The empowerment audit ‐ measured improvement

Abstract

Examines the development of the “empowerment audit” (EA) as a quantitative tool to measure the degree to which employees within an organisation are empowered. Analyses how what is, in effect, a two‐year survey of 100‐plus sites of large and medium‐sized manufacturers shows a correlation between the extent of empowerment within companies and the improvement in business performance over time. Looks at the development of the audit from simple “climate test” questionnaires to a full matrix framework, profiling existing and desired levels of organisational empowerment. Describes how results may be benchmarked against sector and industry averages across the EA database. Places the role of training in the context of post‐EA development programmes. Highlights that managers do not judge full empowerment always to be the ideal and that there is no prescribed “right place to be” on the empowerment scale. Rather, the EA’s purpose is to determine the scope for change, the readiness of an organisation to undertake it and to act as a means of monitoring progress.

Citation

Dufficy, M. (1998), "The empowerment audit ‐ measured improvement", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 142-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197859810218100