Empowerment in OrganizationsTraining, empowerment, and creating a culture for changeLeon A. Kappelman Thomas C. Richards

Article information:To cite this document:Leon A. Kappelman Thomas C. Richards, (1996),"Training, empowerment, and creating a culture for change",Empowerment in Organizations, Vol. 4 Iss 3 pp. 26 - 29Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09684899610126650

Downloaded on: 12 March 2016, At: 06:56 (PT)References: this document contains references to 0 other documents.To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.comThe fulltext of this document has been downloaded 4643 times since 2006*

Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:Linda Honold, (1997),"A review of the literature on employee empowerment", Empowerment in Organizations, Vol. 5 Iss 4pp. 202-212 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14634449710195471Jean-Sébastien Boudrias, Patrick Gaudreau, André Savoie, Alexandre J.S. Morin, (2009),"Employee empowerment: Frommanagerial practices to employees' behavioral empowerment", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol.30 Iss 7 pp. 625-638 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730910991646Nick Nykodym, Jack L. Simonetti, Warren R. Nielsen, Barbara Welling, (1994),"Employee Empowerment", Empowerment inOrganizations, Vol. 2 Iss 3 pp. 45-55 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09684899410071699

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:198285 []

For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors serviceinformation about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Pleasevisit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.

About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio ofmore than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of onlineproducts and additional customer resources and services.

Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on PublicationEthics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

Dow

nloa

ded

by N

ew Y

ork

Uni

vers

ity A

t 06:

56 1

2 M

arch

201

6 (P

T)

Introduction

During the past decade we have witnessed amultitude of change programs aimed at trans-forming organizational structures and process-es to enhance productivity, effectiveness, andcompetitiveness. These change efforts havelargely fallen short of the mark because mostorganizations fail to account effectively for thehuman element in these change projects. Onesolution is early employee participation in thechange process. For participation to pay off, itmust be combined with meaningful informa-tion and real influence. Real influence is whatemployee empowerment is all about.

Employee empowerment, by providingworkers with opportunities to influence deci-sions, promotes worker motivation andreduces worker resistance toward organization-al changes. Employee empowerment is impor-tant to the organizational change processbecause empowerment fulfills the individual’sneed for a sense of control. This is a particular-ly critical need during a time of organizationalchange because the larger forces of change areusually beyond the individual employee’scontrol. Hardly anyone likes to feel like theyare being pushed around.

Empowerment itself is a difficult anddemanding organizational change. Moreover,like many change efforts, an incremental andgradual implementation strategy is recom-mended on the road to full empowerment. Therole of training in this process cannot beoveremphasized since training is how the skillsand knowledge necessary for effective empow-erment are acquired. Moreover, training isrecognized as important to the success of mostorganizational change efforts. Training helps inpreparing the organization for change, inaccomplishing the change itself, and in makingthe change a permanent part of the organiza-tion. Furthermore, it is generally accepted thatmotivation and other attitudes can influencetraining outcomes, and that the outcomes oftraining are not only knowledge and under-standing, but also emotions and attitudes. Thequestion is where do we begin?

We examine during this study an innovativefirst step one organization took on the road toemployee empowerment. Although this firststep was small, it resulted in large benefits to

26

Training, empowerment,and creating a culturefor change

Leon A. Kappelman andThomas C. Richards

The authorsLeon A. Kappelman is Associate Professor and Thomas C.Richards is Professor in the Business Computer InformationSystems Department, College of Business Administration,University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.

AbstractExamines an innovative first step which one organizationtook on the road to employee empowerment. States that,although this first step was a small one, it resulted in largebenefits to the organization. Reveals that this field study wasconducted during the information system conversion phaseof a larger organizational change, at 52 recently-acquiredbranches of a $40-billion interstate bank. Discovers that thepayoffs were surprisingly large when employees are given asmall empowering opportunity just before their training.Indicates that empowered employees are more able to adaptto change and less likely to resist it, and their need for controlis being met through their empowerment, rather than by theirresistance. Finds that even in small quantities, empowermentcan be a large contributor to success. Also believes thatsmall, low-cost empowerments with large payoffs can almostalways be found.

Empowerment in OrganizationsVolume 4 · Number 3 · 1996 · pp. 26–29© MCB University Press · ISSN 0968-4891

Dow

nloa

ded

by N

ew Y

ork

Uni

vers

ity A

t 06:

56 1

2 M

arch

201

6 (P

T)

the organization. This early, although smallempowerment seemed to set the tone at thebeginning of the change process, and therebyavoided much of the resistance so commonwhen change efforts are shoved down employ-ees’ throats. In fact, it actually resulted inincreased employee motivation regarding thechange program. Moreover, because this earlyempowerment was provided in conjunctionwith training, this new-found motivation inturn enhanced training outcomes. As we ana-lyzed our findings regarding the notable resultsof this small employee empowerment, we werereminded of the song lyric “little things mean alot.”

