Empowerment

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Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.

Definitions

Sociological empowerment often addresses members of groups that social discrimination processes have excluded from decision-making processes through - for example - discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender. It is worth noting that the empowerment-techniques are often associated with feminism: consciousness-raising.

Social Marginalization: The Converse of Empowerment

Today, however, with rapidly-increasing awareness of the suppressing effects of marginalization, empowerment has a broader meaning than ever. Indigenous people are a prime example. Even in democracies, they experience the benign oppression caused by mixing welfare with marginalization; giving free things while limiting opportunities. In places such as Sudan, marginalization of indigenous people has reached a maximum: genocide.

"Marginalized" is a word equating to "second-class citizen" or something less - often much less. The benefits of society (often including governmental) are denied to the marginalized people, and it is often systematic. Before the Civil Rights Act in the U.S., the government, both actively and passively, partook in marginalizing minorities, and blacks particularly. Since the law was passed, over the years there has been much improvement, yet there is not, even yet, complete eradication.

Sometimes marginalization is done by "society" at large, but often governments are participants, sometimes unwittingly, but often as enthusiastic ones. It is easier to get around marginalization when the government's policies strongly oppose this kind of maltreatment. Without such policies, empowerment is doubly difficult.

The people affected by marginalization become, at a minimum, dependent on the free things (charity or welfare), particularly because of the lack of access to needed opportunities for self-sufficiency. They lose their self-confidence because they cannot be fully self-supporting. The opportunities denied them also deprive them of the pride of accomplishment which others, who have those opportunities, can develop for themselves. A man who cannot support his own family, so that they must live on the generosity of others, is a man who lives with feelings of helplessness, bitter frustration and inadequacy, often turning him to drink or drugs.

In cases of marginalized people who receive welfare or charity in order to live, empowerment takes a broader and more urgent meaning, since whole populations are badly affected. Empowering these people requires that the opportunities denied be obtained, directly by the sufferer (which is rare indeed) or through the help of non-marginalized others who share their own access to those opportunities. It also includes the active thwarting of those who would intentionally deny those opportunities. It goes further to include encouraging, and developing the skills for, self-sufficiency, with a focus on eliminating future need for charity or welfare in the individuals of the group. Such a project is not easy to bring into existence, nor is it easy to implement it effectively, but it can be done, with patience, and extremely good attitudes on the part of those who are helping to empower others.

In many cases of marginalization, the best tool is to help the marginalized people create their own nonprofit organization. Nonprofits operated by people outside of the marginalized group (even if control is only partial) cannot always know, clearly, what is needed, and on occasions they tend (intentionally at times, other times unintentionally) to actually help marginalization become more entrenched. It is not empowerment when decisions are made - or forced upon them - by people outside of the group. Since only the marginalized people, themselves, can know what their own people need most, it is only rational for them to control the nonprofit which will empower them. As an example, Red Cross is wonderful in helping improve health of indigenous people, but does not have authority in its charter to install water-delivery and purification systems. Even though the lack of such a system profoundly, directly and negatively impacts health, Red Cross' hands are tied. With a nonpotable water supply, Red Cross has much more work to do, curing illnesses which come right back. They cannot alter this situation. A nonprofit composed of the indigenous people, however, would insure their own organization does have such authority. That organization could build the needed infrastructure, with a pleasant result for Red Cross, who would have less intestinal illnesses to cure. This indigenous nonprofit would set their own agendas, make their own plans, seek the needed resources, do as much of the work as they can, and take responsibility - and credit - for the success of their projects (or the consequences, should they fail). Any successes are theirs alone, not those of some people external to their group. Failures are things to learn from, and thus even those can have value.

Empowerment

An empowered person is one who has control of the decisions which impact his/her life. The same applies to a group. Empowering marginalized people is merely working toward helping the marginalized people gain the kind of control of their lives that the rest of us enjoy. To get it, they have to do it for themselves - albeit with external help for a while.

