EMPOWERMENT

n 0 Lmpowemg organisations and their

1 employees Currently empowerment is a much used word in the context of employment. But what does it mean? What are the major features? Is it really worthwhile to invest in the process or is it merely another flavour of the month concept? Effective people management is critical to successful operations. Empowerment can enhance em loyee performance and corporate success into the next m *K ennium.

Ralph E Long

ecently I was regaled by a training manager proudly outlining his Boards R atest approach to staff training. In

future training would be directed to the achievement of the Corporate Strategy and Business Plan. Additionally, all employees were to be trained in empowerment. Line managers, however, would not be involved in either the selection of staff for training or in subsequent evaluation of that activity-4early a general misunderstanding of the concept in its entirety. Many organisations would appear still to see empowerment (the OED definition of which includes such words as authorise, license, permit) as the process of simply telling staff what is required and leaving them to get on with it. In other words:

managers need only to be taught the process of delegation and thereafter things will get better:

This overlooks the fact that business schools et al. have spent 30 years lecturing managers about both the theory and practice, with, it would seem, singular lack of success. Auto-

cratically managed organisations still abound. The managerial focus into the millennium

must become directed to improving the per- formance of individuals relative to the business objectives. The traditional perception of leader- ship:

that the followers wait to be directed by those who lead

is dying, if not already dead. The new and effective type of leader is one who establis,bes clear objectives, defines specific limits of authority/responsibility and enables indi- viduals to achieve those objectives. As 2nd when appropriate, he/she joins with the group, even subjugating hidher own leadership 2nd authority to them.

The working definition of emp0wermen.t I would suggest to be:

a culture within which employees at all levels are (will want to be) fully involved in and totally committed to the achievement of {he Corporate Objectives for the benefit of ,the organisation and the individual.

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around here because that’s the way we aye. It is a way of life which supports and enables the successful application of empowerment. There are three closely interlinked essentials which are the key to success:

Attitude or the psychological stance (frame of mind) of an individual or group of individuals in respect of a concept, theme or idea. Atti- tudinal messages are learned at an early age from those in authority, e.g. parents, teachers and, in later years, managers. They are reinforced by subsequent experiences until some other more impactful event changes that message entirely. There can be no such thing as a good or bad attitude; one either leans towards or away from the issue.

There are a number of attitudes (beliefs) which of themselves form obstacles to innova- tion or change. For example:

~

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Ralph Long This is based on personal experience and observation over more than a decade, initially as the group training manager of a national plc and for the past eight years as a consultant. In both instances I employed a non-directive approach, the overall aim being to guide, advise or enable the actions or changes decided on by the client organisation.

The cornerstones of empowerment Corporate culture: the feeling of confidence

in and acceptance of the way things are done

it’s not invented here they’ll do as they’re told they’re only interested in the size of their pay

we’ve always done it this way we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work then it’s not my job.

packet

Commitment: at company level it is a sense of duty and obligation requiring everyone from Managing Director downwards to accept responsibility for the successful achievement of the corporate objectives. At another, more personal, level it is the determination to achieve a personal goal or maintain a belief. When both coincide there occurs an enormous growth in performance and skills at both corporate and employee levels.

Involvement: keystone of corporate success. There is much evidence to show that involving employees in the planning processes (appro- priate to their ability and status) ensures a high level of success in the achievement of the business plan. Equally, involving staff in the discussion and agreement of personal objectives related to the corporate plan produces a strong motivation to ensure that those tasks are carried out efficiently and effectively.

Empowerment in action (i) The building blocks

The culture of empowerment is composed of three major aspects each of which is mutually

EMPOWERMENT

and totally interrelated and interdependent:

The strategic business plan Most business strategies should cover a 3-5

year timescale and commence with a written statement of the corporate vision for the future. It contains, also, the operating plan which encapsulates the series of goals to be achieved in year one of the overall plan. Successful busi- nesses are teleometric in operation, i.e. they continually adjust the corporate aim to take account of market forces, technology and the economy. The strategic plan activity is, there- fore, a rolling, annual process.

Performance related appraisal and reward Staff must know their responsibilities in

terms of the tasks to be carried out and the performance standards against which rewards and benefits are to be aligned. More important is the need to relate these tasks to the objectives of the strategic and operating plan.

Training and development A carefully planned process by which the

necessary skills and experience are to be provided to employees-the objective must always be to meet the current and future needs of the organisation and to realise individual potential.

