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Employee Empowerment and Leadership
Many companies today have realized the importance of employee empowerment. This involves giving the employees more room to make decisions and take initiatives in their work. Employee empowerment acts as a source of motivation. It shows that the management is concerned about its workers and it wants to seem them grow and develop in their careers. Employees make decisions about how to do their work and accomplish organizational goals. By empowering their workers, managers demonstrate their trust in them and the belief that they are capable of making the right choices for the organization.
Employees today are more interested in their career development than in following bureaucratic rules that limit their room for growth. There is a direct connection between the type of leadership used in organization and the success of employee empowerment. Leaders with charisma are able to inspire their followers towards achieving their best. They are able to motivate them and make them believe more in their capabilities. They recognize the importance of the workers and they are able to influence them to grow and become better. The leaders value the contributions made by the workers. They are able to engage the workers when strategizing and planning. They do not feel threatened by their followers’ decisions to make decisions at the workplace.
Employee empowerment is important as it contributes to increased job satisfaction, more effectiveness in work performance, less frustration and tension at the work place, and it contributed to organizational attachment. Empowerment communicates the message that the workers have a voice or influence that will affect the organization in some way. The workers positive behaviors are a determinant of their work performance. Empowerment encourages the development of such behavior. Some of the positive behaviors include optimism about ones ability to succeed, self-confidence and self-efficacy, perseverance and willingness to realize the organizational goals, and resilience and determination to succeed. Empowerment also contributes to feelings of less strain at work (Avey et al. 111). These factors are important in human relations at the work place. Most of the problems in the organization results from the feelings of lack of job satisfaction in the work place and a negative work environment. Empowered employees feel a sense of ownership in the organization. Therefore, they are willing to make it a better place. They are more inspired to solve the problems they encounter when they have a charismatic leader who continues to motivate them and show them that they are valuable to the organization.
Charismatic leaders are able to inspire followers to look beyond their self-interests and to consider the overall benefits of the team and the organization. They encourage them to consider the vision of the organization and to sacrifice for the sake of realizing the organizations mission. The charismatic leader develops a vision, and directs and guides the followers on how to achieve it. Such leaders are able to encourage their followers to identify and commit to the goals that they have set. Their followers end up believing in the values of the leader (Piccolo and Jason 328). Charismatic leaders are self-confident and they have a deep desire to influence others. They are guided by a moral conviction and they instill this on their followers. They are visionary and they are willing to look beyond the status quo. This makes the leaders especially suitable for ensuring that the workers are empowered. Since they are not overly concerned with maintaining the status quo and they are willing to do things differently, they are able to give their followers some of the power and authority needed to make decisions. They stimulate their followers intellectually, thereby encouraging them to come up with new ways of thinking. Charismatic leaders focus on being positive role models to their followers.
The emotional and psychological change that the leader is able to instill on his followers is important. The leader makes the workers believe in themselves. This motivates and inspires them towards achieving more for the organization. When such workers are empowered, they end up coming with new ways of solving problems. Hence, innovation is one of the main benefits of empowering the employees. Since the charismatic leader has already instilled within the empowered worker self-belief and a determination to succeed, the worker will concentrate more on improving quality and enhancing his work performance.
The combination of employee empowerment and having a charismatic leader leads to greater autonomy at the work place (Piccolo and Jason 329). Workers do not have to wait for permission before they can proceed. They become more focused in their work and they seek to learn more because they want to make the right choice. Leaders who entrust their workers with making transformative decisions at work show that they have confident in their abilities and competencies. Such leaders are confident that the decisions made will be for the benefit of the organization. This autonomy is important in developing a sense of ownership within the organization. The leader will already have instilled within the workers that they can perform beyond expectation and that they can use transformative thinking when performing their work. This leads to improved performance and increased productivity. The increased sense of ownership that the workers have with their organization will improve human relations in the workplace (Avey et al. 117).
One of the most challenging things that the human resource department has to deal with concerns increased or high turnover rates. Increased turnover can have negative consequences for any organization. Companies spend more time and resources conducting the recruitment process and training new personnel. Because of increased worker empowerment, employees do not have an intention to quit the company. They are less likely to leave a company that they feel a sense of entitlement. This contributes greatly towards solving the problem of increased turnovers. In addition, the rates of absenteeism will be low as the empowered employees feel a sense of self worth. This will influence efficiency and productivity at work.
Employee empowerment enables an organization to deal with the problem of unproductive and redundant work. When the employees are engaged in undertaking work and responsibilities that they are interested in and when they are committed towards the organization, they will focus on increasing their productivity and improving the performance of the organization. This leaves less room for redundancy. Workers do not have to waste their time doing nothing or doing things that do not contribute in any way to the organizations performance. Instead, they focus on how they can increase their usefulness and how they can contribute more to the organization. They become more focused in meeting the organizational goals and in finding ways of exceeding expectations.
The type of leadership within an organization can also determine the existence of unproductive work. There is a lot of unproductive work within the bureaucratic work environment. Workers end up handling the same level of tasks and responsibilities, some of which do not add any value to the organization. Getting rid of unproductive work can benefit the organization because it frees resources. Employees can be engaged in other activities within the different departments of the organization. The organization can end up saving more resources. Leaders determine the direction that organizations should take. They are at the forefront in providing the vision for the company. They can get rid of unproductive departments and refocus their energy on tasks that will benefit the company. As noted, charismatic leaders are more willing to take different approaches when managing organizations. They are less interested in maintaining the status quo and they focus more on innovative ways of thinking and in inspiring and motivating their workers. They ensure that whatever they do is for the benefit of the organization and this leaves less room for them or for their followers to engage in any unproductive work
Employee
empowerment and charismatic leadership are essential in changing the way organizations
perform. Empowered leaders are a benefit to the organization and they lead to
improved human relations. They are less likely to experience some of the
negatives associated with work including anger, frustration, and work strain.
In addition, the turnover rates and levels of absenteeism will greatly reduce.
This is because they find more value for their work and they develop a sense of
entitlement and ownership in the organization. Charismatic leaders focus on
inspiring their workers. They inspire them to greatness because they make them
aware of their capabilities. They are not threatened by employee empowerment
and this makes it easier for them to delegate duties and responsibilities. They
focus on finding ways of motivating and encouraging their followers and
improving the performance of the organization. Employees will not engage in
unproductive work if they are motivated and empowered.
Works Cited:
Avey, James B. et al. “Using Positivity, Transformational Leadership and Empowerment to Combat Employee Negativity.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 29.2 (2008): 110-126
Piccolo, Ronald F. and Jason Colquitt A. “Transformational Leadership and Job Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Core Job Characteristics.” Academy of Management Journal 49.2 (2006): 327-340