"Empowerment"
I believe that it has been a word that has caught peoples imagination and
to that extent became a fad. (Knowledge Management seems to be the
latest.)
It seems to me that the key point is to create an
environment/culture/atmosphere in which people are willing and able to
take power.
I do not believe that you can empower anyone, just like you cannot
motivate anyone other than yourself. You can only create the conditions in
which individuals are able to take power, or motivate themselves.
My experience is that senior managers want "empowered" employees without
really wanted to do what is necessary at their level, namely, let go of
some things, provide a framework for more autonomous decision making etc.
Ian Saunders
Transition Partnerships - Harnessing change for business advantage
tpians@cix.co.uk
--tpians@cix.co.uk (Ian Saunders)
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>