“No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it. ~Jack Welch, General Electric

Read now to learn more about what makes empowerment the new buzz word, in the changing participative style of management.

Undeniably, empowering employees is closely knit to creating a company culture that people love. When people work in a nurturing environment, they deliver better results, and therefore make customers happy. What is key to developing a culture focused on empowering your employees is understanding the contribution of each worker, and their role in taking care of the needs of the customers they serve.

So, just how do you go about building up to empowering your employees? From an employee perspective, empowerment is the process that enables individuals to think, behave, act, control work and make decisions in autonomous ways. While leaders and managers relinquish some of their authority over decision-making; empowerment diffuses these responsibilities, so the ownership is now on the employees to set goals, critique their performance and take pride in their work. Now when this is tied in to developing and supporting the advancement of the employee’s careers, every individual begins to use their skills to the maximum, promoting the overall spirit of accountability.

Dr W. Edwards Deming, the father of Total Quality Management, was a strong advocate of creating a positive environment for employees. According to him, the management’s overall aim should be ‘to create a system in which everybody may take joy in his or her work.

Of the 14 principles of TQM advocated by Dr Deming, 9 are centred around employee empowerment- from instituting on-the-job trainings, vigorous education and self-improvement programs to creating an environment without barriers and fear. The principles advocate an employee model which encourages active participation in the transformation process.