The patterns of empowerment : an examination of conditions affecting employee-empowerment efforts

The purpose of this research was to examine conditions that facilitate and conditions that impede efforts to empower employees. The research venue was five customer service departments in the regional offices of a multi-state service provider referred to here as "The Company." All employees of The Company had undergone empowerment training within the two years preceding the research. The research design comprised a triangulation of qualitative methods guided from a perspective of symbolic interactionism. Three-hundred twenty-eight employees were observed in routine action in The Company offices for six weeks, and field notes were kept regarding employee behavior. All employees were asked to complete a 10-item questionnaire regarding Company empowerment efforts and the individual's response to those efforts. Forty-six percent of participants responded and results were reported as mean and modal responses. Finally, nineteen employees consented to in-depth, non-directive interviews regarding their work. These interviews were transcribed and coded in order to identify repeated patterns of response among all interviewees. Findings suggest that both individual and corporate conditions influence empowerment efforts. Individuals revealing a pattern of empowered behavior also revealed self confidence and a strong work ethic. Corporate conditions facilitating empowerment efforts included non-regimented task design; job-specific training; management's provision of positive feedback, information, resources and supportive policy, and a stress-minimized working environment. Collectively, these findings suggest that empowerment efforts should be supported with adequate resources and with training for managers who, in their interaction with employees, appear to strongly influence employees' efforts to engage in empowered behavior.