MGMT201- Fall 2023/2024

Teams Empowerment (WITH): To Get the Most out of Teams, Empower Them

You are working for a research and development company. A new project is coming up on expanding
one of your client’s business's customer base while maintaining minimum cost. Your job is to identify
a team to take on this project. In addition, to identify the team members, it is your responsibility to
establish the team’s ground rules, roles, norms, leaders, leadership style etc.

You have come across some recent research suggesting that if you want high-performing teams with
members who like each other and their jobs, the simple solution is to remove the leash tied to them by
management and let them make their own decisions. In other words, empower them. This trend started
a long time ago, when organizations realized that creating layers upon layers of bureaucracy thwarts
innovation, slows progress to a trickle, and merely provides hoops for people to jump through to get
anything done.

You can empower teams in two ways. One way is structural, by transferring decision-making from
managers to team members and giving teams the official power to develop their strategies. The other
way is psychological, by enhancing team members’ beliefs that they have more authority, even though
legitimate authority still rests with the organization’s leaders. However, structural empowerment leads
to heightened feelings of psychological empowerment, giving teams (and organizations) the best of
both worlds.

Research suggests that empowered teams benefit in several ways. Members are more motivated. They
exhibit higher levels of commitment to the team and the organization. And they perform much better
too. Empowerment sends a signal to the team that it is trusted and doesn’t have to be constantly
micromanaged by upper leadership. And when teams get the freedom to make their own choices, they
accept more responsibility for and take ownership of both the good and the bad.

Granted, that responsibility also means empowered teams must take the initiative to foster their ongoing
learning and development, but teams entrusted with the authority to guide their destiny do just that. So
do yourself (and your company) a favour and make sure that teams, rather than needless layers of middle
managers, are the ones making the decisions that count.

Therefore, in your view, giving team members the power to develop their strategies and make their own
decisions is the best approach moving forward with this project. However, your colleague, also working
on assigning a team to this project and establishing the team's ground rules disagrees with you. Your
job is to convince them that empowerment is beneficial to team spirit, productivity and outcomes.

Activity:
1. Your team argues for empowerment.
2. Using the information provided, prepare your key argumentative points with your team as to
why you believe empowerment is beneficial. Provide examples and use real stories.
3. Your team can also do a quick internet search to support your assigned position if needed.
4. Be ready to debate this argument with the other team in 30 minutes.

Report Structure:
1. Prepare a 1.5-2 page report (Times New Roman font, size 12, double space) addressing the
following:
a. Introduction: Explain team empowerment and how managers can encourage it.
b. Body paragraphs: why you believe empowerment is beneficial for the organization
and employees.
c. Conclusion: summarize your report.
 MGMT201- Fall 2023/2024

Teams Empowerment (AGAINST): To Get the Most out of Teams, Empower Them

You are working for a research and development company. A new project is coming up on expanding
one of your client’s business’s customer base while maintaining minimum cost. Your job is to identify
a team to take on this project. In addition, to identify the team members, it is your responsibility to
establish the team’s ground rules; roles, norms, leaders, leadership style, etc.

You have come across some recent research suggesting that if you want high-performing teams, here’s
a simple solution: remove employee empowerment. Empowerment can do some good in certain
circumstances, but it’s certainly not a cure-all.

Yes, organizations have become flatter over the past several decades, paving the way for decision-
making authority to seep into the lower levels of the organization. But consider that many teams are
“empowered” simply because the management ranks have been so thinned that there is no one left to
make the key calls. Empowerment is then just an excuse to ask teams to take on more responsibility
without an accompanying increase in intangible benefits like pay.

In addition, the organization’s leadership already has a good idea of what it would like its teams (and
individual employees) to accomplish. If managers leave teams to their own devices, how likely is it that
those teams will always choose what the manager wants? Even if the manager offers suggestions about
how the team might proceed, empowered teams can easily ignore that advice. Instead, they need
direction on what and how to pursue goals. That’s what effective leadership is all about.

When decision-making authority is distributed among team members, each member’s role is less clear,
and members lack a leader to whom they can go for advice. And finally, when teams are self-managed,
they become like silos, disconnected from the rest of the organization and its mission. Simply handing
people authority is no guarantee they will use it effectively. So, leave the power to make decisions in
the hands of those who have worked their way up the organization. After all, they got to be leaders for
a reason.

Therefore, in your view, establishing leadership is essential and individual team members should not
be given the freedom to do whatever they want (i.e. develop their strategies and make their own
decisions). However, your colleague, also working on assigning a team to this project and establishing
the team’s ground rules disagrees with you. Your job is to convince them that empowerment is harmful
to productivity and achieving outcomes.

Activity:
1. Your team argues against empowerment.
2. Using the information provided, prepare your key argumentative points with your team as to
why you believe empowerment is harmful. Provide examples and use real stories.
3. Your team can also do a quick internet search to support your assigned position if needed.
4. Be ready to debate this argument with the other team in 30 minutes.

Report Structure:
1. Prepare a 1.5-2 page report (Times New Roman font, size 12, double space) addressing the
following:
a. Introduction: Explain team empowerment.
b. Body paragraphs: why you believe empowerment is harmful to the organization and
unbeneficial for the employees.
c. Conclusion: summarize your report.