Professional autonomy: a key business enabler

By Enterprise Innovation Editors | Mar 20, 2009

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According to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit titled Disciplined Autonomy, professionals need autonomy to perform jobs effectively. A recent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) global survey of 227 executives—in government, education, professional services, life sciences, and financial services—suggests that organizations in the private and public sector believe that increasing both centralized control and local autonomy is necessary for organizations to run efficiently and for employees to perform their jobs effectively.
 
The survey, part of a research report titled Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the tension between flexibility and control, produced by EIU on behalf of Laserfiche, aimed to discover how organizations manage the tension between the autonomy sought by professionals and the centralized control required for efficiency and risk management.
 
“Study after study—including ones conducted at the Economist Group—show that the more employees feel empowered, the more productive they tend to be,” said EIU Senior Editor Dan Armstrong. “As long as there’s transparency into employee activities, there’s often no need to impose strict processes and control, which can inhibit innovation and drive away talent.”
 
“The survey revealed a surprising paradox created by modern information technology,” said Laserfiche Vice President of Marketing Tom Wayman. “To boost responsiveness organizations are becoming increasingly decentralized, and yet with the right tools upper management gains greater control and insight over policy and direction.”
 
Participants in the survey fit the definition of knowledge workers: over half spent more than three hours per day working with or processing documents, such as: forms, e-mails, manuals, presentations, or contracts, and nearly half spent at least four hours per week following up on documents to see if they have been received, approved, or acted upon.
 
Over the past five years, 68% of organizations said they increased centralization to control risk and increase efficiency, while simultaneously increasing autonomy to enable employees to work more closely with customers and give them more freedom over how much of the work gets done. More than half (51%) of respondents occasionally or frequently “bend the rules” to be more productive, while 32% said they did so to make a quick decision to close a sale or retain a customer. Over half of the respondents said business pressures to bring products to market faster or respond to customers more quickly caused decision making authority to be given to operating units our other groups outside headquarters.
 
The survey also suggests that to balance the advantages of control and autonomy organizations should use IT as an enabler instead of a driver.  It is also important for comapanies to commit to proper training and support during and after the implementation of new processes and systems. Whenever possible, businesses should standardize rather than centralize. Standardization leads to greater efficiency and more effective corporate governance.