Banking on Empowerment: The Why, What and How of a Strategy for High Performance

Organizations striving to create high performance strategies often look to the empowerment of employees in hopes of increasing innovation, engagement, customer experience and financial results. This paper applies more than two decades of empirical research from Positive Psychology, Positive Organizational Scholarship, and Positive Organizational Behaviour about empowerment. It explores the veritable benefits a financial institution can achieve by engaging in an empowerment strategy, what psychological empowerment is, and how to build it within large organizations. Specifically, this paper explores the HR structures, individual characteristics and leadership qualities that are the foundation of empowerment, as well as opportunities for further research.