Employee empowerment: An integrative psychological approach

An integrative psychological approach to employee empowerment was developed based on the premise that the psychological experience of power underlies feelings of empowerment. This research extends existing perspectives on emp owerment by incorporating the empowering effect of valued goals, such as th ose provided by transformational leadership. Goal internalisation was ident ified as a major component of the psychological experience of empowerment, in addition to the two traditional facets of perceptions of control over th e work environment and perceptions of self-efficacy or competence. Standard measure development procedures using a sample of employed individuals from Quebec, Canada and subsequent validation with an organisational sample fro m Ontario, Canada yielded a three-factor scale of psychological empowerment corresponding to these three dimensions. The implications of defining empo werment as a psychological state and the need For multiple measures of empo werment are also discussed.