Final answer:
Empowerment is a management technique by which employees are given more authority over their work. Polarization refers to the increasing gap between low-end and high-end jobs with fewer middle-level positions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The management technique that involves giving employees more authority and responsibility over how they perform their work activities is C. Empowerment.
This contrasts with Restructuring, which is changing the organization's structure, Outsourcing, where tasks are contracted to an outside entity, Departmentalization, which refers to how jobs are grouped within an organization, and Insourcing, which is completing tasks within the company itself.
As for the later question, the practice where the differences between low-end and high-end jobs become greater and the number of people in the middle levels decreases is known as a. polarization. Outsourcing can lead to this phenomenon as jobs are contracted to an outside source, potentially reducing the number of middle-level positions.
This is different from structural unemployment, which is when there is a mismatch between the jobs available and the skills of the job seekers.
Therefore the correct option is C. Empowerment.