Abstract
Empowerment is an approach that provides employees to participate in the management, control the processes, and decide about the problems by taking initiatives. Employee empowerment is important to develop service quality, respond faster to customer needs, ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty, and provide competitive advantage to the organization. In this context in the tourism sector where service presentation and consumption take place in a direct relationship with the customer, employees should be empowered. In this chapter, definition and importance of employee empowerment, employee empowerment approaches, concepts about the employee empowerment, employee empowerment elements, methods that enable employee empowerment, employee empowerment in tourism organizations, and the benefits of employee empowerment are explained by literature review.
TopThe Definition And Importance Of Employee Empowerment
Empowerment stands for power. In a legal sense, power means authority and in this context, empowerment may stand for authorizing (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990, p. 667). Oxford dictionary describes the verb to empower as “to give somebody the power or authority to do something” (Empower, 2019). Empowerment is an emotional condition affected by the expansion in the authority of the subordinate by the superior (Eren, Tokgöz & Saylan, 2014, p. 92). The concept of empowerment is based on the assignment of decision-making authority, and responding to the needs, expectations, and problems of customers to the employee (Dimitriades, 2005, p. 83). Bowen & Lawler III (2006 p. 157) identify the employee empowerment as sharing the 1) information about the organizational performance, 2) rewards based on organizational performance, 3) information that provides employees to acknowledge the organization and contribute to the organization, 4) decision-making authority that would affect the organizational aspect and performance.
Empowerment is a complicated concept. It represents different things to different people (Quinn & Spreitzer, 1997, p. 37). In the management literature, the idea of assigning the authority and decentralizing the decision-making authority is placed at the center of the concept of empowerment (Conger & Kanungo, 1988, p. 473). Empowerment is a process in which people, societies, and organizations acquire expertise on the issues that are related to them (Zimmerman, 1995, p. 581).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Delegation of Authority: Can be defined as giving certain authorities by the managers to the senior employees for them to use on their behalf and keeping the final responsibility and authorization.
Total Quality Management: Management practice that aims to increase the quality and efficiency of the management and service.
Participation in Management: An approach that provides the employees who has less seniority to participate in certain decisions taken in the organization on various degrees.
Motivation: The strength that energizes a person for a specific aim.
Competence: Employees' belief in performing their duties competently.
Empowerment: An approach which provides participation to the decisions by giving authority, power, and responsibility to the employees, provides a business environment where they are trusted, freely state their own opinions, and improve their creativity and self-confidence.