Nowadays it can be advantageous for organizations to foster an environment where entrepreneurship, risk taking (within boundaries), creativity and inventiveness are expected and rewarded. This implies a different approach to Management Control Systems and a different role from (senior) managers.

Less control, more empowerment and trust. Leaders have to foster a power that is derived from respect, not from rules and command & control.

In general employees should have more freedom and autonomy in their work, nevertheless in many organizations control still remains one of the important responsibilities from managers. Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, emphasized the importance of more freedom:

The old organization was built on control, but the world has changed. The world is moving at such a pace that control has become a limitation. It slows you down. You’ve got to balance freedom with some control, but you’ve got to have more freedom that you ever dreamed of.

PARADOXES, AMBIGUITIES, CONTRADICTIONS

As a manager you have to deal with paradoxes, ambiguities, contradictions, in often very rapid changing environments. This is also the case in the context where management is still expected to be directing, commanding and controlling but at the same time should foster an environment in which employees are being given (a big amount of) freedom. It is also important to figure out if it is realistic to expect all employees in an organization to be empowered (and to what extent), this may depend on the organisation and its employees.

Wickes describes the anxieties of managers regarding the empowerment concept, they may believe it is a ‘risky proposition and that the idea challenges the managerial sense of identity’; ‘How can I be a manager if I’m not in charge? What’s my job if it’s not organising and controlling? Will I be needed if I empower everyone? But, by thinking that way, managers mistake giving up control with being without control.

Employees can also get confused by contradicting messages like: ‘yes we trust you enough to give you autonomy, self-control/direction and expect you to take accountability and responsibility but on the other hand, no we don’t trust you enough, please sign for the code of conduct etcetera’, so it is all rather ambiguous. In their paper Employee, manage thyself: The potentially negative implications of expecting employees to behave proactively, Bolino, Valcea, Harvey (2010), point out that proactive behaviour in organizations may contribute to stress among employees and cause conflicts and frictions (for instance between proactive and non-proactive employees). Another important point they make is that it may lead to less leadership (thus less leaders/managers) in organizations, because proactive employees might step into leadership roles and there is no need for them to have leaders anymore.

In general most managers like to be in control but at the same time empowerment implies letting loose of control.

HUMAN CAPITAL

Self-development = Organizational development, it increases the value of your human capital. Does your company consider employees to be an asset or a liability? Organizational success is only possible when you unlock, develop and reward the talents within your organization. And that is not going to happen if your employees don’t feel valued and empowered. Companies will pay a high price if they are not willing to invest in the development and empowerment of their employees.

What sets the most successful managers apart? They don’t lead from a position of command and control, they bring out the best of their people, they know what their own and what their employee’s strengths are. People thrive when their strengths are recognized, appreciated and utilized, when they are able to do their best everyday and when they are being coached by their leader and get ample opportunities to develop.

RICARDO SEMLER

An organization that has adopted and embraced the empowerment philosophy or ‘self-organization’ and participative management completely is Semco, a Brazilian manufacturing company. Many leaders talk the talk but are not walking the walk but Ricardo Semler, the CEO of Semco has put theory into practice. He beliefs that about 90% of the time participatory management is just hot air. The intentions are often good but since implementing is so difficult and frustrating, it is often found easier to talk about it rather than really doing it.

According to Semler the biggest obstacle for implementing participatory management are the managers themselves, because they are so inclined to hold onto their position (hierarchy) and status (power/money). There are still managers in his organisation but they are called counsellors and everything is arranged extremely democratically. Semler gives employees a lot of freedom, he wants them to get the job done on their own terms and they can blend their work life and personal life with enthusiasm and creative energy. Semco has reported a track record of retaining 99% of its 3,000-plus workforce.  

The way management conventionally controls is the safe way, it is what managers know/have learned and what they feel comfortable with. Empowering others is perceived as letting loose of control, and many are still afraid of that. Above that, it also makes their own position less stable, it can undermine authority and position; the more employees feel empowered the less need there might be for managers. The other side of the coin is also interesting, empowerment is seen as a proposition that employees ‘can’t refuse’, it is in their benefit. But there are also people that are used to the conventional way of directive leadership and they like to work within certain given boundaries, in an organisation where rules are clear, where they are told what to do and where they don’t have to be very creative or take risks.

Semco’s culture is not the solution for every company but organizations/leaders are getting more and more inspired by Semlers’ business ideas. And it is a great example for organizations of the future. Although he wants his ideas to be heard, he says: “Semco is on the fringe of business thinking, which tends to be very conservative, by nature and design. Rethinking ways of doing business will rarely be popular or easily adopted. But we like it our way, and hope that we will sow some seeds out there”.
 
“You can have an efficient company without rules and controls,” Semco CEO Ricardo Semler wrote in the Harvard Review in 2000. “You can be unbuttoned and creative without sacrificing profit. All it takes is faith in people.”

 

What if schools were like this too?

 
Wickes (2008) ‘Empowerment, Freedom within constraints’