Empowerment is about power, which can be defined as the ability to get intended effects.
Empowerment enhances that ability.
Employee empowerment represents a giant step away from traditional management-worker relations. It means eliminating whole tiers of management that exist mainly to control other people's work. It means giving responsibility for decision-making to the same employees who used to have their bathroom breaks timed. Properly understood and implemented, it can be a cure for many of the ills that plague organizations '' reducing absenteeism and turnover, enhancing quality, and boosting productivity. Yet too many executives still don't understand what empowerment is all about.