Scrutinizing the role of different aspects of empowerment in an organizational effectiveness

Three-phase empowerment process

From a theoretical lens, scholars (e.g. Spreitzer, 2008) have regarded empowerment as a concept composed of a three-phase process, including empowering work conditions, psychological empowerment, and behavioral empowerment respectively.

Empowering work conditions. As the first construct, empowering work conditions focuses on the managerial exercises that enrich socio-structural conditions that enhance employees’ autonomy and decision-making engagement. As examples of such empowerment, high-involvement organizational policies, increased work design, and instantaneous administrator’s leadership style can be numerated (Maynard et al., 2012).

Psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment is regarded as an active motivational orientation with respect to an employee’s work role, in which the employee has sufficient motivation and ability to exert an effect on organizational achievements (Spreitzer, 1995). Due to the nature of empowerment that cannot be imposed, organizations develop psychological empowerment in their work conditions to provide employees with a feeling of empowerment. For successful psychological empowerment, it is crucial that employees perceive the work conditions’ meaningfulness, self-competence, and self-determination. Sustaining psychological empowerment could contribute to behavioral empowerment, which is related to a set of behaviors performed by an employee both to enhance work effectiveness and to engage in the decision-making process (Pigeon et al., 2015).

Behavioral empowerment. As a multidimensional variable, behavioral empowerment refers to boosting efficacy in organizations by preparing employees to take self-initiated actions and engage in decision-making processes (Boudrias et al., 2009). It consists of two types of behaviors: discretionary behaviors and participation in decision-making. Discretionary behaviors are related to an active set of self-determined behaviors emphasizing job efficacy and steady progress in the job, the group, and the whole organization (Boudrias et al., 2009). Nevertheless, participation in decision-making points to the level of the employee’s involvement in decision-making processes, reflecting the degree of influence made via formal decision-making channels to manage individual and collective activities efficiently. This variable emerged from the studies on employees’ influence and power (Heller, 2003) and relied on structural opportunities and work design. Involvement in decision-making is addressed by strategies and techniques of human resource management directed at promoting the employee’s empowerment and reflects a main outcome in the empowerment research (Pigeon et al., 2017).