Empowerment & participation

Concept

Empowerment is a process of giving people more responsibility for how they do their work. It is concerned with involvement of people in decision-making. Empowerment calls for making greater use of each individuals contribution. According to Webster's dictionary the word empowerment means to give the means, ability or authority. In an organisational setting, empowerment implies giving the employees means and authority to do something.

The famous example of empowerment is total quality management (TQM) which is an employee driven process of ensuring best quality products and services for the satisfaction of customers. TQM empowers employees at all levels to tap their full creativity, motivation and commitment. The other practices which empower the employees include suggestion system, job enrichment, quality circle, self-managed team, participative leadership, etc.

Purpose
The

purpose of empowerment is to free the employees from rigorous control and give them freedom to take responsibility for their own ideas and actions, to release hidden resources which would otherwise remain in- accessible. Employment offers a way of treating people with respect and dignity.

Empowerment not delegation

Empowerment

should not be confused with delegation. Delegation is granting authority by a superior to a subordinate for a specific purpose such as buying specific material from a specified vendor. But empowerment has a wider scope. The subordinate is empowered to select the type of materials from the vendor he thinks is the best.

Types of involvement/empowerment

suggestion involvement-it represents a small shift away from the control model. Employees are encouraged to contribute ideas through formal suggestion programmes or quality circles but their dayto-day work activities do not really change. They can only offer suggestions, but the power to decide and implement decisions rests with the management.

Job involvement-in this type of empowerment, the jobs are redesigned so that employees use a variety of skills. Employees believe their tasks are significant, they have considerable freedom in deciding how to do the work, they get enough feedback about their performance and each handles a whole identified piece of work. However, despite the heightened level of empowerment, the job involvement approach does not cover strategic decisions concerning organisational structure, power and allocation of rewards. These remain a right of the top management.

High involvement- high involvement organisations give their lowest level employees a sense of involvement not just in how to their jobs or how effectively their group performs, but in total organisations performance. Information on all aspects of business performance is shared horizontally across the organisation as well as up and down the structure. Employees develop extensive skills in team-work, problem-solving and participate in management decisions. High involvement organisations often use profit-sharing and employee stock option plans(ESOP).

Advantages of empowerment
Everyone

in the organisation is valued and encouraged to make a personal contribution. Individuals are constantly aware, not only of what they are seeking to achieve, but also why they are seeking to achieve it and how it fits with the corporate goals. The culture is likely to be a co-operative and purposeful rather than blame-oriented. Individuals have a real willingness to take personal responsibility for their own success, the success of the team in which they work and the organisation as a whole.

Approaches to empowerment

Helping employees achieve job mastery-giving training, coaching and guided experience that are required for initial success. Allowing more control-giving employees discretion over job performance and making them accountable for the performance outcomes. Providing successful role models-allowing them to observe peers who are performing successfully on the job. Using social reinforcement and persuasion-giving praise encouragement, and verbal fedback to raise confidence. Giving emotional support-reduction of stress and anxiety through better role prescription, task assistance, and personal care.

Empowering organisation
Empowerment allows and encourage people to take responsibility. The empowering organisation though being flat, is broken into small semi-independent units tied to the centre by a small number of control and support system. Lorenz desribes his vision as: Instead of series of levels with command and control levels immediately below them, power and information on many issues must be delegated, decentralised and diffused. Individual efforts within narrow department boundaries must be replaced by cross-functional teams. Instead of information being withheld at each successive level in hierarchy, it must shared through networking. The new structure invariably means fewer managers, each with wider responsibilities.

Participation

The term employees participation in management is interpreted in different ways by the managers, workers and industrial relations expert. Some managers interpret it as information sharing while others consider it as joint consultation prior to decision-making. These views represent a very narrow view of the term workers participation in management. That means workers treat participation as equivalent to co-decision in the spheres of management of the enterprise.

Characteristics of Participation

It implies mental and emotional involvement rather than physical activity. It involves formal and industrial arrangement through which employees can participate in the decision-making process. Workers generally participate through their representatives. It is an extension of the political process to workplace. As in democracy the employees have a right to choose the management policies and decisions.

Levels of Participation in decision-making

Informative Participation -It refers to information-sharing concerning balance sheet, production, economic condition of the plant, etc. Here, the workers have no right of close scrutiny of the information provided. Consultative Participation-Here, the joint council of management and employees is consulted on such matters as welfare programmes, and methods of work and safety. However, the final decision is always that of management, the control only works as an advisory body. Associative Participation-Here, the role of joint council is not purely advisory unlike consultative participation. The management is under a moral obligation to accept and implement the unanimous decisions of the joint council.

Administrative Participation-Under this, a decision already taken comes to the council with alternative for it to select from for implementation of the decision. Here, the degree of sharing authority and responsibility is definitely more than in the others. Decisive Participation-Under the type of participation, decisions are taken jointly on matters relating to production, welfare, etc.

