What is empowerment - Presence of trust and initiative LO26203

From: Sajeela M ramsey (sajeelacore@juno.com)
Date: 02/23/01


Replying to LO26186 --

Peg and Co-OLers,

In repose to your query:
On Wed, 21 Feb 2001 19:32:48 -0800 Peggy Stuart <pstuart@c2t2.ca> writes:

> Anyone have any ideas as to how to best support "true empowerment"?

I offer my definition of empowerment:

"The capability to make a difference in the attainment of individual, team
and organization goals" (Ramsey, 1996)

In order to acheive a culture of empowerment a number of aspects must be
considered:

 1) Accountability - weight carried to produce results - occurs naturally
when there is shared purpose
 2) Responsibility - free choice made in regard to accountability -
 3) Authority - the power to create outcomes - amount of "tether" for
mobilizing results - must be concretely chartered and negotiated
 4) Charter - amount of authority vested agreement on boundaries within
which results are to be acheived

A charter:
a) charts a team's course
b) is aligned with organization mission, strategic plan and structure
c) helps teams to create shared purpose - yields accountability
d) defines the scope of the team's work - makes boundaries explicit
e) pre-defines authority team is vested with to produce results
f) is a negotiated document that is approved by management
g) can be re-written and re-negotiated when necessary
h) allows teams to function across organization boundaries
____________________________

Sajeela Moskowitz Ramsey
OD Specialist/Culture Generalist
2432 Villanova Drive/Vienna, VA. 22180
703 573 7050/ SajeelaCore @Juno.com
________________________________________________________________

-- 

Sajeela M ramsey <sajeelacore@juno.com>

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