The study and its findings

We conducted a field study, during the infor-mation system conversion phase of a largerorganizational change, at 52 recently-acquired branches of a $40-billion interstate bank. Thissystem had been operational for more than fiveyears at over 600 existing branches in fivestates. This information system was already aproven success in that it met the bank’s techni-cal and organizational requirements. Thisallowed us to conduct our study without con-cern for problems caused by the qualities of theobject being changed, and to focus on thecharacteristics and effects of the changeprocess.

Because of its importance to customerservice and marketing, this information systemwas a key technological component of thisorganization’s larger total quality managementprogram. The system provided real-time inte-gration of all customer activities so completeservice could be provided from any branch orservice center.

A questionnaire was presented approxi-mately two weeks before cut over to the newsystem. Five weeks after the changeover of theinformation system, the primary researchquestionnaires were distributed. The entirepopulation of 512 branch employees waspolled. A total of 146 usable questionnaireswere returned.

We measured two behavioral and threeattitudinal variables for each employee.Behaviors are visible activities in whichemployees participate and attitudes are

invisible psychological states of employees.The behaviors measured were training andempowerment. Training was simply the factthat an employee went to training sessions. Allemployees participated in these training activi-ties. Empowerment was the fact that somemanagers permitted their employees to sched-ule their own training (since certain deadlineswere met), and thereby, to have a small degreeof control during the change process. Not allemployees were so empowered. The threeattitudes measured were motivation-about-the-change, training-satisfaction, and satisfac-tion-with-the change. All of the data werecollected by self-reports when the employeesfilled out the questionnaires. Figure 1 depictsthe relationship among these five variables.

When examining the correlations amongthese five variables (as shown in Table I), wefound that when workers were empowered theywere 88 per cent more motivated, 146 per centmore satisfied with their training, and 99 percent more satisfied with the organizationalchange as a whole.

We also studied the effect of training andempowerment on the employee’s satisfaction-with training, motivation toward the change,and overall satisfaction with the change. Asimultaneous analysis of the contribution ofthe two behaviors to changes in each of thethree attitudes individually revealed thatempowerment explained 440 per cent moreabout the variation in levels of motivation, 623per cent more of the changes in training satis-faction, and 375 per cent more of the variationin overall satisfaction (calculated in terms ofthe standardized beta coefficients from eachmultiple regression analysis as shown inTable II).

27

Training, empowerment, and creating a culture for change

Leon A. Kappelman and Thomas C. Richards

Empowerment in Organizations

Volume 4 · Number 3 · 1996 · 26–29

Workerempowerment

in training(behavioral)

Workerparticipationin training

(behavioral)

Workermotivationabout OC(attitude)

Satisfiedwith

training(attitude)

Overallsatisfiedwith OC(attitude)

KeyOC = Organizational change

Figure 1 Relationships among employee training, empowerment, motivation,and satisfaction during an organizational change

Dow

nloa

ded

by N

ew Y

ork

Uni

vers

ity A

t 06:

56 1

2 M

arch

201

6 (P

T)

Conclusions and implications formanagement

Training provided an opportunity to empowerand motivate employees. Empowering workersin this small way (i.e., schedule your trainingsessions) during the actual implementation ofthe organizational change provided workerswith a small degree of control over what wasessentially a change process over which they hadno control. Providing workers with this smallamount of control also provided an opportunityto demonstrate management’s commitment toempowerment. Such early demonstrations arelikely to breed early worker buy-in to thechange, thereby reducing employee resistance,and increasing the chances of program success.Moreover, in this situation, it was a sensible,low-cost, low-risk, first step on the road ofemployee empowerment.

While our study examined the experience ofone organization during the information systemconversion phase of a larger organizationalchange, we believe that our findings have

implications regarding the success of mostorganizational changes that affect and/or rely onemployees. The results support the concept thatempowerment is critical to the success of organizational change efforts. We found that bygiving workers the opportunity to schedule theirown training, they were empowered. Moreover,this empowerment resulted in large increases inemployee motivation toward to the change, intheir satisfaction with the training they received,and in their overall satisfaction with the change.

Also important are the economic implica-tions of these findings. Motivated employees aremore productive employees and satisfied work-ers more productive workers. Organizationalresearch shows there are positive relationshipsbetween employee satisfaction and such pro-ductivity measures as performance, turnover,and absenteeism. Moreover, even smallimprovements in employee attitudes like moti-vation and satisfaction, can produce meaningfuleconomic benefits. The logical consequence ofthis is to extend the model depicted in Figure 1to include the success of the organizationalchange and improvements in productivity andprofitability.

