Employee Empowerment

A PROJECT REPORT ON “EMPLOYEE

EMPOWERMENT AND HOW IT IS A KEY FACTOR
IN HELPING ORGANIZAITION”

LEGAL FRAMEWORK GOVERNING HUMAN RESOURCE

SUBMITTED BY

JINDAL KAVITA ATMARAM (GA084)

DESAI VAMINI DIPAKBHAI (GD051)

MAHISURY PARTH NAVNEETLAL (GM075)

PROJECT SUBMITTED TO

MRS. BAHAR MILANI

THE NORTH EASTERN HILL UNIVERSITY

SHILLONG

MEGHALAYA

2018
1|Page
 Employee Empowerment

Definition:

Employee empowerment is giving employees a certain degree of autonomy and

responsibility for decision-making regarding their specific organizational tasks. It allows
decisions to be made at the lower levels of an organization where employees have a unique
view of the issues and problems facing the organization at a certain level.

Theoretical Approaches to Empowerment:

Three theoretical approaches have been used to study empowerment: socio-structural

perspective, psychological approach, and the critical perspective. The socio-structural
perspective focuses its attention on developing or redesigning organizational polices,
practices, and structures to give employees power, authority, and influence over their work.
The psychological approach focuses on enhancing and enabling personal effectiveness by
helping employees develop their sense of meaning, competency, self-determination, and
impact. The critical perspective challenges the notion of employee empowerment and argues
that efforts to create empowerment may actually lead to more, albeit less-obvious, controls
over employees.

Importance of Employee Empowerment:

The importance of empowering employees is clear when the benefits of doing so are
understood. While there are many areas in which empowerment provides a positive impact,
the following five are perhaps the most recognizable.

1. Quality of work produced

When given the autonomy that allows them to make a difference to product or service
outcomes, employees will produce higher quality work. The finished product becomes a
matter of personal pride, and the benefits for both the customer and the employee will
become self-evident. The real benefit to the organization of increasing quality is a respective
upturn in customer loyalty, which directly leads to increased revenues.

2|Page
 Employee Empowerment

2. Satisfied employees

Various studies have shown that empowered employees are more satisfied in their work, and
less likely to seek employment elsewhere. This decreases employment costs and the need for
training of new staff.

Toyota hands over responsibilities of identifying and solving production problems to its shop-
floor employees. They are encouraged to solve cause rather than firefight symptoms, and
management know that workers are best-positioned to do so. This responsibility runs so deep
that any worker can halt the production line.

Toyota conducts an anonymous employee satisfaction survey every two years, and its latest
results show that employee satisfaction in all areas is the highest it has ever been at between
69.2% (shop floor) and 73.9% (administrative and engineering).

3. Collaboration grows

With increased confidence, employees are more willing to share information and best
practices with others. Honesty and openness increase, and this directly impacts the ability of
people to work as part of a team. Participation becomes more active and proactive, and this
greater collaboration will in itself feed through to organizational capability to achieve
strategic goals.

4. Productivity increases

As confidence and self-esteem grows, and a more quality focused and collaborative approach
takes hold, productivity will increase. People who are accountable for their work become
owners of process and product, and energy to do the job better follows. Organizations that
have discovered the importance of empowering employees find that waste is eliminated,
bureaucracy is reduced, and time is spent more efficiently.

5. Employee empowerment reduces costs

Costs will be reduced across the organization:

3|Page
 Employee Empowerment

 An empowered workforce is more satisfied with their job and career path, and staff
turnover falls accordingly
 Retention rates rise, training costs fall, and experience remains in-house
 Operations become more efficient and productivity rises
 Solutions to customer complaints are found proactively, and customer loyalty
increases. This reduces the costs of marketing and finding new customers

Advantages of Employee Empowerment:

1. Boosts productivity and reduces costs:

An expert from an educational foundation once said that employees usually have great ideas
when it comes to boosting p1roductivity and reducing costs. But companies have to know
how they must ask for such ideas and pay attention to the employees as well. Often it will
take an employee who is stepping outside their territory and show the benefits of empowering
employees. Employees who are confident about their input and think it has been valued, will
listen to it, act upon and will be likely to share the ideas, benefiting the employer and the
employee.

