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Michael Elmes wrote, RE: empowerment:
>>
>> Can anyone give me the names of companies who are
>> generally regarded as ones that espouse and practice
>> EMPOWERMENT with its workforce?

Suggest you add to the list the Remmele company, Milwaukee, WI. Their
results and how they achieve them is well documented in an evaluation study
that can be found at URL www.parshift.com.


Jack Ring, 32712 N. 70th St., Snottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
480-488-4615, Fax)480-488-4616, Cell) 602.369.4615
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.

Greetings, I've just joined this list and have lurked but one day, so
my suggestion may already have been offered. If so, I apologize.

> Michael Elmes wrote, RE: empowerment:

> Can anyone give me the names of companies who are
> generally regarded as ones that espouse and practice
> EMPOWERMENT with its workforce?

I suggest W.L. Gore and Company the makers of GoreTex fabric. They
operate something like fifty plants now worldwide without hierarchy,
managers or a "scarcity mentality" budget process. It is a very
interesting and empowering culture!

Good luck,
Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D.
--
Partnerwerks, Inc. Responsible relationships at work
512/342-9970 www.partnerwerks.com

Increase your TeamAbility(TM) weekly. Send a blank e-mail to:
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Michael,

I have been reading the empowerment list ideas with interest. There is in
the literature a vast difference between the HR empowerment examples (Gore,
Ritz Carlton, etc.) and kinds of empowerment that critical and postmodern
theorists are writing about. The critical postmodernists (CP) approach
focuses upon workplace democracy and even the cooperative governance of the
firm by workers. The view of Alvesson and Willmott (Making Sense of
Management - Sage) is that the HR empowerment approach is actually
disempowerment, a move away from worker control over the governance of the
firm, containing only a narrow focus on work task control.

As an example of workplace empowerment I would suggest examples such Robert
Owens cooperative movement. See Dennis Lawrence (The Third Way: The Promise
of Industrial Democracy, 1988 Routledge). One example is the 1843
establshiment of a British workers' cooperative which by 1914 established
1,400 retail stores owned 500 factories with sales of $650 million. They set
up their own banks and insurance. Workers divided the surplus based upon
purchses made. The factories of the English Wholesale Cooperative Society
were reportedly worker-governed, as were each of the retail stores. See also
Daniel Bloomfield's Modern Industiral Movements. 1920 NY the H. W. Wilson
Company. The Mondragon of Spain is a more contemporary example of worker
empowerment, where workers elect any managers who may be needed. Workplace
democracy is the only true empowerment!

Good luck on your study.

david

Hello:

Chuck Manz & I have written a case study of W. L. Gore & Associates that is available from Irwin/McGraw-Hill through its Primis custom publishing division (For a review copy call 1-800-331-2315). You can also find it in many textbooks including:

Daft, R. L. (1998). Organization Theory and Design (6th Ed.), Cincinnati: Southwestern Publishing Company, pp 581-591.

Digman, L. A. (1999). Strategic Management: Cases (5th Ed.), Houston: Dame Publishing, pp. C16-1:C16-22.

Digman, L. A. (1997). Strategic Management: Cases (4th Ed.), Houston: Dame Publishing, pp. C16-1:C16-22.

Hill, C. W. L., & Jones, G. R. (Forthcoming). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Hill, C. W. L., & Jones, G. R. (1998). Cases in Strategic Management (4th Ed.), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, c218-c233..

Hutt, M., & Speh, T., (Forthcoming). Business Marketing Management (6th Ed.), Chicago: The Dryden Press.

Miller, A. (1998). Strategic Management (3rd Ed.), New York: McGraw-Hill, c.514-c.537.

Pearce, J. A., II, & Robinson, R. B., Jr., (1997). Strategic Management: Formulation Implementation and Control (6th Ed.), Homewood: Richard D. Irwin, pp. 18-1 through 18-18.

If you cannot get a hold of a copy in any other manner, send me a e-mail at fmshipper@ssu.edu and I will send you a copy.

Yo may want to check out my web site listed below for other cases, exercises, and articles on leadership, management and empowerment.






Frank Shipper, Ph.D.
Professor of Management
Perdue School of Business
Salisbury State University
Salisbury, MD 21801
Phone (410) 543-6333
FAX (410) 546-6208
E-mail: fmshipper@ssu.edu
Home Page: http://perdue.ssu.edu/~fmshippe/welcome.htm

>> Michael Elmes wrote, RE: empowerment:
>
>> Can anyone give me the names of companies who are
>> generally regarded as ones that espouse and practice
>> EMPOWERMENT with its workforce?
There have been many, many responses. It will be interesting if Michael
Elmes posts the compiled list for the benefit all of us.

Ram
Bangalore, India