MSLD520 - Module 7 - Empowerment - Madeline Campbell


Empowerment in the work field is a tricky word as it is a balancing act for a superior. Empowerment has been defined and redefined by modern cultural and media. Whetton and Cameron state that empowerment means providing freedom to individuals to succeed in, “what they want to do, rather than getting them to do what you want them to do” (2016, p. 366). Forrester noted in his research, “despite the attraction of the concept of high-involvement management, companies have found it difficult to put empowerment into practice” (2002, p. 68). Within my current position, I have not felt empowerment in the full totality that it encapsulates, however, within the position itself, due to some of the autonomy, I have felt empowered and trusted to some degree.

My current position at ERAU is very independent, where you are trusted to have your work done well in a timely manner, travel on your own, book everything for travel and present/host events with 200+ attendees. You are not handheld throughout this and calling your superiors for questions while on the road is highly discouraged. Therefore, there is much trial and error within this process, especially when it is your first calendar year in admissions. Each calendar season brings a new season of travel, with new events and processes. Having been given such autonomy and freedom to do my job, last year I was extremely motivated to book four visits per day, keep up with my office work and have the presentations down to perfection as I felt empowered to do so. This was my first position where I was given freedom to work and was trusted to have my work done well.

Being new last year, I did have numerous questions and concerns with how to book travel, etc. I had two colleagues who pushed and assisted me along the process which helped to instill empowerment. Empowerment, “means to enable. It means to help people develop a sense of self-confidence” (Whetton et al 2016, p. 367).  This is exactly what my two colleagues did for me last year. Now that I have been in my department for 1.5 years and have traveled for work a decent amount, there has been much turnover and now there is an office full of new colleagues. I am hoping to help instill empowerment in some individuals who are very new and already on the road. To do so, I have tried to give them recourses and tools that will enable them to flourish while on the road without simply doing work for them. One specific new hire is very self-efficient and through that I do see empowerment in her work. She is aware that she can perform her job well and complete her tasks on the road. I have attempted to assist her in goal-setting for each day. She started in a very busy season, being thrown into travel planning and felt very overwhelmed. I never went into her office to give her daily goals, but simply walked into her office and asked how travel planning was going. From there, I would show her what my daily-task was, how I went about accomplishing it and how getting A done now, would help us complete B later. She then took it upon herself to complete the same tasks each day, which created a sense of accomplishment and achievement. “A great deal of research confirms that having goals motivates individuals to achieve higher performance than if they have no goals” (Whetton et al, 2016, p. 372).


Whetten, David A.. Developing Management Skills (p. 367). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.

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