[ 325 ]
International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality
Management
9/7 [
1997
] 325–333
© MCB University Press
[
ISSN 0959-6119
]
Empowerment and organizational change
Margaret Erstad
Research Manager (Europe) Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Trends
Among the many fashionable
management terms, empow-
erment refers to a change
strategy with the objective of
improving both the individ-
ual’s and the organization’s
ability to act. Reviews the
various themes of empower-
ment with particular refer-
ence to articles published
between 1994-1996 in the
journal
Empowerment in
Organizations.
The main
themes are: creating an
empowerment culture;
empowerment as a manage-
ment strategy; training and
development for empowered
employees; empowered teams
and implementation tech-
niques and empowerment and
organizational change in the
hospitality industry
Introduction
Empowerment is a topic that appears fre-
quently in human resource, business, and
management literature but more
infrequently in the hospitality and tourism
literature. This article aims to review the
various themes of empowerment primarily in
the specialized publication, Empowerment in
Organizations, during 1994-1996 in order to
expose empowerment theories and practices
of potential value to the hospitality and
tourism industries. The empowerment litera-
ture is divided into key themes which are
subsequently summarized separately by
subject in table form. The themes are then
linked in a diagram in order to construct a
larger image of empowerment as a change
strategy. The article concludes with a discus-
sion of the implications that empowerment
research has for the hospitality industry.
Defining empowerment
Empowerment has been described as a means
to enable employees to make decisions
(Bowen and Lawler, 1992) and as a personal
phenomenon where individuals take respon-
sibility for their own actions (Pastor, 1996).
The first definition relates to how manage-
ment facilitates and implements the empow-
erment culture, while the second emphasizes
the importance of the individual in the truly
successful application of empowerment.
Wing (1996) uses the term personal empower-
ment in relation to business consultants and
views it as a strong self-analytical tool which
allows them to understand and address their
personal biases, differences of opinions, and
experiences with clients in order to be suc-
cessful in change efforts. Whatever the defini-
tion of empowerment used, the end goal is to
develop the performance and potential of the
individual as well as that of the organization
(Long, 1996).
Lashley (1996) defines empowerment in
relation to an organization’s purpose for
using the strategy. Is empowerment deployed
to achieve greater employee commitment, to
gain information from employees and
improve the bottom-line, or to increase
responsiveness to customers? While the pur-
suit of one objective does not automatically
exclude the others, organizations may focus
on a specific empowerment aim at the
expense of potential gains from seeking other
empowerment goals.
Creating an empowerment culture
Why the concern for empowerment? Nixon
(1994) sees empowerment arising from exter-
nal and internal challenges for organizations.
External challenges have resulted as a result
of higher levels of competition, changes in the
composition of the workforce, and higher
expectations from customers. Internal chal-
lenges relate to employee retention, motiva-
tion, and development.
According to Beach (1996), empowerment
remains with the individual and cannot be
imposed from above. How then can an envi-
ronment conducive to empowerment be cre-
ated? Organizations wishing to instill a cul-
ture of empowerment must find a way of
establishing systems and processes that do
not restrict employees. By concentrating on
what behaviour is considered optimal for the
employees and what they do well, manage-
ment can adapt, develop and change the orga-
nizational structure to produce the sought
after behaviour: employees dedicated to
learning, growing, and developing; employ-
ees who are self-managed; leadership not only
existing at the top; a high level of trust
between management and employees as well
as among employees; employee participation
in decision making; a high level of vertical
and horizontal communication; and employ-
ees able to deal with conflict management
and resolution effectively and efficiently.
To bring all this about, a shift in manage-
ment thinking and management strategy are
necessary. Collins (1996a) looks at historical
debates on democracy to gain insight on how
a radical change to organizational culture for
empowerment can be developed. He looks at
reasons why people fail to participate in a
democratic system and attributes this to
either a lack of education and knowledge for
groups to be able to participate or a failure to
see the connection between participation and