What is Organizational Support

In this chapter, as a critical contemporary management approach and a vital factor for organizations to gain competitive advantage, the concept of empowerment of employees is evaluated. The main purpose of this chapter is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of employees' empowerment. To achieve this, a meta-analysis was conducted including 216 independent studies. Among these are: organizational culture, organizational support, supervisor support, organizational justice, human resources practices, job characteristics and employees' personality characteristics. Moreover, by scanning the literature, the consequences of empowerment were remarked as, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, job satisfaction and creativity. Throughout the meta-analysis, positive relationships were witnessed between empowerment and these consequences. Moreover, empowerment was found to decrease turnover intentions and occupational stress of employees.