Types of participation

Suggestion Scheme-It aims at enlisting mans creative ability, providing him with an opportunity for self expression, and motivating him towards increased productivity. Under this scheme, the management invites suggestions from workers concerning matters such as working conditions, safety and welfare facilities, etc. In order to encourage workers to come forward with there constructive suggestions and make positive contribution to the growth of the enterprise, suitable incentive schemes may be introduced. The suggestions, that help in cutting costs or wastage, increasing productivity, or even showing originality, may be suitably rewarded in cash or kind. Suggestions should be acknowledged promptly and, where they are turned down, reasons should be given for the same.

Joint Consultation-In many undertakings, there are arrangements for consultation between management and employees about matters of common interest which are outside the scope of negotiating procedures. These arrangements often take the form of joint consultative committees or councils. A joint committee consists of representatives of management and workers. The decisions of such committees are advisory in nature, but they are normally accepted and implemented in practice because the decisions are the outcome of joint deliberations between labour and management. The matters usually discussed by these committees include working hours, festival and national holidays, health service, safety and accident prevention, welfare schemes,etc. Matters like wages, dearness allowance, bonus, etc., are usually decided.

Employees Representation on the Board of Directors

This form is the highest level of workers participation in management. Under this system, the workers are given the right to elect a certain number of their representatives for nomination on the board of directors of the organization. This creates higher satisfaction of the workers and there is maximum boosting up of the morale. The nominated employees representatives on the board of directors participate in the deliberations of the board, put forth workers viewpoint on various issues that interest them, and, therefore, make the workers a party to the various decisions concerning the establishment. However, this method has not been very successful. The worker-directors cannot have effective power with outvoted on important issues. Trade unions also do not favour this method because they fear that the worker-director may connive with the management.

Co-partnership
Under this method, workers of an enterprise contribute to its equity and,
thus, become co-owners of the company. Workers, as shareholders, may also get elected as directors from amongst themselves on the Board of Directors. Under such circumstances, workers not only share the profits and losses of the firm, but also share the management decisions. This develop a sense of commitment and partnership among the employees. This method, however, has not been found favourable by both the workers and the managements. The workers are not in a position to contribute to the equity because of their low saving base. On the other hand, managements are, in general, grudging to accept workers as co-partners.

Management by Objectives (MBO)

Under managing by objectives, the subordinates are given freedom to set goals/targets for themselves for a given period. Each subordinate discusses his goals with the superior and both lay down benchmarks for measurement of results. MBO is an integral part of the participative management style under Theory Y suggested by Douglas McGregor.

Quality Circles

A quality circle is a group of five to ten employees that meets regularly to solve problems affecting its work unit. This group carries on continuously activities for the improvement of quality within the workplace. Generally, there are several quality circles in an organization. They take over the responsibility for solving quality problems. They generate and evaluate their own feedback. But management typically retains over the final decision regarding implementation of recommended solutions.

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The basic philosophy of QC is to promote recognition of workers. Often people are neglected, this creates feeling of worthlessness among the workers. The feeling can be vanished slowly by instituting QCs. Thus, workers get opportunity to participate, to express their ideas and to let everyone know that they know their jobs well. They get opportunity to discuss ideas with management, feel proud to show their achievements and feel to ask for solutions to their problems on the job. Thus, motivation, participation and recognition are three major aspects of a successful QC programme. Quality circle is a form of empowerment of employees. It offers the advantages of participation such as the following: There is effective team-work in the circle. Problem solving capacity of the circle member is increased. Group members feel involved in their jobs and obtain job satisfaction

Quality Circle as a Technique of Participation

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There is increase in both quality and productivity in the organization. The group members develop analytical skills required for decision-making. The circle members enhance their chances of promotion to higher positions.

Process of Participation

most of the modern organizations have programs of participation and empowerment of employees to gain several outcomes or advantages such as greater productivity, better quality, low costs, creative employees and satisfied workforce. The participative programs include joint consultation, suggestion schemes, co-partnership, quality circles, etc. Participating employees are generally more satisfied with work and their supervisors; and their self-efficiency rises due to their why-found empowerment.

Participation Process
Situation Participative Programs Outcomes Organization: Higher Output Better Quality Creativity Innovation Employees: Acceptance Self-efficacy Less stress Satisfaction

Involvement Mental Emotional

Situational Factors
The degree of participation in an organisation may be determined by the following factors: 1. The amount of integration between a supervisor and his subordinates. 2. The degree to which a supervisor performs his role in a group-centered way. 3. The degree to which a supervisor is active in making decisions and setting goals for his work unit.

Mental and Emotional Involvement

Effective participation implies mental and emotional involvement. A persons entire self is involved, not just ones skill. This involvement is psychological rather than physical. A person who participates is ego-involved instead of merely task-involved. Some managers mistake task involvement for true participation. A manager may hold meetings, ask opinions, and so on, but all the time it is perfectly clear to employees that their manager is an autocratic boss who wants no ideas. This is pseudo-participation, not real participation. Employees fail to become ego-involved.

THANKYOU
Sanjoli

Singhal Mayank Sharma