Those doing the empowering should help the group in any way possible, particularly with tasks which they cannot yet do for themselves. In time, they can learn how to do many of those tasks on their own. Help with tasks which the marginalized people can do for themselves, however, should not be given to them. If it were, it would not be empowerment.

This extended description is offered by Holly Bergeim, who has conducted a successful ad hoc empowerment project for Mexico's Huichol since May, 1999. These comments derive from those years of experience. The Huichol now have their own nonprofit, entirely theirs, and are developing sophistication and skill in its use quite rapidly. It is the first official tool they have ever had which gives them a shot at determining their own future. Now they can work to build their own badly-needed water infrastructure.

Management

In the sphere of management and organizational theory, "empowerment" often refers loosely to processes for giving subordinates (or workers generally) greater discretion and resources: distributing control in order to better serve both customers and the interests of employing organizations. (This use of the word appears somewhat at odds with other usage, which most often assumes the empowerment of groups and of individuals to better serve their own interests.)

One account of the history of workplace empowerment in the United States recalls the clash of management styles in railroad construction in the American West in the mid-19th century, where "traditional" hierarchical East-Coast models of control encountered individualistic pioneer workers, strongly supplemented by methods of efficiency-oriented "worker responsibility" brought to the scene by Chinese laborers. In this case, empowerment at the level of work teams or brigades achieved a notable (but short-lived) demonstrated superiority. See the views of Robert L. Webb.

Empowerment in the workplace is regarded by critics as more a pseudo-empowerment exercise, the idea of which is to change the attitudes of workers, so as to make them work harder rather than giving them any real power, and Wilkinson (1998) refers to this as "attitudinal shaping". However, recent research suggests that the opportunity to exercise personal discretion/choice (and complete meaningful work) is an important element contributing to employee engagement and well-being. There is evidence (Thomas and Velthouse, 1990) that initiative and motivation are increased when people have a more positive attributional style. This influences self-belief, resilience when faced with set-backs, and the ability to visualise oneself overcoming problems. The implication is that 'empowerment' suits some more than others, and should be positioned in the broader context of an 'enabling' work environment.

Economics

In economic development, the empowerment approach focuses on mobilizing the self-help efforts of the poor, rather than providing them with social welfare.

Personal development

In the arena of personal development, empowerment forms an apogee of many a system of self-realisation or of identity (re-)formation. Realising the solipsistic impracticality of everyone anarchistically attempting to exercise power over everyone else, empowerment advocates have adopted the word "empowerment" to offer the attractions of such power, but they generally constrain its individual exercise to potentiality and to feel-good uses within the individual psyche. The concept of personal development is seen as important by many employers, with emphasis placed on continuous learning, increased self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Empowerment is ultimately driven by the individual's belief in their capability to influence events.

Empowerment can be attained through one or many ways. An important factor in the discovery and application of the human "self empowerment" lies within the tools used to unveil the truth. It has been suggested that Yoga is one such tool that can be used for more than the obvious physical benefits. When Yoga is practiced consistently the mind / body connection is apparent. Through this connection, the individual finds him or herself with a stronger sense of self and the ability to change areas where bad habits rule, negative emotions run rampant, even controlling addictions through understanding them for what they are. What can be more empowering than gaining control over self.

References

Thomas, K. W. and Velthouse, B. A. (1990) Cognitive Elements of Empowerment: An 'Interpretive' Model of Intrinsic Task Motivation. Academy of Management Review, Vol 15, No. 4, 666-681

Wilkinson, A. 1998. Empowerment: theory and practice. Personnel Review. [online]. Vol. 27(1): 40-56. Available from: Emerald on the World Wide Web: http://hermia.emeraldinsight.com/vl=2601464/cl=84/nw=1/fm=docpdf/rpsv/cw/mcb/00483486/v27n1/s3/p40 [Accessed 16.02.2004].

See also

• Decentralization
• Self-ownership
• Employee engagement
• Organizational empowerment
• Youth empowerment

External links

• Empowerment applied in a Social Work context with homeless people.