Re‐empowering the empowered – the ultimate challenge?

Evidence to date shows a divergence in the methods and approaches used by companies to introduce empowerment and indeed a wide debate as to the meaning and appropriateness of the term itself. The popularity of the concept has led many organisations to “dive in at the deep end”, wanting to experience the benefits of empowerment without perhaps stopping to consider the wider implications and consequences. This paper reports on the approach that one hotel company adopted to re‐introduce empowerment, a previous attempt having failed. It provides an insight into differing perceptions of the meaning of empowerment between employees and managers; the positive and negative experiences of those working in an empowerment culture and the changes required for a renewed attempt at introducing empowerment to be successful. The authors conclude that “quick fix” strategies will rarely be successful and urge the development of a longer‐term, more sustainable, approach.