(ii) The involvement of the board No matter how skilled the project leader

may be, the direct involvement of the Chief Executive of the company is of paramount importance. Discussions with such persons over a number of years reveals that the single, most common obstacle to success was the lack of properly defined strategic and operating plans.

All too frequently the first point of break- down in communications within organisations occurred at this juncture. Board members often neither know, understand nor even share the MD/CEO’s vision of the corporate future. But his vision for the future is what they are appointed to implement and manage. He, for his part, is responsible for being the driving or motivating factor to the achievement of that vision.

The Board, by the same token, must accept the principle of corporate responsibility and be committed to the vision of the Chief Executive. To do otherwise would be to engender an adversarial Board comprising individuals each pulling in opposite and conflicting directions.

The effect on an organisation is debilitating in the extreme, since divided leadership means conflicting loyalties and low levels of achieve- ment.

(iii) The processes employed (a) Strategic and operational planning

The actual exercise consists of two work- shops, the first of which is a two-day event solely directed to producing the plan and its objectives. The first step is to define the coore business of the company-a statement which answers the questions:

What does the organisation do or intend to

For whom does it intend to do it? Why does it intend doing it?

do?

It is at this stage that Board Members discover the wide divergence of individual percepiion regarding the range of productslservices tc) be offered. Ultimately from this discussion is derived the mission statement: a single punchy sentence outlining the direction in which the company is to move.

The next step is to identify the organisational goals which fall under the following headings:

Market goals-the definition of the market position the company intends to hold. Excellence goals-identification of tk.ose things which, if done well by all involved in the enterprise, will set the organisation apart from its competitors. Operational goals-definition of that which must be undertaken both cost effectively and efficiently in order to remain in business. Stakeholder goals-those actions which must be directed towards people or other

Real-time problems a.s training exercises produce real-time solutions One company was experiencing problems with newly appointed managers-failure to achieve potential indicated at interview or failure to remain in post more than a few months-which eventually were laid at the door of the recruitment process. The managing director utilised the problem-saving session on a training programme as the forum for resolving the dilemma. The resultant real-time practical exercise was infinitely more valuable to everyone than any theoretical input about problem-solving techniques. The combined experience of delegates identified both the causes and the solutions to be implemented.

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organisations which are important to the future of the company.

After agreeing the goals the next stage is to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportu- nities and threats (SWOT) from which can be developed the objectives of the operating plan (year one). By now the need to begin working as a team is realised. With it comes a parallel realisation that each member has some talent or potential ability not hitherto noticed. In one company the Finance Director was seen to be a people oriented person and became responsible for developing the company’s people management policies.

By the end of the workshop the management team should have produced the following package:

0 the corporate aim and mission statement 0 a list of organisational goals dedicated to the

achievement of the aim 0 a list of internal strengths and external

opportunities 0 a series of operational objectives to be

achieved in year one of the strategic plan 0 a list of the tactical activities necessary to

achieving each objective together with the identification of the Board Member responsible for each objective.

There is an intervening period of one month to enable those responsible to identify what has to be done, by whom, within what timescale and at what cost.

The second workshop-of one day-is entirely given over to exchanging information related to the operational plan objectives. The aim is to produce a detailed budget in terms of resources (people, money and materials) to be committed to their achievement. The work- shop concludes by drawing up an annual management cycle of significant datedevents. Experience shows that once such dates become fixed in the managerial mind-rather like the Bank Holidays in the national mind-staff plan their corporate activities around these.

(b) Performance-related appraisal Two important themes fall out of the

strategic plan: the excellence and the opera- tional goals. The former establishes perform- ance standards expected and the latter identifies the tasks to be performed.

The initial reaction to this is to talk in terms of job descriptions and staff appraisals. Interest-

ingly, fewer than 20% of all company directors actually have a written job description. Worse still, fewer than 40% of employees actually have an up-to-date description. Most are based on a snapshot of the tasks being undertaken by an individual at a particular moment in time. They are already dated and so of limited value. Work tasks are prescribed by the requirements of the current strategic and operating plans.

More properly one must evolve a procedure which will satisfy, year on year, the require- ments of the excellence and operational goals. It must be geared to continuous (and automatic) updating relative to the changing nature of the annual plan and the tasks and processes involved in its execution.

Boards and their immediate subordinates join together on a workshop to examine a variety of current schemes. This is a first step to defining the essentials required in any company specific scheme. In general, existing schemes are seen to be arbitrary, punitive rather than motivational, frequently subjective in nature and bureaucratic in operation.

