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Şermin ŞENTURAN
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At a basic level, the term ‘
empowerment
’ simply means ‘
becoming powerful
’. Building personal empowerment
involves reflecting on personal values, skills and goals and being prepared to adjust the behaviour in order to
achieve goals. Personal empowerment also means being aware that other people have their own set of values and
goals which may different to ours.
6. Workplace Empowerment at the Academic Life
Empowerment should be addressed members of the universities, especially assistants and new professors which
can be labeled as “new academicians”. Those people should be empowered in order to create their abilities. But
neither in Turkish universities nor in Macedonian universities, can’t these academic people be able to live empov-
erment conditions. Time limits related with the huge lecture hours which at the professors’ responsibility are
the most important reason for this lack of empowering the new academicians. They lose their self-confidence in
time, because they cannot be fully supporting. The opportunities denied them also deprive them of the pride of
accomplishment which others, who have those opportunities, can develop for themselves. This in turn can lead to
psychological, social and even mental health problems.
Empowerment is then the process of obtaining these basic opportunities for the academicians, either directly by
those people, or through the help of others who share their own access to these opportunities. It also includes
actively attempts to deny those opportunities. Empowerment also includes encouraging, and developing the skills
for, self-sufficiency, with a focus on eliminating the future need for charity or welfare in the individuals. This pro-
cess can be difficult to start and to implement effectively.
One empowerment strategy is to assist the academic people to create their own self efficiency. Universities know
what their own people need most, and that control of the organization by outsiders can actually help to further
empowerment.
The growing access of the web in the late 20th century, has allowed new academicians to empower themselves by
using various tools on the internet. With the introduction of the World Wide Web, they have began to use social
networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to start online activism. Through online activism, they are able to
empower themselves by voicing their opinions without feeling oppressed by members of society.
In recent years, blogging has also become a powerful tool for the educational empowerment of academic people.
With the easy accessibility and affordability of e-learning (electronic learning), they can now study from the com-
fort of their home anywhere, anytime. By empowering themselves educationally through new technologies like
e-learning, they are also be aware of the policies of the universities that will come in handy in today’s advancing
globalized world.
Some universities are working to address constraints to the empowerment of academic people. Researchers
mapped organisations that competitively seek innovative ideas from the universities potentially to reach the pro-
fessors and assistants in countries and provides support in the forms of finance and technical assistance to bring
their ideas to market.
In conclusion, if academicians are empowered to do more research and attend the academic activities, confer-
ences etc, the universities become at the top levels of the ranks. Academicians can also help universities grow and
economies prosper if they are able to use, the right knowledge and skills in their employment.
References
Bailey D. (1992).
Using participatory research in community consortia development and evaluation: lessons from the beginning
of a story
. American Sociologist, 23 (4), p.71-82.
Blanchard K. et all (1996).
Empowerment takes more than a minute
. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Ciulla, J. B. (2004). Leadership and the Problem of Bogus Empowerment, in Ciulla, J.B.,
Ethics, the heart of leadership
(2 ed.),
Greenwood Publishing Group.
Potterfield, T. A. (1999).
The business of employee empowerment: democracy and ideaology in the workplace
. Quorum Books,
p. 6.