An Integrative Approach to Empowerment

Abstract

While public organizations have focused on structural empowerment as a strategy to reform public bureaucracies, there is no consensus on the conceptualization or dimensionality of this construct. In addition, public organizations have paid little attention to the importance of psychological empowerment in their reform efforts. This article examines the construct validity of multidimensional measures of structural empowerment – consisting of participative decision making, feedback, and delegation – and psychological empowerment – consisting of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact – and develops an integrative model of empowerment. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), conducted with the data from a sample of 191 public employees, showed support for a multifactor model that integrates the two types of empowerment.