TEAMWORK AND EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

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Empowerment means giving people authority to make decisions based on what they feel is right, have control over their work, take risks and learn from mistakes, and promote change (Evans and Lindsay, 2008). Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behaves, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. This means leaders and managers relinquishing some of their powers that they previously held in terms of decision-making. Empowerment diffuses decision making to employees so that employees make decisions regarding what they do and how they do it. Empowering employees is giving employees ownership of their jobs. Empowered employees are given ownership of the processes they are responsible for and the products or services generated by those services. Organizations may empower their employees by encouraging them to set their own goals, judge their own performance and take responsibility for their actions. Empowerment builds confidence in workers by showing them that the company has confidence in their ability to make decision on their own. Empowered employees take pride in their work and the resulting products or services produced by it. It helps generate a commitment to the organization and develop a sense of pride. It presents an opportunity to employees to develop them and advance their careers. It allows employees to use their skills and talents to the maximum, and hence promotes the spirit of self -determination.

The role of employee empowerment in total quality management (T.Q.M)

The basic philosophy of total quality management is to involve every employee in the organization along with its suppliers and distributers to improve quality and thus enhance customer satisfaction. Employee involvement is very important in any T.Q.M initiative, as it is a system wherein employees are encouraged to use their expertise and knowledge to suggest methods for improvements in their work areas. These suggestions could relate to improvements in the job, the product, the work atmosphere or the company as a whole. Many companies have ventured into a participation-style of management by involving employees in the problem solving and decision making processes. While the actual practice of employee empowerment varies across organizations, empowerment is based on the concept of job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enrichment involves increasing the depth of the job to include responsibilities that have traditionally been carried out at higher levels of the organization.

Benefits of employee empowerment

Some of the benefits of empowering employees include;

�  Improved morale       

Involving employees in decisions and policy changes that directly affect their job while also empowering employees to be more autonomous greatly improves company morale at large.  

�  Increased productivity

Quality management practices also translate into increased productivity

�  Team cohesion

Employee empowerment fosters better relationships between employees and with their managers, as employees that are given more independence tend to form better working relationships.

�  Innovation

Employee empowerment cultivates innovation as employees that have a stake in company growth and sustainability will offer more ideas and problem solving solutions when solutions arise.

Principles of employee empowerment

1) Demonstrate that you value people- your regard for people shines through in all of your action and words. Your goal is to ensure and show your appreciation for each person's unique value.

2) Share leadership vision- help people feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves and their individual jobs.

3) Share goals and direction- share the most common and important goals and direction for your group.

4) Trust people- trust the intention of the people to do the right thing, make the right decision, and make choices that still work.

5) Provide information for decision making- make certain that you have given people or made sure that they have access to all of the information they need to make thoughtful decisions.

6) Delegate authority and impact opportunity, not just more work- don't just delegate the drudge work,delegate some of the fun stuff too.

Role of teamwork

Definition of a team

A team is defined as a group of people with a common, collective goal. This goal aspect is very critical in the team. An example of teamwork succeeding over individualism is the No Name Defence of the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League during the early years of the franchise. In this team no member stood out above the others. In fact, although it was arguably the best defences in the league at the time, individual team members were not well known hence the name No Name Defence.

Teamwork is a fundamental element of total quality because it is organizations not individuals that produce products and provide services. This consequently makes peak performance and continual improvements are ground, not individual endeavors.

The Need for Teams

In the above example, the team's ability was more than the sum of the abilities of individual members. This is the major reason for advocating teamwork. The rationale for teamwork therefore is:

�  Teams satisfy the human social need to belong

�  It promotes better communication

�  It multiplies the potential of individual members

�  It produces positive peer pressure

Team excellence and performance

Teamwork is not a magic cure -all. Poorly run teams can do more damage to an organizations performance and corresponding competitiveness than having no teams at all. Thus, excellence is an overriding goal for the organization. This excellence is attributable to team leaders who posses the following characteristics:

v Trust -team leader should build trust among their team members and between themselves and team members as people will not work well with people they do not trust

v Mutual support- individuals depend on each other to get the jobs of the team done. Members should therefore be supportively willing and able to assist each other in achieving peak performance.

v Accountability-self assessment of team performance is a constant as is continual improvement

v Reinforcement- wise team leaders reinforce team positive behaviors and attitudes by recognizing and rewarding them.

Building teams and making them work

Part of building a successful team is choosing team members wisely. It involves strategies for selecting team members, naming officers, creating a mission statement and developing collegial relations among team members.

Makeup and size of members

Teams should be composed of those people who are most likely to able to satisfy the team's mission efficiently and effectively. The appropriate makeup of a team depends in part on the type of team in question (whether it is departmental improvement, process improvement, or task force or project oriented). Departmental improvement teams such as quality circles are made up of employees of a given department. However, process improvement teams and task forces typically cross departmental lines.

The membership of such teams should be open to any level of employee-management,    supervisors and hourly wage earners. A good rule of thumb is that the greater the mix, the better.

Choosing team members

When putting together a team, the first step is to identify all potential team members. This is important because there will often be more potential team members than the number of members actually needed (12 members maximum). After the list has been compiled, volunteers can be solicited and actual team members selected from among those who volunteer, care should be taken to ensure a broad mix.

