Empowerment is not a new business buzzword, but it is one that has proved consistently difficult to define. "Even by the standards of most management jargon it is a notoriously slippery concept, apparently used by different people to convey many different meanings," one management expert has said.
However, according to the Hand- book of Personnel Management Practice, empowerment is the process of giving people more power to exercise control over and take responsibility for their work. Essentially, it is about job enrichment, allowing individuals to use their abilities by enabling them to make decisions at various levels within an organisation.
With rapid changes occurring in the workplace and the job for life scenario a thing of the past, empowerment is a concept that has become increasingly relevant. Mr Michael McDonnell, director of the Institute of Personnel and Development, explained how "these days people expect to be given more interesting work at an earlier stage in their careers".
"In the past, people were going to be spending a long time with an employer and were content to do rather mundane work at the beginning. They were satisfied to be overworked and underpaid, knowing that at a later part of their career they would be under-worked and overpaid," he said.
To meet the changing needs of customers, the AIB group has in recent years initiated a culture change within the organisation and the empowerment of their employees was the key to its smooth implementation. According to Ms Mary Cannon, manager of the strategic development unit, the process continues to play a vital role. "Our staff are our greatest resource and, as such, we need to give them the skills and knowledge that allows them to anticipate our customer needs and then to meet them effectively," she says.
While AIB adopts a uniform approach to development, training is specifically tailored to give individuals the skills they need to take decisions in their particular role. A person who deals with customers will require different skills to those in administration. There are many reasons why organisations such as AIB would encourage the empowerment process. It can allow for faster decision making, lead to employees being more creative and reduce operational costs as unnecessary management layers are eliminated. Perhaps most importantly, it gives people more responsibility and offers individuals the chance to gain greater satisfaction from their work.
At Ryan Hotel group, training is used effectively to empower staff. New workers do not just arrive at their hotel, but are given an induction tour where they are made familiar with every part of the operation. Management personnel are regularly sent on coaching courses to learn how to bring out the best in employees.
"We encourage staff to take the initiative and offer every opportunity by way of external courses or internal coaching to allow an employee to develop within the organisation," said Mr Colm Molloy, training and development officer with the group.
Sometimes the clients of a company can also be empowered. Eircell, the mobile telephone services provider, encourages its agents to meet customer needs through developing an understanding of Eircell products.
"We are selling the Eircell network as the bigger and better network, so our agents need to be able to pass on the message to consumers. We equip them with the skills to be able to identify customer needs through specific skills and product knowledge courses," said Ms Trish Harrison of Eircell.
She said Eircell works on the basis that a happy seller is a happy customer. "The training element should be at the forefront of the organisation," she added.
This year, the airport authority Aer Rianta took an even greater step towards full empowerment by acknowledging, in its programme for constructive participation, the need to work in partnership with employees and trade unions. "It makes sense to give employees a say in the running of the business and as much discretion as possible over their own activities," said Mr Noel Hanlon, chairman of Aer Rianta.
The programme involves the establishment of discussion groups to examine the issues, such as changes in training and information technology, that are important to the future development of Aer Rianta. Strategy groups, made up of staff, management and trade union members, were established to examine such issues as duty free and the maintenance department at Shannon Airport.
The programme was singled out for praise by Public Enterprise Minister, Ms Mary O'Rourke, who said it "epitomises this spirit of co-operation between management, staff and trade unions".
While such methods of empowerment are to be welcomed within business, if not structured correctly the process can lead to considerable stress for employees, said Mr McDonnell. "It is vital that there is good back up support and a solid management structure if you are giving people more responsibility. This is where you have to delegate and include coaching and mentoring as part of the empowerment process," he said.
Business 2000 returns on January 4th 1999
