Title: The Pros and Cons of Employee Empowerment
Headings: The Pros and Cons of Employee Empowerment
The Pros and Cons of Employee Empowerment
Is a culture of employee empowerment right for your organization?
Research published in the 2011 Journal of Applied Psychology (Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment: a meta-analytical review – Siebert, S.E.; Wang, G.; Courtright, S.H.) provided a number of pressing reasons for organizations to encourage employee empowerment. However, as with any organizational strategy there are both pros and cons of employee empowerment.
What is employee empowerment?
The advantages of employee empowerment
· Faster problem solving
· Increased morale and productivity
· Greater involvement leads to greater commitment
· Lower levels of management stress
· Improved staff retention
The disadvantages of employee empowerment
· Lack of experience increases risk
· Potential for decreased efficiency
· Blurred relationships
· Poor decision-making
How can you improve employee empowerment?
1. Share your organization’s vision
2. Share more responsibility
3. Stop micromanaging
4. Be open to input
5. Be constructive and recognize good performance
The bottom line
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Content: If not dealt with, this can cause confrontation or a spiral to the bottom as all workers decide to work at the pace of the slowest and least productive team member. · Blurred relationships
Empowerment inevitably leads to a flatter, more streamlined management structure. The risk here is that professional relationships become blurred, and boundaries of authority become broken. This might require greater control over employees, not less. Accountability issues may arise, leading to a blame culture that, if left unchecked, will lead to further discontent and an environment of mistrust. In such a situation, it is likely that employees will decide to take less responsibility for fear of repercussions should things go wrong. · Poor decision-making
If a team lacks the individuals with skills commensurate to the project, tasks and work required, decision-making will be poorer. This will be to the detriment of the organization, as poor solutions lead to decreasing productivity and internal conflict. How can you improve employee empowerment? Empowering employees is a cultural issue.