Several additional conclusions are apparentfrom this study that have profound implicationsfor managers who are concerned with the suc-cessful implementation of organizationalchanges and training programs:(1) In order to manage people, it is essential to

consider their psychological dimensions.We found that providing employees with anempowering experience in conjunction withtheir training, significantly improved theoutcomes of that training, as well as increas-ing their motivation and satisfaction with

28

Training, empowerment, and creating a culture for change

Leon A. Kappelman and Thomas C. Richards

Empowerment in Organizations

Volume 4 · Number 3 · 1996 · 26–29

Table I Means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients

Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5

1. Empowerment 1.88 1.98 0.25*** 0.30*** 0.24*** 0.14*2. Training 2.86 2.09 0.25*** 0.15* 0.10 0.073. Motivated about change 87.40 9.89 0.30**** 0.15* 0.22*** 0.34****4. Satisfied with training 33.63 5.45 0.24*** 0.10 0.22*** 0.46****5. Satisfied with change 4.11 0.60 0.14* 0.07 0.34**** 0.46****

Notes: * p < 0.10** p < 0.05

*** p < 0.01**** p < 0.001

Table II Standardized regression coefficients (betas) and significance tests(p-values)

Dependent variablesIndependent Satisfied with Satisfied withvariables Motivation training change

Empowerment Beta 0.31*** 0.24** 0.15*p < 0.0003 0.0063 0.0925

Train Beta 0.07 0.04 0.04p < 0.4 0.66 0.67

Notes: * p < 0.10** p < 0.01

*** p < 0.001

Dow

nloa

ded

by N

ew Y

ork

Uni

vers

ity A

t 06:

56 1

2 M

arch

201

6 (P

T)

the change. This occurred because thisempowering experience provided employ-ees with a need-meeting sense of controlduring a time of organizational change.

(2) If training investments are to pay off, theentire training experience must be consid-ered. We must consider not the content, butthe entire context. In this study, trainingalone provided little measurable benefit interms of employee attitudes and explainedalmost nothing about their attitudes towardthe success of the change effort. Trainingand empowerment, however, provided agreat deal more statistical insight into theseoutcomes.

(3) Even when limited, empowerment can havebig payoffs. Most employees will never havethe empowering opportunity of contribut-ing to the early design and planning activi-ties in the organizational change process,but almost every employee will be trained.This study clearly shows that giving em-ployees a small empowering experience canhave a profound effect on that employee’smotivation and satisfaction with the organi-zational change itself. It is possible that thebenefits of any empowerment are mediatedby factors such as the type of work the

employee performs, the culture of the orga-nization, as well as other influences. Theimpact of any such change should always bemeasured, rather than merely assuming thatthe payoffs exist.

In some organizational change programs, suchas continuous quality improvement, empower-ment is a critical component of the program.Our findings provide a suggested mechanism fordemonstrating the organization’s commitmentto empowerment early in the implementation ofan organizational change. Empowerment is alsoan important component of the process ofsuccessful organizational change. Our findingsshow that even in small quantities, empower-ment can be a large contributor to success. Wealso believe that small, low-cost empowermentswith large payoffs can almost always be found.

Empowered employees are more able toadapt to change and less likely to resist it,because their need for control is being metthrough their empowerment, rather than bytheir resistance. In these times of continuouschanges in the world around us, an organizationwhich fosters empowered employees is an organization ready to handle change, planned ornot. The ability to cope with change, is a survival skill no organization can do without.

29

Training, empowerment, and creating a culture for change

Leon A. Kappelman and Thomas C. Richards

Empowerment in Organizations

Volume 4 · Number 3 · 1996 · 26–29

Dow

nloa

ded

by N

ew Y

ork

Uni

vers

ity A

t 06:

56 1

2 M

arch

201

6 (P

T)

This article has been cited by:

1. Alfonso J. Gil, Jorge L. Garcia-Alcaraz, Mara Mataveli. 2015. The training demand in organizational changes processes inthe Spanish wine sector. European Journal of Training and Development 39:4, 315-331. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

2. Akiko Ueno. 2014. Developing a Conceptual Model Illustrating how HRM Practices Support Each other in Order to ImproveService Quality. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 148, 24-31. [CrossRef]

3. Steven H. Appelbaum, Sally Habashy, Jean‐Luc Malo, Hisham Shafiq. 2012. Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996change model. Journal of Management Development 31:8, 764-782. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

4. Hoi Yan Cheung, Alex W.H. Chan. 2012. Increasing the competitive positions of countries through employee training.International Journal of Manpower 33:2, 144-158. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

5. Margaret Erstad. 1997. Empowerment and organizational change. International Journal of Contemporary HospitalityManagement 9:7, 325-333. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Dow

nloa

ded

by N

ew Y

ork

Uni

vers

ity A

t 06:

56 1

2 M

arch

201

6 (P

T)