Managers Part VII - Empowerment vs. Micromanaging

Don't let the Either/Or title mislead you, it's not all one or all the other, empowerment and micromanaging are two ends of continuum; a manager can be somewhat micromanaging, or empower her employees so some extent, or a manager can be empowering in some aspects of the job and micromanaging in others. Whether either end of the spectrum is consider good or bad depends on who is making the judgement. A manager who subscribes to "Theory X", the belief that employees are inherently lazy and unambitious will naturally result in micromanaging, even if that perception is inaccurate. Managers who lean toward "Theory Y", the position wherein employees are responsible and industrious probably tend delegate and empower more. Employees who believe that they know their jobs and how to do them efficiently and accurately, will desire to be supervised by empowering managers while those who, for one reason or another, do not want to take responsibility will prefer micromanaging: "just tell me what to do". What's good or bad management depends on a number of factors: the level or training, experience and ability of employees; the ambition and work ethic of those employees; the balance that the manager employs while supervising his employees; the complexity of the tasks that are expected of the employees; the amount of "free" time that the manager has to micromanage and many more.

One of the greatest myths about management is that managers should working side by side with their employees, showing them that they "aren't afraid to get their hands dirty". But a manager who spends all of her time doing the same work as her employees is the ultimate in the micromanager, because she is doing the work herself. This type of manager won't be doing any empowering of employees, because she is right there with them...all the time, they don't learn to think or act on their own, because they're never on their own.