A multilevel model of leadership, empowerment, and performance was tested using a sample of 62 teams, 445 individual members, 62 team leaders, and 31 external managers from 31 stores of a Fortune 500 company. Leader-member exchange and leadership climate related differently to individual and team empowerment and interacted to influence individual empowerment. Also, several relationships were supported in more but not in less interdependent teams. Specifically, leader-member exchange related to individual performance partially through individual empowerment; leadership climate related to team performance partially through team empowerment; team empowerment moderated the relationship between individual empowerment and performance; and individual performance was positively related to team performance. Contributions to team leadership theory, research, and practices are discussed.

A Multilevel Study of Leadership, Empowerment, and Performance in Teams

Value co-creation in knowledge intensive business services: A dyadic perspective on the joint problem solving process

Today, more than 70 per cent of organizations have adopted some kind of empowerment initiative for at least part of their workforce (Lawler et al., 2001). To be successful in today’s global business environment, companies need the knowledge, ideas, energy, and creativity of every employee, from front line workers to the top level managers in the executive suite. The best organizations accomplish this by empowering their employees to take initiative without prodding, to serve the collective interests of the company without being micro-managed, and to act like owners of the business (O’Toole and Lawler, 2006). So what do we know about empowerment in work organizations? In this chapter, I will conduct an in-depth review of the literature on empowerment at work. I start by framing the two classic approaches to empowerment – social-structural and psychological – before outlining the current state of the literature. I then close the chapter by discussing key debates in the field and emergent directions for future research.

Taking Stock: A review of more than twenty years of research on empowerment at work

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/16064.pdf

Innovation-supportive culture: The impact of organizational values on process innovation

The authors developed a model of team empowerment as an emergent state linking inputs (I) with processes (P) and, thereby, with outcomes (O) in the context of an expanded team IPO framework. Using survey responses from 452 members of 121 empowered service technician teams, along with archival quantitative performance and customer satisfaction criteria, the authors tested the model using structural equation modeling techniques. The model was generally supported, although areas for improvement were evident. Specifically, empowerment partially mediated the influences of various inputs on team processes, whereas team processes fully mediated the influence of empowerment on outcomes. Directions for future research and application are discussed.

Empowerment and team effectiveness: an empirical test of an integrated model.

There is a growing belief among some that employee empowerment provides the most appropriate basis for designing and implementing new organizations. However, from a structural perspective, empowerment represents a moral hazard dilemma for managers, with the possibility of control loss and decreased organizational outcome. While there are several mechanisms for tempering the potential downside of empowerment, we focus on two: organizational constitutions and the development of trusting relationships. We present six specific propositions relating to organizational constitution and trust as controls for tempering the potential downside of empowerment.

Reassessing the Limits of Structural Empowerment: Organizational Constitution and Trust as Controls

Research has shown that managing client participation can add value to the delivery of quality services. While several control mechanisms have been proposed in the literature for the management of complex service relationships, they generally fail to account for two realities of service provider/client relationships ‐‐ information asymmetry and uncertainty. This paper proposes a new mechanism, “professional concern,” and suggests that its various dimensions ‐‐ provider authority, social affiliation, client role accountability and objective attitude ‐‐ provide a framework for managing knowledge‐based service relationships and optimizing decision‐making processes for delivering quality services.

Professional concern: managing knowledge‐based service relationships

A distinguishing feature of contemporary organizations is the growing number of internal employees providing services to other employees. General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Dell Computer, Cisco, and other firms have enhanced service units and functions within their organizations. Nevertheless, much of what we know about these internal services is inadequate. Moreover, control of these internal services tends to be based erroneously on traditional concepts of hierarchies. Despite the growing importance of internal services, it has been difficult to assess their value or “price.” Without proper consideration of value, goods and services may be offered at less than their appropriate value. This article introduces organizing principles based on internal market structures as an alternative perspective to rethink the impact and control of internal services. The authors also present eight specific propositions that describe the structure, functions, politics, processes, and pricing of internal market structures....

Internal Market Structures Substitutes for Hierarchies

Face‐to‐face role sending between client and service provider, described here as client‐interaction need (CIN), is more extensive and crucial in some service situations than in others. Reports a study of the relation of CIN to the task uncertainty and certain aspects of formalization which surround the activities of core service providers in three types of service organizations. As task uncertainty increased, service providers reported a greater emphasis on rules and procedural specification surrounding their interactions with clients. These relations became stronger as CIN increased.

Some Moderating Effects of Client‐interaction Need on Perceived Technology and Structure in Service Providers′ Tasks

This chapter examines the profound and widespread evolutionary transformation of the workplace as the economy shifts from one based on manufacturing to knowledge services. 20 th century managerial approaches for competitiveness are becoming a relic, the result of a broader transformation to knowledge services and the need to focus on the building of tacit knowledge stocks for sustained competitive advantage. The chapter outlines the emerging knowledge based work landscape and the challenges it presents for managers. In this chapter, the “proventure” worker is introduced and the new and complex contract in the relationship between management and worker in the workplace. The nature of knowledge service solutions to customer priorities is presented with the focus on collective cognitization along with the active inclusion of customer as co-creators of value-added solutions. The chapter concludes by highlighting a big-picture framework to provide guidance for managers of knowledge services interested in understanding and improving the performance of their organizations.

Peter K. Mills

Papers

Reassessing the Limits of Structural Empowerment: Organizational Constitution and Trust as Controls

Professional concern: managing knowledge‐based service relationships

Internal Market Structures Substitutes for Hierarchies

Some Moderating Effects of Client‐interaction Need on Perceived Technology and Structure in Service Providers′ Tasks

Defining Competitive Advantage in Knowledge Services