ABSTRACT
To be “empowered” means that one comes to believe one can influence people and events in the organization to achieve desired ends (Greenberger & Strasser, 1986; Kanter, 1977). One is not merely at the mercy of external forces (political, economic, or social); rather, the individuals recognize ways they can directly intervene in the environment. This is fundamentally an interactional process, where a sense of personal control results from believing that it is one’s communication behavior that can produce a desired impact on others (Parks, 1985).
