Proceedings of the 22nd International Academic Conference, Lisbon

THE CONCEPT OF “EMPOWERMENT” IN THE RESEARCH ON ORGANIZATION AND INNOVATIVENESS

NICOLETTA BASKIEWICZ, ANETA PACHURA

Abstract:

The dynamic nature of the socio – economic environment and a necessity to improvement of management systems of today's organizations leads to undertaking a research on an importance of organizational social potential and its dimensions. The theory of management science has a rich set of management concepts related to social potential. Very valuable concepts seem to be highly exposing the subjectivity and individuality of employees in organization. The aim of this study is an attempt to interpret the concept of empowerment from the perspective of this research on organization, and its potential of innovation. The study was focused on basic interpretation and systematization of the empowerment concept. The text indicated selected properties of empowerment such as engagement, initiative, creativity, autonomy, freedom, responsibility, efficiency etc. Further conceptualization of the concept was carried out from the managerial perspective as well as psychological dimension. On this background the study distinguished attributes and possibility of application of the empowerment concept in the area of development of the innovation potential of the organization. Among others, it was pointed out, for example: the space of social relationships, social awareness, organizational climate, active and free information exchange, access to knowledge, creation of new knowledge, organizational roles, flexibility and decentralization of organizational structures.

Keywords: empowerment, innovativeness, organization, management, conceptualisation

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2016.022.011

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