Publication: Delegation of authority and empowerment & a study into public and private sectors
Abstract
Yoğun bir rekabete dayalı iş dünyasında, bir çok organizasyon için bu sert rekabete karşı koymak ve iş dünyasında ayakta kalmak çok zor bir hale gelmiştir. Bilgi organizasyonlar için en önemli kaynak ve güç haline gelmiştir. Bu bilgi ve güç organizasyonun her seviyesinde gerekli olduğu ölçüde eşit ve adilane bir şekilde paylaşılmalıdır. Bu hususta başarılı olmak, tepe yönetimin elindeki güç ve bilgi demetinden bir kısmının alt kademelere inmesine izin vermelerinde büyük önem ve gerek olduğuna inanmalarına bağlıdır. Modern yönetim düşüncesinde artık klasik güç anlayışına yer kalmamıştır. Günümüzde yönetsel güç artık organizasyonların hemen hemen tüm birimlerince eşit olarak paylaşılmakta ve kullanılmaktadır. Elemanlarına kendilerini güçlü ve yetki sahibi olduklarını hissettiren organizasyonlar örgütsel amaç ve hedeflere daha kolay ulaşabilirler; çünkü, böyle bir organizasyonda insanlar doğal olarak çok yüksek örgütsel bağlılık derecesine sahip olacaklardır. Böyle bir organizasyonda özerk havayı teneffüs eden çalışanlar daha girişimci olacak ve kendilerine daha yüksek hedefler koyacaklardır. Çalışanlar sahip oldukları mesleki kabiliyet ve becerileri nispetinde kendilerini daha güçlü hissedeceklerdir. Halihazırda sahip oldukları bu kabiliyet ve beceriler sürekli eğitim ile mümkün olur. Bu yüzden, çalışanlara kendilerini geliştirmeleri için olabildiğince çok sayıda fırsat verilmelidir. Çalışanlarının kapasite ve kabiliyetlerinden emin olan bir yönetici, çalışanlarına çok kolay yetki devredebilir. Günümüz organizasyonlarında rekabet çok çetin bir hal almıştır. İş dünyası sınır tanımaz olmuştur. Böyle bir ortamda, bir yöneticinin bütün iş ve faaliyetleri bir noktadan komuta ve kontrol etmesi olanaksız hale gelmiştir. Astlarının bazı sorumlulukları devralmalarına olanak tanımalı ve izin vermelidir. Bir asta daha fazla sorumluluk verilmesi ise, o asta o görevi başarmasına yetecek oranda yetkinin de beraberinde verilmesini gerektirir. Çoğu zaman yöneticilerin büyük çoğunluğu astlarına daha fazla sorumluluk vermekten kaçınmazlar; ama yetkinin ellerinden gideceğini hissettiklerinde korkuyla hemen geri adım atarlar. Ellerindeki güç ve yetkinin kaybolacağından korkarlar. Oysa çalışanları sahip oldukları pozisyonda güçlü kılmak, sizi yönetim sürecinde daha güçlü kılacaktır, çünkü bazı iş ve sorumlulukların yönetim kademesinin altındaki kişiler tarafından yapılması ile yönetici bu işler için zaman ve emek harcamak zorunda kalmayacaktır. Fakat yine kendilerinden beklenenleri gerçekleştirmeleri için yeterli oranda yetkiye gerek duyacakları unutulmamalıdır. Bu çalışma, yetki devri ile çalışanların güçlendirilmesi kavramları arasındaki farka ışık tutmayı amaçlamaktadır. Buna ek olarak, kamu ve özel sektörde mevcut yönetim anlayışını, yetki devri ve çalışanların güçlendirilmesi açısından test etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Çalışma üç temel safhada tamamlanmıştır : 1. Literatür araştırması, 2. Saha çalışması, ve 3. Araştırma bulgularını yorumu ve öneriler. Literatür araştırması, yetki devri ve çalışanların güçlendirilmesi kavramlarının farklı tanımlarını; bu kavramlar arasındaki ilişkiyi ve farkı; klasik ve modern yönetim düşüncesinde yetki ve güç dağılımını; yetki devri ve güçlendirmenin aşamaları ve yetki devri ve güçlendirmenin yöneticilere ve çalışanlara faydaları konularını kapsar. Araştırmanın ikinci bölümü üç aşamada gerçekleştirilmiştir. İlk aşamada, kamu ve özel sektöre mensup bir grup yönetici ile yüz yüze görüşme yapılmış ve bu görüşmelerden elde edilen veriler literatür araştırmasında elde edilen veriler ile karşılaştırılmıştır. İkinci aşamada, yapılan bu karşılaştırmadan sonra bu defa aynı iş yerlerindeki çalışanlara uygulanmak üzere bir ön-anket hazırlanmıştır. Sonra da çalışanların verdikleri yanıtlar yöneticilerden alınan yanıtlarla karşılaştırılmıştır. Son aşamada, seçilen örneklemde yetki devri ve çalışanların güçlendirilmesi