ABSTRACT
If the trend towards organization commitment is seen as a means to create a new organizational context, then the 'active principle' within that context is the concept of empowerment. In fact, the ideas of commitment and empowerment work in tandem and form the basis of the concept of 'quality'. In order to understand what empowerment is, it is necessary to recognize that it is about organizational behaviour and about change. It is a new form of organizational behaviour and structure which has come about because of a perceived need for organizational responsiveness and which is itself the mechanism that enables organizations to be responsive.
