WMGM102: Principles of Management - Management Theory - Essay Writing Assessment Answer

Management Assignment

Assignment Task

Student are required to keep a copy of all items submitted or completed for the purpose of assessment or evaluation until the end of the grade appeal period. This includes any notes taken during the process of responding to the essay question.

ESSAY TOPIC

Quote: “With recent changes in the work environment in response to increasingly competitive demands for higher performance, and elevated organizational needs for their employees to cope with constant change in the external environment ... employee empowerment has received noticeable attention in organizational research and practice” (Cheong, Spain, Yammarino & Yun, 2016)

Question: Critically discuss worker empowerment by leaders and its outcome.

Essay structure: The following questions must be answered:

1. What is worker empowerment?
2. What are the drivers of worker empowerment and why is it seen as valuable in today’s business world?
3. What is the role of leadership in influencing worker empowerment?
4. Identify and evaluate the positive and negative impacts of leadership empowerment.
5. Overall, are the outcomes of empowerment more desirable or undesirable? For whom? Justifyyour response.

The Concept of Worker Empowerment

The core idea of “Worker Empowerment” is to provide greater responsibilities to the employees of an organization according to their specific areas of importance. Such responsibility and autonomy empower them to make decisions that influence a certain part of their work roles. Just like the corporate world, as mentioned in (Nagda, 2011), the concept of worker empowerment has got much relevance in case of social work and other related fields. There are several approaches of worker empowerment which give a better understanding of the subject. The policies and practices of an organization are restructured in socio-structural approach of worker empowerment. The psychological perspective deals with the intrinsic functions of employee encouragement such as extension of help in enhancing their competence and effectiveness. On the other hand, there is another approach known as critical approach which says that increased empowerment lowers the control over the workers which is not beneficial for the organization.

Drivers of Worker Empowerment & Their Validity in Modern Business World

It has been proved that worker empowerment leads to greater engagement in the organizational activities which positively influences productivity. That is why employee participation can be considered as one of the top driving factors of productivity which has many benefits for the organization (Huq, Aghazadeh, Najjar, & Hafeznezami, 2010). It has also been observed that for a better quality organization, employee participation helps in increasing the motivation level of the employees. Motivated and satisfied employees work for the implementation of the activities leading to organizational effectiveness. Another important driving factor of worker empowerment is legal regulation. As explained in (Faundez, 2009), in an informal economy, the workers can be brought under a legal regulation as per international standards. This empowers them and motivates them to work further for the growth of the organization. Therefore, it can be inferred that extension of legal rights should be a key concern for the government and organizational leadership. Proactive and committed employees are key requirements of a growing organization. Empowering leadership and “a higher order empowerment factor” are considered as key areas of consideration in (Albrecht & Andreetta, 2011). Transformational leadership can help in worker empowerment by providing them proper guidance and authority. Moreover, an empowering factor such as greater autonomy, authority as well as self-determination can take the issue of worker empowerment to greater heights. With liberalization & globalization of economy, the need of horizontal work structures within an organization has increased. Therefore, participation of each and every employee has become crucial for organizational development. Moreover, the limitations of vertical hierarchy open new doors for enhancing ownership and autonomy of the employees. That is why; the importance of innovative leadership has been emphasized in (Stanley, 2005) more than an administration focused managers in modern business environment.

Role of Leadership in Worker Empowerment

There are various styles of leadership and as per the individual characteristics of each of the styles, they influence differently in worker empowerment. Similarly, varied personality types of employees also play crucial role in the process. Because, as demonstrated in (Murari, 2015), some leadership traits are beneficial for the empowerment of certain class of employees while some are not. But it is essential to explore a generalized view of the empowering leadership to get a clear idea about its actual influence on worker empowerment. The first point explained in (Sharma & Kirkman) while defining empowering leadership is the delegation of authorities to a group of employees or workers. When a worker gets full authority of his/her own work, it contributes significantly for worker empowerment goals of the entire organization. Similarly, it has also been observed that the leadership should encourage workers in decision making and enjoying the responsibility and autonomy of his/her own work. Regular exchange of information with the workers and inviting constructive feedbacks from them also satisfy the worker empowerment goals of the leadership. The role of empowering leadership is also explained in (Lorinkova, Pearsall & Sims, 2013) by emphasizing on the importance of collaboration and coordination in organizational activities. Another role of the leadership for worker empowerment is extending the “psychological ownership” of the task to the subordinates. This acts as a powerful medium of recognition for the workers and they feel empowered while performing their assigned responsibilities. Another aspect of the role of leadership in influencing worker empowerment has been described in (Chen, Kirkman, Kanfer, Allen, & Rosen, 2007). As per the observation, there are two levels of analysis associated with the process of worker empowerment. The common empowerment goal depends on individual and shared perceptions. Therefore, two dimensional individual and team level analysis is necessary. The empowering leadership pays importance to both the ways and empowers the workers as per their individual expectations as well as team based perceptions. Thus, the role of leadership is immense in influencing worker empowerment.

Positive and Negative Impacts of Leadership Empowerment

In modern business environment, the leadership empowerment goals play significant role in organizational decision making. As explained in (Lorinkova, Pearsall & Sims, 2013), directive leadership works in variation to the principles of empowering leadership. But, it has certain benefits which distinguishes it from the rest. According to the observation, directive leadership or empowering leadership involves vertical approach where the leaders provide clear directives and instructions to the subordinates. The main advantage of this style of leadership is quick decision making and resolution of the issues and tasks. The directive leader acts as a monitoring authority that clear the ambiguity and lethargy associated with individual decision making. This can be regarded as a negative side of empowering leadership. On the other hand, the concept of worker empowerment is closely associated with transformational leadership style. This can be regarded as a positive side because transformational leadership provides motivation and enhances the ability of the workers (Kark, Shamir & Chen). But in case of transactional leadership style, the followers are not empowered. Transactional leadership thus only influences the behaviors of the followers. This is a plus point of leadership empowerment. One of the negative aspects of the empowering behavior of the leaders is the negative influence it creates for the followers as mentioned in (Cheong, Spain, Yammarino & Yun, 2016). Such empowering behavior of the leaders causes tension and strain for the workers and this ultimately results in reduced productivity of the organizational activities. It has also been observed that, the leaders should be well aware of the limitations of leadership empowerment efforts within an organization.

Outcomes of Empowerment

Overall, it can be concluded that the outcomes of empowerment are more desirable. Because, increased worker empowerment enhances the organizational performance to greater heights. This can be easily justified by the fact that the practicality is absent in traditional hierarchical structure where the manager or the leaders are expected to possess all the decision making skills as mentioned in (Sharma & Kirkman). The complexity of work environment and globalization has also increased the relevance of this justification. In the conclusion, we can also state that, if the worker empowerment approach is implemented with due consideration of the individual and team level dynamics as described in (Chen, Kirkman, Kanfer, Allen, & Rosen, 2007), then it can yield better results for the entire organization. Therefore, the outcomes of empowerment are more desirable.