Psychological empowerment : is employment context an issue?

Past research has indicated that when treated as distinct lower order constructs the four dimensions of psychological empowerment differentially influence outcome measures. This study aimed to determine the predictive power of the four empowerment dimensions and discusses how employment context influences response patterns. 318 employees from three mid-sized organizations; a health insurance company, legal firm and not-for-profit disability services organisation, completed self report surveys measuring intrinsic job satisfaction, affective commitment and psychological empowerment Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modelling supported the treatment of empowerment dimensions as four distinct first order constructs. Significant parameter estimates in the mediation model were found between intrinsic job satisfaction and the meaning, self-determination and impact dimensions. However, only self-determination and impact predicted organizational commitment. Differences in group responses were linked to organisational context with disability support personnel reporting significantly higher levels of meaning and competence in their workplace and insurance personnel reporting lower levels of self-determination. Results supported the proposal that psychological empowerment should be considered in terms of a hierarchy of employees' psychological needs, where organizational context influences the salience of the different empowerment dimensions