Attitudes toward employee empowerment by Chinese and expatriate managers and supervisors, as measured by the "tolerance of freedom" factor of the LBDQXII, of staff and management in a group of hotels in China are discussed. The case deals with a longitudinal study from 1996 to 2002, from the initiation of a management contract with a London-based hotel chain through a significant reduction of participation of expatriate managers from 1999 to 2002. Data is presented from 1999 to 2002 measuring employee and management opinions concerning empowerment. Follow-on studies from 2003 to 2005 provide comparisons from outside Henan Province. Results of the study indicate a positive attitude toward employee empowerment on the part of supervisor-level employees, with a lower, but still positive opinion of the practice exhibited by higher-level managers. This positive attitude is lower for empowerment than for other managerial leader behaviour sets. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