The result is that the production of a company-specific scheme and procedures for its operation. In general there is a unanimous commitment to simplicity of operation of a scheme which should:

0 apply to employees at all levels, including

identify the actual job of each employee for

establish performance standards to be

show the relationship between the strategic

provide effective feedback on performance to

provide a job related problem-solving

enable identification of training and career

require the minimum paperwork have the commitment of everyone in the

directors

the first year ahead

achieved

plan and job

the Board

mechanism

development needs

company.

Basically the scheme involves manager and immediate subordinate in discussion and agree- ment related to the job and how performance achieved would be measured. The term appraisal itself has a negative connotation. Most participants tend to remove the word. Many use variations on individaal pevj4ormance plan and review process, directly related to the

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company operating plan and expressed in terms of the individual endeavour.

(c) Training and development Many companies tend to opt for in-house

training programmes which are specifically designed to satisfy the corporate needs. Even more show a preference for courses which provide the skills which can be implemented immediately on return to the workplace. For example a communications skills programme should focus on workplace problems and their solutions rather than the in-depth theory of the process. All too often there is a need for further training to translate theory into practice. With this factor very much in mind training work- shops provide the vehicle for learning. The following elements are an essential to every programme:

Pre-workshop preparation: Delegates are expected to prepare themselves thereby gaining gaining maximum benefit. This means activities as varied as identifying the qualities of effective leaderdmanagers or undertaking pre-session reading, e.g. delegates for the effective time management programme were required to read ‘The one minute manager’ prior to attending. On occasion completion of a self-assessment questionnaire is a prerequisite. The answers are analysed and discussed during the workshop. Ideally manager and subordinate discuss the programme beforehand and agree suitable outcomes. A debriefing session should take place after the training to establish the learning acquired and agree what should be undertaken to validate the process.

The training session: This is, with few exceptions, non-directive, non-didactic in style. Maximum use is made of syndicate exercises, feedback or discussion during which expern- ences and learning therefrom are shared/ extracted. The decision to use the workshop process is based on two simple premises:

-for many people the idea of a classroom style of training produces a negative attitude which is not at all conducive to learning

-it is a personal belief that the sum total of the experience of a group of managers nearly always exceeds that of the tutor.

It may seem like re-inventing the wheel but the validation of the method lies in the fact that the learning message for the individual is

formance review scheme for

(shades of Elton Mayo and H invited to assist in the devising

all the more powerful for it having resulted from hidher own efforts. There is an increasing expectation on the part of senior management that trainers will use this approach.

Action plans: At the end of every worksliop each delegate is required to produce and share an action plan to be implemented on return to the workplace. For some it is as simplr: as catching a subordinate doing hidher job right and giving praise in public. For others it might be somewhat complex, involving a number of other colleagues. The overall idea, which also involves immediate line managers, is to encourage the individual to use and develop the learned skills.

Training notes/handouts: The training notes given to delegates result from their own par- ticipation; using their own words, opinions, ideas and any operating guidelines produced. Theoretically we are more likely to use that which we have ourselves produced than something devised by a third party which may or may not accord with our own perceptions/ experiences.

Programme evaluation: Personally, I am not

gineer returning fr h, according to the

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3 02

entirely in favour of the generally used post- course questionnaires or happiness sheets. They are usually completed in the closing minutes of the programme and delegates are, more often than not, concerned with departure or experiencing an end of course euphoria. Frequently, in the cold harder light of day, delegates recognise the true value of the message imparted (or even see the charisma of the tutor for what it really was).

The real benefit of training is only measurable in terms of value added, i.e. the cost of the programme is set against the actual savings resulting from improved performance (or increase in profit). Companies should identify what was happening prior to the course in terms of employee performance. Subse- quently it should measure the amount of added value by one or more of the following:

. .

-the comparative levels of customer satisfaction, be- fore and after

-the increase in sales; whether new or repeat

-any improvements in productivity or customer care generated by em- ployees

-the increase in bottom-line profit.

Conclusion The natural question at this

point is: Was the process of empowerment successfully implemented.

Generallv the answer was:

easier to revert to autocratic behaviour rather than to live with the question Why? expressed by subordinates.

There were five major benefits observed to be accruing as a result of developing the empower- ing culture within the organisation:

(i) Clarity of objectives In any enterprise it is an imperative that those

involved should have a clear understanding of where the organisation is headed and their own role in the achievement of the objectives. The strategic and operating plan process certainly ensures that everyone would be pulling in the same direction. It is equally true within the autocratically managed company even though it is by dictat rather than agreement. Appro- priate communication downwards means that employees are aware of where the company

is headed, their part in the

There is no oubt that

empowerment as a culture can motivate

employees to see beyond their own immediate job for the benefit of the

company

process and whacit is worth to them.

