Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

USING EMPOWERMENT TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE
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Bandura ( 1986 , 1997 ) has identified four sources of such information (see Chapter 10 ):
enactive attainment, vicarious experience, persuasion/feedback, and emotional arousal
state. Personal efficacy gained through enactive attainment refers to an individual ’ s authentic
mastery experience directly related to the job. For example, a manager can allocate
or structure tasks that provide an empowering experience for an individual. When subordinates
are trained to perform complex tasks or are given more responsibility in their jobs,
they have the opportunity to increase their efficacy and to receive positive feedback. Initial
success experiences (through successively moderate increments in task complexity and
responsibility along with training to acquire new skills) can make one feel more capable
and, therefore, more empowered.
Empowerment information can also come from the vicarious experiences of observing
similar others, i.e. co - workers, who perform successfully on the job. Very often, a manager
’s exemplary behaviors empower subordinates to believe that they can behave in a
like manner or that they can at least achieve some improvement in their performance. In
addition, words of encouragement, performance feedback, mentoring advice, and other
forms of social persuasion are often used by leaders, managers, and group members to
raise efficacy and provide empowerment information to subordinates and co - workers
(Conger, 1989 ; Pearce and Sims, 2002 ). For instance, leaders may use annual meetings to
provide empowering information in the form of praise and encouragement (Chapter 13 )
for exceptional performance. Through positive performance evaluations, managers may
similarly foster an empowered state. Naturally, this does not imply that one should raise
the performance evaluations of direct reports irrespective of their actual performance.
Falseness breeds distrust (Chapter 21 ).
Leadership practices which have been identified as empowering include: (a) expressing
confidence in subordinates accompanied by high performance expectations (Burke, 1986 ;
Conger, 1989 ; House, 1977 ; Neilsen, 1986 ); (b) fostering opportunities for subordinates to
participate in decision making and goal setting or to create their own jobs (Block, 1987 ;
Burke, 1986 ; Conger, 1989 ; Erez and Arad, 1986 ; House, 1977 ; Kanter, 1979 ; Neilsen,
1986 ; Strauss, 1977 ); (c) providing autonomy from bureaucratic constraints and encouraging
independent action (Block, 1987 ; Kanter, 1979 ; Ensley et al., 2006 ; Pearce and Sims,
2002 ); (d) setting inspirational and/or meaningful goals (Bennis and Nanus, 1985 ; Block,
1987 ; Conger and Kanungo, 1998 ; McClelland, 1975 ; Tichy and Devanna, 1986 ); and
(e) encouraging self - development and opportunity thinking (Manz and Sims, 1989 , 2001 ;
Houghton et al., 2003 ).
Finally, personal competence expectations are affected by one ’s emotional arousal state.
Individuals are more likely to feel competent when they are not experiencing strong
negative arousal. Emotional arousal states that result from dysfunctional levels of stress,
fear, anxiety, depression, and so forth, both on and off the job, can lower self - effi cacy
expectations (see Chapter 8 for a discussion of emotional control). Therefore empowerment
strategies that provide information in the form of emotional support for subordinates
and that create a supportive and trusting group atmosphere (Neilsen, 1986 ) can be
effective in strengthening self - efficacy beliefs. For example, employees ’ stress, anxiety, and
tension on the job can be reduced by managers clearly defining employees ’ roles, reducing
information overload, and offering them technical assistance to accomplish job tasks.
Similarly, the impact of depression and self - doubt on subordinates as a result of failures