Chapter Eight: Employee Empowerment - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from Chapter Eight: Employee Empowerment, including definitions of empowerment, inhibitors, implementation vehicles, and managerial roles.

Employee empowerment

Engaging employees in the thinking processes of an organization in ways that matter; input is heard, used, and employees have ownership of their jobs.

Employee involvement

Having input into decisions or processes, but without guaranteed ownership or influence over outcomes.

Non-empowering statements

Phrases that discourage employee thinking or input (e.g., “Just do what I tell you to do”).

Empowerment and organizational culture

Empowerment requires a change in culture, but managers still retain responsibility and authority.

Creating a supportive environment

One of empowerment’s implementation steps: building a climate that supports empowerment.

Targeting and overcoming inhibitors

Identifying resistance and barriers to empowerment and addressing them.

Putting the vehicles in place

Establishing tools/methods to gather ideas and feedback (vehicles) such as brainstorming, nominal group technique, quality circles, suggestion boxes, MBWA.

Assessing, adjusting, and improving

Monitoring and refining empowerment processes over time.

Vehicles

Methods used to gather ideas and feedback: brainstorming, nominal group technique, quality circles, suggestion boxes, MBWA, and recognition.

Brainstorming

A free-form method to generate a large number of ideas.

Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

A structured method for generating and prioritizing ideas in a group.

Quality circles

Employee groups that meet to identify and solve work-related problems.

Management by Walking Around (MBWA)

Managers walk around the workplace to observe, listen, and interact with employees.

Recognition

Acknowledging and rewarding employees' ideas, improvements, and accomplishments.

Inhibitors to empowerment

Factors that block empowerment, with resistance to change as the primary inhibitor.

Resistance to change

Reluctance to change coming from employees, unions, and management.

Management-related inhibitors

Fear of losing control, “I’m-the-boss” syndrome, status, old-school attitudes, fear of exclusion.

Employee inhibitors

Fear of blame, lack of experience or training, or not understanding the company’s goals.

Readiness for empowerment

A workforce accustomed to critical thinking, understands the decision-making process, and knows how they fit into the big picture.

Enlistment

Empowerment where ownership is expected, not just allowed.

Rationale for empowerment

Increases creative thinking and initiative, boosting competitiveness and acting as a strong motivator.

Management’s role in empowerment

Commitment, leadership, and facilitation; support through attitude, role modeling, training, MBWA, quick action on data-supported recommendations, and recognizing achievements.

Task-oriented management style

A focus on completing tasks and processes; appropriate in certain contexts depending on timing and goals.

How to recognize empowered employees

Employees who take ownership, show initiative, and contribute to improvements.