Abstract
M.Comm.
The concept of employee empowerment has been associated with the
participation of employees in the decision-making process in organisations. A
number of approaches and articles have recently been written to expand and
better the concept.
Employee empowerment is a strategy that gives an ordinary employee an
opportunity to have say in, and contribute to both the internal and external affairs
of the organisation. In order for the strategy to be successful, the company
executive should also take on the responsibility of ensuring that employees and
other stakeholders are committed to the process of empowerment.
This report investigates the manner in which employee empowerment could be
used as a tool or aid to assist organisations in making better use of employees'
thinking skills. The investigation looks into the process that should be followed in
the implementation of an employee empowerment strategy.
Furthermore, the model investigates affirmative action as a tool that could assist
managers and organisations to better understand the concept.
The report will also highlight the critical success factors that are important in
striving to employee empowerment in an organisation. It will also investigate
other available tools that can be used in a successful strategy.
The issue of black economic empowerment also pops up as a tool that could
empower employees in the process. Lastly, the report recommends guidelines
that organisations could follow to succeed.
The findings of the study have concluded that employee empowerment could
be a powerful tool and is essential for employee development.
This model tries to integrate the situational leadership model of Ken Blanchard,
Carlos and Randolph with Yen-Yun Lin's conceptual model.
The model of Blanchard, Carlos & Randolph looks at the stages that
management or organisations should go through before and when engaging in
an empowerment strategy. The model follows the situational leadership concept
or approach.
On the other hand the Yen-Yun Lin model looks into the four key dimensions that
are critical in an empowerment strategy, namely empowering leadership,
empowering culture, empowering management practices and empowering
teams. The model tries to integrate the four dimensions and show the role that
they play in the employee empowerment model.
The tools developed in this model are a combination of a number of possible
tools that could be used in the empowerment process, which I developed.
The last part of the model attempts to indicate the beneficiaries of the process
and the benefits that could be derived from empowerment. It further looks into
how these benefits could impact on the organisation as a whole and their
relationship to the process and the key dimensions.