Employee Empowerment
- Granting employees power to initiate change, thereby encouraging them to take charge of what they do
- Organizational conditions favoring empowerment:
+ Participation and autonomy
+ Innovation and acceptance of risk-taking
+ Access to information
+ Accountability for results
+ Cultural openness to change
Industrial Engineering Considerations
- Industrial Engineering
A field of study concerned with analyzing work methods and establishing time standards
- Ergonomics
An interdisciplinary approach to designing equipment and systems that can be easily and efficiently used by human beings
Designing Work for Group/Team Contributions
- Employee Involvement Groups (EIs)
- Groups of employees who meet to resolve problems or offer suggestions for organizational improvement
- Also known as “Quality Circles”
- Success with EIs requires:
+ Comprehensive training for group members
+ Recognition of the group’s contributions
+ Continuing input and encouragement by management
+ Use of a participative/democratic leadership style
Creating Effective Employee Involvement Groups
- Appoint an EI project manager.
- Appoint an advisory group (including managers) in order to coordinate the process - across departments.
- Recognize employees and EI groups that generate ideas, regardless of whether the idea will be implemented.
- Provide training to EI members.
- Give groups a recess or break from the process in order to refresh members.
- Provide field trips to EI members so that they can better understand the entire organizational function.
- Try natural work groups as well as the more traditional heterogeneous EI composed from several work groups.
- Do not expect fundamental changes in the organizational culture to result from EIs.
