Employee empowerment is critical for decision making, job satisfaction, and organizational performance. However, studies that are related to this topic in public sector and in developing countries are limited. This study examines employee empowerment in Iraqi ministry of higher education. The study examines the effect of leadership styles which include transformational and transactional leadership on employee empowerment. Organizational justice is examined as a mediator and organizational culture as a moderator. Data was collected from administrative employees in the ministry. The data was analysed using Smart PLS. The findings showed that both leadership styles affected positively the employee empowerment. Organizational justice mediated partial these effects while organizational culture only moderated the effect of transactional leadership on employee empowerment. Implementing effective leadership along with justice and trust in the organization can improve the employee empowerment.