konularının derecesini test etmek amacıyla bir anket formu geliştirilmiştir. Hazırlanan anket formunda 58 soru mevcut olup, bunların dokuz adedi demografik özellikleri belirlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Geri kalan 49 soru dört temel hipotezi test etmek üzere dizayn edilmiştir : Organizasyonda bilgi akışı ve bilgi paylaşımı; çalışanların örgütsel bağlılık dereceleri; sağlanan eğitim ve gelişim fırsatları, ve organizasyonda yetki ve güç dağılımı. Buna ek olarak, soruların tamamı ile de kamu ve özel sektörlerde yetki devri ve çalışanları güçlendirme uygulamalarının mevcut durumunun test edilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Gerçek anlamda çalışanların güçlü kılındığı bir iş ortamında, çalışanların aidiyet duyguları daha yüksek olacaktır. Ayrıca, her türlü bilginin organizasyonun her kademesinde hiçbir kısıtlamayla karşılaşmaksızın aşağı ve yukarı serbestçe akacağı, ve insanların sorumluluklarına eşdeğer oranda güç ve yetkiye sahip olacakları varsayılmıştır. Son olarak ise, çalışmanın sonunda, özel sektördeki organizasyonların kamu sektöründeki organizasyonlara nazaran daha iyi sonuçlar vereceği varsayılmıştır. Anketin son şekli katılımcılara dağıtılmadan önce, anket soruları bir grup tarafından açıklık, anlaşılırlık ve cümle yapıları bakımından incelenmiştir. Bu çalışmanın örneklemini yedi özel ve beş kamu kuruluşu oluşturmuştur ve toplam 224 çalışan tarafından anket formları tam olarak doldurulmuştur. Çalışmanın ilk iki aşaması kalitatif olmakla beraber, bu son aşamada kolay ve kesin sonuçlara olanak tanıyacağı düşünüldüğünden kantitatif yöntem (Likert-scale) tercih edilmiştir. Bu son aşamada elde edilen veriler SPSS 7.5 versiyonunda değerlendirilmiş ve araştırmanın güvenirlik testi ise SPSS 9.0 versiyonunda gerçekleştirilmiştir. Güvenirlik testi Cronbach-alpha modeline göre yapılmıştır. Güvenirlik testi sonuçları uygulamanın yüksek güvenirliğe sahip olduğunu göstermiştir. Elde edilen sayısal veriler aritmetik ortalama, ortalama farkları, karşıt korelasyon, karşıt-tablolama, bi-variasyon analizi, ANOVA (tekli varyans analizi), MANOVA (çoklu varyans analizi), T-testi ve frekans yöntemleri ile değerlendirilmiş ve yorumlanmıştır. Hemen hemen bütün anket soruları çok yüksek karşıt korelasyon göstermiştir. Kamu ve özel sektör kuruluşlarının yetki devri ve personeli güçlendirme konularındaki uygulamalarında anlamlı farklılıkla karşılaşılmıştır. Özel sektör, yetki ve güç dağılımının etkinliğinde daha pozitif sonuçlar vermiştir. Eğitim seviyesi, çalışanın bu güne kadar değiştirmiş olduğu iş sayısı ve kişinin mensubu olduğu sektör tipi çalışanların yetki devri ve güçlendirme konularına bakışında önemli rol oynamıştır. Yüksek eğitim seviyesine sahip kişilerle çok sayıda iş değiştiren kişilerin bu konuya daha duyarlı oldukları gözlemlenmiştir. Kamu sektöründe çalışanlarda örgütsel bağlılık düzeyinin oldukça düşük olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Bu sektörde çalışanlar bir görevi yapmada yeterli yetki noksanlığından yana şikayetlerini belirtmişlerdir. Araştırma sonuçları bu sektörde yönetimle çalışanlar arasında büyük bir boşluğun olduğunu göstermiştir. Bununla birlikte, kamu sektörü çalışanlarında iş değiştirme oranı düşük gerçekleşmiştir. Bunun sebepleri arasında güvenlik ve görevlerin basitliği nedeniyle bir işe bağlı kalmak düşünülebilir. Sonuç olarak, personelin güçlendirilmesi kavramının uygulama alanında tam olmasa da organizasyonların gündemine girmiş olduğunu ve özel sektörün bu olguya daha pozitif baktığını söylemek mümkündür. Fakat yine de mevcut uygulamalar asla yeterli düzeyde değildir. Bir çok organizasyonda - kamu ve özel sektör dahil - yöneticilerin, yeni yöntem tekniklerden haberleri olsa da, hala daha klasik yönetim anlayışlarına büyük ölçüde bağlı kalmaya devam ettikleri görülmüştür. Bunun en başta gelen nedeni ise yönetsel gücün ve başkalarını kontrol edebilme yetisinin kaybedilmesi korkusudur. Daha kolay ve daha etkin bir yönetim için, yöneticiler çalışanlarını güçlü kılma konusuna eğilmeli ve onlara olabildiğince yetki devretmelidir. Bu sayede kendi kendine yeten, kendine güveni tam, işine ve örgütüne candan bağlı, girişimci, yaratıcı ve yenilikçi çalışanlar yaratmak mümkün olacaktır.
