Employee Empowerment
...nt continents collided. The Chinese brought worker responsibility leadership to California while control leadership came from the east. The Chinese were so efficient that laws were passed that made it illegal for them to seek jobs or enter into businesses that Americans wanted. For Americans, control was more important than efficiency, whereas, Chinese considered efficiency to be more important than control (2004). Today we see the need for a condition whereby employees have the authority to make decisions and take action in their work areas without prior approval (within agreed bounds). The reason for this is that we now encounter ever increasing global competition and demands for lower cost yet higher quality products and services. With the market rapidly increasing, tasks must not only be carried out efficiently, but as quickly as possible. To establish speed in the workplace, this means many of the steps that take place in between decision-making and implementation will have to be cut down. Employee empowerment will now place accountability, authority and responsibility for processes and products at the lowest level possible. By giving workers total responsibility to make decisions (within certain boundaries), they can freely apply these principles to their areas of focus. When correctly implemented, employee empowerment can be a powerful tool....