Empowerment as a Strategy for Improving Construction Performance

Abstract

This paper reviews the potential of team and individual empowerment as performance improvement strategies in construction. The important role of empowerment has been emphasized through a discussion of recent trends in the construction industry, for example, the Rethinking Construction report on respect for people, which highlighted the central role of empowerment in improving people management practices in the construction sector. The literature also suggests a conceptual linkage between empowerment and many of the leading-edge practices that have been championed within the sector in recent years, including total quality management, construction performance measurement, benchmarking, organizational change, job enrichment, high-performance systems, teamwork, and motivation. This paper attempts to advance understanding of the fundamental concepts behind effective teamwork and motivation by exploring the role of empowerment in facilitating these current management concepts and trends. Rather than portraying empowerment as a panacea for the problems of the industry, the paper presents it as a key to the performance enablers of culture, training, and knowledge management, which require understanding and action by management if significant change is to be realized.