Employee perceptions of empowerment

Purpose – This study aims to examine how empowerment is perceived by individuals employed on construction projects. In contrast with previous research which has predominantly been conducted from a management perspective, this paper deals with employee perceptions of empowerment.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach was adopted for this study employing in‐depth interviews on four major construction projects.Findings – The findings from the study indicate that there can be a gap between the employee experience and the management rhetoric. Health and Safety issues were often cited by the employees as a major barrier to empowerment. The strict Health and Safety regulations under which construction employees operate limit their freedom to influence the work that they undertake. A further factor that was found to have a strong influence on the diffusion of empowerment was the role of the employees’ immediate supervisor.Research limitations/implications – The data are based on case studies that il...

[1]  A. Wilkinson.  Empowerment: theory and practice , 1998 .

[2]  R. N. Kanungo,et al.  The Empowerment Process: Integrating Theory and Practice , 1988 .

[3]  Mark Fenton‐O'Creevy.  Employee involvement and the middle manager: saboteur or scapegoat? , 2001 .

[4]  Gary David Holt,et al.  Assessment of organisational involvement in implementing empowerment , 2002 .

[5]  K. Legge.  Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities , 1995 .

[6]  Sara Tulloch,et al.  The Reader's Digest Oxford wordfinder , 1993 .

[7]  Andrew R.J. Dainty,et al.  Empowerment within the UK construction sector , 2002 .

[8]  A. Bryman.  Charisma And Leadership In Organizations , 1993 .

[9]  Chris Baldry,et al.  Empowerment: the power to do what? , 1996 .

[10]  Colin Hales,et al.  Does It Matter What Managers Do , 2001 .

[11]  T. C. Powell.  Total Quality Management as Competitive Advantage , 1995 .

[12]  Pamela R. Johnson.  Brains, Heart and Courage , 1994 .

[13]  Mohammed Fadhil Dulaimi,et al.  The theory and application of empowerment in construction: A comparative study of the different approaches to empowerment in construction, service and manufacturing industries , 1997 .

[14]  S. Kvale.  Interviews : an introduction to qualitative research interviewing , 1996 .

[15]  L. Honold,et al.  A review of the literature on employee empowerment , 1997 .

[16]  P. Adler.  Time-and-motion regained , 1993 .

[17]  Susan Albers Mohrman,et al.  Employee Involvement and Total Quality Management: Practices and Results in Fortune 1000 Companies , 1992 .

[18]  Conrad Lashley,et al.  Employee empowerment in services: a framework for analysis , 1999 .

[19]  M. Zairi,et al.  Employee empowerment – a UK survey of trends and best practices , 2002 .

[20]  Peter E.D. Love,et al.  Employee empowerment in construction: an implementation model for process improvement , 2000 .

[21]  Mushin Lee,et al.  Is Empowerment Really A New Concept , 2001 .

[22]  Peter Ackers,et al.  Doing yourself out of a job? : How middle managers cope with empowerment , 1997 .

[23]  Riccardo Peccei,et al.  Checking Out Service: Evaluating Excellence, HRM and TQM in Retailing , 1997 .

[24]  Steven H. Appelbaum,et al.  Empowerment: power, culture and leadership – a strategy or fad for the millennium? , 1999 .

[25]  S. Smithson,et al.  Employee Empowerment in Manufacturing: A Study of Organisations in the UK , 2002 .

[26]  Ian Cunningham,et al.  The poverty of empowerment? A critical case study , 1999 .