INTRODUCTION
THE CHALLENGE OF MOVING TO EMPOWERMENT
2Empowerment has been and remains one of the most promising but least understood concepts in business to date. First introduced in the 1980s, it quickly became a buzzword full of promise but short on delivery. Who could argue with the end result of empowerment? Ask senior managers if they want employees who accept responsibility, have a proprietary interest in the company, and want to work hard for company results, and the answer is, of course, yes. Ask employees if they want to feel valued, be involved in their jobs, and feel pride in the work they do, and the answer is, of course, yes.
Essentially, managers and employees want the same outcome. So why has it been so hard to achieve empowerment? Why has the concept fallen into disrepute? The answer is both simple and complex.
First, it is not the concept of empowerment that is flawed. Rather, it is people’s lack of understanding of how to move from a more traditional hierarchical mind-set to a mind-set of empowerment.
Too many managers view empowerment as giving people the power to make decisions. And too many employees view empowerment as being given free rein to do what they want to do. What we offer in this section is a better understaing of what empowerment really is—a releasing of the power within people to achieve astonishing results. What we also offer is a macro-level understanding of the process and issues that must be addressed to create a culture of empowerment.