Power to the People
By Graham Clark, Senior Lecturer in Operations Management
Managing change at the organisational level has been the subject of innumerable
books and articles. How this change effects individuals within the organisation has, in
comparison, been neglected. Yet the impact on individuals caught up in the process of
change is substantial, particularly in the area of employee empowerment.
Empowerment has been one of the buzzwords of the decade. It is not however, as
straightforward as it sounds. The problem is that not all individuals will be affected in
the same way: there will be differences of personality and of roles. What is more, the
appropriate type and extent of empowerment to be encouraged will depend on the
nature of the business. Through Cranfield’s Service Operations Research Club1 we
have developed a framework which looks specifically at these issues of individual
employee empowerment.
A Framework for Empowerment
Type of Employee Discretion
Routine
Fluid
(Empowered)
Creative
Facilitating
ANXIOUS
ADAPTIVE
Organisation
Style
Leadership
Style
COMPLIANT FRUSTRATED
Rigid
Directive
(Imposed) Low
High
Perceived Employee Discretion
© Management Focus Issue 12 Summer 1999 (Cranfield School of Management)
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Figure 1. A Framework for Understanding Empowerment
The framework (Figure 1) describes two basic types of organisation. The first is the
Adaptive Organisation where individuals feel they have a lot of discretion. This is
typified by activities that require a high degree of creativity such as design, marketing,
and many professional services. By contrast, the Compliant Organisation has more
stable processes and structures with individuals playing highly defined and scripted
roles. Examples of Compliant Organisations include mass production systems,
consumer services such as fast-food restaurants and retail financial services, but also
activities that need to manage significant risk such as airline operations and hostage
negotiation.
Rather than use the term empowerment it is helpful to look at perceived individual
employee discretion -- how much freedom the individual feels he or she has. For
instance, a member of a Compliant Organisation may in fact have high levels of
personal responsibility or a role involving the management of significant risk. The
more complex the task, the more Routine Discretion (freedom to choose how things
are done) will be given to employees. This contrasts with the Adaptive Organisation
where individuals may have significant Creative Discretion (freedom to choose what
is done).
When an organisation goes through a process of change levels of individual
empowerment are likely alter as well. The reaction to this depends on the employee.
Moving from Compliant to Adaptive: The Anxious Zone
When the individual’s role changes, for instance when they are given greater
discretion, they may feel as though they are being forced to leave the safety of the
Compliant Organisation, where management emphasis was on the adherence to
established procedures. Now performance is to be judged on less well-defined
outcomes, often with longer time scales. The individual may enter the
© Management Focus Issue 12 Summer 1999 (Cranfield School of Management)
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Anxious/Excited Zone, wanting the new challenge but unsure as to whether they can
achieve it.
The challenge for managers is to identify employees in this position because they are
frequently silent in their anxiety, not wanting to admit that they are not sure how to
achieve these longer term goals. Managers must spend time in supporting their staff
through this zone, not assuming that employees who do not immediately perform are
incompetent.
A number of so-called empowerment initiatives have failed because managers have
not identified individuals in the Anxious Zone or provided sufficient support. In other
cases initiatives fail because inappropriate discretion is given to employees, the real
challenge not being to move from Compliant to Adaptive, but to move within the
Compliant Zone to building ownership of customers and processes.
Moving from Adaptive to Compliant: The Frustrated Zone
As an organisation grows some individuals may find that their role has less freedom.
A common example is that of the Sales Manager who might have had considerable
discretion in developing business but who is being asked to sell a more narrowly
defined set of goods and services. These individuals move into the Frustrated Zone,
where they still feel that they have high personal discretion, but are constrained by the
system.
Unlike the silent-anxious employees above, these people are extremely vocal. The
danger is that they will find ways to circumvent any imposed system thus destroying
the benefits for the organisation as a whole. In contrast to those moving from
Compliant to Adaptive, these people are difficult to support. They probably need the
Creative Discretion implicit in the Adaptive Zone and will never fully adopt the
discipline of the Compliant Zone. It may well be that these individuals should be
encouraged to find new roles rather than continue in the potentially disruptive
Frustrated Zone.
© Management Focus Issue 12 Summer 1999 (Cranfield School of Management)
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Is it Possible to be Adaptive and Compliant?
The simple answer to this question is yes. Many of us have roles that require both
aspects. This is certainly true for those in the Adaptive Zone, who may have
considerable freedom and yet must perform some Compliant tasks. In using this
matrix, though, it is important to plot where the ‘centre of gravity’ of any role lies and
how this might be changing. In recognising this, the manager must adapt his or her
style to be more directive around the compliant tasks, whilst at the same time
facilitative around activities which lie in the Adaptive Zone.
The key challenge is to manage the interface between the Compliant and Adaptive
Zones. Very compliant processes do not work well if they need input from very
adaptive people! Figure 2 gives a way of thinking about roles within the organisation.
If the organisation provides high volume goods and services to a stable mass market,
the majority of the workforce will be in the Implement/Execute roles. If, on the other
hand, the key task is to provide innovative solutions for clients, then we might expect
the centre of gravity to be around the Design/Interpret region.
Today, there are more organisations emerging in the centre of the diagonal. Mass
goods and service providers must offer more flexibility, and those organisations
traditionally at the low volume/high creativity end of the spectrum are getting bigger
as we can see in the growth of the international consultancies. For these
organisations, then, the vital roles are those of Interpret/Implement - being able to turn
ideas into production or service processes quickly and effectively
© Management Focus Issue 12 Summer 1999 (Cranfield School of Management)
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Type of Employee Discretion
Routine
Fluid
(Empowered)
Creative
ANXIOUS
ADAPTIVE
Facilitating
DESIGN
INTERPRET
Organisation
Style
IMPLEMENT
Leadership
Style
EXECUTE
COMPLIANT
FRUSTRATED
Rigid
Directive
(Imposed) Low
High
Perceived Employee Discretion
Figure 2. Developing Organisational Roles
(With acknowledgment to Ian Saunders Executive MBA 1998/99)
The Management Challenge
The challenge for managers is essentially to recognise that their organisations are
made up of individuals whose combination of role and personality means that they
may be moving into either the Anxious Zone or the Frustrated Zone. Dealing with
these issues will require insight and energy to support people through transition.
Whilst empowerment or increasing individual discretion is generally valuable in
employee development, attention must be paid first of all to the basic nature of the
business, and then to the appropriate type and extent of discretion to be encouraged.
Organisational life is continually changing, and with this individuals sometimes find
themselves in uncomfortable places. Management must devote energy and resource to
successfully manage these transitions.
© Management Focus Issue 12 Summer 1999 (Cranfield School of Management)
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Reference
1
Armistead, CG, & Clark, GR: Outstanding Customer Service; Financial Times/Irwin Professional
Publishing, New York 1994
© Management Focus Issue 12 Summer 1999 (Cranfield School of Management)
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