Meaning of empowerment (what is it, concept and definition)

What is Empowerment:

Empowerment is an expression that comes from the English language. It refers to a business management strategy, which consists of empowering workers to exercise greater autonomy and power in decision-making, in order to optimize the performance of the company.

Although the word could be literally translated as 'empowerment', the latter has a different nuance in Spanish. Empowerment refers to the process of providing tools to an individual, group or community to reach their full potential for the integral improvement of their lives.

Instead, the English term refers to the area of human resources. In this sense, the words that best convey the meaning of empowerment would be to empower, enable, allow, train or grant power for certain actions in the workplace context.

The empowerment strategy allows the worker to solve tasks and problems without having to find a bureaucratic brake. This, in turn, makes the worker develop greater participation and autonomy and, consequently, greater responsibility and sense of belonging.

Therefore, the company achieves better results by delegating responsibilities, avoiding obstacles, streamlining processes, saving time and improving performance.

See also

• Empowerment Human resources.

Principles of empowerment

The principles of empowerment revolve around the balance between power and responsibility. It assumes that there must be equality in the distribution of power and responsibility in the workplace.

In traditional structures, hierarchies assume that superiors are the only ones who have the power to make decisions, while workers only have the responsibility to execute them.

Thus, if the superior concentrates all power, he can easily become an authoritarian leader. Meanwhile, the worker is frustrated that he cannot solve immediate problems without authorization. This type of hierarchy makes processes slower and less efficient.

From the point of view of empowerment , if a worker has the power to make decisions on matters with which he relates daily, it will improve his work self-esteem. The same will happen with the superior who delegates his power and manages to coordinate and encourage his team in an efficient and positive way.

See also: Decision making.