Overview
of Teachers’ empowerment and the teachers’ empowerment policies
The
concept of empowerment is multi-faceted and dimensional in that, it can be used
in different ways depending on the context within which one is using it. In
literal terms, empowerment could be used to mean, to authorize which means
giving people some ability to influence something
they cannot influence or do
something they cannot do. In the management parlance empowerment could mean to
equip” and to give the staff of an organization the enabling environment to
perform their duties effectively and efficiently. It is in line with the above
views that, Mullins (2005) stated that empowerment means allowing employees
greater freedom, autonomy and self- control over their work and responsibility
for decision- making. This means that empowerment can be regarded as a
motivation strategy designed to bring out the best from the employees of an organization.
It is also anchored on the believe that. Subordinates also need to exercise some
level of power as that will make them feel belonged and that their decisions
could also be taken.
According to Sussan (2010)
empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take actions,
control works and make decisions in autonomous ways. Empowerment here means
making people responsible for the quality of their own work and giving them the
means to test and inspect it. It also means consulting people and taking their
view into account when changes are necessary. Umeogu (2012) suggested four managerial
initiatives and means to empower employees:
i. Empowerment through participation, for
example, the delegation of decision making which in a traditional organization
would be the domain of management.
ii. Empowerment through involvement for example, when
management’s concern is to gain from employees’ experiences, ideas and
suggestions
iii. Empowerment through commitment, for example through greater
commitment to the organization goals and through improvement in employee’s job
satisfaction.
iv. Empowerment
through de-layering, for example through reducing the number of tiers of management in the organization structure.
Suffice it to say here that, people may confuse
empowerment with delegation but in the strict sense of it, empowerment involves
granting subordinate’s authority to decide and act. It is described as a
management style. It means making people responsible for the quality of their
own work and giving them the means to test and inspect it.
It is important to
state here categorically that, this research focuses on the empowerment of teachers
through greater government commitment to the improvement of teacher’s job satisfaction.
Based on this, empowerment could be used interchangeably with the concept of motivation.
When used within this purview,
empowerment can be regarded as the process through which the government improve teachers welfare, give them
adequate incentive to enable them bring
out their best and also help them to achieve their personal career targets
.while working for the realization of
government educational objectives. It is
in view of the above that, Ogwa (2011) stated that, empowerment is the process
through which the employees of any organization are given the suitable social, economic,
political, welfare and otherwise incentives that can make them work more effectively
and efficiently. In line with this,
Mullins (2005) stated that,
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