By J. N. Halm
Have I ever told you of that experience I had at one of Ghana’s finest hotels, where the waitress changed a drink we had ordered on her own without going through a dozen supervisors?
The story goes thus: A good friend who had invited me out for a special drink, but unfortunately had forgotten the name of a supposed-to-be special drink.
As a result, we were given a different drink. Because I had no idea what this drink was, I was fine when I tasted it. However, I must say, I was not too impressed, especially with all the “noise” my good friend had made about this particular drink.
But when my friend took a sip of hers, she grimaced. Something was obviously wrong!
She promptly called the waitress to complain. This was clearly not the drink she had had a few days before, at the same location. The waitress apologised and asked her to describe the drink.
After she was done, the waitress politely told her the right name of that particular drink. With a smile on her face, the waitress readily went behind and after a few minutes, she brought the right set of drinks. Then she said something that blew my mind. She said the first drink was on the house. We did not need to pay for them.
I had watched this lady during the entire time she was trying to resolve our problem. All I saw her do was place one call to someone, and then she went about mixing the new set of drinks. One call. That was all it took. I was amazed at the whole scene because this was a front-row seat to employee empowerment at play.
Every organisation wants empowered employees. Empowerment has been a buzzword in business circles for decades. However, despite its popularity, empowerment initiatives often fail to deliver the promised results.
Luckily, a comprehensive review of scholarly articles and empirical evidence reveals why some organisations successfully empower their employees while others struggle.
The study was published in the February 2015 edition of the Industrial and Commercial Training journal. The title of the study was “Employee Empowerment: Factors Affecting the Consequent Success or Failure.
According to the study, at the heart of successful empowerment lies a delicate balance between structural and psychological factors. You can also see it as a balance between systems and people. Think of it as building a house. The structural elements are like the foundation and framework, while psychological aspects are the internal furnishings that make it liveable.
Research reveals two fundamental pillars that support successful empowerment initiatives: a team-based structure and a culture founded on trust and open communication. It is like creating an ecosystem where empowerment can naturally flourish rather than trying to force it into existence.
The leadership style employed in implementing empowerment initiatives presents an interesting paradox. While conventional wisdom might suggest that transformational leadership, with its focus on inspiration and motivation, is the only way forward, the evidence tells a different story.
Surprisingly, transactional leadership, often criticised for its focus on rewards and incentives, can also create empowered employees under the right circumstances. It is like having different keys that can open the same door—what matters is matching the right key to the right lock.
In my experience, one of the biggest challenges to employee empowerment is the quality of leadership in the organisation. When leaders are not confident in themselves and carry an inferiority complex, they tend to struggle to empower their employees.
These are the leaders who are afraid of their subordinates outshining them, and so they will do anything to frustrate those team members.
Another reason why some leaders fail to empower employees is the skill and knowledge level of those employees. When leadership fails to bring in the right people to fill vacant positions, leaders will inevitably be wary of empowering these employees.
The situation is even worse when leaders further fail to train and coach these individuals. Understandably, empowering an employee who does not have the right skills, knowledge, and attitude is akin to giving a loaded gun to a child. There is bound to be a disaster.
A third reason why leaders might be afraid to empower employees is when they have not provided adequate resources for the employees to work with. It is one thing to give an employee all the authority needed to act under certain circumstances.
However, if the employee does not have the right tools to carry out the tasks, the empowerment might actually backfire, as it would lead to more frustrations for the employee.
The aforementioned research challenges our basic assumptions about empowerment. It is not just about giving employees more authority or decision-making power. Instead, success depends on a complex interplay of organisational culture, leadership approach, and—most critically—the employees themselves.
Consider a bank implementing an empowerment initiative. The management might create the perfect structural framework, implement the right policies, and provide all the necessary resources. However, if the employees themselves are not predisposed to embrace empowerment, the initiative is likely to fail.
This brings us to a crucial finding: the success or failure of empowerment initiatives often lies within the employees themselves. It is like planting seeds – even with perfect soil and optimal conditions, some seeds will flourish while others might not grow at all.
The research suggests that personal ambition and a predisposition towards decentralised management are strong indicators of success. These traits act like internal compasses, guiding employees towards embracing or rejecting empowerment opportunities.
In other words, an employee must be ready to be empowered for the one to make use of the empowerment. It is important to recognise that not all employees want to be empowered. Empowerment comes with certain responsibilities that some employees would not want to bear.
For organisations, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge lies in recognising that not all employees will respond similarly to empowerment initiatives. The opportunity lies in creating targeted approaches that consider individual predispositions.
Leadership plays a pivotal role in this dynamic. While leaders can influence and transform employees, they cannot fundamentally change their core traits. It is like sculpting. You can shape the material, but you cannot change its essential nature. An employee with no leadership traits would run away from the responsibility of being empowered.
For managers and business leaders, these findings have profound implications. First, business leaders must understand that empowerment is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Different employees will require different approaches, and some might never fully embrace empowerment.
Second, organisations need to create cultures that support empowerment naturally. This means fostering trust, encouraging open communication, and building team-based structures that facilitate autonomous decision-making.
The research also highlights the need for a more comprehensive model of empowerment. Current models, while useful, often fail to capture the full complexity of the empowerment equation. It is like trying to map a three-dimensional object in two dimensions—something always gets lost in translation.
For businesses planning to implement empowerment initiatives, the message is clear: Success requires careful consideration of both macro and micro factors. At the macro level, organisational culture and structure must support empowerment. At the micro level, individual employee predispositions must be understood and accounted for.
Training programs should focus not just on skills and procedures but on helping employees understand and embrace their potential for autonomous decision-making. It is about creating an environment where empowerment feels natural rather than forced.
The future of empowerment lies in this nuanced understanding. Organisations must move beyond simple delegation of authority to create environments where empowerment can organically grow and flourish.
The takeaway is both simple and profound: Successful empowerment is not just about giving power. It is about creating an environment where people naturally want to take it.
It is about understanding that while we can influence and shape behaviour, the seeds of empowerment must find fertile ground in the employees themselves. Businesses that can do this have successfully solved the empowerment equation.
