Motivation and Empowerment

Motivation and Empowerment

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Motivation and Empowerment

Introduction

Motivation and empowerment are vital in every job. Nevertheless, motivation does not simply comprise of what employers do for their employees. Instead, it mainly involves the work that employees are empowered to undertake. It is also vital to note that there are several sources of motivation. These include bonuses, over time, raises, rewards, and paid days off for good performance. This paper will compare motivation and empowerment, detail the components of empowerment, and analyze the implications of empowerment and delegation in a criminal justice organization. Finally, the paper will analyze the role of trust in personnel issues.

Comparison between Motivation and Empowerment

According to More, Vito, and Walsh (2012), motivation and empowerment relate to the work product of individuals and organization. They define motivation as the intensity of the desire of an individual to engage in a certain activity. In relation to law enforcement, motivation refers to the process of generating work productivity from the employees. There are several theories that attempt to explain the basis for motivating employees. The foundation of these theories focuses on the desire for an individual to relieve an unmet need. For instance, Maslow’s hierarchy off needs focuses on the fulfilment of life requirements in a sequential manner beginning with simple physiological needs to more complex psychological needs. On the other hand, McGregor’s Theory X and Y tackles the needs from the perspective of the manager and their positive or negative impact on the employees. In essence, motivation focuses on the performance of an individual and how managers can improve the productivity of their employees.

On the other hand, empowerment defines the relationship between an employer and the employees in their quest to achieve the goals of the organization. According to Kumar (2011), empowerment relates to the steps that the employer takes to include ideas of certain stakeholders in the development process. Kumar (2011) highlights four specific components of empowerment. They include delegation, participation, trust, and capitalization. Empowerment enables individuals within an organization to provide their input and ideas as one of the major processes of developing solutions to facilitate the achievement of the objectives of the organization.

In the context of law enforcement, front line officers that spend a significant amount of time in the field have the best perspectives on how to handle problems facing the community. Therefore, it is vital for the leadership of the law enforcement agency to provide an environment that prompts the officers to elaborate the problems and take part in the development of initiatives to solve the problems.

Despite the fact that both motivation and empowerment involve work productivity of organizations and employees, they address different elements in the organizational framework. For instance, motivation puts more emphasis on the productivity of employees and provides managers with an opportunity to formulate strategies that would help in achieving the labor potential of each employee. On the other hand, empowerment mainly revolves around the relationship between the employees and the organization.

Components of Empowerment

Empowerment increases the ability of people to improve their lives and communities by striving to acquire the things they deem to be most important. It questions people’s acceptance of how things are and how they could be. Empowerment also challenges people’s assumptions on achieving, helping, succeeding, and power. The components of empowerment are similar in different theories and disciplines. There are four fundamental elements of empowerment – vision value, strategy sharing; relevant training; information flow from the source; and power and authority sharing (Kania, 2012).

Vision, value, strategy sharing

It is vital for organizations to invite employees to contribute during the initial stages of strategic planning. It ensures that employee have the ability to make decisions in the future that would align with the strategy of the organization. Organizations that intend to place decision-making power on the hands of employees should ensure that it has a shared strategy, which would replace the detailed list of procedures on how employees should undertake different activities.

Information flow from the source

Employees should have access to all types of information to perform their roles more effectively. The employees should access immediate feedback from external and internal customers. For instance, the employees should have access to customer information on service quality and overall satisfaction. Information in hierarchical organizations has to filter through several layers of middle management prior to being reaching frontline employees. On the other hand, information in high-involving organizations flows from the source to the frontline employees directly.

Relevant training

It is crucial for organizations to provide their employees with relevant training to enable them gain decision-making responsibilities, work effectively in teams, and have direct contacts with customers or clients. It is also vital for the employees to apply the newly acquired skills immediately. It would be a waste of time and money for an organization to train employees if the employees cannot apply the training.

Power and authority sharing

Giving up power and authority sharing are the most difficult elements of empowerment of employees. However, it is the most important element of empowerment of employees. Failure to give up power and share authority undermines the entire effort of empowering employees. Therefore, managers should relinquish power and authority to employees.

