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Encyclopedia > Empowerment
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Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Shortcut: WP:NPOVD Articles that have been linked to this page are the subject of an NPOV dispute (NPOV stands for Neutral Point Of View; see below). ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. ... Lincoln (pronounced //) is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is God Save the Queen. See also Proposed English National Anthems. ... Empowerment is a public sculpture in the centre of the city of Lincoln in England. ... Look up spiritual in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... Although the term social is a crucial category in social science and often used in public discourse, its meaning is often vague, suggesting that it is a fuzzy concept. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Confidence is trust or faith that a person or thing is capable. ...

Contents

Definitions

Sociological empowerment often addresses members of groups that social discrimination processes have excluded from decision-making processes through - for example - discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Empowerment as a methodology is often associated with feminism: see consciousness-raising.For more visit The Trusted Biz Network Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge) is an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... Gender in common usage refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... Feminists redirects here. ... Consciousness raising or CR was a form of political action typically associated with the American Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) movement, and later with feminism internationally. ...


Marginalization

"Marginalized" refers to the overt or covert trends within societies whereby those perceived as lacking desirable traits or deviating from the group norms tend to be excluded by wider society and ostracised as undesirables.


Sometimes groups are marginalized by society at large, but governments are often unwitting or enthusiastic participants. For example, the U.S. government marginalized cultural minorities, particularly blacks, prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Act made it illegal to restrict access to schools and public places based on race. Equal opportunity laws which actively oppose such marginalization, allow increased empowerment to occur. It should be noted that they are also a symptom of minorities' and women's empowerment through lobbying. President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ... Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environment in which ensure people are not excluded from the activities of society, such as education, employment, or health care, on the basis of immutable traits. ...


MArginalized people who have no opportunities for self-sufficiency become, at a minimum, dependent on charity or welfare. They lose their self-confidence because they cannot be fully self-supporting. The opportunities denied them also deprive them of the pride of accomplishment which others, who have those opportunities, can develop for themselves. This in turn can lead to psychological, social and even mental health problems.


Empowerment is then the process of obtaining these basic opportunities for marginalized people, either directly by those people, or through the help of non-marginalized others who share their own access to these opportunities. It also includes actively thwarting attempts to deny those opportunities. Empowerment also includes encouraging, and developing the skills for, self-sufficiency, with a focus on eliminating the future need for charity or welfare in the individuals of the group. This process can be difficult to start and to implement effectively, but there are many examples of empowerment projects which have succeeded.


One empowerment strategy is to assist marginalized people to create their own nonprofit organization, using the rationale that only the marginalized people, themselves, can know what their own people need most, and that control of the organization by outsiders can actually help to further entrench marginalization. Charitable organizations lead from outside of the community, for example, can disempower the community by entrenching a dependence on charity or welfare. A nonprofit organization can target strategies that cause structural changes, reducing the need for ongoing dependence. Red Cross, for example, can focus on improving the health of indigenous people, but does not have authority in its charter to install water-delivery and purification systems, even though the lack of such a system profoundly, directly and negatively impacts health. A nonprofit composed of the indigenous people, however, could insure their own organization does have such authority and could set their own agendas, make their own plans, seek the needed resources, do as much of the work as they can, and take responsibility - and credit - for the success of their projects (or the consequences, should they fail).


Empowerment

Those doing the empowering should help the group in any way possible, particularly with tasks which they cannot yet do for themselves. In time, they can learn how to do many of these tasks on their own. Help with tasks which the marginalized people can do for themselves, however, should not be given to them. If it were, it would not be empowerment.


Management

One account of the history of workplace empowerment in the United States recalls the clash of management styles in railroad construction in the American West in the mid-19th century, where "traditional" hierarchical East-Coast models of control encountered individualistic pioneer workers, strongly supplemented by methods of efficiency-oriented "worker responsibility" brought to the scene by Chinese laborers. In this case, empowerment at the level of work teams or brigades achieved a notable (but short-lived) demonstrated superiority. See the views of Robert L. Webb. The Western United States, also referred to as the American West or simply The West, traditionally refers to the region constituting the westernmost states of the United States (see geographical terminology section for further discussion of these terms). ... Economic efficiency is a general term for the value assigned to a situation by some measure designed to capture the amount of waste or friction or other undesirable economic features present. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A team comprises many group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. ...


Empowerment in the workplace is regarded by critics as more a pseudo-empowerment exercise, the idea of which is to change the attitudes of workers, so as to make them work harder rather than giving them any real power, and Wilkinson (1998) refers to this as "attitudinal shaping". However, recent research suggests that the opportunity to exercise personal discretion/choice (and complete meaningful work) is an important element contributing to employee engagement and well-being. There is evidence (Thomas and Velthouse, 1990) that initiative and motivation are increased when people have a more positive attributional style. This influences self-belief, resilience when faced with set-backs, and the ability to visualise oneself overcoming problems. The implication is that 'empowerment' suits some more than others, and should be positioned in the broader context of an 'enabling' work environment. Pseudo is a prefix of Greek origin. ... Employee engagement is a measure of the degree to which employees are mentally and physically invested in their jobs. ...


