Empowerment through delayering: a pilot study at McDonald’s restaurants

Reports on the study of changes to the management of a small group of McDonald′s restaurants in Wales. The initiative removed one of the levels of management and empowered both general area supervisors and restaurant managers. Confirms the view that empowerment is personal and individual, and that changes to working arrangements which claim to be empowering need to consider both objective details of what the empowered are now able to do and the subjective perceptions of the experience.