In the world of severely competitive business, it has become very difficult for most organizations to stand against this tough competition and survive in the business world. Knowledge has become the most important resource and power for organizations. This power has to be shared fairly and according to the degrees of necessity at each level. To achieve this, top management should believe in the importance and necessity of letting some of their power and knowledge go down to the people at lower levels. The time of classical understanding of power has long been out of fashion in the modern management thought. Power is now something which is almost equally exercised and enjoyed by all the parts of the organization. Organizations, which enable their members to enjoy an atmosphere where everyone feels himself professionally strong and authorized, can attain organizational goals and objectives much more easily; because in an organization like this, people will naturally have high levels of organizational commitment. Employees breathing the autonomous air in such an organization will be more competitive and they will set higher goals for themselves. Employees feel themselves much more powerful with the professional skills and capabilities. Their present skills and capabilities can be increased through continuous training and education. Thus, they should be given as many opportunities as possible to improve themselves. A manager, if he is secure about his subordinates' capabilities, can easily delegate authority to them. In today's organizations, competition has become tough. Business world has gone out of boundaries. In such a condition, it is not that easy to control and coordinate all the affairs from one point for a manager. He has to allow his subordinates to take over some of the responsibilities. When more responsibility is allocated to someone, he has to be granted the authority that is needed to complete that task. More often than not, managers agree to give more responsibilities to their subordinates; but when it is authority to go out of their hands, they fearfully step back. They are scared by the thought of losing from their power and authority. However, empowering your people makes you more powerful in the management process; as you will not have to spend time and effort on things which can be done by others below the managerial level. Yet it must be remembered that the only thing they need to accomplish what is being expected from them is authority. This study aims to clarify the distinction between delegation of authority and empowerment. It also aims to test the present state of management understanding in public and private sectors in relation to delegation of authority and empowerment. The study has been fulfilled in three main parts: 1. Literature survey, 2. Field research, and 3. Interpretation of the research results and suggestions. Literature survey comprises the definitions of delegation and empowerment, other related terms; the relationship and differences among them; power and authority in classical and modern management styles; the steps of delegation and empowerment; the benefits of delegation and empowerment to managers and employees. The second part of the study has been carried out in three stages. At the first step, a group of managers from public and private sectors have been interviewed in order to gather useful data to be compared with the findings in the literature review. With the data gathered from these interviews, a broad comparison and contrast has been made before preparing a set of questions to asked to employees in the same organizations. Then, the responses taken from the employees have been compared to the responses of the managers. In the final stage, a questionnaire form has been designed