Drawing the employees' mental map of human resource empowerment using Zaltman's metaphorical extraction technique (Case Study: Fars Province Electricity Distribution Company)

Purpose of the present study was to investigate and identify the perceptions of employees of Fars Electricity Distribution Company about empowerment of human resources to achieve deeper knowledge in order to plan and make policies in this area. Based on this, by using Zaltman's metaphorical extraction technique, the cognitive structures of employees have been investigated. 12 participants were selected among managers and experts of the mentioned company using concept sampling method; Then, these people were asked for the interview session to choose images that, in their opinion, represent the meaning of human resource empowerment. In the interview , questions related to the images were asked then, the answers were analyzed with the aim of discovering the concepts. totally, fourteen structures were extracted, which were "delegation of power and payment of salaries based on it", "intelligent acceptance of risk", "participatory management", "performance-based relationships", "creativity combined with rationality", "self-efficacy and sense of competence" and "organizational transformation" were identified as the main structures in the consensus map. According to the consensus map, "delegation of power and payment of salaries based on it" and "creativity combined with rationalism", causal structures and "participatory management", "self-efficacy and sense of competence" and "organizational transformation" were considered as affected structures. The consensus map shows that according to the relationships between the structures, organization can create collaborative management and self-efficacy and a sense of competence in employees to empower human resources by using delegation of power and creation of creativity combined with rationalism, which will ultimately leadto organizational transformation.