Employee Empowerment

Employee Empowerment

Employee Empowerment

Within the flat organization model, employee empowerment becomes a mainstay. Just because the traditional model is not in place, that doesn't mean that management does not exist. Employee empowerment is a critical tool that can be utilized to create a better environment while amplifying the support of employees. "People are the most important asset. Technologies, products and structures can be copied by competitors. No one, however, can match a company full of highly charged, motivated people who care." (Kotelnikov, 2007). Empowering the employees stresses a few major points: personal responsibility, injection of new ideas, and open lines of communication.

"Empowerment is the oil that lubricates the exercise of learning. Talented and empowered human capital is becoming the prime ingredient of organizational success." (Kotelnikov, 2007). Placing personal responsibility on each employee also ensures employees take ownership of their actions. Personal accountability also breeds interpersonal discipline. While holding each and every employee accountable, employees will begin to police themselves and take into account any shortfalls of fellow employees. "People want and need to feel that they are "insiders," that they are aware of everything that is going on. There is nothing so demoralizing to a staff member than to be kept in the dark about their work and what is going on in the company." (Kotelnikov, 2007). Not only does the above statement deal with personal responsibility, the statement supports the ideas of better communication not only from management but within the employees themselves. As Kotelnikov continues, he points out how empowerment is the oil that lubricates the exercise of learning. "Talented and empowered human capital is becoming the prime ingredient of organizational success. A critical feature of successful teams, especially in knowledge-based enterprises, is that they are invested with a significant degree of empowerment, or decision-making authority." Basically, with the introduction of empowerment and personal responsibility successful teams and companies are created within the flat organization model.

With the empowerment and personal responsibility in action, people within the workplace will feel more comfortable speaking up and having their voice heard. At this point, and injection of new and fresh ideas will begin pouring in, aiding in creating successful process improvements and new policies and procedures. As stated before, people want and need to feel like "insiders". Giving the empowered employees the opportunity to have their thoughts and ideas taken into account can go a long way. New, innovative ideas can come about by just letting the voices be heard. Employees may have a more descript ideas for projects or improvements made within their area of expertise. For an example, if an employee has an idea about increasing the productivity of an area by rearranging the floor plan, others outside that area may see this task as non-value added and not feel comfortable with the prospective changes. If the same subject was to come up within the disagreeing employee's area, it may be construed as a good idea but with the same outcome. Have a voice of all employees creates the idea that an input matters and so called "resident experts" can have their say. There should be a distinguishable line between an innovative idea and something that may be of preference. This is where the leadership and management should step in and create those boundaries. With set boundaries, the employees will realize that empowerment is a good thing, but all ideas need to be well thought out before they are proposed. Using the flat organizational model creates that level ground and enables all the