to test the degree of empowerment and delegation of authority in the selected sample. The form included 58 items, nine of which were to identify demographic features of the participants. The rest of the form included 49 items designed to test four basic hypotheses: Information sharing and information flow in the organization; organizational commitment level of employees: training and development opportunities provided, and power and authority distribution in the organization. In addition, all these 49 items were aimed to test the present level of empowerment and delegation practices in public and private sectors comparatively. It has been hypothesized that an ideally empowered organization will have committed employees, who are multi-skilled. It has also been hypothesized that all kinds of information will flow up and down the levels of organization with little or no restraint; and people will exercise degrees of power and authority that is equivalent to their degree of responsibility. Lastly, it has been hypothesized that private sector would prove better results at the end of the research. Before distributing the final format to participants, the questionnaire form has been revised by a number of people for clarity, comprehensibility and verbosity. In the sample of this study, seven private and five public organizations have been included, and totally 224 people have been inquired to fill out the questionnaire forms. While the first two stages were qualitative, this final stage was quantitative, assuming that it would facilitate an easy and exact evaluation. The data obtained from this final part have been processed in SPSS 7.5 Version, and the reliability testing of the research has been made in SPSS 9.0 Version. Reliability test has been made according to Cronbach's alpha model. The results computed in reliability testings proved a high reliability level. The quantitative data have been interpreted and evaluated by using arithmetic mean, mean differences, cross-correlation, cross-tabulations, bi-variate analysis, ANOVA (analysis of variance), MANOVA (multiple analysis of variance), T-test and frequencies. Almost all the test items proved a high cross-correlation coefficient. Significant differences between public and private sectors have been computed in their exercise of power and authority. Private sector has proved higher results in their exercise of power and authority. Education level, number of jobs that have been changed so far and the type of the sector one belongs to appeared to play a very important role in their approach to delegation of authority and empowerment. People with higher education levels, those who have changed many jobs seem to become more sensitive toward this subject. People who work in the public sector have come up with very low commitment degrees. They put forth their complaints about the lack of authority to do a task. The results revealed the existence of a big gap between management and employees. However, people in the public sector showed a lower turnover rate. This might be due to the idea of sticking to one job for reasons of security and simplicity of tasks. Consequently, empowerment can be said to get into the management agenda of these organizations, at least verbally but not in full practice yet, and private sector being much better in adapting itself to this approach. Nevertheless, it seems that the present empowerment practices are not satisfactory yet. Managers in most organizations - both public and private - still seem to adhere to the classical management techniques even if they know about new methods and techniques. The basic reason in doing so is generally because of a fear of losing managerial authority and control over others. For simpler but more efficient management, managers should lean on the subject of empowering their people and delegate as much authority as possible to them. This will create self-sufficient, self-confident, committed, competitive, creative and innovative employees.