2. Having better service:

Another expert who has written several blogs once mentioned that empower employees are
those who can provide exceptional services. He is also experienced in this field and thinks
that empower employees do have the power to make such decisions without taking help from
the supervisor. They also have the right to go and do something else, bend those rules and do
what they can see and fit if they know that it is the correct thing to do for their customers.
Apart from any other feeling, the empower employees will be able to create the feelings of a
true customer service which will yield customer loyalty. Companies which give their
employees the freedom to make such decisions may end up becoming more successful in the
near future.

4|Page
 Employee Empowerment

3. Can embrace change:

Empowered employees are always free to change and challenge the status quo that is
considered quite critical for companies that are changing fast and are driven by environment
and technology. Companies and employees are feeling comfortable about questioning their
status quo, these companies will most probably stay stagnant since companies may swiftly
get past them. By establishing an environment where the employees are feeling free to
question, offer and challenge new ideas may avoid such a problem and help the employers
and employees in the same process.

4. Improves the quality of work:

When you empower your employees, you make them feel like they have been participating in
the organization and helping it grow. They also want to know what they are contributing
towards and if the success of the organization is growing or not. The employees are hence
given the flexibility and the freedom to help make a change in their working environment.
They feel empowered and deliver work of very high quality. Not just that, empower
employees also take a personal ride in their work and do take the responsibility for doing a
good and proper job. As a result of this, the organization will reap such benefits of employees
by delivering higher quality services and products.

5. Collaboration:

Since employees have been treated and empower as essential components within the
organization, they gain a lot of self confidence as well as their abilities to influence the
organization. They will be a lot more comfortable when it comes to changing and giving each
other new ideas, collaborating with other people and in a manner that is honest and open.
Their behaviour will also promote and boost team work and increase involvement to support
the company wide goals which cannot be achieved in any work force that is not connected to
one another. Collaboration will allow the organization to achieve a lot more than any
individual can achieve on their own.

5|Page
 Employee Empowerment

6. Communication is boosted:

Employees do not like feeling as if they are the last to get to know when any important
changes have been made inside the organization. In order to combat that, managers should be
willing to work on themselves and communicate within the reaches of appropriateness, the
staff and keeping them informed when it comes to environment and jobs. The management
has to be receptive when it comes to input of employees and gives them a better sense of
control over strategic and financial decision. Once the culture takes root, the employees will
become more comfortable and share their ideas with management and improve the morale of
the workplace. In return, the employees shall become more receptive to any positive coaching
from their managers.

7. A turnover that is reduced:

It has been understood over the years that people will leave their bosses and not the company
they are working for. The reason behind this are the managers who put emphasis and focus
on the process and their results. The trait will get you more than any stifles empowerment.
The employees should also not feel handcuffed when it comes to being afraid of making any
bold moves. The more these employees feel about their actions and have a positive impact on
the organization, the more they will feel connected towards their employees. This will also
begin with management and serve as the voice and face of the organization. The more free a
manager is when it comes to giving important decisions and tasks, she will focus much less
on the operations and strategy that will have to work on business planning.

8. Clients are much happier:

When the clients have been given a lot of power, they feel very happy and satisfied with their
position. They become more enthusiastic and feel better. This happens to be a key area when
financial improvements have been realized from empowering their employees. The clients
always communicate with the attentive and friendly staff, regardless of their enterprise! And
the empowered personnel will take a much more personal approach with their clients and
focus on creative and better ways to solve problems that appear much less tied to the policy
of the company. In turn, the company will feel increased concern and improve retention and
loyalty.

