Succeeding in empowering others: social factors that assist in creating and sustaining empowering organizational environments

Long, Derry Stace (2012). Succeeding in empowering others: social factors that assist in creating and sustaining empowering organizational environments. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This research rises out of the perceived gap between rhetoric and reality in the congregational life of the church in the United States. Using the research tools of autoethnography and case study, it investigates the life settings of the researcher and the interior organizational dynamics of three cases, a for-profit, a nonprofit and a church organization. The research considers how organizational pre-conditions and traits and processes, leadership behavior and perspectives and the perceived benefits of an empowering environment, impacts the ability of the organization to implement and sustain an empowering environment.

Three pre-conditions, namely, a flexibility in organizational behaviours, the total commitment of the primary leader, and a particular view of people were found to be essential. Four relational traits of voice, trust, authentication, and connectivity were discovered to generate a relational environment that was conducive to an empowering culture. No particular leadership style was found to be essential, only that the style could embrace the elements enumerated above. Personal and organizational benefits were outside the normative expectations of profit or other numerical measurements and closer to aspects of relationally and energy. There appeasers to be no significant difference between church and other organizational types in how empowerment functions. I conclude by reflecting on practical aspects and how the research journey impacted the researcher.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):