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What Is Meant by the Term Empowerment? Does Empowering a Subordinate Necessarily Mean That the Person Granting Power Is Losing Power? Can an Act of Empowerment Increase a Manager or Leader's Power?

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WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM EMPOWERMENT? DOES EMPOWERING A SUBORDINATE NECESSARILY MEAN THAT THE PERSON GRANTING POWER IS LOSING POWER? CAN AN ACT OF EMPOWERMENT INCREASE A MANAGER OR LEADER’S POWER?

CONTENTS

1.0 OVERVIEW OF THE ASSIGNMENT 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Scope of Discussion 2

1.3 Objectives 2

2.0 EMPOWERMENT IN THE BUSINESS ORGANIZATION 3

2.1 Understanding Empowerment 3

2.2 Steps of Empowerment in the Organization 5

3.0 DOES EMPOWERING A SUBORDINATE LEADS TO THE LOSING OF POWER OF THE PERSON GRANTING THE EMPOWERING POWER? 7

4.0 CAN AN ACT OF EMPOWERMENT LEADS TO INCREASE MANAGER OR LEADER’S CONTROL? 10

5.0 CONCLUSION 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY 14

OVERVIEW OF THE ASSIGNMENT

1 Background …show more content…

According to Nesan and Holt (1999), the collective definition of empowerment is “the process of giving employees the authority to take decisions, relating to their work processes and functions, and within the limits provided by management but requiring them to assume full responsibility and risks for their actions”.

Empowerment, however, is not an act or physical incident. It is employees’ perception that they believe in and (actually do) control what happens to their work processes and that they are capable of controlling those processes efficiently and effectively (Holt, 2000). Stephen Covey stated that “an empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.”

2 Steps of Empowerment in the Organization

Empowerment is a process that increases organizational power by including team working, sharing and solidarity. This relationship is based on trust which is considered as an output of empowerment. Empowerment deals with employees’ cognitive growth which enables them to control their fundamental behaviour towards their work environment. Implementation of empowerment is a holistic reorganization of the way a business thinks and does things (Page,

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