6|Page
 Employee Empowerment

Other points:

There are several businesses that find enough productivity in their work as well as overall
performance and believe that employees will help them achieve the organizational goal in the
near future. The employee empowerment activities will also have a positive and good impact
on the quality of work, the satisfaction of employees, its costs and its productivity. The
organization will also provide its employees with flexibility and freedom and will make a
difference and a much higher quality of work from their employees. Employees in every
organization are focusing on the rate of employment, levels of satisfaction and have often
been quite satisfied with the performance themselves.

Disadvantages of Employee Empowerment:

1. Abusing power:

Most empowered employees tend to abuse their power when they have been given the power
to make decisions the way they want to. But there is a slight chance and a huge possibility of
these employees and them taking advantage of the empowered for better and even more
personal gain. This also means that the employees may become less responsible for efficient
based decisions they have made. For example, the employee may want to spend some time on
non work related things such as breaks and committee meetings.

2. Interpersonal relations:

With empowering employees comes the complexity of interpersonal relations. They could
bring conflicts and misunderstanding between employees and their managers. In any
organization or culture that we belong to, we have a rigid and high hierarchy where the
managers have a tough time while trying to accept a better culture of empowering employees.
These conflicts could result on any environment where the employees as well as management
cannot have proper working relations. Even when empowerment could provide you with
subordinate employees as well as job satisfaction, it could deprive their managers at the same
time.

7|Page
 Employee Empowerment

3. Additional costs of training:

Empowering employees may need you to have a proper training program for educating
employees regarding assertiveness, leadership skills as well as group dynamics. Even though
the training is beneficial, the extra costs as well as time could be incurred by the business in
order to make it happen. Additionally, the training program will guarantee that the employee
empowerment process will get you positive results.

4. Poor knowledge and understanding:

Even though the capacity to make decisions could be considered laudable, it comes with a
few negative points as well. Employees will not have enough knowledge regarding various
decisions of business which can undermine the success of company and may cause more
interrelation conflicts. Having little knowledge could be due to lack of enough training or
maybe because an employee could be competent when a task has been assigned. For
example, when a team leader is in charge of such sales and feels the need to contribute
towards the IT department will operate and make poor decisions at the same time. The team
leader will also have conflict with the department employees.

5. Arrogance:

When employees have been given enough power, their confidence level is highly increased.
Though it could be a great thing to be confident, the sad part is that too much confidence is
not a great thing either. Confidence levels in this case are far too high up and they also cross
the line into becoming arrogant. People who are arrogant are quite difficult to handle and
don’t take up the direction properly which does become insubordinate in the future. When
you are working with such a kind of environment, it could take a toll on all employees and
once again become all dissatisfied with the productivity levels and job.

8|Page
 Employee Empowerment

6. Risks of security and confidentiality:

One way that all employees empower is that the employees end up sharing information that is
not supposed to be shared with others. The exchange of ideas which are free and the
information which makes the employees feel very important and appreciated will end up
helping and empowering them a lot too. However there is a lot of information that has been
exchanged freely with people through the company and has a boosted and increased risk
when it comes to security and confidentiality and is leaked to all parties that usually don’t
have any access to that kind of information.

STRATEGIES FOR EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT IN

ORGANIZATIONS:

Employee empowerment is a means by which individuals are given the authority to

analyze situations autonomously and take proactive decisions. This installs a sense of
ownership towards the company in the employees. This attitude of the employees can go a
long way in driving the business forward. I have identified six means of empowering
employees in a workplace.

1. Providing the necessary skills to do the job:

Employees can’t do the assigned tasks if they don’t have the necessary skills to do it.
It is important for an organization to assess the gaps between the current and required
skills. Training must be provided to the employees to bridge the skills gap. Therefore,
if you want an empowered workforce, employees need to be trained in the right skills.

2. Granting sufficient authority:

The second method of empowering employees is to provide them adequate authority
to decide on how to complete their tasks. They need to be given the authority to
complete the task in any manner they choose to accomplish; as long as it confirms to
the broad guidelines set by the organization. Others in the organization should be
aware that they have not only the responsibility but also the authority to complete the
chosen tasks.