Economics

In economic development, the empowerment approach focuses on mobilizing the self-help efforts of the poor, rather than providing them with social welfare. Economic empowerment is also the empowering of previously disadvantaged sections of the population, for example, in many previously colonialised African countries. Economic development is a sustainable increase in living standards that implies increased per capita income, better education and health as well as environmental protection. ... Though the term self-help can refer to any case whereby an individual or a group betters themselves economically, intellectually or emotionally, the connotations of the phrase have come to apply particularly to psychological or psychotherapeutic nostrums, often purveyed through the popular genre of the self-help book. ... ...


Personal development

In the arena of personal development, empowerment forms an apogee of many a system of self-realisation or of identity (re-)formation. Realising the solipsistic impracticality of everyone anarchistically attempting to exercise power over everyone else, empowerment advocates have adopted the word "empowerment" to offer the attractions of such power, but they generally constrain its individual exercise to potentiality and to feel-good uses within the individual psyche. The concept of personal development is seen as important by many employers, with emphasis placed on continuous learning, increased self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Empowerment is ultimately driven by the individual's belief in their capability to influence events.
Personal development (also known as self-development, self-improvement or personal growth) comprises the development of the self. ... This article is about several astronomical terms (apogee & perigee, aphelion & perihelion, generic equivalents based on apsis, and related but rarer terms. ... In yoga, self-realization is knowledge of ones true self. ... Identity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences for an individuals comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. ... Solipsism is the philosophical idea that My mind is the only thing that exists. Solipsism (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is an epistemological or metaphysical position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. ... Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of philosophies and attitudes which reject any form of compulsory government[1] and support its elimination,[2] often because of a wider rejection of involuntary authority. ... Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of the constraining and/or enabling nature of power. ... A Guru (Sanskrit: ), is a teacher in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, as well as in many new religious movements. ... As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Emotional Intelligence (EI), often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of ones self, of others, and of groups. ...


Empowerment can be attained through one or many ways. An important factor in the discovery and application of the human "self empowerment" lies within the tools used to unveil the truth. It has been suggested that Yoga is one such tool that can be used for more than the obvious physical benefits. When Yoga is practiced consistently the mind / body connection is apparent. Through this connection, the individual finds him or herself with a stronger sense of self and the ability to change areas where bad habits rule, negative emotions run rampant, even controlling addictions through understanding them for what they are. What can be more empowering than gaining control over self.


References

Thomas, K. W. and Velthouse, B. A. (1990) Cognitive Elements of Empowerment: An 'Interpretive' Model of Intrinsic Task Motivation. Academy of Management Review, Vol 15, No. 4, 666-681


Wilkinson, A. 1998. Empowerment: theory and practice. Personnel Review. [online]. Vol. 27(1): 40-56. Available from: Emerald on the World Wide Web: http://hermia.emeraldinsight.com/vl=2601464/cl=84/nw=1/fm=docpdf/rpsv/cw/mcb/00483486/v27n1/s3/p40 [Accessed 16.02.2004].


See also

// Le de décentralisation de de est le processus de la dispersion prise de décision plus près du point de service ou action. ... Self-ownership or sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty is the condition where an individual has the exclusive moral right to control his or her own body and life. ... Employee engagement is a measure of the degree to which employees are mentally and physically invested in their jobs. ... Organizational empowerment (also referred to as employee empowerment) is a multi-dimensional construct encompassing three organizational perspectives: that of the leader, that of the employee, and that of the organization itself (Page & Czuba, 1999; Honold, 1997, p. ... Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults. ...

External links

  • Empowerment applied in a Social Work context with homeless people.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Empowerment (346 words)
Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.
Central to this process are actions which both build individual and collective assets, and improve the efficiency and fairness of the organizational and institutional context which govern the use of these assets.
Using the concepts of asset-based agency and institution-based opportunity structure, this empowerment framework can be applied across dimensions of both action and analysis.
Empowerment (3313 words)
Empowerment is the process of sharing information, training and allowing employees to plan, organize, and control their jobs in order to obtain positive results (Denton, 1994).
Lastly, inconsistent empowerment is resulted when untrained managers failed to specifically apply a uniform empowerment practice for their work groups, or to change the degree of empowerment according to their moods or to their own understanding.
While an effective empowerment practice enables employees to achieve optimum results, it is the open book practice that help employees to have a clearer financial performance picture of their organization.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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