The principles of empowerment are developed from those of Kaizen, a Japanese management strategy. People doing the job know more about it than anyone else does. It is the responsibility of management to create an environment in which that knowledge is brought out and used for the benefit of the people and the organization. Empowerment is an enabling process that removes unnecessary restrictions from staff at all levels. It moves the responsibility for control from the manager to the team. It is a move from reliance on control through systems and bureaucracy towards control through trusting.
Empowerment makes the business more effective by making the best use of its human resources. It also makes peoples jobs more meaningful and liberating, and thus more motivating. The benefits of empowerment include improved quality of service, ensures that the organisation is effective, requests or questions are dealt with faster because of the removal of bureaucracy.
Employee empowerment is a very important aspect when considering human resource management. The failure of employers to give employees an opportunity to participate in decisions affecting their welfare 'may encourage union membership'. It is widely believed that one reason managers begin employee involvement programs and seek to empower their employees is to 'avoid collective action by employees'. Employee empowerment offers the employers and the employees the chance to be on the same level, so to speak. Empowerment allows them to help make decisions that affect themselves, as well as, the company. Basically, through empowerment, employers and employees are in a win-win situation. The 'employees feel like they are needed and wanted, while the employers gain satisfaction through their prosperity'.
Japanese companies had not only efficient systems of production and organisation, (the ‘hard’ style of HRM), but had also concentrated on winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of workers (the ‘soft’ style), which in the west had been mainly catered for by workers’ out-of-work interests, and in some cases, by activism in the trade unions.
The ‘hard’ style (below the line) represents the company strategy and its management of resources, the company structure and its system of production. With regard to the ‘soft’ style, (above the line), skills represent all the skills of the workers, not just those which they are prepared to use in the alienated environment of the workplace, but those which they keep for themselves, at home, in leisure or in their own political pursuits.
Up until recently UK organisations were not adopting the ‘soft’ approach, thus leaving employees vulnerable to change and dissatisfaction. This lead to them joining trade unions, behind whom they could hide and feel some sense of representation.
These management techniques directly attack problems, and seek to fill the ideological vacuum with a host of ideas centred around bring workers on board with the organisation’s competitiveness problem, and incorporating workers into the company’s goals.
Herzberg argued that job factors could be classified as to whether they contributed primarily to satisfaction or dissatisfaction'. There are conditions, which result in dissatisfaction amongst employees when they are not present. If these conditions are present, this does not necessarily motivate employees. Second there are conditions, which when present in the job, build a strong level of motivation that can result in good job performance. Empowerment brings out this level of satisfaction in employees. On the contrary, Guest (1987) argued under 'high commitment management' workers would be committed to management's vision, and that management would favour individual contracts over collective agreements as a mean of furthering worker commitment and dependence, thus making unions redundant. Two totally conflicting views, both indicating that their implementation will lead to greater employee satisfaction and therefore add to the trend of the union’s decline. My personal view would mirror that of Herzberg. A unitary view states that conflict is undesirable and need not occur this is the view of HRM and is adopted in empowerment, as appose to a pluralist view which states conflict is the inevitable outcome of different interests within the firm but especially between managerial and non-managerial staff. However, conflict can be kept within reasonable bounds through the establishment of appropriate mediation and arbitration bodies both within and outside the firm. Trade unions play a major role when a pluralist view is adopted by a company.
Carphone Warehouse PLC, a market leader in the mobile telecommunications industry, is an organisation who has adopted the Japanese management style of HRM and empowerment. The company has experienced significant growth since its birth in the mid 90’s. Initially all decision making was central, but as the company and its demands grew, it adopted the more suitable decentralised model. This was done by splitting the, now 500, retail shops in to various divisions and allocating divisional and area managers to each one. However the lower mangers, those who managed the shops and their supervisors, had complete decision making powers, regarding the operation of their store and customers, as long as they were mirrored with the company’s objectives. The empowerment strategy has overall improved the quality of service, increased staff motivation and sense of belonging and most importantly ensured the effectiveness of the organisation.
Empowerment accounts for only a portion of the decline in trade unions, there are several other issues which have also contributed to saga. The demise of the socialist left in the Labour, especially with the rise of Thatcherism and right wing policies of the 1980’s and 1990’s, severely affected trade unions who, in the 1960’s and 1970’s, had adequately represented employers. Workers, thus, united behind, and along with, trade unions as a means to voice concerns where their individual power to seek changes was limited. Thatcherism halted this tradition with the advocacy of independence and laissez-faire economics where there was to be minimal governmental interference in the lives of individuals. With this trend having spread across two decades, powers of trade unions has diminished to a certain extent. Britain's trade unions, therefore, have faced an uncertain future. Since the last Labour government left office in 1979, they have endured an unrelenting decline in their power and influence.