9|Page
 Employee Empowerment

3. Articulating the vision of individuals’ job:

It is important that employees have a clear idea about the outcome and where their
task fits in the overall scheme of things. It empowers them with a broader perspective
of the organization’s overall mission, vision, goals and strategic plans.
4. Providing adequate information and resources:
Employees have access to all the information they require to make decisions.
Therefore supplying information and allocating the required resources empower the
employees’ to perform better in their job.

5. Building employees’ confidence:

According to the expectancy theory, if employees believe that they CAN achieve a
certain result; they are more likely to be successful in doing the same. The various
ways to boost employees’ confidence include:

a) Providing growth opportunities to the employees by giving them more challenging

tasks. This demonstrates that you value your employees and their personal development.

b) Exhibiting greater trust and support in the employees’ ability to accomplish a work
assignment.

c) Encouraging cross-learning so that employees benefit from each other’s skills and
knowledge.

d) Acknowledging and rewarding the employees for their accomplishments.

6. Guiding with positive feedback:

Providing positive feedback about the tasks done and guiding employees about best
practices gives encouragement to the employees. It also helps employees to stay on
the right track and develop professionally. Handling a large workforce is a daunting
task. However, with empowered employees, it becomes easier as they work not only
towards achieving their individual objectives but also the organizational goals.

10 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Empowerment Process:

Determine the skill level of the employee.

Providing for employee training as needed.

Coaching tasks with which the employee has

some skills but is lacking experience or
motivation.

Supporting tasts where the employee knows

what to do but is still lacking confidence in
their abilities.

Delegating tasks where the employee is

motivated and fully capable.

11 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Few Examples of Employee Empowerment:

Disney – Reward Good Work

 Disney is world renowned for their guest experience, with ‘cast members’ working to
ensure every touch point is magical. One way they empower their staff is through a
simple demonstration of genuine care.
 They make sure they thank
their staff, they listen to them for
unique opportunities to take action or
provide reasoned responses and they
share positive customer stories.
People naturally want to be
successful and being rewarded in
even the simplest ways encourages
and reinforces these positive attributes.
 You could take this further and create a reward scheme such as extra days off,
financial bonuses or special event tickets.

Google – Nurture Creativity

 A world leader for innovation, it is no surprise that Google go to great lengths to

provide a creative and inclusive work environment. Google Cafes encourage
individuals to interact with people from
other departments, promoting shared
ideas for both work and play.
 Google Moderator is a management
tool that allows people companywide to
get involved in meetings by asking
questions, voting up questions and
generally being involved in new ideas.

12 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

 They also allow engineers to spend 20% of their working week on projects that
interest them personally. This is a great way of encouraging employees to explore
them own ideas and bring new services and products to the company.

Timpson – Share the power

 John Timpson’s Upside Down

Management principle has been well
documented. He has been empowering his
team for decades and has published
successful books on his practices.
 He provides a thorough training
scheme and gives his colleagues access up
to £500 to solve customer issues before they need authorisation from a manager. This
means they can resolve the issues quickly and efficiently while feeling trusted to do
so.

John Lewis

 John Lewis expresses a strong focus on people. One way of doing this is to call their
employees partners. A word is not just a word;
it is also the connection people make with that
word, the emotions that it awakens. By calling
them partners, the company is clearly
expressing that there is a shared responsibility
for the customers and the outcomes of the
company. So they focus on involving their partners in decisions and solutions,
empowering them to create the best customer experience.
 Employees who are invited to be involved (not just served a “fait accompli”) also feel
empowered and they take personal responsibility – they know they can make a
difference and it engages them to do more.

13 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Southwest Airlines

 Employee empowerment is a core value of Southwest Airlines. The company

believes in a responsible workforce and limits the emphasis on formal
organizational structure, entrusting decision-making powers to the individual
worker or management committees. The result is positive workplace
behaviour with customers the
being the direct beneficiary.

