The idea of Empowerment in a successful organization

A managerial approach:

Most employees prefer the manager who delegates powers and authorities and gives them a space in which they can get the work done and reduce red tape and bureaucracy. While his/her successor withdraws all powers to run the organization on the principle of centralization. Another manager may come and leave the room for the workers to perform the work and then refer to him for approval or amendment according to his/her point of view and according to the principle of responsibility. Between this and that, the organization’s work pattern changes according to the policy imposed by the director or the board of directors, and thus performance standards and evaluation criteria change, whether for employees or the outputs.

Delegation vs Empowerment:

Delegation in the simplest definition is the transfer of authority without transferring responsibility and the delegate can withdraw it at any time, while empowerment is the transfer of authority and responsibility from the higher administrative level to the lower level under a law or regulation. Some may think that empowerment is a reduction of the manager’s powers in favor of the subordinate; however, the more the managers get rid of the burden of administrative work and details, the more they become devoted to their leadership role in terms of guidance, direction, and strategic thinking, and that empowerment is one of the effective tools for preparing future leadership cadres and evaluating their performance.

What leads managers as well as organizations to empower?

This depends on several personal and organizational factors that will be presented in the following:

• Organization’s policy:

The general policy of the organization plays a major role in the implementation of the delegation and empowerment process, as it is a reference for decisions and a guide to actions. If the policy adopts supervisory responsibility and holds managers accountable for the actions of their subordinates, then in this case leaders will prefer to implement delegation policies that allow them to withdraw it at any time. However, adopting the policy of work teams, management by objectives, and evaluating subordinates based on production and not performance, then in this case leaders will implement empowerment policies and formulate regulations and laws that achieve this.

• Culture of the organization:

Alike managers, organizations form their culture through their experience and their learning process individually and organizationally. In addition to a policy that leads the organization to adopt a certain culture that either encourages empowerment and delegation or absolute centrality.

• Shared values:

The shared values among employees, which are endorsed by leaders, help to decide to delegate or empower, so that if the values are based on continuous learning and building future cadres, in addition to making the most of the available resources, then there will be plenty of space for delegation process.

• Planning  and organizing processes:

Planning is the process of setting goals and achieving them, while organizing is determining the required jobs and the chain of command to implement the plan and achieve the goal. Thus, the planning and organizing process provides a cornerstone to either practice delegation or empowerment or not.

• Characteristics of the manager:

The manager’s personality is formed through the experiences and situations he/she is exposed to, in addition to the effects of the environment in which he/she lives and the culture of the society in which the organization operates. Therefore, there is a great difference between societies in building the personality of leaders as well as their ability to decide to empower and work to reduce the distance of authority and transformation from the traditional organizational structure to the work teams as well as the shift from only making a profit to having sustainable goals and purpose.

• The ability of the employee:

The success of the empowerment process depends on the capabilities of the empowered employee. Therefore, the leader must ensure the eligibility of the employee who will perform these future tasks, through qualification and well preparation, and setting effective criteria for selecting employees to fill various positions.

How to implement empowerment?

There is a positive relationship between responsibility and dedication to work. It may come to mind that the process of empowerment is easy, but in fact, it is a process that requires many procedures and also requires sufficient time for preparation and implementation. There is a set of procedures that can be followed to implement empowerment in organizations, which are at several levels:

• At the strategic level:

It is necessary to adopt a policy of development and to benefit from technical progress in all fields, and to make the most of the capabilities of workers to get the work done and benefit from their expertise to collect the necessary information to move from traditional management to work teams and empowered individuals. Supporting the cooperation and participation between different departments. In addition to spreading the culture of participation and cooperation in making decisions and solving problems.

• At the administrative level:

long and short-term goals must be carefully defined, and all data and information necessary to perform the work must be made available, as well as providing material capabilities and benefiting from information technology and digital transformation so that members of the work team can communicate from anywhere and at any time to get rid of the restrictions of place and time; This makes the evaluation criteria more objective and dependent on the production and the extent to which it contributes to achieving the goals of the team and the organization.

• At the individual level:

Empowering employees will release creativity, give space for them to find new ideas, and create a sense of citizenship in the organization in addition to commitment and the desire to continue with it.

Conclusion:

In sum, the managers must prepare their subordinates for this process by training to work within a team, establishing and strengthening the ties between them, then giving them the necessary confidence to take responsibility and setting the goals to be achieved, and finally empowering them with all the necessary powers to achieve those goals. Thus, the manager gains more time for strategic thinking and policy development, and the organization gains distinguished cadres of leaders in all areas and the human being who is the most important resource in the organization becomes more valuable, productive, more effective, and efficient.