Empowerment is a process of enhancing feelings of self-efficacy (i.e., that one's effort will result in a desired level of performance) among organizational members through the identification of conditions that foster powerlessness (e.g., supervision, reward system, content of job) and through their removal by both formal organizational practices and informal techniques of providing efficacy information (Page: 474)

Empowerment refers to a process whereby an individual's belief in his or her self-efficacy is enhanced. To empower means either to strengthen this belief or weaken one's belief in personal powerlessness (page: 474).

Empowerment means enabling, and it implies raising subordinates' convictions in their own effectiveness (i.e., successfully executing desired beliefs) rather than raising subordinates' hopes for favorable performance outcomes. Thus, even under conditions of failure to gain desired outcomes, individuals may feel empowered if their efficacy belief is reinforced by their leader's recognition of their performance (Page: 476).