Employee empowerment and team performance : Autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of employee empowerment on team performance in the context of municipal work teams. Four different dimensions of employee empowerment are identified: autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity. Design/methodology/approach – Using a survey of 176 US municipal government employees, this study conducted an OLS multiple regression analysis. The study regressed the dependent variable, team performance, on the four independent variables: autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity. Findings – The regression analysis provided empirical evidence in support of the four hypotheses proposed in this study. The study reveals that autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity each have positive and significant effects on team performance. Practical implications – The study suggests that employee empowerment programs should consider different dimensions of empowerment. At least, managers need to keep in mind the four dimensions of empowerment discussed in this research. Understanding different dimensions of empowerment will enable managers to design and implement a successful empowerment program. Originality/value – Prior research focused on developing conceptual models of the multiple dimensions of empowerment. This paper took one step further and provided empirical evidence.