diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/shell_plugins/powershell.py b/lib/ansible/runner/shell_plugins/powershell.py
index 2047913ad7d..be005aa7aff 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner/shell_plugins/powershell.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/shell_plugins/powershell.py
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ class ShellModule(object):
         return _encode_script(script)
 
     def build_module_command(self, env_string, shebang, cmd, rm_tmp=None):
+        cmd = cmd.encode('utf-8')
         cmd_parts = shlex.split(cmd, posix=False)
         if not cmd_parts[0].lower().endswith('.ps1'):
             cmd_parts[0] = '%s.ps1' % cmd_parts[0]