論文
職場のエンパワーメントと従業員の自律性
2000 年 2 巻 2 号 p. 37-47
詳細
2000 年 2 巻 2 号 p. 37-47
It is a strategic problem of modern business and HRM practice that achieving more autonomous／spontaneous work to make business organization more speedy and more flexible. The widespread empowerment is a kind of answer to this strategic problem. Empowerment is an attempt to achieve more autonomous／spontaneous work through power sharing or the delegation of power／authority to employees. It is understood that through empowerment organizations can be adapted to today's highly competitive environment and employees can enjoy a higher quality of worklife, that is more humanized work (Gandz, 1990; Ford & Fottler, 1995).
When most fundamental problem for organizations is to rule or dominate Organizational members under the order of organization so as to make it possible for organizations to decide or behave as a whole, however, the mechanism of power as a means of "organizational obedience" (Clegg & Hardy, 1996) and domination is the most essential and constitutive element for organizations (Arrow, 1974, Uchino, 1984, 1989). If that is the case, how is it understood that the correlation between the empowerment and the mechanism of power and domination?
Studies on empowerment have developed in two major approaches, relational and motivational. But much of study in either approach have neglected or overlooked the problem of power as a means of organizational obedience and domination (Hardy & Leiba-O'Sullivan, 1998). However when we attempt to achieve more autonomous／spontaneous work of employee and in that sense more humanized work, we can not neglect the problem power and domination in organization.
In this article, I survey the present condition of study on empowerment, and examine the correlation between the empowerment and the mechanism of power and domination based on much of the critical study on power in organizations. I then suggest that the attempt to achieve more autonomous／spontaneous work and in that sense more humanized work is the subject matter needed to be studied from the political approach, and point out some analytical problems for the political analysis.
