This essay addresses the need for team empowerment.
Through the process of writing this paper, I learned how to identfy team empowerment, the four dimensions of team empowerment, and how the organizational hierarchy affects team empowerment. I learned that empowering a team takes time and is a process that can take a lot of energy to be effective. I had to learn and address flattening the hierarchy by empowering the entire group.
Team Empowerment Essay
Introduction
“Highly empowered teams are more effective than less empowered teams.” (Jordan
Team Empowerment
In order to understand why empowerment is important, one must understand what empowerment is. According to Rothwell (2010), “The concept of empowerment is the process of enhancing the capabilities and influence of individuals and groups.” If team a team doesn’t feel as if they have what it takes to succeed, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a team to achieve its goal successfully. The team must know that its objective is worthwhile. Sutherland (2005) made the following statement:
Empowerment is the ability of a team to make decisions about how to do their work and execute on those decisions without outside interference. If a team is empowered, then it will be more capable of responding to change, and it will be able to focus on manifesting the members' creative potential. Empowerment is not any one thing, but comes from a combination of several factors. (Sutherland, 2005 Pg. 7)
The Four Dimensions of Team Empowerment
There are four dimensions of team empowerment. The four dimensions are: potency, meaningfulness, autonomy, and impact. The fist dimension, group potency, is the belief amongst the members of the team that they have what it takes to be effective. A team whose members exude confidence typically see better results than teams without confidence. (Jordan et al., 2002).
Meaningfulness is the second dimension of team empowerment. This is the teams understanding that what they are attempting to accomplish is worth their time and effort. Cynicism can cause the attitudes of the team members to change into an attitude of despair. Optimism, on the other hand, can combat the cancer like affect cynicism has on the team. (Rothwell, J. D., 2010)
Autonomy is the third dimension of team empowerment. This is the perception of how much freedom or individual decisions make up the team. This interdependent attitude means that no one individual is able to help make choices or decisions that affect with the entire team, as all members make decisions together. Romig (1996) states that, “Teams with a great deal of member autonomy and with limited supervision are far more effective than teams with virtually unlimited autonomy.”
Impact is the fourth and final dimension of team empowerment. This is the amount of significance outsiders perceive about the work done by the team. Impact is most often associated with change created by the team, but readily apparent to the outsiders. If a team proposes changes and those suggestions are ignored, the perception is that the team’s opinion is not valued by the establishment. (Rothwell J. D., 2010)
Organizational Hierarchy
History has come to show that organizations have been predominantly hierarchical. Hierarchy provides structure and stability to an organization, which is essential to making it effective; however, hierarchy can be seen as an enemy of empowerment. (Kelley & Littman, 2001). The hierarchy is generally illustrated as a pyramid. The board is in absolute control, followed by the president, vice-president, etc., in that order. The purpose of empowerment is to make the flow of information and communication better serve the organization as a whole. By flattening the structure of the hierarchy, the organization is empowered and ultimately provides for a happier, more fulfilled group of people. (Sutherland, J., 2005)
Conclusion
The areas explored in this essay were: identifying team empowerment, the four dimensions of team empowerment, and how organizational hierarchy affects team empowerment. Empowering a team is a process that can sometimes take a great deal of time and effort. In order for a group to be its most effective, it must strive to empower its members. A major step towards this end would include flattening the hierarchy by empowering the entire group and making full use of the four dimensions of team empowerment.
References
Kelly, T., & Littman, J. (2001) The Art of Innovation. New York
Romig, D. (1996) Breakthrough teamwork: Out-standing results using structured teamwork. Chicago
Rothwell, J. D. (2010) In Mixed Company – Communicating in Small Groups and Teams Wadsworth
Sutherland, J. (2005) Empower the Team. Berteig Press.
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