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Essence Of Empowerment Essay

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The Essence of Empowerment

Empowerment is certainly not a new idea within the business arena. In fact, its concept has been around since the 1960's when American car manufactures suddenly realized that they were losing their butts to the
Japanese producers. An extensive and extremely well-funded investigation for answers to the recurrent question, how do I get more out of my employees while simultaneously lowering my costs, did produce some implementable and constructive results. The topic I have chosen to investigate is the application of employee empowerment and how to get the most out of this HR "buzzword."
Within my scope of discussions are topics which include effective implementation,
the …show more content…

Remember that psychological studies determined that individuals are inherently resistant to change when they don't know the results and consequences of that change. Education of all levels within an organization will help eradicate some of the fear that's associated with change. It will also help define everyone's role after the changes are established. Additionally, this becomes an opportunity for upper management to align employees with corporate direction by disseminating vital information.

One such change that must occur is the flattening of the organizational chart, whether that entails the redefining or elimination of jobs. Flattening the levels of bureaucracy eliminates the hierarchical chain of command and brings all individuals closer to the actual end product. This has its advantages since all members of the organization, then, have a feel for what it is they are actually doing.

Since the utopian result of empowerment is the transference "of decision making and ownership to those individuals [at the lowest possible levels] who have the knowledge and ability to make the most appropriate decision, " these individuals are, therefore, most familiar with their end of the value chain.
They theoretically can recognize what it is, exactly, that can be done more efficiently and productively to bring this product to market at lower costs.
They are also able to "refine" the product since they

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