The concept of employee empowerment in the corporate world is about the need for a revolutionary, integrated, employee-oriented leadership philosophy, with an emphasis on transformation of an organization by tapping into the full potential of every employee. This article examines the concept from different dimensions and also examines its impact on the motivation levels of the organization in an analytical framework. The HR agenda towards motivation of employees by taking cue from empowerment strategies has also been discussed.

"Business houses are made or broken in the long run not by markets or capital, patents or equipments, but by men"

One of the most researched and studied areas of corporate management systems in recent times is concerned with staff or "employee empowerment", which facilitated the employees to take on independent tasks and stand by their decisions with a kind of entrepreneurial spirit and sense of participation in the job. It has been found that employee empowerment leads to a truly nurturing environment where the employees can learn, grow, improve and enhance their performing abilities on workplace backed with elements of "trust" and "importance" bestowed upon them by the management. A great deal of managerial discussion centered on the need to empower the employees with a sense of "ownership" and "participation" in management that form part and parcel of entrepreneurial skills required for them. Methods like "profit sharing" and "Employee Stock Options (ESOPs)" have all been tried by some companies with varying degrees of success. The experiments made by some corporate giants shed some light in this area. PepsiCo Inc., has made a bold attempt by offering a stock option program called "SharePower" in a spirit of entrepreneurialism that not only permeated the decision-making process to lower levels, but also made it easier for the employees to identify themselves with the company. The sense of ownership had motivated them towards their job and created strong bonds between the company's objectives and employee's performance. Under ideal conditions, an employee earning $30,000 a year can make more than $387,000 over a 30-year career. Under stock option package, the management emphasized that the amount employees received would depend on everyone's ability to increase the value of the stock price through their commitment and participation in decision-making process.

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