Changing culture through empowerment

Abstract

Much has been made of the need to empower employees at all levels of an organisation. There must be a genuine willingness on the part of management and workers to work together to ensure that empowerment will be accepted and succeed. Among those organisations which are prepared to bear the cost of training and multiskilling their employees, training is often ineffective and firms do not realise benefits from their investment. How can training be delivered to maximise the probability that the workers will learn and be able to implement new skills? Reports on a success story in a multi‐site manufacturing organisation which was able to train operations workers on the job, and by using active learning techniques demonstrate to the organisation the benefits of training. The reasons behind these changes, the effectiveness of the training programme, and the views of workers on the factory floor are examined. Interviews indicate that the success of the training programme, combined with other tactics, has seen real cultural change taking pace in the organisation, and workers believe they have been empowered.

Citation

Hyland, P., Sloan, T. and Barnett, D. (1998), "Changing culture through empowerment", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 22 No. 9, pp. 349-353. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090599810240983