Question

What are the potential advantages and drawbacks of leaders empowering their employees? What would you do as a leader to maximize the advantages and minimize the drawbacks? Cite specific examples from your experience as a leader or a follower.

Answer 1

Advantages of employee empowerment :-

1. When employees are being empowered, they are more prone to solve the problems which leads to solve them faster.
2. They increases the morale and this makes them much satisfied which increases the overall productivity.
3. Employees become more committed towards their work as they are more involved with the empowerment.
4. When employees are being empowered, they are less stressed and managers too can focus on making strategies for the organizational development.

Drawbacks of employee empowerment :-

1. When inexperienced employees are given empowerment, they misuse it as they unable to understand then proper value which increases the risks.
2. Employees may take bad decisions for the organization which may increase the risk.
3. Sometimes due to the empowerment, the relationship between two immediate levels of employees become blurred.
4. Decrease in productivity can arise when unskilled employees take control.

What would you do as a leader to maximize the advantages and minimize the drawbacks?

As a leader I might show the advantages of employee empowerment more clearly so that the entire staffs would focus on that. Besides, to minimize the drawbacks, I might control them with the help of good management techniques such as providing them positive leadership for good influence, giving them coaching, training, rewards for their performance, a good open communicative environment in the workplace etc. can help to reduce the drawbacks.

Hope this helps :)