2.
Can you think of ways Barbara could have avoided the problems her
team faced in the meeting with Department Heads?
As we go through the Case Study we can see that implication of empowerment is a
process add-on for the Electra Company. If an organization aspires to a fundamental
change, it must change the fundamentals. It is a well-known fact that when
implementing something new it always turns around on us. The first day of anything
is not successful. This situation was also experienced in the past. Al theories like
Theory X, Theory Y, and Job Enrichments etc. Had their unsuccessful entrance and
then became successful stories.
Empowerment was originally seen as a transfer of power from those who had more
of it to those who had less of it. But in reality empowerment is the process of
enhancing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform
those choices into actions and outcomes. Therefore a more realistic goal for
organizational empowerment is to actually provide employees with the power to
make decisions, rather than attempting to convince them individually that they
actually have power. According to this case study we can picture very well that
Barbara could have introduced the concept of empowerment at Elektra in a more
attractive manner instead of simply dictating the idea. Barbara should have
provided managers with real training that included actual practice and feedback in
empowering subordinates.
One of the major drawbacks was that Barbara being a consultant (an external
person) was leading the empowerment effort at Elektra. This should have actually
being initiated by Martin, the newly appointed CEO of Elektra.
The next problem with Barbaras team was that the functional areas were not
represented. The team should have discussed recommendations that affected the
individual departments with those department heads before finalizing and
presenting its report.
Barbara should have on the first hand gone through the history and the profile of
the Company in detail. She should have helped her client understand and carry out
their leadership rules instead of her direct intervention and guidance.
Barbara should have provided the managers with a real training in empowering
subordinates instead of merely bringing the formal presentation. Also before
presenting the information Barbara should have had a detailed meeting with her
team mates with Martin, the CEO. Once in has been presented in front of the CEO
then he would brief her about the short comings of the report finalized by her team.
If she had done it in advance she could have prevented the problems her team
faced in the meeting. It is clear that Barbara and her team did not have any clear as
to how the functions of the different departments in the company are inter related
and how important it is for the smooth functioning of the Company.
3. If you were Barbara Russell, what would you do?
If I was Barbara Russell the first and the foremost thing that I would do is have a
detailed discussion with all the Departments which is starting from the Head of
Human Resources, the Finance Department and the Legal department. I shall try to
make a short summary about the operations of each and every department and
analyse the interrelationships among them. Then I shall scan the potentiality of the
empowerment implementations and see the benefits and deficits of it. After
detailing out the pros and cons of empowerment on the operation of every
department I shall then speak to the Heads of the Department and have an open
discussion about the opinions.
A key to achieving this kind of involvement has been maintaining a complete,
consistent, and accurate flow of information about their business from monthly
performance indicators to ongoing strategies.
Empowerment cannot exist in a vacuum. It requires involvement at every step of
the way, from identifying problems to analyzing them to proposing and
implementing solutions. Barbaras team correctly focused on external customers of
Elektra, it neglected many internal customers. Therefore we should accept the fact
that when trying to improvise new trends to organization we should always consider
on Internal and External factors both. Since we now realize that the consideration of
only one factor results to the discouraging of the employees, who are a very
important internal factor for the existence of the Company.
We should always keep in mind that improvement initiatives fail when consultants
lead them. Therefore I shall not make the mistaking by leading the initiative as
Barbara did. The initiative should be made by CEO under the reference of the
detailed report given by the Consultant (Barbara). The reason for this is that
because when a CEO and Department Heads work together they could build a
strong foundation for a change.
Consultants must help their clients understand and carry out their leadership roles.
Creating that foundation includes developing a consensus about the initiatives
purpose, scope, and process.
Barbara should build up a better rapport with the
functional heads and guide them through the Leadership programme.
Another important fact which I should realize is that the implementation of
empowerment in Elektra is not about increasing the power of the employees, it is
about releasing the knowledge and motivation that employees already have.
Barbaras team was far from a self-managed team when it presented its report. Selfmanaged teams are capable of making and implementing their decisions, and they
are held accountable for results. In order to develop a self-managed team you need
time, if I was Barbara I would have never taken a project in a short notice. I would
take some reasonable time for the development of the courage of my team. With
proper guidance and support, the team moves on to self-management. At this
stage, team members support and encourage one another, believe fully in their
recommendations, work together to overcome obstacles, and effectively make
decisions and take action.
