Employee Empowerment

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about organisations talking about empowering their employees that I’m starting to wonder if it is actually taken seriously and practiced at all! What does this term mean anyway! Does it mean that the organisation trusts its employees implicitly enough to let them shoulder more responsibilities?
A friend of mine works at an organisation where they take the whole empowerment thing quite seriously. He gets to go for some real fancy workshops ever so often and is taught the basics of taking decisions (as if he doesn’t know how to do that already). Well, I can help but wonder what’s the point in attending multiple workshops, getting all excited, waiting to get to work to implement those ideas, only to be told you’re not really allowed to do that?
Almost everyone in an organisation has a reporting head so it is expected to report your decision or your actions, which invariably gets thumped down by kind and understanding words. Yet I do agree that there are times (a lot of times) when you think a particular idea might work wonders only to be told that it will not; and surprisingly it is true. I’ve gone through that a few times myself when I thought I’d come up with a new break-through solution only to be told its not really break-through, but you know what, when you have the idea tossed around and get an opinion, even you’ll realize it was a dud. But does that mean that your ideas can be pushed down everyday or every time?
Empowerment is a necessity to ensure evolvement and the personal growth of individuals. However how organisations go about achieving this is what can create more value. Knowing that your decisions are trusted can certainly boost anyone’s morale and add to it functional or operational responsibilities and you can be more than sure of an increased feeling of self-worth.
Keeping a close watch of subordinates is what happens most often. A good manager on the other hand should be willing to let go of certain responsibilities and test the capacity of their subordinates if their sincerely hoping to empower people. Overseeing functions is one, but offering sufficient freedom to implement ideas can go a long way in building the morale of the team. And as organisations strive to expand and grow it is more than necessary today to strengthen their foundational structure – their employees to ensure that their organisational strategies sail through tough times.