This study investigated how the controllability attributional style of an employee influences the effect of participative leadership on psychological empowerment and work performance. The controllability attributional style refers to the extent to which employees habitually attribute their negative organizational experiences such as failures and setbacks to controllable or uncontrollable causes. The results of two studies consistently showed that participative leadership had a weaker impact on employees' psychological empowerment for those who had a low rather than high controllability attributional style. In Study 2, psychological empowerment was found to fully mediate the joint effect of participative leadership and the controllability attributional style on the objective work performance of employees measured a month later.