Management and Administrative Sciences Review www.absronline.org/journals e-ISSN: 2308-1368, p-ISSN: 2310-872X Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 87-100 (January 2015) Academy of Business & Scientific Research *Corresponding author: Behzad BaniasadiMS MS student in MBA – Isfahan University, Iran E-Mail: Baniasadi@gmail.com 87  Research Paper Employee Empowerment: A Comparative Study among Different Theories Alireza Hajian 1 , Mahmoud Khabaz Shirvan 2 , and Behzad Baniasadi* 3 1. Faculty Member, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran 2. Doctor of Business Administration Student- National University of Malaysia (UKM) 3. MS student in MBA – Isfahan University, Iran In today society, running the affairs depends on organizations. Through their radical functions in the fields of discipline, needs satisfaction, dynamism and social progress, organizations play a vital role in the continuing lifecycle of societies. Obviously, their performance quality is too important. Organizational performance is influenced by their human capital quality aspects (i.e. knowledge, capability, motivation). Thus, empowerment has far distance from organization traditional concept. Today organizations need certain characteristics such as transparency and constant improvement to continue their life and to achieve such characteristics they should empower their human force as their most important resource and competitive advantage. To this end, the author has provided requirements, processes and advantages of empowerment of employees here and looks for studying different empowerment models and showing their weaknesses and strengths. Therefore, it is necessary to address knowledge development, capability and motivation of human forces in order to develop organizational human capital and, consequently, its performance improvement. The author has determined superior empowerment components. Keywords: Comparative study, empowerment, empowerment models, organizational improvement INTRODUCTION The history of the first definition on empowerment backs to 1788 when empowerment was seen as authority designation in organization role which should be assigned to someone (Wilkinson, 2003). Bowen et al (2006) believed that empowerment is front-line employees’ share in four elements: information, knowledge, award and power. Cameron (2008) defines empowerment as the process of giving power to people. Fry (2005) has defined empowerment as decision making power distribution to people who lack it. Empowerment roots in psychology, sociology and religion studies backed to past decades and even centuries. Concerning psychology, for instance, Adler (1927) introduced the concept of dominated motivation by emphasis on those individuals who attempt to acquire domination in facing with their