For this hypothetical scenario, assume that you are the owner of a medical supply store that employs nine other individuals. These nine employees are divided evenly into three functional areas (1. in-store sales and customer service, 2. outside sales and customer service, and 3. delivery). Until recently, all nine employees have reported directly to you, with you assuming the responsibility of scheduling, training, and assisting in addressing all issues that arise within their functional areas. This leaves you little time to focus on the overall promotion of the store, as well as possible opportunities for expansion. After reading an article in a business journal about empowerment, you have decided that adopting empowerment might be beneficial to you, your store, and the nine employees who work for the store.

For this Application Question, use your own words to define empowerment and discuss why it is an important element of effective leadership.

In your response, elaborate on the two requirements for empowerment discussed in Chapter 13 (13-2B empowerment on page 438) by explaining why each of these two requirements is important with regard to empowerment and how you might incorporate these two requirements in your efforts to embrace empowerment in the hypothetical scenario described above. Please design specific strategies for the hypothetical case to ensure the two requirements of empowerment are met rather than stating the principles from the textbook.