By Dr. Jonathan Schultz, former Chief Academic Officer at Amberton University
The concept of empowering individuals in a rapidly changing global business environment can shape the competitive landscape of almost any global market. This is certainly true when considering project management teams within organizations. So, how can we best empower individuals and teams today to effectively shape the marketplace of the future?
First, it is important to understand that ‘empowerment’ is a dynamic transition of power among all levels of an organization. As power is shared among various strata of the organization, it fuels individuals and teams to meet both the organization’s goals and the market’s demands. Organizational effectiveness is most easily understood as the level to which an organization meets goals established internally by the organization and externally by the marketplace.
A key to empowering individuals and teams can be found in clearly aligning organizational culture and organizational goals. Many scholars consider culture the shared values and behaviors of groups of individuals in a particular setting. So, an organization must be aware of the similarities and differences of values and behaviors that are constantly shaping their enterprise. Empowering individuals and groups begin with understanding and respecting the diversity in values and behaviors that form the organization while clearly articulating the goals and objectives of the firm. By reinforcing the values and behaviors that mutually, and simultaneously, meet the needs of the marketplace and organization an empowered culture can be maintained. As organizations seek to identify these win-win opportunities individuals and groups gain fulfillment from their work and market demands are satisfied with quality products and services. Simple best practices in empowering individuals and teams can be found in sharing clear organizational goals, listening to the ideas and experiences of the individual/team, and responding to the evident needs of the marketplace with quality products and timely services.
Dr. Jonathan Schultz, CAPM: My professional background stems from over a decade of experience as an Investment Executive for a regional bank in Dallas and serving as an insurance specialist for a top 10 insurance company in the United States. My academic background has included teaching undergraduate and graduate business courses for a variety of universities and serving as the Chief Academic Officer at Amberton University for four years.
