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Empowerment

About: Empowerment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 42112 publications have been published within this topic receiving 752953 citations.


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Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the three stages in the relationship between lowered communication costs and the economics of decision-making structures and propose radically decentralized organizations such as the Internet as new models for organizing work.
Abstract: Malone suggests that greater decentralization in business is a response to fundamental changes in the location of decision making; the changes are enabled by the dramatically decreasing costs of IT. A central issue for organizations in the twenty-first century, the author posits, will be how to balance top-down control with bottom-up empowerment. He proposes radically decentralized organizations such as the Internet as new models for organizing work. Malone examines the three stages in the relationship between lowered communication costs and the economics of decision-making structures. When communication costs are high, decision makers are independent and decentralized; for example, people in tribes, villages, and towns. When costs fall, decision makers become centralized, as in large, global corporations. As costs fall further, connected, decentralized decision makers can combine the best information from anywhere with their own local knowledge, energy, and creativity. Malone uses the history of retailing as an example. Mom and pop stores with unconnected, decentralized decision making are replaced by Wal-Mart type stores with connected, decentralized decision making via electronic ordering and inventory systems. The Internet is an even more decentralized form of retailing in which anyone can establish a global sales operation. The author sees three types of decision makers: cowboys, who are independent and decentralized and have low communication needs; commanders, who are centralized and, like military commanders, have high needs for communication; and cyber-cowboys, who are connected and decentralized and make independent decisions based on large amounts of information from electronic networks. Three IT-related factors determine where decision making in an organization occurs or is most desirable: (1) decision information ? IT enables organizations to communicate information to people who have the knowledge, experience, and capabilities to make decisions; (2) trust ? IT can increase trust by making remote decision makers more effective, controlling them, and socializing them; (3) motivation ? IT enables people to make their own decisions about how to do their work. Autonomy makes them enjoy their work more. In radically decentralized organizations, Malone sees power emanating from the bottom rather than from the top. Who makes the decisions and who can overrule decisions will become crucial issues. In a growing knowledge-based economy, empowered decision makers enabled by new IT will have increasingly important roles.

264 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors presented a systematic effort to integrate current research on consumer empowerment with highly influential theories of power, and developed a conceptual overview of power consisting of three dominant theoretical models onto which they map existing consumer empowerment research.
Abstract: To help shape a more cohesive research program in marketing and consumer research, this paper presents a systematic effort to integrate current research on consumer empowerment with highly influential theories of power. We develop a conceptual overview of power consisting of three dominant theoretical models onto which we map existing consumer empowerment research. A synthetic review focuses on three perspectives of consumer power: consumer sovereignty, cultural power and discursive power, drawing from sociological, philosophical and economic literature. These models are then applied to consumer research to illuminate research applications and insights. Research of consumer empowerment has grown significantly over the last decade. Yet, researchers drawing from a variety of intellectual and methodological traditions have generated a multitude of heuristic simplifications and mid-level theories of power to inform their empirical and conceptual explorations. This reviews helps clarify consumer empowerment, and offers a useful map for future research. Researchers in consumer empowerment need to understand the historical development of power, and to contextualize research within conflicting perspectives on empowerment. The paper makes several contributions: 1) organizes a currently cluttered field of consumer empowerment research, 2) connects consumer and marketing research to high-level theorizations of power, and 3) outlines specific avenues for future research.

264 citations

BookDOI
21 May 2003
TL;DR: The role of community in urban policy is discussed in this article, where Rob Imrie and Mike Raco discuss the importance of community involvement in urban regeneration, and the evidence for the need to address urban exclusion through community involvement.
Abstract: Part One: The role of community in urban policy - debates: The importance of community in urban policy Rob Imrie and Mike Raco Social capital and neighbourhood renewal Ade Kearns Community regeneration and the discursive construction of 'urban renaissance' Loretta Lees Part Two: Community involvement in urban policy - the evidence: Addressing urban exclusion through community involvement in urban regeneration: possibilities and constraints Rob Atkinson Community participation in multi-level urban governance Annette Hastings 'Pathways to integration': community involvement in urban regeneration on Merseyside Richard Meegan Community action and partnerships for urban regeneration - new sites of struggle? Peter North Contradictions in 'tackling social exclusion' in communities: issues of redistribution, recognition and respect in a Single Regeneration Project in Blackbird Leys estate, Oxford Zoe Morrison Community, disability and the discourses of the Single Regeneration Budget Claire Edwards Citizenship, community and participation in small towns: a case study of regeneration partnerships Mark Goodwin Economy, equity or empowerment? Urban policy evaluation and discourses of community involvement Stuart Wilks-Heeg Part Three: The future for community in urban policy: The new urban policy: towards empowerment or incorporation? Allan Cochrane Assessing the prospects for community involvement in urban policy: will 'community' remain a meaningful term? Mike Raco.

264 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, debates and policies concerning the marketisation of eldercare and childcare in Sweden, England and Australia are examined, showing how market discourses and practices intersect with, reinforce or challenge traditions and existing policies and whether care markets deliver user empowerment and greater efficiency.
Abstract: The use of markets and market mechanisms to deliver care services is growing in both liberal and social democratic welfare states. This article examines debates and policies concerning the marketisation of eldercare and childcare in Sweden, England and Australia. It shows how market discourses and practices intersect with, reinforce or challenge traditions and existing policies and examines whether care markets deliver user empowerment and greater efficiency. Markets for eldercare and childcare have developed in uneven and context specific ways with varying consequences. Both politics and policy history help to shape market outcomes.

262 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In practice, however, it is a daunting effort to find an exact definition of Employee Empowerment as a concept as mentioned in this paper, and there are hundreds of articles on the topic; some attempt their own definition; others expect that the reader already knows what the concept means.
Abstract: “Employee empowerment” as a term is frequently used in management circles. In practice, however, it is a daunting effort to find an exact definition of it. There are hundreds of articles on the topic. Some attempt their own definition; others expect that the reader already knows what the concept means. What is employee empowerment? What are its roots? What do the various theoretical voices have to say about the concept? An exploration of these questions is the content of this article.

262 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
20233,100
20226,409
20212,123
20202,550
20192,576