Employee Empowerment Research Paper Examples

Employee empowerment is the process of allowing individuals to have authority to make certain decisions on behalf of the organization. Employees are the most important asset of the organization. When employees are satisfied, they will do everything within their level to ensure realization the goals within the specified period. Empowerment means giving employees authority to think make decisions, behave, have control of work and take action in autonomous ways.
Empowerment is not something that one does on behalf of another person but rather an activity a person takes to enable him to make decisions and control work in an autonomous way. Most often, empowerment comes from inside a person and the organization big role is to create an environment that will allow the employees to work in an empowered way. Empowerment is a psychological process because it modifies the thoughts, attitudes and ideas of employees. Employee empowerment fosters a shared responsibility in workers and managers creating an environment of mutual trust and respect. Employee empowerment enhances the quality of the environment the employee works and this leads to efficiency at work.
The management of the organization must recognize the efforts the employees are putting towards the realization of the organizational objectives. The leadership must create an environment that encourages employee empowerment and the employees have the obligation to accept the chance and demonstrate their ability in delivering their roles in the organization. Empowering employees’ makes them satisfied, motivated and this leads to greater productivity and reduced costs. Innovation and creativity is present in the organization since the employees have the power to execute activities on their own. When employees are empowered, they need less supervision because there is ownership of the duties of the organization.
Managers and leaders of the organization have the duty of creating an environment that the employees will feel they are empowered. One of the ways is through communication. Communication occurs when a message passes from one point to another. Leaders must develop skills of interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication consists of ways delivering information. The ways include body posture, tone of voice, body language and facial expression. For effective communication, managers must pay attention to these interpersonal communication principles. Leaders must watch the words they are using on their employees. Some employees may be angered by the way; the manager uses the words to pass across a message. The posture, body language, tone and voice help the manager emphasize the point to the employees. It shows sincerity and truth of the message. Leaders must have time to listen to their employees.
Employees present their grievances many ways and managers must be willing to see and listen to what employees want to present. Employees must have access to information and leaders must ensure that they do so. Leaders must continually be involved in training about communication. This will equip them with necessary skills that will make them better communicators. The management may use memos, company email and office telephone to communicate with the employees. Communication is a two way process. It must provide for feedback therefore management must continually review ways that information passes through. Interpersonal communication will demonstrate that the leader values the employees this is because words show what your thoughts and feelings about people. The leaders must always ensure that they provide information that will enable their employees make decisions on their own. When the employees receive instructions that are clear from their managers, the employees feel relaxed and they will trust their leader.
Feedback is an essential part of interpersonal communication. It is a communication to the employee regarding their decisions and behavior. The leader must provide feedback to the employee so that the employee can work on improving performance or correct what is wrong. Feedback must be timely and it must be consistent. Feedback that is honest and sincere makes the employees feel good about the organization.
An example of a personal experience of empowerment is the relationship between my lecturers and me. When they gave me assignments and tasks to do, I had to do them without supervision. I had authority on how I was going to plan my time to do the assignments. It made me feel that the lecturers trusted me. I increased my knowledge because I researched well and participated fully in the assignment since I was in full control of what I was doing. There was less conflict between me and other students because I was solely in charge of the decisions I was making. However, I had a challenge because I was prone to misusing the authority that I had. I could not plan my time well because I had little knowledge of time management. This lead to corrections later by the lecturer.
Empowerment is an important aspect in the organization that will lead to productivity and efficiency and every leader should try empowering its employees. Empowering employees creates an environment of trust and honesty. Empowerment makes the people responsible for the actions that they make. The autonomy that comes from empowerment motivates the employees and this makes them to continue working for the organization. It makes them feel that their leaders value them.