 Once, when a
passenger, also a famous author in
a hurry forgot to carry his identity
card with him, it created a problem
at the airport check in counter,
where verifying the passengers ID is now mandatory. Any other airline would
first insist on a formal ID card, and then make the customer wait as the check
in clerk asked his supervisor for authorization, who in turn forwarded the
request to the manager, and so forth, until the passenger missed the flight. But
not at Southwest. The empowered check in clerk could verify the identity of
the passenger, an author from the cover of his published book, and let him
through.

 Such initiatives have allowed southwest to become the carrier with the fewest
customer complaints, a picture of operational efficiency with the fastest
turnaround time, never having a history of any major accident, and weather the
recession with considerable ease when others were struggling to stay afloat. In
1991, it was the only airline to post profits. The airlines fly 2,318 passengers
per employee, the highest in the industry where the average is 848 passengers
per employee for the industry.

14 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

theSkimm- Free to Fail at theSkimm

 theSkimm delivers the news in a quick, conversational tone straight to a

subscriber’s inbox, so they can stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the
world. As the company puts
it, they make it easier to live
smarter.

 The New York-based startup

has a fun company culture
that’s captured marvellously
by its active Instagram. One way this startup has actively empowered its
employees to take risks and “fail safely” is through their weekly call-out of a
“Failure of the Week”. If an employee tries something new or different, but it
doesn’t work out, they’re still recognized for taking the risk.

 It’s a smart strategy. All it takes is one brilliant idea to justify a string of flops.
In fact, the lessons learned from failures often set the foundation for a
successful project.

Xerox

 Xerox is a good example of how employee empowerment has pushed the company
ahead. Xerox considers an empowered employee as
someone who can do what is needed, subject “only
to the boundaries of morals, ethics, law, process
capability and price exposure" and without fear of
reprisal for making a mistake. The company
provides “line of sight" training to employees to make them realize how their role fits
into upstream and downstream activities and has developed an extensive artificial
intelligent process that documents and shares knowledge and floor level experiences
across the board. The company also undertakes surveys on employees and customers
to determine the state of empowerment achieved, and recognize achievements.

15 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

 Such initiatives have helped Xerox maintain its position as a $15.7 billion leader in
document technology business for close to 100 years

16 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

RESEARCH PAPER:
1. Employee Empowerment –
An Empirical Study

By Mr. P. Jaya Kumar & Prof. Dr. A. Ananda Kumar

Rajiv Gandhi Arts and Science College Puducherry

Important points:

 Employee empowerment is giving a certain degree of employee’s autonomy and

responsibility for taking decision regarding their specific organizational goals.
 The main purpose of this study is to determining the effect of employee
empowerment strategy which is implemented by organization.
 Being descriptive research study, survey method was adopted for data collection to
find out the factors. The researcher used this research design is to find out the fact of
respondents attitude and opinion about employee empowerment.
 The methodology comprised research design, Target population for the study,
sampling techniques, sampling Method, sample size determination etc.
 Data was analyzed by using Cronbach‟s Alpha, Simple percentage method, Chi-
square method, ANOVA method and Correlation method in SPSS software.
 The study analyzed the effects of various strategies adopted by the management for
employee empowerment.
 The study explains that employee empowerment is a kind of motivational strategy
which gives the employees a sense of satisfaction towards their job and organization.

