Empowering by de-depowering: towards an HR strategy for realizing the power of empowerment

Empowerment is still on the agenda as a management concept. The rhetoric around it is very much in line with good old human relations values, and it put forward as a recipe for coping with increasingly rough waters. This paper argues that these recipes are often of the type 'the solution is the problem'. Rather than expose themselves dubious empowering tools, organizations should seek to identify what 'de-powers' their employees. Genuine empowerment is nourished by an empowering organization. Six, fairly general de-powering tendencies are provided as illustration. It is suggested that empowerment efforts should be directed towards creating better grounds for empowerment. A strategy for doing this could be aimed at de-powering the organization. Guidelines for such a strategy are suggested.