Ebrahim Rajabpour

Background: With the entry into the new century, the landscape of organizations has changed. Advances in technology, global markets, and competitive pressures have required organizations to change their usual operating procedures and perform them in a more effective manner. These factors raise the need for management change and work style modification to adapt to these conditions. In the meantime, an empowered leader is an important element and a fundamental factor in the competitive advantage of an organization that, by cultivating creative, motivated, and empowered employees, can respond quickly and flexibly to environmental dynamics. Therefore, this study, with regard to the issue of empowerment and its role in employee participation and behavior, has addressed its importance and position among company employees. Aim: The main objective of the research is to measure the effect of empowering leadership on employee strategic behavior by mediating employee participation among employees of the Bushehr Provincial Water and Wastewater Company. Methodology: The present study is applied in terms of its purpose, field and quantitative in terms of its data collection method, and descriptive survey in terms of its strategy. The statistical population of the study consisted of 282 members of the Bushehr Province Water and Wastewater Company. The sampling method in this study was the cluster method, which after clustering the company into sub-departments based on simple random sampling, 282 people were selected as a sample for each department. The research data collection tool is a questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the research tool were evaluated through Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and the mean of the extracted variance. Data description and analysis were performed using SPSS 26 and SmartPLS 3.2.8 statistical software. Findings: The results of the research findings indicated that, contrary to expectations, a positive relationship was not found betwe