ETHICS AND EMPOWERMENT

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Ethics and Empowerment

Edited by

John J. Quinn and

Peter W.F. Davies

~ MACMILLAN Business

Selection and editorial matter© the estate of John J. Quinn and Peter W.F. Davies 1999 Introduction© Peter W.F. Davies and the estate of John J. Quinn 1999

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1999 978-0-333-69382-7

Other chapters (in order)© the estate of John J. Quinn; Frederick B. Bird; John Kaler; Julia M. Christensen Hughes; Keith Pheby; Peter W.F. Davies and Anne Mills; Julia M. Christensen Hughes; Ian McLoughlin, Richard Badham and Paul Couchman; Edna Ojeifo and Diana Winstanley; Barbara Goodwin; Christopher Moon and Celia Stanworth; Johnston Birchall; Richard C. Warren; Paul Joyce and Adrian Woods; Peter Jones 1999

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions ofthe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 1999 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99

ISBN 978-1-349-40162-8 ISBN 978-0-230-37272-6 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9780230372726

Dedicated to the memory of John Quinn

who died shortly before this book was completed

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Notes on the Contributors

Introduction Peter WF. Davies and John J. Quinn

1 Is Empowerment Ethical? Why Ask the Question? John J. Quinn

Part I Ethics and Empowerment: Power, Control and Autonomy

2 Empowerment and Justice Frederick B. Bird

3 Does Empowerment Empower? John Kaler

4 Organisational Empowerment: A Historical Perspective and Conceptual Framework Julia M. Christensen Hughes

5 Ethico-power and the City KeithPheby

6 Ethics, Empowerment and Ownership Peter WF. Davies and Anne Mills

Part II Theory, and the Experience of Empowerment Strategies

7 Beyond Rhetoric: A Typology of Empowerment Strategies Found Within One Organisation

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XI

1

23

41

90

115

147

170

Julia M. Christensen Hughes 197

8 Empowerment and Teams: Ethics and the Implementation of Socio-technical Systems Ian McLoughlin, Richard Badham and Paul Couchman 235

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viii Contents

9 Negotiated Reality: The Meaning of Empowerment Edna Ojeifo and Diana Winstanley 271

10 Empowerment in a Government Agency Barbara Goodwin 300

11 Ethics and Empowerment: Managerial Discourse and the Case ofTeleworking Christopher Moon and Celia Stanworth 326

Part III Business and Society: The New Empowerment Responsibility

12 Empowering Consumers through Co-operatives Johnston Birchall 347

13 Empowerment in a Community of Purpose Richard C. Warren 369

14 The Social Responsibility of Businesses: To Empower Employees by Listening and Responding Paul Joyce and Adrian Woods 393

15 Ethical Guidelines for an Empowered Organisation Peter Jones 412

Name Index

Subject Index

427

433

Acknowledgements

I would first like to acknowledge the contribution made by John Quinn. He was the driving force behind COPE (the Centre for Organisational and Professional Ethics), and originally organised the Ethics and Empowerment conference in September, 1996. He had completed much of the editorial work on this book before his sudden and tragic death in the summer of 1997.

Due to other commitments, I could not really get to grips with picking up the pieces of this work until January 1998, and have been greatly helped in many ways by Keith Dickson at the Division of Management Studies, Brunel University. I would also like to acknowledge the patience of all the contributors who have had in some circumstances to update their work, give me repeat information, answer pernickity details about references, and have also had to wait a year longer than expected to see publication of their work.

Finally, I would like to thank Stephen Rutt, Publishing Director at Macmillan's Business Press, for his sticking with this project.

PETER W.F. DAVIES

The publishers are grateful for permission to reproduce Table 4.1, reprinted with permission of Academy of Management, PO Box 3020, Briar Cliff Manor, NY 10510-8020. (The Empowerment Process: Integrating Theory and Practice (Table), J. Conger and R. Kanungo, Academy of Management Review 1988, Vol. 13, No. 3. Reproduced by permission of the publisher via Copyright Clearance Center Inc.)

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Notes on the Contributors

Richard Badham is Professor in the BHP Institute for Steel Processing and Products, and head of the research programme on Managing Innova­tion and Change Across Cultures (MICAC) at Wollongong University, Australia. His most recent book, co-authored with David Buchanan, is Winning the TwfWar: The Micro-Politics of Organisational Change (1998).

Johnston Birchall lectures in Public Policy at Brunei University. His main interest is in 'Third Sector' businesses such as co-operatives and mutuals, and in user-control of public services. His books include Building Communities: The Co-operative Way (1988), The People's Business (1994), The International Co-operative Movement (1997), and Decentral­ising Public Service Management (with Christopher Pollitt, 1998). He edits the Journal of Co-operative Studies.

Frederick Bird is a Professor of Comparative Ethics at Concordia Uni­versity in Montreal, Canada, where he teaches in the Departments of both Religion and Management. He is author of The Muted Conscience: Moral Silence and the Practice of Ethics in Business, and (with J. Gandz) Good Management: Business Ethics InAction; as well as 'Moral Universals as Cultural Realities' in Ethical Universals in International Business (edited by N. Brady).

