For those of us who work in a corporate environment, you may
be familiar with the concept of empowerment, which was almost a fad a couple
of decades ago. But is it still
relevant, and what does it matter for the people in our organizations? Read on.
Within companies, empowerment was a new way of dealing
with employees. The idea basically was
that employees would be “empowered” with the ability to make certain decisions
on their own, rather than needing to go to a supervisor or manager. There are several works on the topic, but some
I feel are useful are by Ken Blanchard.
With co-authors, he wrote two books on the topic: Empowerment takes
More than a Minute (1996, 2001) and 3 Keys to Empowerment (1999). His recent work, Leading at a Higher Level (2006, 2009), which has been mentioned in previous Notes, also devoted a
chapter to the topic. The first book is
probably most important, as it introduces the concept and three key elements
that make it work. It does so in the
style of his One Minute Manager series, with a fictionalized story. The second is a follow on giving further
information on implementation.
