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One of the most important foundations of OD is the

participation and empowerment model.
These pillars of OD practice are validated by research and
practice.
Research on group dynamics was found to overcome
resistance to change.
Increase commitment to the organization, reduce stress
levels & make people feel better about themselves.
Participation is good for people and performance
To empower is to give someone power/authority.
Participation is an especially effective form of empowerment.
Participation enhances empowerment and empowerment in
turn enhances performance and individual well-being.

OD interventions are deliberately designed to increase

involvement & participation by org leaders & members.

² Eg: autonomous work groups, quality circles, team

building, survey feedback, quality of work life programs,
search conferences etc are all predicated on the belief that
increased participation will lead to better solutions.
@

 

² involve all those who are a part of the problem or

part of the solution
² ëhave decisions made by those who are closest to
the problemsµ.

OD interventions are basically methods for increasing

participation.

The entire field of OD is about empowerment.

Robert Quinn and Gretchen Spreitzer found 2
different views about empowerment:

a top ²down delegation of decision making

with clear boundaries and strict accountability that
increases managerial control.
 bottom-up and less controlling. They believed
that this view was about risk taking, growth and change.
The authors feel that this view is the more useful
perspective.
 The additional sources of information about
Empowerment:

James Belasco gives numerous examples in

which leaders reap extraordinary gains by
empowering their employees. He believes that:
1. Only massive changes will suffice needed changes.
2. People will not naturally embrace the needed change
&
3. Empowerment is the key to getting people to want to
participate in change.
Belasco uses a simple 4 step model to describe
the empowerment process:
½

  
 
 

Of these  is the most important ingredients of

empowerment.
 Kouzes and Posnor conducted few leadership seminars and
asked participants to describe a ´personal bestµ leadership
situation from their own experience. Analysis of these
leadership stories led to identifying 5 leadership practices.
They are:

½

  
Search for opportunities
Experiment & take risk

3     

Envision the future
Enlist others
Ô 



£oster collaboration
Strengthen others

  
 
Set the example
Plan small wins

  
 

Recognize individual contributions

Celebrate accomplishments
Donald Peterson describes the organizational redesign of Ford Motor Co.
Peterson was the president CEO & chairman of Ford during the
turnaround of that 370,000-person company.

They produced high quality products, made big profits & created the Ford
Taurus one of the best selling cars in American history.

u 
   

 

  

The net-effect was the significant change in the company·s culture from
being a top-down, autocratic, functionally oriented company to one that
gave responsibility & power to cross functional teams at all levels of the
organization.
 Tom Peters is one of the strongest advocates on the
American scene for participation and empowerment.
In his books he describes that one of the attributes for
characterizing excellent, innovative companies is
´productivity through peopleµ.
He says: excellent companies pay attention to 4 things:
customers, innovation, people, & leadership.
In another book by Tom Peters uhriving on Chaos the same
themes appear i.e.,
‡ Creating total customer responsiveness,
‡ Pursuing fast-paced innovation,
‡ Achieving flexibility by empowering people,
‡ Learning to love change &
‡ Building organization system that support the first 4 themes.
Peters offers the following prescriptions for achieving
flexibility by empowering people:

² Involve everyone in everything

² Use self-managing teams
² Listen/celebrate/recognize
² Spend time lavishly on recruiting
² Train & retrain
² Provide incentive pay for everyone
² Provide an employment guarantee
² Simplify reduce structure
² Reconceive the middle manager·s role &
² Eliminate bureaucratic rules & humiliating conditions.
Peters continued to advocate the importance of empowered
people, customer satisfaction, innovation & visionary
leadership.
But he introduces an important new insight: he takes aim at
today·s organization structures.
² ´Today·s jobs are best accomplished through
empowered people working in highly autonomous
project teams, he says, & organizations must be
redesigned to allow that happen.µ
James Belasco teamed up with Ralph Stayer, former CEO of
Johnsonville Foods, to explore empowerment in his book.
It contained the insights describing Stayer·s leadership journey from
authoritarianism to abdication to letting his employees lead.
Johnsonville Foods became a classic example of how empowerment
stimulates individual growth & organizational improvement.

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 The concept of ´open-book managementµ as a possible
way to run business is receiving a great deal of attention
in management circles today.
This concept pushes the idea of empowerment to the extreme,
usually with excellent financial results.
It allows every employee of a company to think like an owner of
the business & start acting like one.
Open-book management rests on several simple
principles:
1) Every employee in an open-book co. sees & learns to understand-
the company·s financials along with all the other numbers that
are critical to tracking the business·s performance;
2) Employees assume that whatever else they do, part of their job is
to move those numbers in the right direction;
3) Employees have a direct stake in the company·s success.

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