Employee empowerment

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to extend past research by investigating the relationships between supervisors' empowering management practices (SEMP), employees' psychological empowerment (PE), and a new measure of employees' behavioral empowerment (BE). A mediation model is hypothesized. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire study is conducted among 359 non‐managerial employees. Because BE is both self‐reported and externally assessed, relationships are verified with single‐source and multi‐source data. Findings SEMP are quite strongly related to PE, but more weakly related to BE. Structural equation analyses tend to support a model where PE completely mediates the relationship between supervisors' managerial practices and employees' BE. Research limitations/implications This cross‐sectional study does not provide indication of causality among the variables. Practical implications First, this paper suggests that feeling empowered is a pivotal mindset that needs to be created by supervisors to generate proactive behaviors. Second, the moderate correlation found between PE and BE measures suggests that they capture different facets of empowerment. Given management concern for bottom line results, behavioral measures should not be ignored in assessing employee empowerment. Originality/value This paper used a behavioral criterion to assess employee empowerment rather than relying solely on a psychological measure.

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