A DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT AND EFFECTIVENESS, SATISFACTION, AND STRAIN

This paper examines the contribution of each of the four dimensions in Thomas and Velthouse's (1990) multidimensional conceptualization of p sychological empowerment in predicting three expected outcomes of empo werment: effectiveness, work satisfaction, and job-related strain. The literature on the four dimensions of empowerment (i.e., meaning, comp etence, self-determination, and impact) is reviewed and theoretical lo gic is developed linking the dimensions to specific outcomes. The expe cted relationships are tested on a sample of managers from diverse uni ts of a manufacturing organization and then replicated on an independe nt sample of lower-level employees in a service organization using alt ernative measures of the outcome variables. The results, largely consi stent across the two samples, suggest that different dimensions are re lated to different outcomes and that no single dimension predicts all three outcomes. These results indicate that employees need to experien ce each of the empowerment dimensions in order to achieve all of the h oped for outcomes of empowerment.