The supportive context and environment of the workplace, from managerial practices to the design of the work, combined with the personal characteristics of individual employees have a major impact on the psychological empowerment felt by individuals and teams in the workplace, which leads to more positive attitudes and higher performance and results.
The benefits of empowering employees by creating policies, practices, and structures to give frontline and lower-level employees and managers greater decision-making authority concerning their jobs and responsibilities were first introduced in the 1970s. In 2011, a team of researchers conducted a massive analysis of previous research related to the topic of psychology to create a comprehensive framework that covered
The researchers defined psychological empowerment based on the four components first identified by the University of Michigan’s Gretchen Spreitzer: meaning, self-determination, competence, and impact. According to Spreitzer, employees feel empowered when they find their work meaningful, have the freedom and responsibility to manage their work, have confidence in their capabilities to do the work, and are making an impact on the success of the organization.
Through their meta-analysis of previous studies, a total of 142 articles, including 79 published studies and 63 unpublished dissertations the research team found that both the context of the work and individual characteristics of the employees impacted their sense of psychological empowerment.
Their study showed that four contextual factors empower employees: high performance.
Individual characteristics can also influence whether employees feel psychologically empowered. Employees who have positive feelings about their self-worth, competence, and capabilities are more likely to report feeling psychologically empowered than employees with less positive self-evaluations.
In addition, factors such as tenure, age, and job level that is, factors indicating employees are generally further along in their careers will impact feelings of psychological empowerment, although not to the extent of positive self-evaluation.
In terms of outcomes or consequences, the study showed that psychological empowerment leads to more positive attitudes and positive behaviors In terms of attitude, employees who feel empowered are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and committed to the organization. Because of an increased sense of control, empowered employees also feel less strain in their jobs. Not surprisingly, they are also less likely to be looking for a new job.
On the behavioral, empowerment positively impacts employee performance. Feeling competent and in control, psychologically empowered employees are more likely to anticipate problems, and to be persistent and resourceful in responding independently to problems as they arise. Meaning and self-determination also increase the desire to do their job well.
The positive impact of empowerment also extends to more positive citizenship organizational behaviors), including the willingness to perform above and beyond their job descriptions. That is, they are not just focused on getting their tasks done, but on contributing to the overall success of the workplace. This commitment as well as the sense of competence that empowerment elicits is also reflected in greater levels of innovation as employees develop and implement ideas for change and improvement.
Finally, the research found that the four contextual factors described above high-performance managerial practices, socio-political support, leadership, and work design characteristics had an impact at the team level in addition to the individual level. That is, teams collectively feel more empowered in this type of work environment and culture, which in turn improves their attitudinal and behavioral outcomes as a team.
While some management practitioners and theorists remain skeptical, this study presented a convincing case of the benefits both in terms of attitudes and behaviors of psychologically empowering employees. The study also found that the positive impact of psychological empowerment was the same regardless of industry, occupation, or culturally distinct geographic regions.
In identifying the contextual elements that contribute to psychological empowerment, the researchers offer leaders areas on which they may want to focus to improve attitudes and performance in their organizations areas ranging from managerial practices to supportive relationships to work design.
The study also highlights the empowering impact of self-evaluation: how employees think of themselves in terms of self-worth, competence, and capabilities. Efforts to improve employee self-evaluations can thus lead to better results for the company. Leaders may even want to recruit new employees who exhibit these positive self-evaluations in order to build a more psychologically empowered workforce.
Scott Seibert’s profile at University at Buffalo
Stephen Courtright’s profile at the University of Iowa
https://tippie.uiowa.edu/people/stephen-courtright
Gang Wang’s profile at Florida State University
https://business.fsu.edu/person/gang-wang
Antecedents and Consequences of Psychological and Team Empowerment
in Organizations: A Meta-Analytic Review. Scott E. Seibert, Gang Wang, and Stephen H. Courtright. Journal of Applied Psychology (March 2011).
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