Empowerment in organizations: Employees’ perceptions of the influences on empowerment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the sources of employees’ self‐reported feelings of empowerment by analyzing their descriptions of their jobs, supervisors, colleagues, and organization. Data were collected from forty employees of a large company in the form of interviews and surveys. Relationships between empowerment and five influences on empowerment were explored. Four of the five influences are dimensions underlying self‐efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 1986): enactive attainment, verbal persuasion, vicarious experience, and emotional arousal. The fifth influence is macro‐level organizational culture. Findings revealed that employees had multiple meanings associated with the five influences. Their feelings of empowerment were most strongly associated with their perceptions of macro‐level culture. Positive verbal persuasion and positive emotional arousal were also significantly related to feelings of empowerment. The results suggest that previous models of empowerment that include only the dimensions of self‐efficacy are inadequate.