Empowerment and Innovation: Managers, Principles and Reflective Practice

A round-up of the best book reviews recently published by Emerald.

Empowerment and Innovation: Managers, Principles and Reflective Practice

Martin Beirne, Edward Elgar, 2006

Empowerment and Innovation: Managers, Principles and Reflective Practicehas been written to help managers who want to convert the concept of employee empowerment into reality.

Some people view empowerment as a way of realizing the value of untapped human resources. Others see it as a way of advancing fairness and consensus in the workplace. For Beirne, empowerment is essentially about collective influence and sharing knowledge, insight and experience to improve organizational performance.

He places empowerment in a social and organizational context, and attempts to connect theory, evidence and practice. Although it is a slim volume, it is thorough in its coverage. The author is an academic and he has produced an academic text, with 14 pages of references. However, although it is not a“how to” nor a “quick guide” book, neither is it difficult to read.

The opening chapter examines whether an era of consensus management is possible. The first section reviews the prescriptive images and pronouncements regarding empowerment, with the second section examining the location of “power”in empowerment.

The book then examines contemporary developments and focuses on existing research, from theoretical through to case study. A quick summary could be that the reported successes are not always what they claim to be, but neither are the reported failures. This part concentrates on the linkage to scrutinizing,thinking and reflecting, building upon the emerging tendency to cultivate analytical and interpretive capabilities through critical management studies.

Three chapters examine team working, technology, structures, culture,management and innovation. Noticeable in the critique is the recurrence of the theme of tension between traditional management policies and practices (and associated power) and empowerment and innovation initiatives. The closure of Volvo’s team-based facility at Uddevalla, Sweden, despite indicators showing both positive and superior returns, is especially instructive in showing how organizational politics, as well as traditional management ideas and values,can work against innovative practitioners.

One concern of the author is that the perceived failures of management actions in the past generate obstacles and constraints for the present and future. The danger is that the failures are better known than the successes,leading people to question or challenge innovations rather than to commit themselves wholeheartedly.

The book goes on to examine the available support for those with a positive outlook, recognizing the managerial challenge of aligning principles and ambitions with situated learning and sustainable collaboration. There is, as the author says, “down-to-earth guidance about what helps and hinders”that is drawn from the case material from the early chapters.

The final chapter examines public policy and the regulatory framework through which voluntary commitments to empowerment are articulated.

There is a pleasing, positive tone to the book. Clearly the author believes that the quality of work life needs to be improved and that innovative management approaches are a means to do so. Given the power of entrenched management thinking, it is probable that practising managers seeking to improve their organizations will continue to be thwarted in their actions for some time to come. There is a need for policy makers to give greater guidance to senior executives and for researchers to focus on an applied-research agenda to support such initiatives. It is likely that these groups will be the main readership for this book. Notwithstanding, there is much here for progressive managers, and it is for them that the book has been written. All will benefit from the insights found through this deep examination of the subject.

Reviewed by David Cromb,Queensland Transport, Australia.

A version of this review was originally published in Leadership &Organization Development Journal, Vol. 28 No. 1, 2007.