Education, as a means to educate a workforce from an unskilled to a skilled labour force has, furthermore, embedded a degree of power within the individual and thus consensus within a trade union has been reduced. Workers, it may be argued, have attained the ability to represent themselves and for this reason the power of trade unions may have declined.
In line with the above, the actual composition of the employment force has differed the nature of trade unions; namely the rise of self-employment, as a result of an educated workforce it can be argued, has prevented trade union, as witnessed back in the 1970’s, to emanate. Furthermore, the impact of privatisation, as a result of the Conservative Party policies, has, to a certain extent, diminished the ability for trade unions to originate as they are most commonly associated with the public sector work force.
Furthermore the decline to the UK manufacturing sector, which in history incorporated the most powerful trade unions, has added even more to their demise. Globalisation has played a significant role in the deterioration, as many company’s are shifting workforces around the world to tighten up profit margins.
The UK trade union movement seemed at the height of its powers in the l970s, bringing down governments and recruiting millions of new members, but since the election of ‘The Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher in 1979, union membership has fallen every year (a 22% falling membership since 1989) although rate of decline is now slowing. She was adamant in reducing the amount of power that was available to trade unions and no-one can argue that she was not successful in doing just that. Further legislation like the 1980 Employment Act restricted secondary picketing, legal redress for employees expelled from unions for refusing to join a closed shop.
As outlined, empowerment delegates the responsibility and decision making power through the hierarchy of the organisation. Above all this process strengthens the relationship between the employer and employee. Improving employer and employee relations is a key factor when assessing the decline of trade unions. This is because trade unions are a body which represent the needs of the employee.
More and more companies in the UK are adopting the latest and most effective management techniques such as Human Resource Management, thus keeping up with the rest of the world. Innovation and implementation have triggered a trend which seems to be contagious, Total Quality Management is another technique used by organisations to improve relations with its employees and most important of all the effectiveness of these strategies have proved to be successful.
Subsequently trade unions have suffered and we will see this continue to happen. However empowerment is not the only factor that has lead to this decline, as outlined in the report, a strong conservative government has held its view on trade union power, since Thatcherism. Furthermore changes in the composition of employment, such as the deindustrialisation and downsizing of the manufacturing sector e.g. Ford Motors closing their famous Dagenham Plant and the virtual extinction of the mining industry , opposed with the continuing expansion of the service sector and the employment offered within it. The deregulation of the labour market and the impact of privatisation have affected the amount of younger workers joining trade unions.
Macroeconomic factors include, the higher core of unemployment in the 1980’s and early 1990’s and the lower average price inflation. The derecognising of unions by some employers, the impact of Employment Acts affecting unions e.g. the 1988 Employment Act which made disciplining of non-strikers by unions illegal. A more recent example is globalisation; increased international competition has lead to relocation of manufacturing to Newly Industrial Countries (NICs).
Trade Unions will continue to suffer, not only from empowerment but also from the other issue listed above. However one feels that the unions will still be around in the years to come particularly in the public sector. Other issues relating to the increasing cynicism about the corporate system e.g. downsizing, salary inequality, scandals such as Enron, and WorldCom, the growing problem of stress at work, EU legislation strengthening trade union rights. Pressure for unionisation in the ‘new’ economy. Coping with these issues will require representation and this is where the unions will continue to play their part.
Trade unions will survive, and will outlive these management techniques. However, a creative, aware and most of all combative trade unionism is a n essential requirement to meet the challenge of the new management techniques.
Bibliography
- N Millward, The New Industrial Relations PSI 1994, p3
- MBO, Employee Relations Lecture Handout, 02 March 2004
- Sparrow, P & Marchington, M (1998) 'Human Resource Management-The New Agenda', Pitman
- Cole, G, A, 1997 Pg 83 British Journal of Management, Japanese Management Techniques, Jan 2002, Volume 5, Issue 4, Pg 233-34
- Spencer, J & Pruss, A (1992) 'Managing your team',
- Interview with Human Resources manager, Jacquie Rhymes, at Carphone Warehouse Head Office, 20 March 2004
N Millward, The New Industrial Relations PSI 1994, p3
MBO, Employee Relations Lecture Handout, 02 March 2004.
Blyton and Turnbull 1992 pg 56
Sparrow & Marchington, 1998 Pg 53
Mabey & Salaman, 1997 Pg 64
British Journal of Management, Japanese Management Techniques, Jan 2002, Volume 5, Issue 4, Pg 233-34
Spencer & Pruss, 1992 pg 64.
Interview with Human Resources manager, Jacquie Rhymes, at Carphone Warehouse Head Office, 20 March 2004.
MBO, Employee Relations Lecture Handout, 02 March 2004.
MBO, Employee Relations Lecture Handout, 02 March 2004.
