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Organisational Empowerment: A Historical Perspective and Conceptual Framework

In: Ethics and Empowerment

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  • Julia M. Christensen Hughes

Abstract

The pursuit of organisational empowerment raises a number of important questions — all with ethical implications. To what extent can empowerment be achieved within organisational contexts when such entities are designed to control employee behaviour? What are the implications for empowered individuals when their personal goals and values conflict with those of the organisations they work for? What can we expect to be achieved through empowerment? In answer to the latter question, empowerment advocates suggest that it will result in many positive outcomes; ‘empowerment promises to instill in our institutional life the same values of individual freedom, dignity, and self-governance that we readily embrace as a society’ (Block, 1987, p. xiii). Its detractors suggest that empowerment is simply another management tool designed to provide organisations with increased control and cost efficiencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia M. Christensen Hughes, 1999. "Organisational Empowerment: A Historical Perspective and Conceptual Framework," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: John J. Quinn & Peter W. F. Davies (ed.), Ethics and Empowerment, chapter 4, pages 115-146, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-37272-6_5
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230372726_5
    as

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