Getting empowerment into perspective: a three‐stage training framework

Empowerment is a powerful concept that is in danger of being debased by over‐hyping. It is important to realize that empowerment is a slowly‐created state of mind, rather than a verb – one does not“empower” by some magical, one‐shot injection. The old,authoritarian, “macho” management attitudes are hard to dispel. Rather than overcoming them by exhortation, proposes a three‐stage training framework. The general framework is that empowerment occurs as the organization sincerely “engages”with people and they progressively respond to this engagement. In operational terms, the scope of a person′s job/task is progressively extended, leading to a growth in that person′s personal capability. The first stage of this process is for the manager, as an enabler, to use people′s current capability fully in their current job/task. In the second stage, the manager leads as a coaching enabler, extending people beyond their current capability, developing their full potential. Finally, the visionary enabler creates a broad climate of commitment in the organization through a sense of belonging and excitement in the job.