1. Can a manager or supervisor “empower” an employee? Discuss fully.
- Empowerment is a state of mind, so it really mean is that they are changing the work environment to support the feeling of empowerment.
- The environment for employee to feel that they have freedom, independence and discretion over their work activities
- Able to give work meaning to employee so that they care about their work and believe that what they do is important.
- Bring out the competence of employee. They are confident about their ability to perform the work well and have a capacity to grow with new challenges.
- motivate employee to have an impact to the work place. Active participants in the organization, their decisions and actions will have an influence on the company’s success.
2. The chief executive officer of a mid-sized manufacturing company has hired you to design the work site and to make any other changes necessary for employees to feel more empowered. Briefly define empowerment and describe three important conditions you would ensure to improve empowerment among the employees.
Job characteristics – high degree of autonomy and minimal bureaucratic control.
Job meaningfulness- jobs with high levels of task identity and significance
Self confidence – jobs that allow them to receive feedback about their performance and accomplishments. information and other resources are easily accessible.
Learning orientation culture – appreciate the value of employee learning and that accept reasonable mistakes as a natural part of the learning process. leaders trust employees and be willing to take risks that empowerment creates.
3. ClamCo, a large energy company, was once a bureaucratic organization that valued long service and promotions through a steep hierarchy. After several years of difficult change, it is now a much flatter organization that places more responsibility with self-directed work teams. Explain what changes ClamCo probably