17 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Suggestions:

 The management may consider the work load of all the employees and distribute the
work and responsibility accordingly.
 Employees meeting can be conducted on a regularly basis. This will enable the
employees to exhibit the various constraints in their job. Not only will this also enable
them to start their view towards the growth and development of the organization.
Employees must be encouraged to participate at their fullest extent in their meetings.
This will make the employees to think positively about the organization and in turn it
will boost their morale towards the organization.
 During meeting, the ideas and opinion of the employees should be taken into
consideration. By doing this, the management can invite innovative solution for the
existed organizational problem. Supervision can be made moderately flexible this will
enable the employees to express their individual problem freely to the management.
Frequency of training can be increased in order to enhance the skills of the employees
in their job.
 Effective feedback system must be followed to identify the exact deviation in the
employees’ performance which in turn may help in identifying training needs. The
feeling of job security can be given to develop assertive attitude in the employees
towards their organization. Training on updated technology can also be given on the
periodical basis. Various self and personality development can be conducted to
empower the employees. Employees can also be empowered by assisting them in
pursuing higher education. Employees job can further be enhanced by maintain the
equipments in a good condition. The content of training must also be improved in
order to bring highest satisfaction in their learning.

18 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Reference:

1. Arnold, J.A., Arad, S., Rhoades, J.A. and Drasgow, F. (2000) 'The empowering
leadership questionnaire: the construction and validation of a new scale for measuring
leader behaviors', Journal of Organizational Behavior 21(3): 249-269.
2. Ashkanasy, N. M. (2002) in a review of Wenger E. C., McDermott R. and Snyder W.
C. book ‘Cultivating Communities of Practices: A Guide to Managing Knowledge’
(Harvard Business, Boston 2002), Personnel Psychology 55(3): 739-743.
3. Bowen, D.E. (1995) 'Empowering service employees', Sloan Management Review 36:
73-84.
4. Bowen, D.E. and Lawler, E.E. (1992) 'The empowerment of service workers: what,
why, how and when', Sloan Management Review 33: 31-39.
5. Bradley, L. and Kirkman, B.R. 1999, Beyond SelfManagement: Antecedent and
Consequences of Employee Empowerment, in: The Academy of Management
Journal, Vol. 42, No. l, 58-74.
6. Conger, J.A. and Kanungo, R.N. (1988) 'The empowerment process: integrating
theory and practice', Academy of Management Review 13(3): 471-482.
7. Conger, J.A. and Kanungo, R.N. (1988) 'The empowerment process: integrating
theory and practice', Academy of Management Review 13(3): 471-482.
8. Ford, R. C. and Fottler, M. D. (1995) ‘Empowerment: a matter of degree’ Academy of
Management Executive 9(3): 21-29.
9. Labianca, G., Gray, B. and Brass, D. (2000) A Ggrounded Model of Organizational
Schema Change During Empowerment’ Organizational Science 11(2): 237-257.
10. Martin, H. and Hans, G.G. 2001 Employee Work Quality and Success of Innovative.
11. Ozaralli, N. (2003) ‘Effect of Transformational Leadership on Empowerment and
Team Effectiveness’ Leadership & Organizational Development Journal 24(5/6): 335-
344.
12. Potterfield, T. A. 1999. The Business of Employee Empowerment: Democracy and
Ideology in the Workplace. Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books.
13. Projects, in: A Theoretical Concept and Empirical Organization Science, Vol.12, No.
4, 435-449.
14. Randolph, W. A. 1995. Navigating the journey to empowerment. Organizational
Dynamics, 24(4): 19- 32.

19 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

15. Spreitzer, G.M. (1996) 'Social structural characteristics of psychological

empowerment', Academy of Management Journal 39: 483-504.
16. Sutherland, Riette, De Bruin, Gidgeon P & Crous, Freddie (2007). The Relation
Between Conscientiousness, Empowerment and Performance. Journal of Human
Resource Management, 5(2), 60 – 67.
17. Thomas, K & Tymon, W (1994). Does empowerment always work: Understanding
the role of intrinsic motivation and personal interpretation. Journal of Management
Systems, 6(3).
18. Thomas, K.W. and Velthouse, B.A. (1990) ‘Cognitive Elements of Empowerment: an
’interpretive model’ of intrinsic task motivation’ Academy of Management Review
15: 666-681.

