Reference no: EM13270080

Writing a research and some parts of the research

What is Empowerment?

Empowerment has been described as a means to enable employees to make decisions (Bowen and Lawler 1992) and as a personal phenomenon where individuals take responsibility for their own actions (Pastor 1996). While (Ettorre 1997) defines empowerment as employees having autonomous decision making capabilities and acting as partners in the business, all with an eye on the bottom line. Empowerment is not just delegating decision making authority; it is also setting goals and allowing employees to participate (Riggs 1995).

According to (Luthans 2005), empowerment may be defined as "recognizing and releasing into the organization the power that people have in their wealth of useful knowledge and internal motivation,". He also stated; "Empowerment is the authority to make decisions within one's area of responsibility without first having to get approval from someone else".

Empowerment can be defined in either a relational or a motivational sense. In the relational sense, empowerment is "the granting of power, the delegation of authority". Defined motivationally, any practice that enhances a belief in self-efficacy increases a sense of power. An effective way to bring about an increase in self-efficacy is through active attainment, the authentic mastery of the tasks related to a job (Burpitt 1997).

Whatever the definition of empowerment used, the end goal is to develop the performance and potential of the individual as well as that of the organization (Long 1996).