Public Relations Review 37 (2011) 435–437 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Public Relations Review Research in Brief How employee empowerment influences organization–employee relationship in China Linjuan Rita Men * Public Relations Program, School of Communication, University of Miami, 5100 Brunson Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 25 February 2011 Received in revised form 21 July 2011 Accepted 5 August 2011 Keywords: Relationship management Internal communication Employee empowerment a b s t r a c t The current study examines how employees’ perceptions of empowerment impact the quality of the organization–employee relationship. Based on the on-line survey of 223 employees from a variety of companies in China, both dimensions of employee empowerment—feelings of competence and feelings of control—serve as positive predic- tors for organization–employee relationship. However, employees’ feelings of control wield more weight in the prediction than do feelings of competence. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The current study and practice of public relations have developed “a new emphasis on building, nurturing, and main- taining relationships” with publics (Kent & Taylor, 2002, p. 23). Among the strategic publics facing organizations, employees undoubtedly comprise the group with which organizations have the closest connection. Good relationship with employees not only helps build and protect organizational reputation and image in a turbulent environment but also contributes to orga- nizational performance. The current study represents an extensive effort to examine a new influencing factor of employee empowerment on organization–employee relationship and each relational outcome-trust, control mutuality, satisfaction, and commitment (Hon & Grunig, 1999). Employee empowerment can be conceptualized as the symbolic construction of the personal state of employees char- acterized by competence, or the skill and ability to perform effectively, and control, or the authority and autonomy to act (e.g., Menon, 2001). Feelings of competence and feelings of control jointly determine whether the employees feel adequately empowered. Extant public relations studies on empowerment focus mainly on the aspect of power sharing, specifically, how to get the public relations professionals seated at the corporate decision-making table and empowerment of minorities in public relations (Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002). However, empirical research on the empowerment of strategic publics or the impact of empowerment on public relations outcomes is sparse. Therefore, to fill the research gap, the current study examines the following research questions: (1) to what extent do employees think they are empowered by the manage- ment? (2) how does employee empowerment influence the relationship between the organization and the employee and each relational outcome? * Tel.: +1 305 284 2138. E-mail addresses: l.men@umiami.edu, cicirita@gmail.com 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.08.008