Humanities Homework Help

I need help with a Social Science question. All explanations and answers will be used to help me learn.

Reflect on what you learned this week about empowerment in organizations. In this week’s YouTube video we look at empowerment and discuss differences between empowerment and control. What are your thoughts about the video and its message? If empowerment is so effective, why don’t we see more of it in the workplace?

• Begin your discussion by reading your assigned chapter and watching the video above about the significance of empowerment in organizations. Share what you learned by synthesizing your research into your own words and citing your sources. At the minimum, you should cite your textbook and the video above. 
• Next, share your thoughts about the video and its message. If empowerment is so effective, why don’t we see more of it in the workplace? Develop your examples and supporting evidence thoroughly.
• Complete your discussion by exploring how you might use the knowledge from this topic in your future professional and personal communication.

  https://youtu.be/Pd3VP20iiEM

Section of the textbook that can be used as in-text citation:

“Why Is Empowerment Important?

One reason empowerment has been embraced lies in its ability to provide motivation. Managers realize that employee motivation facilitates the achievement of organizational goals. Many motivational theories incorporate the factor that individuals tend to be motivated toward the fulfillment of their needs. (See Figure 18–2.) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory34 proposes that people are intrinsically motivated in direct relationship to their needs, from the most basic lower-level needs (physiological, safety) progressing up the hierarchy to the social or higher-level needs (social, self-esteem, self-actualization). Modifying Maslow’s theory, Clayton Alderfer tried to simplify the needs into three categories: existence, relatedness, and growth.35 Even with the modifications of the earlier theory, it still shows that in addition to basic human needs, motivation will need to address higher-level or social needs as well. David McClelland proposed that we acquire needs over time and are motivated by actions that help us satisfy these need categories: need for power, need for achievement, or need for affiliation.36 And while none of these needs theories are perfect or complete,37 they help clarify why many workers are no longer simply motivated to just work; they want to be challenged, become satisfied with their accomplishments, and contribute to personal and organizational goals.38 Therefore, leaders should address individuals’ needs and, through the use of empowerment, intrinsically motivate employees toward increased ownership of job responsibilities.

FIGURE 18–2 ?Needs Fulfillment

Through empowerment, organizations are able to support the motivating potential inherent in satisfying higher-level needs. Managers facilitate employee motivation through empowerment and thus increase autonomy, respect, power to make decisions, status, and freedom to grow and develop within the organization. Thus, an empowered worker is a satisfied worker.39

Thanks to the ubiquity of technology and information, many of us have become quite proficient at identifying the best value when purchasing products and services. We can “name our own price” for anything from groceries to airline tickets. One might conclude that as a result, the need for good customer service has declined. In fact, it has increased. Once price and ease of obtaining a good or service no longer matter, how do successful firms differentiate themselves in the eyes of their customers? How do organizations build customer loyalty to current and future products and services? They do this through their human assets—their employees.

When employees feel aligned with an organization’s mission and goals, supported to target appropriate outcomes, and rewarded when they and the organization achieve desired performance and outcomes, they do whatever it takes to produce a deliverable or satisfy a customer.40 Contrast this philosophy with one in which employees are closely monitored, given information on a need-to-know basis, and rewarded randomly, if at all. When workers are empowered, they are involved in decision making, asked to suggest new services and processes, and encouraged to solve problems creatively and effectively. In the opening scenario, Brian’s staff is not empowered. They are not able to problem-solve or make decisions on even daily or recurring issues. Such decisions are better left to someone in charge, right? Wrong!

If the office staff had the power to make decisions, a quicker solution would have emerged that would have been beneficial to the staff, to Brian (an uninterrupted day off), and, ultimately, to the organization. However, giving employees power may not be as easy as it seems. Many managers view sharing power and authority as risky and question the notion that empowermentpage 439 is beneficial. We’ll discuss why shortly. We’ll also help you understand why today’s leaders need to recognize that empowering their workforce is an opportunity, rather than a threat. In addition, an organization that empowers its employees may be better suited to attract and retain its highly skilled and trained professionals, thus maintaining its competitive edge.

Benefits of Empowerment

Empowerment has numerous benefits (Figure 18–3). After reading the following list of benefits, you might wonder whether you or the organization for which you work can afford not to empower employees!

