Employee Empowerment and Interpersonal Interventions

“Employee Empowerment” has become one of the most important buzzwords in today’s organizations. It is the process of giving employees the power to make decisions, take initiative and responsibility at all levels and functions of the organization. Power is shifting out of the office of managers and into the hands of lower level employees. The new culture is built on the belief that empowered employees help in the realization of organizational goals in a more efficient and effective way together with employee’s health and happiness.

One essential factor in employee empowerment is greater openness of communication .Several interpersonal techniques such as Johari Window Model, Career life planning, Stress Management, Transactional Analysis are being used to help employees become more empowered and involved. The focus of these interventions is to improve the communication ability, interpersonal skill and managerial performance of employees.

The Johari window model conceived by Joe Luft and Harry Ingram identifies and measures interpersonal style. It is a four celled figure where each cell represents a particular area of knowledge about the self. The four areas are: the public area, the blind area, the closed area and the unknown area. The knowledge of the four areas help employees become aware of their communication style, behavior, thoughts and feelings and how others perceive the same. This insight eventually leads to greater openness of communication and overcoming the blind spots in ones interpersonal style. It also leads to better cooperation and bonding among the employees as this process involves feedback from co -workers.

Behavior modeling is another technique designed to improve interpersonal skills. It aims at making first line supervisors more effective by focusing on problem solving approach. It is a form of training whereby a problem situation is briefly discussed, the participants are then required to observe a videotape, where a model successfully solves the problem. The trainees are then asked to role play the situation. This process continues until all the participants have successfully learnt the specific skills necessary for the performance of particular tasks.

In the Life and Career planning technique, the career development aspirations of individuals are taken into account. At times people feel trapped because there is a lack of congruence between their personal goals and organizational goals. Therefore there arises a need for individuals to plan their career and decide how best to achieve his or her career goals. The process involves participants preparing a list of career life goals both professional and personal, setting priorities with the help of an expert, reality testing and looking for conflicting goals and ways to resolve them.

Thus individuals who are committed to both their organizations and career goals experience higher job satisfaction and career satisfaction. This ultimately leads to a better congruence between individual and organizational goals. Excellence is achieved when employees feel motivated and empowered and the responsibilities are shared across the organization.