Abstract
Variations, which appear in interior and exterior environmental conditions, have obliged management understanding in companies to be transformed from being traditional to contemporary. Employee empowerment is one of the basic elements of contemporary management understanding. In this study, the effects of applications of ISO 9001 Quality Management System called as the first step of transition to Total Quality Management on employee empowerment have been investigated. With regard to this subject, a research done in the thirty-seven private manufacturing companies, which participated among the five hundred enormous industrial companies in Turkey in 2000, has been mentioned. As a result of this research, it has been determined some findings indicating that applications of ISO 9001 Quality Management System causes some empowering effects for employees working in companies. Taking these findings into consideration, some proposals that are related to some inadequacies regarding employee empowerment have been presented.