Who doesn’t love having authority? When implemented, employee empowerment can either have a positive or negative impact on the workplace. Granting employees full control in making organizational decisions can affect certain outcomes on the business as a whole. As a result, businesses should ensure that they are weighing the costs of such liberation. Akhtaboot highlights below the pros and cons of employee empowerment:

 

PROS:

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

When employees are trusted with making significant decisions that may or may not put the organization at risk, they will start to feel more responsible and accountable for their actions. With more empowerment, employees won’t have to wait around for approvals that slow down their work progress. As employees begin to excel at their jobs, they increase the likelihood of enhancing training methods at the company, which increases the probability of having improved employees in the future. Empowering employees however, doesn’t only increase productivity; it increases morale. This makes employees feel trusted and exhilarated, which in return reduces turnover rates.

COMMITMENT

When employees feel more responsible, they will become more involved in the organization. With more commitment, comes the prospect of feeling responsible for the successes or failures within the company. This way, employees will push themselves further to ensure that their accomplishments won’t fade. Employees will feel more comfortable interacting with customers, which will work on boosting their confidence. As employees start to feel more in control of their tasks, they’ll radiate with energy. Happier employees means happier customers. This will reduce turnover rates and costs, and also help businesses flourish.

 

CONS:

BUSINESS RISK

When employees are trusted to work independently, they will feel free to exchange ideas amongst others. This risks seeping confidential information to certain parties within the organization who shouldn’t have access to such information in the first place. Only properly trained employees should be able to make decisions at the workplace or else they would be putting the business at risk. Such mistakes can jeopardize a company’s credibility and reputation. Training employees prior to giving them the responsibility of making major decisions will drastically reduce the chances of dealing with costly errors.

EGOISM

An employee’s confidence will definitely increase when empowered in the workplace. Overly confident employees can become extremely arrogant and hard to deal with. Some overly confident employees will even defy authority and disobey orders, which will negatively affect the work environment. With a looming negative environment at work, employees will become more dissatisfied and productivity will decrease.