The main reasons why benchmarking is a vital procedure for the companies which currently compete internationally or have this desire for the future could be summarized as follows: benchmarking helps the company better understand the characteristics and requirements of the industry where it operates as well as those of the customers it serves benchmarking lest the company identify the successful strategies implemented by the competition and allows it to learn from the experience of its competitors benchmarking sets an organizational ideal and helps achieve it benchmarking should be an ongoing process that helps the company adapt to the new changes in the industry and the market

3. Empowering Employees

Empowering employees and encouraging them to get involved in the decision making process are more and more common procedures used by organizations to both motivate their staff and also to increase the efficiency of the operational processes. But despite the positive results retrieved from these activities, several problems have been identified. In this particular instance, the empowered worker could use the newly gained power in his own best interest rather than the organization's overall benefit. Then, a negative situation could occur when the empowered employee is not sufficiently skilled and prepared to handle the new responsibilities of...

Also, a negative tension could become present in the workplace as the not-empowered employees could be jealous of their newly promoted colleague or might find it difficult to see him as a superior figure.
In order to prevent these situations from occurring, the managers making the empowerment decision have to consider several issues. For instance, they have to develop and implement a clear plan based on which employees will be empowered. This plan will be made available to all staff members, which will all be able to subscribe to the program. Then, the company has the obligation to implement a corporate culture based on the role played by the staff in adding more value to the organization and supporting it in reaching its overall goals. Such a vision and culture will make the transition from a simple to an empowered employee easier for both the subject of empowerment as well as his colleagues. Throughout all these processes, the management has to ensure a clear and constant communication with all staff members. Finally, they also have to supervise and monitor the capabilities of the empowered workers and his abilities to cope with the new tasks.s

References

Chapter 7: Project Management

Chapter 8: Process Measurement and Analysis

Supplement 8: Job Design and Work Performance Measurement