20 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

2. A Study On Employee Empowerment With Reference To Seshasayee Paper And

Boards Ltd., Erode.
a. Mrs.R.Florence Bharathi, E.Kumaresan, N.Mutharasan 1Research
Scholar (Part-Time) Manonmaniam Sundaranar University Tirunelveli
– 627 012 2
b. MBA Muthayammal Engineering College Rasipuram.
c. MBA Muthayammal Engineering College Rasipuram.

Important points:

 Empowerment refers to a process in which a manager shares power with a

subordinate.
 Manager may empower subordinates by sharing resources with them, allowing them
to participate in the decision making process, and by giving them access to relevant
and important information.
 When such sharing of resources, decision making and information or curtailed, this
increases powerlessness.
 The empowerment is any process that provides greater autonomy through the sharing
of relevant information and the provision of control over factors affecting job
performance.
 This study is on Employee Empowerment in Seshasayee Paper and Boards Ltd.,
Erode.
 The method of data collection is primary sources. The data was collected through
interview schedule. Questionnaire was prepared with the combination of various types
of questions which gave been listed below. The questions used each type are yes/no
questions, close ended questions, open ended question and scaling questions.
 After collecting the data, analysis and Inference has been done by using simple
percentage analysis, weighted average and chi-square analysis.
 Based on the findings the data analysis is made and what it was found that most of the
employees feel the empowerment is not given them. Because in they are having high
return of knowledge and there is no risk.
Suggestions:

21 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

 Organization may work to provide new and challenging assignments to the

employees, so that people get motivated and delegated towards job profile.
 Employees’ participation in management activities has to be encouraged so
that innovation and creativity among the employees can be experimented.
 The employee has to develop self confidence to solve the problem.

Reference:

 Research Methodology by “R.PANNERSELVAM,” Prentice –Hall of India

Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi-2004.
 Research Methodology Methods and Techniques by “C.R.KOTHARI”,
Wishwa prakashan, New Delhi-1990.
 Human Resource Management by “S.S.KHANKA”, S.Chand & Company
Ltd, New Delhi-2003.

WEB SITES: www.spbltd.com, www.empowermentinstitute.net

22 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

LINKAGE OF VARIOUS LABOUR LAWS/ACTS TO EMPLOYEE

EMPOWERMENT -

INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN LABOUR LAWS:-

Labour law primarily concerns the rights and responsibilities of unionized employees.
Some groups of employees find unions beneficial, since employees have a lot more power
when they negotiate as a group rather than individually. Unions can negotiate for better
pay, more convenient hours, and increased workplace safety. However, unions do not
have limitless power. Leaders must treat all union members fairly and refrain from
restricting union members' rights to speech, assembly, and voting powers.

Indian labour law refers to laws regulating labour in India. Traditionally, Indian
governments at federal and state level have sought to ensure a high degree of protection
for workers, but in practice, legislative rights only cover a minority of workers. India is a
federal form of government and because labour is a subject in the concurrent list of
the Indian Constitution, labour matters are in the jurisdiction of both central and state
governments; both central and state governments have enacted laws on labour relations
and employment issues.

Principles of Labour Laws:-

1. Principle of Protection

2. Principle of Social Justice

3. Principle of Regulation

4. Principle of Welfare

5. Principle of Social Security

Principles of Labour laws and Employee Empowerment go hand in hand because of the
following reasons:-

When these major of these principles are employed judiciously in any organisation, it
automatically improves & empowers employees working in the organisation.

23 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Thus, by applying the labour laws, companies indirectly empowers their employee’s rights
minimum legal provisions stated in the Acts.

Various Act/ Labour Laws & How it enhances Employee

Empowerment

1) Payment of Wages Act 1936 – Minimum wages makes sure that

reasonable amount of salary & wages are provided to the employees and labourers.
Thus, it protects & empowers their fundamental rights of receiving basic and
additional necessary pay for their services rendered.

