A520.5.3.RB.HoyeJennifer

Compare and contrast the concepts discussed in the article titled: “ Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea” by Russ Forrester (2000), to those discussed in the text.

The textbook overviews 9 principles of developing empowerment in employees. Those 9 principles are as follows:

- Articulating a Clear Vision
- Fostering Personal Mastery Experiences
- Modeling
- Providing Support
- Emotional Arousal
- Providing Information
- Providing Resources
- Connect to Outcomes
- Creating Confidence

The textbook attests that helping others develop this feeling of empowerment is the very root of managerial effectiveness. Empowered people are trusting and therefore are confident.

Five attributes of empowerment are:

- Self-efficacy
- Self-determination
- Personal consequence
- Meaning
- Trust

"Empowered individuals are most inclined to empower other"(Whetton 2011).


The article lists 'short circuits' to organizational empowerment, whereas the book just tells of the power of empowerment and delegation! "The following are some of the ways that well-intentioned executives have drained the energy out of their own empowerment efforts"(Forrester 2000).

Six Short Circuits to Organizational Empowerment:

- Precipitous empowerment mandates
- Overreliance on a narrow psycological concept
- One-size-fits-all empowerment
- Negligence of the needs of power sharers
- Piecemeal approaches
- Distortions of accountability


In short, these six short-circuits show "the more power an employee has, the more accountability focuses unforgivingly on results produced. In their zeal to get on with empowerment, managers may not take the time to make other changes in their systems to enable empowerment to succeed."(Forrester 2000).The text doesn't just cover empowerment and how to empower employees, it goes a bit further stating that many manager, even when they are empowered, refuse to take the authority and run with it. The textbook list three reasons why managers have not been willing to empower employees.

- Attitudes About Subordinates
- Personal Insecurities
- Need for Control

All is not lost, however, "hope lies in the fact that there are strategies that managers can use to enlist the power of their employees while managing the dynamics of (empowerment)"(Forrester 2000). Lessons about the kinds of processes and pressures that have interfered with the acceptance and excercise of power by some emplyees are as follows:

- Above all, enlarge power
- Differentiate among employees
- Support power shares
- Build fitting systems
- Focus on results

The article caps empowerment off, as one size does NOT fit all! Managers must use the above lessons to learn from and fit each goal individually in order to be successfull! Empowerment is successful, buty only when applied correctly!



References

Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(3), 67-78.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall/Pearson.