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Freedom of Speech: Construct for Creating a Culture Which Empowers Organizational Members

McKendree College, Lebanon Illinois

Empowering organizational members through the process of freedom of speech may be one of the most effective (and probably least expensive) ways to energize a workforce to excel and for motivating workers to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Implicit in this statement are conceptualizations of empowerment, freedom of speech, and organizational culture. Empowerment "is all about attitude and persuasion," and its ultimate goal "is in the institutionalization of innovations resulting in social changes for the better"(Takata, 1991, p. 255). Freedom of speech allows for the free exchange of ideas among people and helps to create a more informed populace, who share information, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, and who enhance their roles as informed participants in the market place of ideas. The study of organizational culture attempts to discover the "sense-making" means used by people to function in an organization. These three concepts - empowerment, freedom of speech, and organizational culture- form the theoretical foundation for the present analysis which concludes that free and responsible speech, vigorously encouraged and promoted as part of the organizational culture, offers the most productive solution for preparing organi zational members to meet the challenges of the next century.

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