Developing Collegial Relationships

A team works most effectively when individual team members form positive, mutually supportive peer relationships. These are collegial relationships, and they can be the difference between a high-performance team and a mediocre one. The following are strategies for building collegial relationships among team members:

�  Help team members understand the importance of honesty, reliability and trustworthiness

�  Help team members develop mutual confidence in their work ability

�  Help them understand pressures to which other team members are subjected

Effective teamwork is built on competence, trust, communication, and mutual support and resources should be channeled to improve these.

Promoting Diversity in Teams

The workplace today is dominated by women and minorities coming from different cultures and backgrounds. Consequently, they are likely to have different values and outlooks. This situation can be good or bad, depending on how it is handled. Dealing with diversity in a way that makes it a strength is called managing diversity.

When diversity is properly managed, impediments to women and minorities that exist in workplaces can be eliminated. By working together in well-supervised teams that include women and men, young and old, minorities and non- minorities, employees can learn how to realize the full potential of diversity. Diversity in teamwork can be promoted by applying the following strategies:

v  Continually assess circumstances. Is communication among diverse team members positive? Do bias and stereotyping exist among team members? Do minorities and nonminority with comparable jobs and qualifications earn comparable wages? Factors that might undermine harmonious teamwork should be anticipated, identified and handled.

v  Give team members opportunities to learn. Education and training aimed at promoting sensitivity to and appreciation of human differences should be provided. Such training should also help team members overcome the stereotyping assumptions that society in general seems to promote.

Character traits and team work

Character building is part of a team building program. Participants in each group contribute to team success or failure. There is a strong correlation between composite data of a successful group and an unsuccessful group. The traits of teamwork are as follows.

1.       Honesty and integrity-to build trust, team members must be honest to each other. Honesty is a cornerstone of trust and trust is a cornerstone of teamwork.

2.       Selflessness-this character trait means that the people are willing to put the team interests ahead of their own. A team can move only as fast as the slowest member. This means that there will always be a member who will get out in front of the pack unless they rein themselves in.

3.       Dependability-people who are dependable consistently do what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it and how they are supposed to do it.

4.       Enthusiasm-the concept of team spirit isreal.people that is enthusiastic about their work typically do it better.

TEAMS ARE COACHED, NOT BOSSED

If employees are going to be expected to work together as a team, managers and supervisors are to realize that teams are coached-they are not bossed.

Bossing in traditional sense involved planning work, giving orders, monitoring programs and evaluating performances. Coaches on the other hand are facilitators of team development and continually improved performance. This philosophy is translated into every day behavior in several ways. These include:

�         Coaches give their team a clearly defined character.

�         Coaches make team development and team building a constant activity.

�         Coaches are mentors.

MENTORING

Good coaches are mentors. This means they establish a helping, caring, nurturing, relationship, with team members. Developing capabilities of team members, improving the contribution individuals make to the team and helping team members advance their career. According to David Cottrell, effective mentors help team members by:

�         Developing their job-related competence.

�         Building character.

�         Teaching them the corporate culture.

�         Teaching them how to get things done in the organization.

�         Helping them understand other people and their view point.

   MUTUAL RESPECT

It is important for team members to respect their coach, for the coach to respect his or her team members, and for the team members to respect each other. Respect is built on the following factors:

1.       Trust made tangible-trust is built by setting the example, sharing information and explaining personal motives.

2.       Appreciation of people as assets-appreciation of people is shown by respecting their thoughts, feelings, values and fears.

3.       Communication that is clear and candid-communication can be made clear and candid if coaches observe and listen.

REWARDING TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

An organizations attempt to institutionalize teamwork will fail unless it includes implementation of an appropriate compensation system: in other words if you want teamwork to work, make it pay. The most successful compensation systems combine both individual and team pay.

COMPONENTS OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL COMPENSATION SYSTEM

                                                   I.            Base individual compensation

                                                 II.            Individual incentive compensation

                                               III.            Team-based incentive compensation.

    

 STRUCTURAL INHIBITORS OF TEAMWORK

In an article for Quality Digest, Michael Donovan describes some of the structural inhibitors to effective teamwork that are commonly found in organizations:

           I.            Unit structure-teams work best in a cross-functional environment as opposed to the traditional functional-unit environment.

         II.            Accountability-in traditional organization employees feel accountable to management. This perception can undermine teamwork.

       III.            Unit goals-traditional organizations are task oriented and their unit goals reflect this orientation.

Resolution strategies for team conflicts

Conflict will occur in even in the best teams, even when all team members agree on a goal they can still disagree on how best to accomplish it. Team leaders and members can apply these strategies for preventing and resolving team conflicts;

�         Plan and work to establish a culture where individuality and dissent are in balance with teamwork and cooperation.

�         Establish clear criteria for deciding when decisions will be made by individuals and when they will be made by teams

�         Don't allow individuals to build personal empires or to use organization to advance personal agenda.

CONCLUSION

In the above discussion it can be concluded that empowering employees is empowering the organization, as such employee empowerment should be totally and collectively embraced to ensure that the organization is steered to greater and maximum success in the achievement of its goals and objectives.

Teamwork also ensures collective responsibility within the organization and eliminates back passing.