2) Workmens Compensation Act, 1923 - The Workmens Compensation

Act, 1923 is one of the important social security legislations. It aims at providing
financial protection to workmen and their dependants in case of accidental injury by
means of payment of compensation by the employers. Thus, it empowers them in
their health & safety concerns and gets them compensation for any loss which is
genuinely caused to them due to hazards in the working conditions.

3) EMPLOYEES' PROVIDENT FUNDS AND

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS ACT, 1952 – Employee
provident fund is a pension scheme in which both employer and employee contribute
& pools the amount on which govt. pays a fixed % of interest. This act empowers
employee, to create & manage savings which they can use in times of retirement or
when they are broke. The total contributed amount is repaid to the employees when
they finally retire. Thus, it also provides social security by pooling savings &
empowers them to deal with future hurdles.

24 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

4) Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 - This act empowers the loyal employees
who work longer period of time i.e., minimum 5 or more years in an organisation. It
empowers them in their after service life by providing for their & their family
members survival needs through pension & other perks.

5) Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 – This act mainly empowers the working
women who are pregnant & are advised to rest and stay in their comfort. Thus, this act
empowers the pregnant women employees by granting them paid leave for the
necessary period. This act also provides paid leave for the husband also, but that is
limited & not much considerable.

6) Trade Union Act 1926 – This act empowers the employees to protect
themselves by forming trade unions from the injustice to the employees by their
employers. This act empowers them of different ways likes strikes & lockouts etc.,
which forces the management to be justified with all the connected entities involved

25 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Listing of 10 Companies:-

1. Xerox Corporation
2. 3M Company, formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
Company
3. Southwest Airlines Company
4. Pizza Hut
5. Google
6. Walmart
7. Tesla
8. Adobe Systems
9. The skimm
10. Hyatt Hotels Corporation

26 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Personal Findings:

 There are more cons as compare to pros of employee empowerment and it is very
beneficial for company to involve it.

 Companies that use employee empowerment as a core business strategy will find
revenues grow, costs reduce, and profits increase.

 Companies that use employee empowerment benefit in a number of ways. When

employees are engaged with core values and beliefs, and then given the autonomy to
improve within that framework, the organization moves forward together.

 Problems are identified and solutions sought and discovered. Employees see their
values align with those of the company for whom they work, and the attainment of
the company vision becomes a collective effort.

 This feeds through to greater customer satisfaction, improving revenues, and

increased profitability.

27 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Suggestions:

1. For any organization to work effectively, one can consider employee empowerment
by keeping in mind these things:
 Hire smart people
 Get out of their way
 And then make sure nothing else is in their way

2. To give good training to the employees so that poor knowledge and understanding
will not became any issue to organization.

3. To trust your employees decision whatever they take for the company whether they
fail to take correct decision just like theSkimm.(In case of small decision)

Conclusion: Employee empowerment is an important part of the successful operation

of today’s organizations. By allowing the employees to have in an input in company
decisions not only lifts their morale, but more use of their experience & knowledge with
day-to-day operations to make better decisions. This allows the company to serve the clients
better & ensure the continued success of the company within their market. Companies
looking to start empowerment programs should take the time educate employees completely
& discuss the program benefits with all employees at all levels. This will help ensure that
all employees are committed to the program & to ensure its success.

28 | P a g e
 Employee Empowerment

Bibliography:

 https://study.com/academy/lesson/employee-empowerment-definition-advantages-
disadvantages.html
 http://www.forwardfocusinc.com/jumpstart-change/the-importance-of-empowering-
employees/
 https://blog.print-print.co.uk/3-excellent-examples-of-employee-empowerment/
 https://blog.commlabindia.com/
 https://content.wisestep.com
 https://www.slideshare.net/mahi297/employee-empowerment-employee-welfare-
human-resource-management
 https://www.brighthub.com/office/human-resources/articles/123676.aspx#imgn_0
 http://www.managers.org.uk/insights/news/2015/december/six-companies-that-get-
employee-engagement-and-what-they-do-right

29 | P a g e