International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2003

Chapter One

Toby D. Wall, Stephen J. Wood, and Desmond J. Leach Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK

INTRODUCTION

In the last decade the notion of empowerment has become popular in I/O psychology and management circles. Its currency among practitioners can be illustrated by the view of a CEO who stated that 'No vision, no strategy can be achieved without able and empowered employees' (cited in Argyris, 1998, p. 98). Concurrently, a survey based on a representative sample of 564 UK manufacturing companies (Waterson, Clegg, Bolden, Pepper, Warr, & Wall, 1999) showed that, although only 23% reported using empowerment extensively, 72% had adopted empowerment initiatives to at least some degree, had done so within the last few years, and had planned ... read full excerpt from International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol.18 ebook