Implications of empowerment and delegation in a criminal justice organization

Empowerment and delegation are common in law enforcement. Law enforcers can use their discretion to determine what they should do. Managers and supervisors can also use their discretion to determine the next course of action. Empowerment in the context of law enforcement involves opening the external command and control to include the individual law enforcement officer’s internal locus of control. Law enforcement officers that have an external locus perceive daily events as being under the control of external circumstances and choices. On the other hand, people who have an internal locus believe that their actions directly influence their outcomes.

It is vital for law enforcement officers to have the confidence that they can make decisions on their own while performing their daily tasks. It would be impractical for a law enforcement agency to spend significant sums of money micromanaging the activities of the law enforcement agencies. The law enforcement agency should trust the law enforcement officers to make decisions to solve problems they experience while undertaking their daily activities. The law enforcement agency may set certain requirements for certain tasks and circumstances. However, they should acknowledge the fact that not all situations would be similar. The law enforcement officers may face unique situations that would necessitate them to use their discretion.

For the law enforcement agency to empower its officers to use their knowledge and training to address situations and issues they may face while undertaking their activities necessitates the agency to have a high degree of flexibility. Effective implementation of initiatives to empower employees leads to a significant improvement in the efficiency of the agency. However, in reality, most managers of the law enforcement agencies fear giving up power and sharing decision-making authority with the lower level employees of the agency. It is vital for managers of law enforcement agencies to acknowledge the fact that without delegation, it would be difficult for the law enforcement agency to achieve its full potential. Delegating and assuming responsibility requires so much moral courage from leaders and the young law enforcement officer. Therefore, it is pertinent to claim that delegation is two-way. The responsibility given by the leader of the enforcement agency should be received by the young law enforcement officer. Ultimately, delegation benefits leaders and managers of law enforcement agencies, the employees, the entire organization, and the community (Kania, 2012).

Trust and personnel issues

Previously, people sought gainful employment as a necessity of they wanted to fend for themselves. In essence, people did not care about the source of money that they were gaining to take care of their financial needs as long as the money kept coming. However, in the contemporary world, a job is not merely a job to a significant number of people. Instead, people aspire to have a career that provides the means of obtaining several things. Therefore, in the contemporary world, people expect the organizations they work for to have a specific set of values that resonate with their individual values. These values include honesty, integrity, and fair and equal treatment. Employees who feel that the organizations they work for do not uphold these values are highly likely not to trust the organization. Lack of trust would have a significant impact on the productivity of the employee. It would reduce morale, efficiency, and quality of work of the employee. If the employee performs crucial roles, reduced productivity and inefficiencies of the employee may jeopardize the operations of the entire organization (Peak, 2013).

The workforce in the contemporary world has also become more mature and sophisticated. Previously, employees used to work for an organization. However, currently, employees would like to work with an organization. These developments require leaders of organizations to use actions instead of merely speaking to advance the efforts of the organization. The leaders should also have integrity and aspire to always do the right thing. They should lead by example. According to Peak (2013), law enforcement agencies should be held to a higher moral standard since they are required to “protect and serve.” Their actions have a significant impact on the public. Therefore, engaging in unethical conduct may have dire consequences on not only the public but the law enforcement agency itself. Sadly, certain people in law enforcement agencies do not strive to “protect and serve.” They only strive to protect and serve their personal interest, which sometimes contradict the interests of the public.

Conclusion

Motivation and empowerment are vital in law enforcement. It is vital for leaders of law enforcement agencies to ensure they use the four components of empowerment to empower employees. This will ensure that the employees perform their activities more efficiently. Failure to motivate and empower employees would limit the ability of the law enforcement agency to achieve its full potential.

References

Kania, R. E. (2012). Managing criminal justice organizations: An introduction (2nd ed.). Newark, NJ: Elsevier/Anderson.

Kumar, R. (2011). Human resource management: Strategic analysis text and cases. New Dehli: I.K. International.

More, H. W., Vito, G. F., & Walsh, W. F. (2012). Organizational behavior and management in law enforcement. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Peak, K. J. (2013). Justice Administration Police, Courts, and Corrections Management (7th ed.). Pearson.