A Dimensional Analysis of the Relationship between Psychological Empowerment and Effectiveness Satisfaction, and Strain

Abstract

This paper examines the contribution of each of the four dimensions in Thomas and Velthouse's (1990) multidimensional conceptualization of psychological empowerment in predicting three expected outcomes of empowerment: effectiveness, work satisfaction, and jobrelated strain. The literature on the four dimensions of empowerment (i.e., meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact) is reviewed and theoretical logic is developed linking the dimensions to specific outcomes. The expected relationships are tested on a sample of managers from diverse units of a manufacturing organization and then replicated on an independent sample of lower-level employees in a service organization using alternative measures of the outcome variables. The results, largely consistent across the two samples, suggest that dcrerent dimensions are related to different outcomes and that no single dimension predicts all three outcomes. These results indicate that employees need to experience each of the empowerment dimensions in order to achieve all of the hoped for outcomes of empowerment.

The Influence of Employee Empowerment on Employee Job Satisfaction in Five-Star Hotels in Jordan

“…Fulford and Enz, 1995;Dickson and Lorenz, 2009;Gazzoli et al, 2010;and Pelit et al, 2011) or correlating the psychological dimension of empowerment and job satisfaction (e.g. Spreitzer, 1996Spreitzer, , 1997Hancer and George, 2003;Hechanova et al, 2006;Patah et al, 2009;Pelit et al, 2011) rather than focusing on the two dimensions of empowerment jointly. The study"s results argued that when structural empowerment and psychological empowerment are merged together as a whole, the influence of empowerment on job satisfaction achieves a higher level (R 2 = 0.425, p<0.000), which distinguishes this study from other studies were conducted.…”

“…The dimension of "impact" refers to the degree to which employees can influence strategic, management or operational results at work (Spreitzer, 1996). The dimension of "meaning" refers to a sense of meaning regarding the evaluation of specific tasks (Hackman and Oldham, 1980), or as "the engine of empowerment" (Spreitzer et al, 1997).Moreover, Spreitzer et al (1997) found that each dimension has different effects on various work outcomes throughout different relationships with work outcomes. Thus, they concluded that the "employees need to experience each of the empowerment dimensions in order to achieve effective and desirable outcomes" (Spreitzer et al, 1997: p. 679).…”

Linking Psychological Empowerment to Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment: Investigating the Mediating Effect of Organizational Trust

“…Comparing with the previous research, it can be concluded that meaning dimension can go along with these research findings which emphasize the importance of this dimension to Job Satisfaction. (Hackman & Oldham, 1980;Spreitzer et al, 1997;Thomas & Tymon, 1994;Liden et al, 2000;Carless, 2004). Regarding the impact dimension, there was some different evidence about its relationship with Psychological Empowerment, as shown previously in the literature review.…”

“…Finally, there is no agreement in the studies on the existence of a relationship between competence dimension and satisfaction. Carless (2004) stated that competence does not significantly affect job satisfaction, while Spreitzer et al (1997) believe that the competence positively associates with job satisfaction between subordinates, but not between supervisors. Other research also reported that there is no relationship between these variables (Holdsworth & Cartwright, 2003;Siegall & Gardner, 2000;Thomas & Tymon, 1994).…”

“…Carless (2004) concluded that among the four Aspects of empowerment, competence and meaning were more significant in predicting job satisfaction. There appear to be a powerful evidence of a positive relationship between job satisfaction and meaning dimension (Hackman and Oldham, 1980;Spreitzer et al, 1997;Thomas & Tymon, 1994). In addition, Liden et al (2000) pointed out that the dimension of the meaning of empowerment has the robust argument for a positive relationship to work satisfaction.…”