Power refers to control over a person's environment. As a matter of fact, Self-power in simple terms is known as self-control. When an individual has the personal power, they will fill the effect on their environment. In this sense, one will have the ability to impact other people's compartment. For a person that feels powerless, it arises from a perspective that such people do not have an influence on their surroundings. The feeling of powerlessness does not necessarily apply to all aspects of a person's life as an individual may feel empowered in one area and powerless in the other (McConnell, 2014).
Case Study 1
In the first place identifying issues present in a unit that would create feelings of powerlessness among staff would be of more importance for productivity. First, the employees may be highly stressed due to the demands to respond to their boss’ needs and meet deadlines with little or no control over events within their working environments. This creates an inner experience that leads to a variety of opinion, thoughts, emotions and perceptions. Feeling powerless is a definite feeling, and these persons may feel disheartened, despondent, frustrated and angry. Such emotions among nurses can develop into deep anger which if left unattended to for a long time leads to a feeling powerless. Being powerless would also affect the nurses' judgment. Above all, Nancy should have empowered the nurses so as boost their morale. It would have generated a high turnout and full attendance to working.
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Work regulations are another factor that may be contributing towards this occurrence. When the controlling agents are so rigid and insensitive to individual’s diversity, nurses start to develop a feeling helplessness. For instance, if working hours are fixed, then it goes to the extent of affecting their private lives. This would result in them feeling powerless and frustrated. In turn, the results would be no attendance or a small turnout at the workplace.
Another source of powerlessness is an organizational culture that does support the culture of risk taking. As such, employees are not willing to take risks for fear of failing. People create pressure on themselves to perform and impress their bosses at the workplace. As a matter of fact, it creates a sense of fear of persecution and rejection. In other words, individuals typically project forward into the future, see themselves fading and then continue to envision others disapproving and shunning them. By all means, delusion may bring about the feelings of blame, humiliation, and solitude. It may be the reason why the nurses had low morale and later decided to resign as they could bear it no more (Heaslip & Ryden, 2013).
Sources of Power
Organizational legislations are the primary source of power. Power is granted to a person according to their role or position in the organization. This power is determined by the organizational hierarchy which shows power relations from junior to senior managers. Other than getting promoted, there is little a person does to gain more legitimate power. Apart from promotion, other sources of authority can help one increase legal power. In this case promoting deserving nurses and enhance their legal power can expel the sense of powerlessness.
Closely tied to legitimate power is the reward power which is the capability that is possessed by an individual and which allow them to issue out compensation and incentives in an organisation. These include salary raise, performance bonuses, recognition, promotion, and praises. It will not only motivate the workers but would also make them feel empowered as they know their future entirely depend on them. Favouritism and unfairness in giving out these rewards could also lead to a sense of powerlessness and demotivation.
Punishment is also another source of power that can be scary as it entails instilling fear of being punished for poor performance. People who wave these coercive powers are usually senior managers and use strategies such as demotion and shaming in attaining end means. A healthy dose of these power keeps employees in line but excessive could lead to a sense of powerlessness and hence demoralisation of employees.
Referent power is the influence one changes others' behaviour and decision making. This ability to influence others may be due to the respect, admiration and love others hold for you. It can be termed as the organisational culture being passed down from experienced employees to new hires. Referent power can be present if the organisation can retain its good employees for longer periods.
How to Encourage the Staff to Become Empowered
Nancy as a manager has the responsibility of taking care of her juniors. Encouraging them to form self-help groups enables them to have a platform to convene and help one another in times of difficulty. It will usually lead to the sense of togetherness hence the feeling of empowerment will arise.
Nancy should also recognise and reward high performers at the workplace. This will motivate them and also encourage the poor performers to improve. Nancy should introduce a fair system through which nurses are compensated for their commitment.
Nancy should present guiding and counselling sessions for the nurses. Due to the pressure of work and other personal matters, nurses just like any other human will need an expert shoulder to lie on. It would help to remove the tension building up among the nurses and promote a sense of power.
Case Study 2
Policy formulation is a very sensitive component of an organization. In formulating policies, one has to consider the input of people that would be affected by policies and the cost of implementing them. Since this policy has the direct influence on the lives of employees, they will have to be involved in making them.
In the first place, the kind of information to be obtained from the staff before attending the meeting should include how they interpret the policy. Also, it would be better knowing how the policy affects the working and personal lives of the staff. These could be done by holding forums with the staff so as to collect enough information on the possible impacts the new policy is going to have on their performance and their personal lives. Considering minority views arising concerning the system is also data that could be distinctive, not to mention their experienced perceived from the 8-hour shift. The information obtained would aid in the amendments to formulate policies that would accumulate everyone's views.
Also, it would be precise to gather more intricate details about the system from a wider perspective. There would be the need to research on how longer hours of working affect service delivery and performance of the staff. I will also look at the number of employees available at the facility. In having this information, I may be able to advise the board on whether the time is right to implement the policy and if we have enough personnel to implement the plan (Desai, 2012).
Lastly, to help my group members in comprehending the responsibilities of collective governance in effecting policy change, there has to be a variety of changes. First of all, organizing for an open forum and seminars where the staff will be involved in evaluating and implementing the policy change. Since the staffs are the primary implementers of the system, constant feedback will be required from them. These seminars and workshops will provide a platform on which the management will acquire the response from the staff and implement any changes if possible. It would also be important to produce brochures and booklets with details on the policy made. These strategies will empower the employees and motivate them in policy implementation.
In conclusion, the essay studies explore how staff empowerment or powerlessness can impact on work output and personal development of the team. A clear point that comes out in both cases is that staff happiness and sense of empowerment should be a primary target that the management should strive to fulfil.
References
McConnell, C. R. (2014). Effective Health Care Supervisor . Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Heaslip, V., & Ryden, J. (2013). Understanding vulnerability: A nursing and healthcare approach . Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Desai, A. (2012). Simulation for policy inquiry . New York, NY: Springer.
