Measuring Psychological Empowerment in the workplace. A test of Spreitzer's model

Introduction: The main aim of the study is to present the Italian version of Spreitzer’s Psychological Empowerment in the Workplace Scale. The scale consists of four first-order dimensions named Meaning, Competence, Self-determination and Impact all loading on a second-order general empowerment in the workplace factor. Methods: Through structured questionnaires 286 adults currently employed took part in the research. Results: Data analyses, carried out by means of confirmatory factor analyses, gave support to the hypothesized factorial structure, whose invariance was tested applying the multisample procedure. Convergent and discriminant validity was tested via confirmatory factor analyses techniques considering internal locus of control, alienation, self-efficacy, hopefulness, and operative positive thinking measures. Correlations between empowerment and the other psychological constructs turned out to be consistent with the research hypotheses. Moreover, a moderate correlation was found between psychological empowerment and social desirability. Conclusions: Altogether the data acquired give strong support to the construct and applied validity of Spreitzer’s measure and corroborate its usefulness for basic and applied research in social, work and organizational psychology