In the world of severely competitive business, it has become very difficult for most organizations to stand against this tough competition and survive in the business world. Knowledge has become the most important resource and power for organizations. This power has to be shared fairly and according to the degrees of necessity at each level. To achieve this, top management should believe in the importance and necessity of letting some of their power and knowledge go down to the people at lower levels. The time of classical understanding of power has long been out of fashion in the modern management thought. Power is now something which is almost equally exercised and enjoyed by all the parts of the organization. Organizations, which enable their members to enjoy an atmosphere where everyone feels himself professionally strong and authorized, can attain organizational goals and objectives much more easily; because in an organization like this, people will naturally have high levels of organizational commitment. Employees breathing the autonomous air in such an organization will be more competitive and they will set higher goals for themselves. Employees feel themselves much more powerful with the professional skills and capabilities. Their present skills and capabilities can be increased through continuous training and education. Thus, they should be given as many opportunities as possible to improve themselves. A manager, if he is secure about his subordinates' capabilities, can easily delegate authority to them. In today's organizations, competition has become tough. Business world has gone out of boundaries. In such a condition, it is not that easy to control and coordinate all the affairs from one point for a manager. He has to allow his subordinates to take over some of the responsibilities. When more responsibility is allocated to someone, he has to be granted the authority that is needed to complete that task. More often than not, managers agree to give more responsibilities to their subordinates; but when it is authority to go out of their hands, they fearfully step back. They are scared by the thought of losing from their power and authority. However, empowering your people makes you more powerful in the management process; as you will not have to spend time and effort on things which can be done by others below the managerial level. Yet it must be remembered that the only thing they need to accomplish what is being expected from them is authority. This study aims to clarify the distinction between delegation of authority and empowerment. It also aims to test the present state of management understanding in public and private sectors in relation to delegation of authority and empowerment. The study has been fulfilled in three main parts: 1. Literature survey, 2. Field research, and 3. Interpretation of the research results and suggestions. Literature survey comprises the definitions of delegation and empowerment, other related terms; the relationship and differences among them; power and authority in classical and modern management styles; the steps of delegation and empowerment; the benefits of delegation and empowerment to managers and employees. The second part of the study has been carried out in three stages. At the first step, a group of managers from public and private sectors have been interviewed in order to gather useful data to be compared with the findings in the literature review. With the data gathered from these interviews, a broad comparison and contrast has been made before preparing a set of questions to asked to employees in the same organizations. Then, the responses taken from the employees have been compared to the responses of the managers. In the final stage, a questionnaire form has been designed to test the degree of empowerment and delegation of authority in the selected sample. The form included 58 items, nine of which were to identify demographic features of the participants. The rest of the form included 49 items designed to test four basic hypotheses: Information sharing and information flow in the organization; organizational commitment level of employees: training and development opportunities provided, and power and authority distribution in the organization. In addition, all these 49 items were aimed to test the present level of empowerment and delegation practices in public and private sectors comparatively. It has been hypothesized that an ideally empowered organization will have committed employees, who are multi-skilled. It has also been hypothesized that all kinds of information will flow up and down the levels of organization with little or no restraint; and people will exercise degrees of power and authority that is equivalent to their degree of responsibility. Lastly, it has been hypothesized that private sector would prove better results at the end of the research. Before distributing the final format to participants, the questionnaire form has been revised by a number of people for clarity, comprehensibility and verbosity. In the sample of this study, seven private and five public organizations have been included, and totally 224 people have been inquired to fill out the questionnaire forms. While the first two stages were qualitative, this final stage was quantitative, assuming that it would facilitate an easy and exact evaluation. The data obtained from this final part have been processed in SPSS 7.5 Version, and the reliability testing of the research has been made in SPSS 9.0 Version. Reliability test has been made according to Cronbach's alpha model. The results computed in reliability testings proved a high reliability level. The quantitative data have been interpreted and evaluated by using arithmetic mean, mean differences, cross-correlation, cross-tabulations, bi-variate analysis, ANOVA (analysis of variance), MANOVA (multiple analysis of variance), T-test and frequencies. Almost all the test items proved a high cross-correlation coefficient. Significant differences between public and private sectors have been computed in their exercise of power and authority. Private sector has proved higher results in their exercise of power and authority. Education level, number of jobs that have been changed so far and the type of the sector one belongs to appeared to play a very important role in their approach to delegation of authority and empowerment. People with higher education levels, those who have changed many jobs seem to become more sensitive toward this subject. People who work in the public sector have come up with very low commitment degrees. They put forth their complaints about the lack of authority to do a task. The results revealed the existence of a big gap between management and employees. However, people in the public sector showed a lower turnover rate. This might be due to the idea of sticking to one job for reasons of security and simplicity of tasks. Consequently, empowerment can be said to get into the management agenda of these organizations, at least verbally but not in full practice yet, and private sector being much better in adapting itself to this approach. Nevertheless, it seems that the present empowerment practices are not satisfactory yet. Managers in most organizations - both public and private - still seem to adhere to the classical management techniques even if they know about new methods and techniques. The basic reason in doing so is generally because of a fear of losing managerial authority and control over others. For simpler but more efficient management, managers should lean on the subject of empowering their people and delegate as much authority as possible to them. This will create self-sufficient, self-confident, committed, competitive, creative and innovative employees.