Employee Empowerment as a Coping Strategy in a Changing Environment: A Case Study of the Food Processing Industry in Zimbabwe

The study's main objective is to establish the influence of empowerment on the outcomes of organizations. It is based on the thesis that organizations as open systems operate in a changing environment where they are to survive in the coming decades. Empowerment is the strategy recommended in this study that can be implemented with least resistance. Empowerment is conceptualized to mean employee participation in decision-making, information sharing and power sharing. Such participation should result in positive organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction , organizational commitment and productivity. Studies carried out in the Western and European countries have shown a causal relation between empowerment and job satisfaction, organizational commitment and productivity. Employee participation in the Zimbabwean environment is discussed under the dichotomy of economic empowerment that includes policies of indigenization and employee share ownership plans; and workplace democracy that is facilitated by the Labour Act and its provisions such as the Workers' Committee, Works' Council and collective bargaining among others.