Power and Empowerment
Power
Power is the ability of individuals or groups to induce or influence the beliefs or actions of other persons or groups.
A person can have power over the other person only if the first person has something which other person desires.
Bases of Power
Power can be of two types:-
• Formal
• Personal
Formal Power
Formal power is based on an individual’s position in an organization. Formal power can come from the ability to coerce or reward, from formal authoring or from control of information.
Coercive power
The coercive power base is dependent on fees. One reacts to this power out of fear of the negative results that might occur if one failed to comply. It rests on the application, or the threat of application, of physical sanctions such as the infliction of pain, the generation of frustration through restriction of movement, or the controlling by force of basic physiological or safety needs.
EMPOWERMENT
Empowerment is putting employees in charge of what they do. Decision making is pushed down to the operating level, where workers are given the freedom to make choices about schedules and procedures and to solve work related problems. Employees are allowed full control and their work. An increasing numbers of organizations are using self managed teams, in which workers operate largely without bosses. Empowerment is necessary component of a customer responsive culture because it allows service employees to make on the post decisions to satisfy customer completely.
In empowering employees managers have to learn how to give up control and employees have to learn how to take responsibility for their work and make appropriate decisions.
There are several barriers to empowerment. Some managers are very reluctant to delegate authority and many sub-ordinates avoid taking on the responsibility and authority. The causes for such reluctance are based upon certain beliefs and attitudes which are personal and behavioral in nature.
A. Reluctance of executive.
• A manager may believe that he can do this work better than his subordinate. He subordinates are not capable enough. Delegation may take a lot of time in explaining the responsibility to the subordinate and the managers may not have the patience to explain supervise and correct any mistake.
• Lack of confidence and trust in subordinate: since the manager is responsible for the action of his subordinates he may not be wiling to take chances with the subordinates in case the job is not done right.
• Sense of in security some managers feel very insecure in delegating authority specially when the subordinate is capable of doing the job. The manager in such a situation may feel his loss or power and competition from the subordinates.
B. Reluctance of subordinates
• Many subordinates are reluctance to accept authority and make decisions for fear that they would be criticized or dismissed for making wrong decisions. This is especially true in situations where subordinates had make a mistake earlier.
• The subordinates may not be given sufficient incentives for assuming extra responsibility which could mean working harder under pressure. Accordingly I the absence of adequate compensation in the form of higher salary or promotional opportunities a subordinate may avoid additional responsibility.
• The subordinate may lock self confidence in doing the job and may fear the supervisor will not be available for guidance once the delegation is made and this makes them feel uncomfortable with additional responsibility.
• Some subordinates hesitate to accept new and added assignment when there is lack of necessary information and when the available resources are nit adequate or proper.
Facilitators of empowerment.
Since empowerment results in several organizational advantage, it becomes necessary for the management any barriers to effective empowerment.
Arbitrator’s decision. Therefore, the conflict might surface at a later time.
CONCILIATOR
A conciliator is a third party who provides an informal communication link between the negotiator and the opponent. In practice, conciliator typically acts as more than mere communication conduits. They also engage in fact finding, interpreting message and persuading disputants to develop agreements.
CONSULTANT
A consultant is a skilled and impartial third party who attempt to facilitate problem solving through communication and analysis, aided by his or her knowledge of conflict management. The consultant’s role is not to settle the issues but, rather, to improve relations between the conflicting parties so that they can reach a settlement themselves. Instead of putting forward specific solutions, the consultant tries to help the parties learn to understand and work with each other.
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