Managers as developers: some reflections on the contribution of empowerment in Britain

Britain’s record for training and developing managers and employees was subject to severe scrutiny in the 1980s. Subsequently, a range of employer initiatives were launched with the avowed intention of enhancing the human capital of both managers and their subordinates. A major initiative has taken place under the umbrella title of ‘empowerment’, which purports to offer greater autonomy and discretion to employees and to provide the means to bring about this transformation through training and supportive management styles. The present study examines a number of organisations which have introduced empowering initiatives. It finds that whilst individual line managers in empowering organisations consider themselves better equipped to deal with their subordinates than those in non‐ empowering organisations, deeper analysis reveals substantial problems in transforming these managers into developers of subordinates. Managers appear to be undertrained and often not motivated to develop their staff. Discretion to employees was generally very narrowly defined and tightly bounded by both formal and informal controls. Empowerment for many employees was indistinguishable from work intensification. The conclusion is that the empowerment programmes under study were unlikely to stimulate line managers to develop their employees.