The Paradox of Employee Empowerment: Decision-Making Autonomy, Role Ambiguity, and Job Performance

Abstract

Employee empowerment is widely promoted as a route to higher motivation, innovation, and performance. Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that granting decision-making autonomy can also create strain, particularly when employees do not know what is expected of them. This paper develops a conceptual model explaining the paradox of empowerment: autonomy simultaneously enhances performance through psychological empowerment and impairs it through role ambiguity. Drawing on job characteristics theory, role theory, the job demands-resources model, and the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, we propose that (a) decision-making autonomy has a positive indirect effect on job performance via psychological empowerment, (b) autonomy has a negative indirect effect via role ambiguity when role clarity is not deliberately supplied, and (c) the net effect is curvilinear and moderated by employee experience, task complexity, and leadership clarity. We present a summary table of constructs and propositions, a flowchart of the dual-pathway process, and practical and research implications.

Keywords: empowerment, autonomy, role ambiguity, job performance, job demands-resources, role theory.