FIGURE 18–3 Empowerment Outputs

Empowerment reinforces member participation and growth, commitment to quality, and a more open, honest environment. This results in greater job satisfaction, motivation, and commitment—a sense of achievement.41

With empowerment, people have a greater sense of achievement, improved confidence and self-esteem, and a sense of belonging. W.L. Gore (chemicals) and SquareSpace (technology) exemplify empowering their representatives. Employees are hired on cultural fit with budgets focused on employee team building and culture promotion. They both have flat organizations with few levels of management, and resources are devoted to building highly capable employees through support and training. They also provide recognition and rewards for superior efforts along with tremendous benefits and perks for the employees’ personal lives. Because these employees are treated with respect and have direct access to management, they feel confident and have a sense of belonging and control over their work. This empowerment helps release energies directed toward even greater achievements and subsequently increases morale.

Empowerment speeds up reaction time and decision making and provides speed and flexibility, allowing quicker response to customers. Empowered employees who deal directly with customers will be able to better meet their needs and demands, leading to more satisfied customers.42 Imagine you are boarding a plane when you realize you have been ticketed for a seat that is already “rightfully” occupied. Some airlines would have you deplane and wait until all passengers are seated andpage 440 then consult a supervisor about fixing the problem. In an empowered airline organization, the agent, who is likely part owner of the airline, immediately takes the problem into his or her hands and finds a solution. Perhaps you are bumped to first class, or perhaps you are given another option or compensation. Either way, the problem is solved quickly without management intervention, and the customer is satisfied. Empowerment is often cited as a key reason for the phenomenal success of Herb Kelleher’s Southwest Airlines.

Empowered employees are more likely to offer ideas, exercise creativity, and develop more innovative processes and products than those who are not.43 In an empowered organization, employees are encouraged to take risks and are not afraid of failure. They look for opportunities to improve products, processes, and services that seem to work well, in addition to reacting to problems that need immediate attention. Because they have the authority to act in the best interests of their work unit and organization, empowered individuals positively affect their environment through proactive behaviors.

An example of an empowering organization is 3M. When a scientist there created the failed glue that eventually became the key ingredient in Post-it Notes, he was not “punished” by his management. Instead, he was encouraged to see if he could come up with a use for his “failure.” Wouldn’t you want to get a percentage of Post-it Notes’ revenues?

With empowerment, employees are more responsible, which leads to greater loyalty, trust, and quality.44 By transferring power and authority to employees, they become accountable and responsible for their decisions and actions. Because they solve their own problems and find their own solutions, empowered employees will be more committed to a quality outcome and to stay long enough to see the fruits of their labor. This kind of loyalty is invaluable to an organization’s ability to attract and retain talented personnel.

Empowerment reduces operational costs by eliminating unnecessary layers of management, staff, quality control, and checking operations.45 This was the premise behind Toyota setting up its now highly implemented kanban system in the 1950s, which allowed employees to set production levels to meet real-time demand based on visual signals from the production floor. The traditional hierarchical design assumes that employees cannot be trusted to make sound organizational decisions. Each successive layer of management has a role in ensuring that employees representing the previous layer follow the stated rules and procedures and, if not, that they are corrected by their management. For example, at one large aerospace company, the process of ordering a $2 package of pencils could cost as much as $75 when accounting for the seven layers of management and approval all orders had to go through before being placed. However, by defining parameters, the ordering process was streamlined to allow a single individual to order products within certain reasonable limits, without the need for management consent. In terms of quality control, empowered workers take responsibility and receive rewards for the quality of their product and are therefore committed to producing products and services of the highest quality possible. In many empowered organizations, employees not only take responsibility for their operations but they also engage in activities designed to streamline and improve processes—building in quality from the start. This eliminates the need for surveillance or inspection by a “Big Brother” or quality assurance engineer.

Empowerment reduces turnover and aids in retention. The Work Institutes’ study on employee retention found that it costs employers approximately 33 percent of a worker’s salary to hire a replacement, which has incentivized companies to pour millions of dollars into efforts designed to increase employee loyalty.46 By management tending to such issues as fair pay, involvement in decision making, and trust in leadership—all elements associated with an empowered workforce—employees remain more committed and loyal to organizations.”