Cooperate! part 2 – Psychology of Power

Empowerment is that great engine of productivity and innovation that built the American industrial empire. The reason it lays dead now is because it is no longer empowered, none of that population who built it is anymore. They are slaves. In fact, they are being actively and continuously disempowered as these soulless corporations move factories overseas and fund the foundations writing laws allowing for their economic dispossession and replacement (Dye 2001).

PRODUCTIVITY

Worker empowerment improves productivity (Hechanova 2006). The relationship between empowerment and productivity is proved true.  A cyclical relationship exists between empowerment in the present and future productivity, especially during more difficult periods when the organisation is not doing as well.  The schools of thought to be used for analysis are cognitive psychology and Resurrexit Theory phenomenology (Roe 2023). 

COGNITIVE COMPREHENSION

The primary assumption of cognitive psychology is that new information is interpreted in different ways given the unique conditions of individuals and their lived and comprehended experience (Neisser 1967).  Any novel information is gathered and processed in terms of cognitive schema that alter perception.  Behaviour is informed by this subjective understanding of environment and conditions (Thomas & Velthouse 1990).

REASON

Methods used to increase empowerment can be derived from a cognitive psychological perspective. Cognitive psychology relates belief to the outcome in behaviour. When a person feels an overwhelming emotion based upon a belief, often these can be inaccurate. A cognitive psychological approach to therapy engages a person at the level of these beliefs. That so many people have false beliefs is a central cause for the effectiveness of cognitive therapy. Sparse is discussion of how beneficial it is to a person if these perceptions are accurate, and they have reason to be upset. Naturally, the answer is still corrective, however also extrinsic.

Correcting false beliefs has also been shown to correlate with improved productivity (Cochran 1995). This fits with expectations, perspective of work commands productivity. If more accurate beliefs are empowering, then it makes sense that accurate beliefs would also improve productivity. This is the budding of a ‘logocracy,’ in which validation occurs through discourse and proofs. Awaking to evidence that work is not beneficial to anything but the corporation and shareholders, however, would not improve productivity. Plainly, the idea that labour must be simply transactional is a master lie designed to instil beliefs deleterious of discourse.

LEARNING

Worker empowerment can be improved by cooperation and sharing of organisational memory and experiences. This flowering of knowledge sharing within an organisation makes overall organisational processes more cooperative (Dunham & Burt 2011).   When older workers mentor and share the information they have accrued throughout their career with younger workers, both groups are benefited in terms of empowerment. The organisation is strengthened as well.  This encourages the older workers to be more involved, feeling more integral to the group as a whole.  It also helps younger workers in terms of insight through the experience of older workers, transferring organisational memory and encouraging cohesion. This whole concept holds true between those working in executive or managerial roles and those currently not. Honesty goes both ways. Luckily, executives and managers have far fewer reasons to lie in a stakeholdership aligned worker-owned cooperative in the first place.

Sharing of information and making room for contribution on the part of workers as concerns the course of the organisation has a tremendous impact upon workers’ feelings of empowerment (Ahanotu 1998).  Workers who are informed and involved with the direction of an organisation will be in a far better position to take ownership and commit to their work. Stakeholdership increases loyalty and stability for communities, so families of workers in cooperatively owned organisations have a far better chance to thrive.

SUMMARY

Empowerment is very subjective and can vary individually based upon perspective (Vidal 2007).  An individual that is not interested in the work they are tasked with performing will not recognise any policies an organisation will implement to promote empowerment.  While this may be a result of a general lack of interest in the task, it could also be a poor general understanding of the full impact and importance of their role. It could also be true that stakeholdership discourages people uninterested in a topic central to the organisation to even seek membership, or employment.  The cognitive coaching approach is the most effective means of guiding the individual to a better understanding of their career options per their true interests, or aiding them in the process of finding meaning in their current role (Chope 2011). Perhaps what is most missing from our culture and society today is passion! Passion cannot happen without empowerment, because passion requires belief in capability and capacity.