Impact Of Employees’ Empowerment On Organization Performance

Project and Seminar Material for Business Administration and Management BAM

Abstract

This study was carried out on the “impact of employees’ empowerment on organization performance using Veepee Industries as case study” To carry out the study, eleven (11) research questions were posed. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The study was done in Veepee Industries Lagos State. The population of the study comprised of all the staffs of Veepee Industries. The population size of the study was 50. The instrument for data collection in this study was structured questionnaire titled: employees’ empowerment on organization performance (EEOP). Data collected were analyzed using frequency Table. The major findings of the study disclosed that; there are no practices of employee training among workers in Veepee industries; Employees’ empowerment has a positive impact on the job satisfaction of employees in Veepee industries; There are positive result of relevant training to employee’s on organizational performance; Employees’ empowerment improves the capacity of employees in Veepee industries and Employees’ empowerment influence the productivity of Veepee Industries. The study concluded that; as employees are vital as their decision impact to improve or not on organizational performance.
Based on the findings; the research proffered recommendation; The Veepee and other organization to work on the challenges of providing training to their staff as it have a positive impact to performance and satisfaction; and Organizations should also encourage communication from the bottom-up through employee feedback, suggestions.

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Empowerment of people is a major contributor to the development of subordinates by allowing them to do extremely well by investing in themselves, even at the risk of making mistakes (Page and Wong, 2000).

Servant leadership theory emphasizes empowering employees, serving them and being committed to cultivating them (Spear, 2004). Empowering others to act, will lead followers to do a better job, and will aware them about their full potential (Kouzes and Posner, 2002).

Successful leaders and managers help the employees feel competent. Moreover, they usually consider the interests of others (Kouzes and Posner, 2002). Goodly (2008) considered developing and empowering others as the main leadership development factors. In addition, he believed that servant leaders mostly can improve the leadership development factors. Developing others is one of the social skills of leaders (McCauley and Van

Velsor, 2004). In the past decade, many organizations have implemented managerial approaches based on empowerment (e.g. self-managed work teams, total quality management), on the expectation that these will increase employee productivity as well as innovation (Wellins et al., 1991).

To empower means to give power to. Power, however, has several meanings. In a legal sense, power means authority, so that empowerment can mean authorization (Kenneth W. Thomas

1990). However, power also means energy. Thus, to empower also means to energize. This latter meaning best captures the present motivational usage of the term. The word empowerment refers to the motivational content of this new paradigm of management. As leadership expert Daniel Goleman points out “the Employee is a basic molecule of distributed leadership and basic unit in which you can change norms throughout the organization.” In the past, the organizational researchers have focused their work on empowering management practice, including delegation of decision making from higher organizational levels to lower levels and increasing access to information and resources for individuals at lower levels (Blau and Alba 1986).

The concept of empowerment is defined through its different aspects in researches. According to Vogt and Murrel (1990), empowerment is the period of improving the decision making ability of the employees through cooperation, sharing, training, education and team work. Klagge moreover, identifies empowerment as the activity of assigning appropriate responsibility to employees and making them gain abilities (Klagge, 1998). It is understood from the definitions that not only the cognitive aspect of empowerment that consists the improvement of the capacity of the employee within the organization, but also behavioral aspects in which employee’s satisfaction from his or her job and workplace environment is crucial. Behavioral aspect of empowerment can be defined as the period of encouraging and autotomizing employees to improve their decision making skills and transfer the directive power and to benefit from their ability and experiences (Cacioppe, 1998). Behavioral aspect of empowerment means distribution of power from high levels to low levels. The cognitive aspect of empowerment can be defined as the improvement of employees’ opportunity to access organizational sources and information. Another aspect of empowerment is the psychological aspect. Through this aspect, the managers realize that the authority and the power are transferred, and makes sure empowerment applications are perceived. However, Conger and Kanungo (1988) accept empowerment as a motivational concept and define empowerment as the improvement of employees’ self-competence.

Organizational Performance is the level of how the activities serve the purpose (Akal, 1992). In other words, performance is “the rate of realization of the purpose” or “outcome level of the activity”. This level shows how much the purpose or the objective is achieved (Schermerhorn et al., 1985). Institutionally, performance is defined differently according to different approaches. Performance is the level of reaching the target both for the institution and the individual. Some researchers like Campbell state that performance is not just the result of the activity, it is the activity itself. Campbell defines performance as behavior appropriate to the purpose of the organization which can be measured according to the contribution level (Suliman, 2001). Considering the definition, it is understood that performance depends on the personal traits, mental abilities and eagerness to be integrated with institutional purposes of each individual.