The non-directive work- shop approach to strategic planning reveals several things worthy of note:

0 A major result is a Board of Directors all pulling together in the same direction with individual members being more supportive one of another.

.A small number of companies actually estab- lished a sub-level of strategic planning process at maior deDartmenta1 level.

yes. Occasionally it was a qualified ‘yes’ but nonetheless a positive outcome had been exercise. achieved.

The empowering cdture seemed to work best in young businesses; both in terms of trading and managerial age. These companies tend to operate on a basis of participative management and are more likely to embrace the concept.

Where the process of empowerment failed to work the reason was most usually because they were organisations which had been and continued to be managed autocratically. The culture of encouraging subordinates to become involved in the day-to-day operation in such companies is beset by most of the reasons ascribed to the failure of delegation. The chief one of these is fear, on both sides. It is often

This activity naturally follows the corporate

The planning team members see the plan as theirs-conceived, nurtured and grown by themselves and not something forced on them by any third party-to which they have total commitment.

(ii) Involved, motivated and innovative staff There is no doubt that empowerment, as a

culture, can motivate employees to see beyond their own immediate job for the benefit of the company.

It soon becomes apparent that employees at all levels have much to offer in terms of experience, ideas for resolving problems and methods to improve quality and productivity. Often a simple request for input can release a

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torrent of suggestions and ideas some of which can be highly original.

In many instances the practice of clock- watching becomes a thing of the past.

(iii) More effective management response culture

Senior levels of management, often under many pressures, sometimes forget basic good manners when dealing with junior managers. This can engender a degree of resentment amongst those with appointments or meetings cancelled at the last minute. It generates a belief that those people up there have no concern for our problems.

It cannot be claimed that the process of empowerment naturally and automatically produces proactive managers. However, it does develop a listening manager capable of

(v) Employees are uniquely individual If people truly are a company’s most valuable

asset then an empowerment culture must be the current most important investment to be made by the stakeholders. It is a truism that:

No individual starts the first day of his/her new job determined to do as bad a job as possible for as long as possible.

I started my working life in a subsidiary of a large car manufacturer producing x units per day which were turned into U-bolts. Every LOO in excess of that gained me 7% (old) pence. Periodically, usually because earned bonuses were becoming too high, the job was retimed. Ultimately my ability to earn bonus was eroded to zero and, worse still, those less able found their continued employment endangered. . . Of

responding appropriately to staff situations. As a culture it also enables easy progress to creating effective manage- ment and work teams. Team members identify their roles and potential and -are committed to the achieve- ment of success. They are supportive one of another and highly confident in their own abilities.

(iv) The evolution of a total quality management culture

Many senior managers believe that the Quality Standards BS5750/IS09000/ OS9000 are more concerned

Senior levels of management, often

under many pressures,

sometimes forget basic good manners when dealing with junior managers,

which can engender resentment

L

with quality assurance and quality control. They are viewed as overburdening with paperwork and, according to many CEOs, do not greatly enhance the bottom line. A quality manager told me recently that Standards often took ten pages to set out what he could do in one and a half. Not surprisingly more companies are beginning to favour the concept of total quality manage- ment. Their perception is that it means quality in all guises-product, service and the overall quality of management and employee performance.

Empowerment provides the opportunity for companies to involve their employees in the process of continual improvement of product or service offered to customers, internal and external.

course others more able continued to earn bonus; at least until the baseline went beyond even their capa- bilities. Not surprisingly the reject/ wastage rate increased in step with this.

Modern managers must recognise that quantifying the employee’s targets in relat on to hidher peers with differing abilities is demotivational. In the long run output suffers. Individuals have varying degrees of skills and abilities; therefore setting individuzlly achievable targets makes sense.

Clearly companies as well as individual employees need to Le empowered -it is the culture which underpins the conc’zpt of total quality management. It provides a process by which all involved in the enterprise take responsibility for the achievement of corporate goals and realisation of potential, It will not occur overnight but, with commit- ment and hard work, it is achievable, in months rather than years. The rewards more than repay the investment of time and money.

It is the management style for the millen- nium and beyond.

- 0 IEE: 1997 Mr. Long is a Director of Managing Change Effectively, _ _ Milford on Sea, Hants., UK.

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