Paul Couchman is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Manage­ment of Integrated Technological and Organisational Change in the Department of Management at Wollongong University, Australia.

Julia M. Christensen Hughes is an Associate Professor in the School of Hotel and Food Administration at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Her research interests include workforce diversity, empower­ment and organisational change. Julia is currently serving a three-year term as Director of Teaching Support Services at the university where she is exploring principles of empowerment as they relate to a variety of educational issues, including student learning processes and faculty development.

Peter W.F. Davies was until recently Senior Lecturer in Strategic Manage­ment and Business Ethics at the Business School of Buckinghamshire

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Xll Notes on the Contributors

Chilterns University College. He was a founder member of COPE (the Centre for Organisational and Professional Ethics) with colleagues at Brunel University. Formerly a mining and production engineer, and with a PhD in the philosophy of technology he is now a freelance academic-writer, and Visiting Professor at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and edited Current Issues in Business Ethics (1997).

Barbara Goodwin has been Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, since 1996 and was formerly Professor of Political Philosophy at Brunel University and a founder member of COPE. Her publications include Using Political Ideas (4th edn, 1997), Justice by Lottery (1993), and two books on utopianism and political theory. Her current research focuses on ethics in large organisations.

Peter Jones is a consultant working with individual managers and teams, in the areas of change management and organisational development. A particular interest is in helping organisations move from traditional models to high-performance teams. Clients range across most business sectors, including pharmaceuticals, financial services and professional services in both the public and private spheres. He previously worked in high-technology US and UK companies as an HR and IT director.

Paul Joyce is Professor and Director of the Management Research Centre at the University of North London, having previously worked in the insurance and engineering industries. This research centre specialises in the management of innovation, and in recent years Professor Joyce has carried out research on strategic planning, business networks, and the role of entrepreneurship in business innovation. He co-authored (with Adrian Woods) Essential Strategic Management: From Modernism to Pragmatism (1996) and has recently completed a new book on strate­gic management.

John Kaler is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Plymouth Business School, teaching business ethics, cultural issues in business and jurisprudence. He is a graduate of the Universities of Sussex and London, and co-author of An Introduction to Business Ethics (1993) and Essentials of Business Ethics (1996).

Ian McLoughlin is Professor of Management at the University of New­castle upon Tyne. He is co-author of The Process of Technological

Notes on the Contributors xiii

Change (1988), Technological Change at Work (1994) and Enterprise without Unions (1994). He is also co-editor of Innovation, Organisations and Technology (1997), and author of Creative Technological Change: Shaping Technology and Organisation (1998).

Anne Mills is Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Change at the Business School of Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College. Her main research interests include organisational transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, HRM, and Business Ethics. She is developing research in the area of business ethics in Central and Eastern Europe.

Chris Moon is Senior Lecturer at the Anglia Business School, Danbury, Essex. He is also Programme Director of the Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, and for the MAin Organisational Eth­ics. He has taught business ethics on various MBA programmes, pub­lished widely in the ethics area, and is currently the UK secretary of the European Business Ethics Network.

Edna Ojeifo studied at Imperial College Management School, and now works as a consultant with Visual Thinking, specialising in brand develop­ment and brand management.

Keith Pheby has taught and researched in organisational ethics in America, Great Britain and Japan. He is particularly interested in the relationship between ethics and power, and the possibility of designing corporate and urban structures capable of sustaining ethical cultures. He is Head of Innovation and Research for Cohrum Ltd, which designs computer-gaming simulations to aid organisations in this process. His recent publications include 'The Psychological Contract: Enacting Ethic-Power' in Davies, P.W.F. ( ed.), Current Issues in Business Ethics (1997).

John J. Quinn was Lecturer in Decision Theory, Strategic Manage­ment and Business Ethics in the Department of Management Studies at Brunei University. He was a founder member of COPE, and organ­ised the Ethics and Empowerment conference which was the catalyst for this book. His research interests centred on business ethics in small businesses, and issues of strategic control. He authored (with M.J. Goold) Strategic Control: Milestones for Long-Term Performance (1993).

xiv Notes on the Contributors

Celia Stanworth is Senior Lecturer in Human Resources and Industrial Relations at the Business School, University of Greenwich. She also researches at Westminster University Business School. Her research interests are the future of work and non-standard working patterns, and she has published widely in the area of teleworking.

Richard C. Warren is Principal Lecturer in the Department of Busi­ness Studies at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He holds degrees from the polytechnics of Wolverhampton and Plymouth, and the University of Manchester. He was a merchant seaman for five years before working in the Commercial Department of the shipowners A.P. Moller. His research interests are business ethics and industrial relations, and he has published articles in a variety of journals, most recently in Business Ethics: A European Review.

Diana Winstanley is a Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Imperial College Management School, and has written three books and over 30 articles on management, including her most recent one (with Jean Woodall), Management Development: Strategy and Practice (1998).

Adrian Woods is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Brunei University. Previous to this he was Head of the Department of Manage­ment Studies also at Brunei University. His research interests are mainly centred around small firms, including work on strategy, training and growth. He was co-author with Paul Joyce of Essential Strategic Manage­ment: From Modernism to Pragmatism (1996).