Organizational performance can be defined as “the degree to which companies achieved their business objectives” (Janepuengporn and Ussahawanitchakit, 2011). This construct is assessed essentially through financial indicators (such as profit, return on investment) or non- financial indicators (such as customer satisfaction and quality of products and services).Deshpande et al. (1993) and Drew (1997) developed pertinent measure of organizational performance that integrates both financial and non-financial indicators. It refers according to them “the degree of overall success, market share, growth rate, profitability and innovativeness in comparison with key competitors’. Therefore, this study focuses on the impact of employees’ empowerment on organization performance in Veepee industries.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Nowadays many firms like to concentrate on gaining a competitive advantage in the market. The advance equipment, new technology, good marketing strategy, excellent customer services and many other elements can be the factors to build up for the advantages. However, human resource is the most important assets of an enterprise and its success or failure depends on their qualifications and performance (Ongori, 2007). The employees are the repository of knowledge, skills and abilities that can’t be imitated by the competitors. Technologies, products and processes are easily imitated by the competitors; however, at the end of the day, employees are the most strategic resource of the company (Ongori, 2007).

Globalization has opened up various opportunities and challenges for Nigerian organizations to compete internationally. Besides technological advancement, a developed, competent and empowered workforce will give Nigerian organisations an edge over its competitors. Studies on empowerment have shown that it has a strong correlation to employee performance in terms of higher productivity, job satisfaction and reduction in staff turnover in organizations (Ongori, 2007). These problems necessitate the need to carry out a study on the impact of employees’ empowerment on organization performance in Veepee industries.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of employees’ empowerment on organization performance in Veepee industries.

The specific objectives of this study include the following:

To find out if there is practices of employee training among workers in Veepee industries.
To ascertain the impact of employees’ empowerment on the job satisfaction of employees in Veepee industries.
To assess the outcome of relevant training to employee on organizational performance.
To determine if employees’ empowerment improves the capacity of employees in Veepee industries.
To investigate the influence of employees’ empowerment on the productivity of Veepee industries.

1.4 Research Question

Is there practices of employee training among workers in Veepee industries?
What is the impact of employees’ empowerment on the job satisfaction of employees in Veepee industries?
What is the result of relevant training to employee on organizational performance?
Does employees’ empowerment improves the capacity of employees in Veepee industries?
Does employees’ empowerment influence the productivity of Veepee Industries?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study will contribute to the growing body of knowledge on employee empowerment in Veepee Industries. There have been various studies conducted on employee empowerment in various sectors of industries of Veepee Industries.

More specifically, this study is to test the applicability of findings that the three dimensions of psychological empowerment Training (mentoring, coaching and monitoring; Engagement (employees input and control) Trust (access to information flow-feedback) has a relationship to organization performance in the Tanzania public sector.

The findings from this study on the impact of empowerment on employee performance in the Veepee Industries will add on to the existing body of literature on employee empowerment in public sectoras well as to bridge the gap in information pertaining to employee empowerment in the same.

For Veepee Industries managers and leaders, this study will give them perspectives on whether empowerment influences their employee performance. This information and knowledge will, therefore, enable Veepee managers and leaders to have a better understanding of their employees‘ perception about empowerment. It will also help managers and leaders to better manage their employees to improve their individual and organizational performance.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This research examines the impact of employees’ empowerment on organization performance in Veepee Industries.

Chapter Five

Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations:

5.1 Introduction

This chapter summarizes the findings into the “impact of employees’ empowerment on organization performance using Veepee Industries as case study”. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.

5.2 Summary of the Study

In this study, our focus was to examine the impact of employees’ empowerment on organization performance in Veepee industries. The study specifically was aimed at finding out if there is practices of employee training among workers in Veepee industries; To ascertain the impact of employees’ empowerment on the job satisfaction of employees in Veepee industries; To assess the outcome of relevant training to employee on organizational performance; To determine if employees’ empowerment improves the capacity of employees in Veepee industries; To investigate the influence of employees’ empowerment on the productivity of Veepee industries. The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 44 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are active staffs of Veepee industries Lagos State.

5.3 Conclusions

Based on the finding of this study, the following conclusions were made:

There are no practices of employee training among workers in Veepee industries.
Employees’ empowerment has a positive impact on the job satisfaction of employees in Veepee industries.
There are positive result of relevant training to employee’s on organizational performance.
Employees’ empowerment improves the capacity of employees in Veepee industries.
Employees’ empowerment influence the productivity of Veepee Industries.
The study further concludes that as employees are vital as their decision impact to improve or not on organizational performance

5.4 Recommendations

Based on the responses obtained, the researcher proffers the following recommendations:

The Veepee and other organization to work on the challenges of providingtrainingto their staff as it have a positive impact to performance andsatisfaction.
Open the Communication Door: The study has rated this very highly and management should take it seriously. Effective communication between senior management and employees is important. It will help employees understand the organization‘s business goals, policies and vision, and keep employees informed about what is going on in the organization. Senior management can keep employees well-informed through Agency meetings and the use of technology in top-to-bottom communications (e.g., CEO blog, intranet mechanisms and e-mails). Organizations should also encourage communication from the bottom-up through employee feedback, suggestions, etc.

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