By Luigi Morsa and Richard Maltzman
March 26, 2025
Definition and Benefits
What is empowerment? A very concise and effective definition is given by Meditopia [1]: Empowerment, in the context of the workplace, refers to the process of granting employees the authority, tools, and resources to make decisions and take actions related to their roles, without unnecessary managerial oversight. Stoyan Mitov (CEO of Dreamix) in a Forbes article [2] speaks in terms of Evolution of Work Environments, stating:
“Historically, hierarchical structures and micromanagement dominated workplaces, where control and oversight were prioritized over employee autonomy. However, current trends indicate a significant shift toward more flexible, inclusive and empowering work environments”.
An article appeared on Harward Business Review [3] says that research has regularly demonstrated that when employees feel empowered at work, it is associated with stronger job performance, job satisfaction, and commitment to the organization. These benefits have positive implications. For instance:
- stronger job performance implies an higher productivity;
- job satisfaction and the commitment to the organization brings an organization more employee engagement.
It’s important to remember that engagement reflects the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace. Gallup [4] has found that engaged business teams drive positive outcomes within organizations (better business results). Further, Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy US$8.9 trillion, or 9% of global GDP. Furthermore, Employees who are actively engaged are less likely to be actively looking or open to a new job opportunity (higher employee retention). In fact, teams with low engagement typically endure turnover rates that are 18% to 43% higher than highly engaged teams [5].
Implementation
Some interesting strategies for implementing initiatives for employees empowerment are suggested by The Upwork Team [6] and by the members of Forbes Business Council [7]. Below a sampling of these strategies:
- Maintain clear communication of expectations
- Offer training and development opportunities
- Encourage employee feedback and participation
- Establish a supportive workplace culture
- Mentor Employees Through Their Mistakes
- Take A Tasks- And Objective-Based Approach
- Involve Employees In The Decision Process
- Trust Your Employees
It is clear that the empowerment approach in a workplace cannot be applied overnight, because it generally implies a significant mindset change and relies on one fundamental prerequisite (not trivial and above not valid for all person and applicable in every environment), namely the willingness by managers/leaders and by team members to give trust and to take responsibility, respectively. We can say that the implementation of empowerment in a work environment is a path that the mentors (project managers, team leaders and so on) and team members must take together, but of course the leaders must first have a clear vision, and they must be able to “guide” team members towards that vision. We use intentionally the verb “guide” because there is an interesting analogy that could help visualize this leadership role in implementing empowerment – that of a safety car in the world of car racing. According to a general definition, the safety car is a car that drives ahead of competitors in temporarily hazardous conditions to control their speed. The aim of the safety car is to enable the clearance of any obstruction under safer conditions.
There could be more than one loop before that leader will leave team members free to express themselves at their best … However the big difference with the real safety car, is that, after that the leader will terminate his safety-car task, there will not be a competition or a race.
It is important also to highlight the safety car task will never end its job for two main reasons:
- there are always one or more team members in each team, that are, so to speak, not inclined to embrace the empowerment approach. For these ones the guide of the leader will remain fundamentally important;
- the leader will remain at disposal always in a safety-car mode for the newcomers.
Retention: Communication and Empowerment Tools (including AI)
Micromanagement is an enemy of empowerment. Micromanagement, by definition, is an excessive focus on observing and controlling subordinates. Visualize a supervisor leaning over the shoulder of a team member, watching every move and commenting critically about everything they do. That’s micromanagement. In a culture of empowerment, company leaders delegate responsibilities, share information freely, and seek out input from members of their team [8]. Empowerment – sort of the opposite of Micromanagement – is based on trust, but each team member is not fully independent, they are instead interdependent on other team members. They can’t avoid reporting progress, sharing info and in general, must collaborate to succeed – and for the team to succeed. It is clear that to create an efficient an empowerment environment there must be direct, transparent and clear communication. Luckily, there is increasing availability of specialized platforms to help leaders create this environment – they are on the market and increasing in capability every month.
Of course, no piece of software – no application – can completely take over the implementation of empowerment. However, we have already highlighted that the company leaders should guide the team members, and there are software platforms that can assist in boosting employee empowerment, namely, sense of belonging, motivation and engagement. Here are some of the applications that have taken on the challenge of helping project leaders and teams with the important objective of increasing empowerment:
- Motivosity is a peer-to-peer recognition platform that uses a research-backed approach to build cultures of gratitude and connectedness for teams of all sizes. It promises to improve manager relationships, and make company values more than just a slogan on the wall [9].
- Culture Amp is an employee experience platform designed to help organizations create high-performing workplace cultures. It offers a range of tools and features to gather employee feedback, analyze performance data, and drive meaningful change within the company [10].
- Microsoft Viva Glint is an employee engagement platform that helps organizations measure and improve employee engagement, performance, and overall workplace culture. It provides tools for conducting employee surveys, analyzing feedback, and creating action plans to drive positive change [11].
It is important to underline that Culture Amp and Glint are already AI-driven platforms. Based on information about employees and their work, AI can offer analytics that helps organizations understand employee engagement and pinpoint areas needing attention [2].
Some Examples and Conclusions
The ways to reach empowerment are multiple – and some examples of implementing empowerment are plentiful. Below are some examples.
