The construction and evaluation of a scale of employee empowerment

Abstract

As regards the structure of the climate for empowerment as construct, Scott and Jaffe (1992) mentioned that in working with organisations to improve the climate of empowerment, the following qualities were listed repeatedly: clarity of purpose, morale, fairness, recognition, team-work, participation, communication and a healthy environment.The context of the present study: A local government environment. The mindset within the traditional bureaucracy, according to Brown and Brown (1994), is almost entirely foreign to ideas of empowerment. Empowerment rejects a mindset of highly controlled, scarcely involved, authoritarian culture of rules and procedures, and the presumption that "management knows best". These mindsets may cripple an organisation such as a local government that has indicated a movement away from bureaucracy (traditionally associated with government institutions) toward becoming a participative and customerdriven organisation (Egoli 2002(Egoli document, 2000. VANESSA J CLOETE F CROUS J M SCHEPERS Programme in Industrial Psychology Department of Human Resource ManagementRand Afrikaans University ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to construct and evaluate a scale of employee empowerment that may benefit organisational transformation. An Employee Empowerment Questionnaire consisting of 90 items was developed and administered to 164 respondents within a large metropolitan council. The study indicated that the Employee Empowerment Questionnaire is highly reliable (rxx=0,982) and sensitive to group differences. OPSOMMINGDie doel van die studie was om 'n skaal van werknemerbemagtiging vir organisasie-transformasiedoeleindes te konstrueer en te evalueer. 'n Werknemerbemagtigingsvraelys, bestaande uit 90 items is ontwikkel en toegepas op 164 respondente in 'n plaaslike owerheid. Die studie het aangedui dat die Werknemerbemagtigingsvraelys hoogs betroubaar (rxx=0,982) en sensitief vir groepsverskille is.

Psychological empowerment of employees in selected organisations in South Africa

“…Menon (2001) classifi es empowerment research in three broad categories, based on the underlying thrust and emphasis, namely situational (structural), motivational (psychological) and leadership empowerment. The situational approach emphasises the redistribution of authority and delegation of decision-making power down the organisational hierarchy so that the employee has the ability to impact on organisational outcomes, be creative and have more fl exibility to take risks (Cloete, Crous & Scheepers, 2002;Greasley et al, 2005;Menon, 2001). The 'leadership' approach focuses on the leader who energises his or her followers to act with the leader in providing future vision (Menon, 2001).…”

The relation between conscientiousness, empowerment and performance

“…The Employee Empowerment Questionnaire (EEQ) was constructed by Cloete, Crous and Schepers (2002). This tool was developed from a questionnaire originally created by Scott and Jaffe (1992).…”

“…The questionnaire uses a four-point scale in order to allow for a varied response ratefrom very unfavourable to extremely favourable. In a factor analysis done by Cloete et al (2002) the EEQ only loaded on one factor of empowerment, which represents a combined view of psychological empowerment and the empowerment climate. The scores obtained in this study may be described as reliable (Cronbach's α = 0.98).…”

Do Narcissists and High Machs More Empowered? Assessing the Relationship between Machiavellianism and Narcissism, and Psychological Empowerment

“…According to Avey et al (2008), Psychological capital (i.e., individuals' positive psychological state of development conceptualized with four dimensions of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resiliency (Luthans et al, 2007) significantly predicts individuals' feeling of empowerment. Furthermore, Sutherland and colleagues (2007) adopted Cloete et al (2002) Employee Empowerment Questionnaire (EEQ, i.e., combination of psychological empowerment and empowerment climate) for measuring the notion of empowerment and found significant relationship between conscientiousness and empowerment. In their dimensional analysis, Hon &Rensvold (2006) tested the relationship between need for achievement and need for power, and each of psychological empowerment's dimensions.…”