FREE ESSAY ON EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMET

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMET

Debate #2: Employee Empowerment is the Only Way
The selected passage discusses the idea of teaching people to lead themselves in the work
place, or empowering employees to make decisions that will affect the running of the
organisation, and ultimately, their careers. The passage asserts that organisations
function best when the top management holds paramount decision-making power because it
focuses this power to the only body truly capable of making educated, goal-achieving
decisions. This view stands open to much criticism. 
The article states that a specific organisational body must be given ultimate
decision-making power so that important decisions cannot be passed off to others.
Organising the decision-making process can prevent this problem. The process could be
structured so that each department was held responsible for a part, which would involve
regular departmental decision making sessions. Each department would then have an
employee representative who could bring ideas to an inter-departmental decision-making
panel. Decision-making would then involve a network that spanned from each department to
all levels of an organisation. The process would be more complex, but would provide
objective and systematic decision-making, involving more departments and considering more
individual opinions. This would involve more time and energy, but the outcome decisions
would ultimately be better. 
The passage states that some subordinates would not be comfortable with decision-making
responsibility, and have poor problem solving capacity. This is pessimistic logic and
serves a classic example of the cliche of seeing a half-filled glass as being half-empty.
Focus should be place on those employees who have excellent problem solving skills, would
be comfortable, and have the potential to be excellent decision-makers. These are the
employees who would logically move to positions of higher authority, and giving them more
control and decision-making power will prepare them for this role. 
The author states that problem-solving through multidisciplinary, cross-organisational
teams uses time and creates confusion. Time and confusion are necessary precursors to
effective teamwork. Good rational decision making involves objectively filtering all of
the possibilities and pertinent information, to choose the best possibility. Employees
are the most useful information source for organizational decision-making. They can
answer questions and can give you more information in a shorter time than any other
resource. They are the best sources of new ideas, and can offer detailed information, on
every corner and crack of an organisation, which cannot be found in any operating manual.
Undoubtedly, this process will involve more time and confusion, but nothing of value
comes without effort; work is a pre-requisite of good decision-making. 
The article asserts that all workers do not share the organisation's goals and are not
motivated. This may be true, but dedication to a cause is a personal attribute that
cannot be attained through specific education or experience. Being incumbent of the
highest positions of management does not assure the adoption of the companies values and
motivation to pursue them. Top management positions require motivation to achieve, but
this motivation may be directed to achieving personal, rather than organisational goals.

The passage assumes that employee empowerment will increase the possibility of employees
running away with the store, or using this power in a self-serving fashion with disregard
to the organisation's goals. This is a possibility, but there is also the possibility of
top management running with the store. Selfishness and self-serving decisions are
characteristics of people from all walks of life, and are not lost merely through
education and experience. Allowing the top management to hold ultimate power places them
in an obvious position to make decisions, consciously or unconsciously that will serve
their point of view. 
Surprisingly, the role of top management should be to manage, and the most important
resource they must manage is the people that work at all levels of an organisation. Their
role should not be to rule, but to lead. They must be objective and understand that they
cannot solely provide the best decisions on aspects that are not in their realm of
expertise. Managers should motivate employees provide useful information and opinions in
organisational decision-making. They should facilitate and co-ordinate interaction
between departments, which creates more unity throughout the organisation. 
Managers should also understand that employees form the foundation of any organisation,
and that all of them have unique strengths that can help in achieving the companies
goals. In return, employees will feel useful and are placed in a position to
self-actualise or attain one's potential. Management must lead in this win-win'
situation, which will cause temporary confusion and hard work, but ultimately, a
comprehensive-organisational team capable of making better decisions. 
Bibliography
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