This article builds on the contingency approach of global leadership to examine empowerment in a cross-cultural context. Drawing upon an ethnographic research in a French NGO settled in Madagascar, it demonstrates that effective empowerment is not so much a matter of degree -more or less delegation- than a matter of manner. Understanding the cultural representations of role and structure formalization, skill development, collective work and decision-making appeared to be crucial to effective delegation in Madagascar. This suggests that managers should adapt the way they empower their teams to the conditions and forms of delegation prevailing in local cultures.