- Google is known for its open and collaborative work environment. Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page wrote in their IPO letter: “We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google,”. “This empowers them to be more creative and innovative. Many of our significant advances [like AdSense and Google News] have happened in this manner”[12].
- Yvon Chouinard, CEO of Patagonia, declared: “hire the people you trust, who are passionate about their job, passionate about what they’re doing. Just leave them alone, and they’ll get the job done” [13].
- Zappos has adopted “Holocracy,” a self-managed organizational structure that encourages individuals to identify areas of opportunity within the business and propose solutions. At its very core, the company’s model decentralizes authority, handing over the reins of decision-making from a corporate hierarchical structure back to individual teams [14].
The Spotify model, called “Spotify Engineering Culture”, focuses on organizing around work and not necessarily processes and ceremonies. This gives an organization greater flexibility. The Spotify model encourages autonomy and creativity by trusting people to complete the work they are doing in the way they see fit. The Spotify model focuses on decentralizing decision making [15].
As we have seen there is not only one path to reach the empowerment… but what’s new is that there is help for the leader that understands the importance of empowerment and is willing to adopt technology to help them build their teams for increased success in their initiatives.
References
- Daniela D. Franco, “Empowerment: Definition and Examples in the Workplace”, meditopia.com, 2024.
- Stoyan Mitov, “The Future Of Work: AI-Driven Belonging And Empowerment, Not Micromanagement”, forbes.com, Aug 19, 2024.
- Lee, S. Willis and A. W. Tian, “When Empowering Employees Works, and When It Doesn’t”, www.hbr.org, March 02, 2018.
- Gallup Report, “State of the Global Workplace – THE VOICE OF THE WORLD’S EMPLOYEES”, gallup.com, 2024.
- Susan Sorenson, ”The Benefits of Employee Engagement”, gallup.com, January 7, 2023.
- The Upwork Team, “Employee Empowerment: Definition, Benefits, and Examples”, upwork.com, Aug 26, 2024.
- Forbes Business Council, “15 Ways To Empower Your Employees”, forbes.com, Apr 21, 2022.
- Pete Newsome, “Empowerment in the Workplace: What It Is and Why It Matters”, 4cornerresources.com, August 20, 2024.
- motivosity.com
- cultureamp.com
- microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/glint
- Dorie Clark, “Google’s ’20% rule’ shows exactly how much time you should spend learning new skills—and why it works”, cnbc.com, Jan 7 2022.
- The Deskbird team, “8 successful employee empowerment examples & other useful insights”, deskbird.com, September 30, 2024.
- Tali Sachs, “Employee empowerment examples: Inspiring ways to empower your people”, hibob.com, September 26, 2023.
- Mark Cruth, “Discover the Spotify model”, atlassian.com, 2024.
Luigi Morsa (Ph.D.) is an Aerospace Engineer and Project Manager working in the Aircraft Industry in Germany. The passion for project management has led Luigi to contribute to two books by Dr. Harold Kerzner, the pioneer and globally recognized expert in project management.
Luigi wrote two case studies about the Aircraft industry for Project Management Case Studies, 5th and 6th Editions (Wiley, 2017, 2022), two sections (Open Innovation in Action; The Project Manager’s Role in Developing Innovation Skills and Ideas in People) and the chapter “Innovation Management Software” for Innovation Project Management 1st and 2nd editions (Wiley, 2019, 2023). He wrote with Richard Maltzman, PMP and Master Lecturer at Boston University Metropolitan College, the chapter “10 Lessons Learnt from Irresponsibility in Project Management” for the book De Gruyter Handbook of Responsible Project Management (De Gruyter, 2023).
In 2018, Luigi was a speaker at the Project Management Institute EMEA Congress (Berlin) to discuss the complexity of the aircraft industry market, with particular emphasis on the relationship between product and customer needs. He has presented at the 18th Annual Project Management in Practice Conference (Boston, 2024) the latest achievements of the Artificial Intelligence software in Project/Innovation Management.
Luigi has been contributor for the International Institute of Learning Blog since 2019 with articles that cover themes related to Employee Engagement, Innovation, Team Management, Risk Management, Conflict Management, Agile, AI.
Richard Maltzman considers himself a ‘pracademic’ – currently (and for the past 10 years or so) Master Lecturer at Boston University, an author, and a consultant, providing clients with deep learning experiences and improved results. Richard “retired” from a 40-year career in telecom, mainly in engineering and project management. At the University level, and in consulting, his focus is always on converting weaknesses into strengths while teaching clients/students how to apply learned skills to everyday situations. In 2010, he co-founded EarthPM, LLC, a company devoted to integrating sustainability thinking into project management. His integration of a holistic, global view of project management has resulted in international consulting and worldwide speaking engagements (Costa Rica, South Africa, Malaysia, China, Mexico, Canada, India, Italy, The Netherlands) in which the focus is the long-term success of projects, with an eye towards ecological and social systems. His blog at PMI’s projectmanagement.com (People, Planet, Profits, and Projects) site has become very popular, and he has also started a podcast, “B’yond PM” on Spotify.
A co-author of seven books on project leadership, including the recent Great Meetings Build Great Teams, and the upcoming GreenPMO, He is a former VP of Professional Development for PMI Mass Bay (the Boston area PMI Chapter), and was on the Review Committee for the 7th Edition PMBOK® Guide, helping to assure that sustainability thinking finally made it into the Standard and the Body of Knowledge.
