It has been interesting looking through the various comments on
empowerment since Lynette raised the subject at the end of March.
For me, the discussion highlighted the contextual sensitivity of the
English language. I do not know if other languages are similarly context
sensitive. I do know that English contains constructs called phrasal verbs
that are absent in some other languages and present difficulties in
translation, for example "set up".
I would agree with Tricia Lustig when she said "We use (in our work,
especially our work with rural communities) 'awakening the power in
people'. They already have it, it is theirs, I cannot take it away. But
I can help them to rediscover it.". But I would also say that we can
empower people by giving them access to resources that we have access to.
We can empower people to act on our behalf in return for something, as we
do when we appoint a lawyer. Workers empower a manager to act on their
behalf (at least that was the English culture before the cultural
invasion). Managers empower workers by giving them access to the
resources they need to do their work. In this view, the population
empowers the dictator!
Sometimes, empowerment is used to refer to the return of power stolen from
people by denying them their basic rights as human beings.
If, I may be self-indulgent. At the moment, I am in the process of
researching organisational learning would like to quote John Coopey's
paper on "The Learning Organization, Power, Politics and Ideology". He
quotes two constraints to organisations transforming themselves into
learning organisations. The first being the legal and institutional
structures. The second 'the propensity of leaders to crave power and to
lack the self-criticism sufficient to prevent that craving translating
into a contempt for the rule of law and into an unwillingness to give up
power'.
Roy Benford
Fulmer, UK
--Roy Benford <roy@benford.demon.co.uk>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>