Abstract: In the process of the embedded development, an ‘empowerment management’ relationship was formed between the professional social work and government. Its main manifestation is that the government, as the leading one, manages the professional social work subjectively for the purpose of effective overall planning, which has drawn a certain boundary for the development of professional social work and thus played a limiting role. However, this restrictive role is weakened or even turned into a driving force by the government's empowerment of professional social work through systems, policies and resources. To verify the meanings of ‘empowerment management', this study focuses on the inter-relationship between grassroots community committees and community social workers. By using quantitative analysis method, this study finds out that both the empowerment-related and management-related organizational characteristic of community committees positively influence the psychological empowerment of community social workers. Based on the findings, this study puts forward two recommendations: (1) Professional social work should improve self-awareness and make an adaptive balance between government and itself. (2) When establishing the system of professional social work, the long-term social governance logic should be taken into consideration to conform to the local logic while learning the experience of western developed countries.

Key words: empowerment management, professional social work, embedment