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member, Human Development and Harmony Cluster, Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas
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1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism 2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine 3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission 5. Civics and Democratic Governance 6. Culture as Community Creativity 7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education 8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony 9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice 10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development 11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations 12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology 13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships 14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace 15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart' . |
Empowerment has Synergistic Premise* By Judith Vogt, Ph.D. and Kenneth L. Murrell., D. B.A. [The following is excerpted from the introductory chapter of Vogt and Murrell, Empowerment in Organizations: How to Spark Exceptional Performance (San Diego, California: Pfeiffer & Company, 1990), p 8-9. Underscoring in the original.] IN SIMPLE definitional terms, the verb, to empower means to enable, to allow or to permit and can be conceived as both self-initiated and initiated by others. For social change agents, empowering is an act of building, developing and increasing power through cooperation, sharing and working together. It is an interactive process based on a synergistic, not a zero-sum, assumption about power; that is, the process of empowerment enlarges in the situation as opposed to merely redistributing it. Empowerment starts as a pragmatic approach to rethinking power in terms of what can be rather than what has been. This can be illustrated by thinking about several myths derived from our belief in rugged individualism, the industrial revolution, and the laws of natural science. One myth is that strong individuals achieved such feats as conquering the Western frontier totally on their own. Today we know that the wilderness hero was supported by a family and by a community of neighbors. Another myth is that social organizations can control human resources in the same manner as they do physical resources. At first, this belief seemed appropriate. Later, unions began organizing and government started intervening. An increasingly educated (and empowered) work force began to react to the power of owners and managers. A final fallacy is the assumption that no power can be created or used without losing other power, a sort of social first law of thermodynamics. Yet, social power and human energy defy the laws of physics, at least the laws prior to the concept of relativity. We cannot automatically apply physical laws in the social domain without undermining our understanding of social power. The new principles of empowerment do not rest upon past traditions and myths about human behavior nor on Newtonian Physics. The human species is capable of modifying its behavior, as well as its organizations and social systems whenever survival demands it. Cultural differences alone show how many optional models are available. Japanese culture is currently showing us some of the many different ways we can go about organizing work. Such lessons from outside our own culture can lead us to re-examine our own beliefs and take advantage of the adaptability of the human species. The new principles of empowerment do not rest upon past traditions and myths about human behavior nor on Newtonian Physics. The human species is capable of modifying its behavior, as well as its organizations and social systems whenever survival demands it. Cultural differences alone show how many optional models are available. Japanese culture is currently showing us some of the many different ways we can go about organizing work. Such lessons from outside our own culture can lead us to re-examine our own beliefs and take advantage of the adaptability of the human species. One of the professional specialties concerned with helping organizations alter their cultures is organization development (OD). The OD approach builds on the premise that human, and thus organizational, behavior can change and that such change can simultaneously improve output measures (profit) as well as empower individual members of the organization. Professionals in OD have demonstrated that organizations and their leaders not only can create power for the good of more than just a limited few; they cam also have a profound impact on the work cultures and leadership styles in these organizations. Whereas most experts define power as A’s ability to control or change B’s behavior, the concept of empowerment implies that A can influence or affect B so that A and B’s interaction produces more power or influence for both of them. In fact A … n (all actors engaged in working together) have the potential to empower one another, so that the net result is an increase in power for all involved, not just a new equilibrium of power through distribution. A’s influence over B is replaced by thinking in terms of empowerment as power (A + B + … n) enhanced or increased through cooperation and sharing. The result represents increases in social goods or net positive social gain, Although the notions of social goods or net positive social gain are relative, the result of an A … n empowerment is that recipients view the result as beneficial. Any organizational action can illustrate successful empowerment if the social system is able to accomplish more than it did prior to the empowerment and if its members value this action and its consequences As the world moves around the postindustrial era, our notions of power will again be forced to change. These changes will probably occur first in work organizations facing increased competition from abroad and later at the societal or nation-state level. Perhaps in two to three more generations, our assumptions about power and competition in the work place and in society will be quite different, as the culture shifts from material concerns to broader issues about the quality of life, the spirituality of existence, and human relationships. Many progressive organizations have already implemented programs to enhance the quality of their employees’ work lives. Yet before the principle of empowerment can be added to this concern, other changes will have to occur. An empowered culture will need to take advantage of the competitive energy that is a central force in our society, using it as one way to help actors A and B produce more than either A or B can achieve alone. The competitive struggle can be empowering, however, only if the result is social growth and organizational, not individual, gain. Since America’s earliest days, its dynamism has been a national hallmark. Now, as some have begun to question this dynamism, the notion of empowerment can serve to re-energize our collective spirit and focus our attention on outperforming our global competitors while looking for better ways to live together. As we search for these new ways, we need to remind ourselves that empowerment is not merely an outcome but a process with its roots in changing social, economic, and political structures in society. It is a way of being, a way of thinking – not merely a fad, tactic or a quick fix. Empowerment, a personal life-long process that requires fundamental changes, can be built only gradually. Each step must be solidly constructed, starting from the self’ the individual must be self-confident, competent and clear about the process of empowerment. Once the self is ready, the process can move on to relationships, groups, organizations, nations, and society as a whole.
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Synergism and the Cosmic Human-- in Cosmology, Philosophy, &
Spirituality
