Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

Freeing the Caged Bird: Effects of Empowerment

It would seem that empowerment and greater employee participation would be the preferred mode in most companies—certainly, at least, from the view of the employees. However, humans have a fundamental need for structure and order, and new employees are often uncomfortable in the absence of clear structures, guidelines, and constraints. For example, newly matriculated M.B.A. students frequently lobby for instructor-assigned, rather than free-forming, study groups. What is the effect of empowerment and the ambiguity it brings to the individual, the team, and the organization?

When an organization removes existing structures to provide empowerment in a more democratic fashion, it may find the ambiguity ...