Empowerment means creating an environment where people are equipped and encouraged to make decisions in autonomous ways and to feel that they are in control of the outcomes for which they are responsible.(Don) High staff turnover is one of the organizational problems that managers need to put an end to before it gets out of control because it has a negative impact on the bottom line of the organizations. Studies have shown that low degree of employee empowerment and low levels of employee retention lead to organizational performance problems such as poor quality of customer service, low productivity, and high labor costs. The retention of customers depends on the quality of service, which in return, depends on service employees who might provide poor services because of their intention to leave the organization.
Empowerment can be a very important factor to avoid employee intentions to quit. Firstly, empowerment offers a great promise to improve employee self-esteem and to lower power distance, which in turn, lowers the employee intention to quit, that empowerment enhances feelings of self-efficacy among employees through the identification of conditions that foster powerlessness. The feelings of self efficacy in turn reduce employee intention to quit .
Secondly, empowerment minimizes locus of control and other minor work related problems by increasing employee discretion and flexibility. The increased discretion and flexibility experienced by empowered employees are likely to make them feel better about their jobs, which is to say, reduce their intention to quit. Which measures the degree to that manager encourages initiative, give employees freedom, and trust employees to use their own judgment.
In order to empower employees successfully to reduce their intention to quit, managers should:
i) Explain to employees what empowerment is and how it could have an impact personally. Managers should provide examples of what kind of authority the employee now has in making decisions. For example, will empowerment include the ability to resolve customer complaints such as poor quality food items, cash refund, change shifts without notifying shift manager, etc.
ii) Change their behavior to create an empowered work environment.
iii) Select right employees (e.g., employees who possess initiative and the ability to get along with other people) for empowerment.
iv) Communicate expectations clearly.
v) Train employees to make good decisions and work closely with others
vi) Align reward and recognition programs.
vii) Have patience and expect problems such as wrong decisions made by empowered employees.
All of the above require managers to internalize the importance of showing genuine concern and respect for employees and their work. If employees perceive that their managers are empowering them at higher level, their intention to quit is will be perceived as lower level.
Work cited:
Amarjit, G. (2011). The Effects of Empowerment and Transformational Leadership on Employee Intentions to Quit:A Study of Restaurant Workers in India. International Journal of Management, 28.
Don Morgan. Organizational Empowerment. Retrived from http://www.morganmanagementconsulting.com/org_empowerment.html
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