation of the controversies surrounding employee empowerment.the key concepts that must be addressed and where the problems in interpretation arise.two live case studies (one large organisation with over 2000 employees and one small with 54 employees). an outline of the research methodology and sample questions. direct feedback from boardroom members to frontline operatives about their experiences of empowerment, revealing the pitfalls that may be common to many organisations.an overview of the findings with suggestions on what needs to be considered before implementing an employee empowerment programme. extensive bibliography providing an excellent reference resource. Referring also to the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) and guidelines given by European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), this neat little book is a valuable resource, not only to researchers and academics, but also to practitioners in large and small organisations who are considering an empowerment programme or who want to understand and improve their current policies. Employee empowerment is thought to be both a solution to the problems associated with outdated 'command and control' workplaces and a way to stimulate creativity and innovation in organizations. Valuing people's dignity is at the heart of Dr. Huq's work and this led to her interest in conducting in-depth research into both the academic understanding of employee empowerment and what happens in practice. Divided into clearly defined sections are: a clear navigation of the management literature and explanation of the controversies surrounding employee empowerment.the key concepts that must be addressed and where the problems in interpretation arise.two live case studies (one large organisation with over 2000 employees and one small with 54 employees). an outline of the research methodology and sample questions. direct feedback from boardroom members to frontline operatives about their experiences of empowerment, revealing the pitfalls that may be common to many organisations.an overview of the findings with suggestions on what needs to be considered before implementing an employee empowerment programme. extensive bibliography providing an excellent reference resource. Referring also to the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) and guidelines given by European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), this neat little book is a valuable resource, not only to researchers and academics, but also to practitioners in large and small organisations who are considering an empowerment programme or who want to understand and improve their current policies. Employee empowerment is thought to be both a solution to the problems associated with outdated 'command and control' workplaces and a way to stimulate creativity and innovation in organizations. Valuing people's dignity is at the heart of Dr. Huq's work and this led to her interest in conducting in-depth research into both the academic understanding of employee empowerment and what happens in practice. Divided into clearly defined sections are: a clear navigation of the management literature and explanation of the controversies surrounding employee empowerment.the key concepts that must be addressed and where the problems in interpretation arise.two live case studies (one large organisation with over 2000 employees and one small with 54 employees). an outline of the research methodology and sample questions. direct feedback from boardroom members to frontline operatives about their experiences of empowerment, revealing the pitfalls that may be common to many organisations.an overview of the findings with suggestions on what needs to be considered before implementing an employee empowerment programme. extensive bibliography providing an excellent reference resource. Referring also to the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) and guidelines given by European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), this neat little book is a valuable resource, not only to researchers and academics, but also to practitioners in large and small organisations who are considering an empowerment programme or who want to understand and improve their current policies.

The complexities of employee empowerment have been largely underestimated and it is clear that organisations struggle with putting the concept into practice. Rozana Ahmad Huq recognises that effective utilisation of human resources is a strategic issue for organisations. Hierarchical organisations struggle to survive. The growing trend for downsizing and merging of organisations means that they can no longer maintain the 'command and control' approach and employees are given more responsibility and expected to take decisions. However, simply burdening employees with extra responsibility without empowering them does not deliver results. Drawing on her own research in organisations, Dr Huq investigates the concept of empowerment in a new way that combines themes from the disciplines of management and social work, the latter being a domain where empowerment is an important construct. This helps to bridge the gaps in knowledge in the management domain and draws attention to the positive and negative psychological implications for employees of the practice of empowerment that are often ignored by leaders and managers. Ultimately, the author offers a 'practice model' to help people in management and non-management understand the new roles and behaviours that they need to adopt if empowerment is to become a reality. This book is a resource for any business or other organisation genuinely interested in employee empowerment and for those with a responsibility for teaching about it.

The book is based on exploratory research carried out by the author in Indian Business Organizations. It gives insights to Employee Empowerment and five important leadership styles namely Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, Servant Leadership, Abusive Leadership and Ethical leadership and their characteristics based on the researches carried out by the scholars and gurus in these fields. Transformational leadership, servant leadership and ethical leadership style enhance the employee empowerment while transactional leadership has no role in employee empowerment. The book highlight that abusive leadership style is used by many leaders and has negative impact on employee empowerment. Employee empowerment results in Quality of Work Life, Commitment and Job Involvement in employees which enhance competitiveness of the organization. It also emphasizes the important of personal characteristics of employees required to make them empowered. Some employees like to be empowered while some others do not. This book provides guidance to new researchers in the field of leadership and employee empowerment to carry out further researches in these fields in various countries and cultures. The book will guide the managers to identify and enhance the required characteristics to be a successful leader. This book will be a new milestone in the above fields of research and beacon to the practicing managers to navigate them to higher success.

The popular and influential concept of employee empowerment may have the emancipatory potential its supporters claim, but it also is subject to constraints and inhibitions. Potterfield calls for actions to cut through the ideological inhibitors at the corporate level and also for ways to alter the prevailing socioeconomic structure, ways to enhance the relative strength of employees an various types of organizations. His book provides a synthesis of major empowerment theories and viewpoints, a discussion of its historical and intellectual roots, in inquiry into empowerment practices at a Fortune 100 company, and a discussion of both the emancipatory potential and ideological constraints in empowerment theories and practices. With specific recommendations for corporate and societal action, Dr. Potterfield's book will be important for professionals, teachers, and students in management, organizational studies, human resources, and organizational change. Potterfield begins by situating empowerment in the larger historical context of long-standing effort to provide more participatory work environments. He reviews the social and intellectual roots of the empowerment concept, including basic contoures of modernity such as the rise of capitalism, and examines the development of the concept within the realm of social action movements during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He provides a detailed explication of the essential dimensions and core elements of empowerment as it is espoused by leading organizational theorists and management experts, then looks at the actual practice of empowerment in a Fortune 100 company that has a major, ongoing commitment to the empowered workplace. With this as a foundation he discusses ways in which these theories and practices either advance the cause of democracy and freedom in the workplace or reinforce corporate organizational power and worker dominations. He concludes with concrete suggestions for overcoming ideological influences and facilitating the emancipatory potential of empowerment.

Responsibility helps employees feel valuable, and this book aims to show managers how to create an atmosphere of responsibility, benefiting both employees and managers. It explains what empowerment means, why performance improves through empowerment and when to increase responsibility to employees.