Walking the Empowerment Tightrope: Balancing Management Authority & Employee Influence

Without clear authority, no one is empowered, not the manager, the staff, or the hourly worker. Yet, all need to be empowered--appropriately. Industrial sabotage, apathy, and the failure to identify quality issues are unproductive uses of power. A major problem in organizations is the exercise of either too much management authority or the other extreme--abdication. Authority must be balanced. Empowerment is really about helping people channel the power they have toward qualitative and productive ends.