We propose that psychological empowerment can be considered a work-related
attitude, for it has all three features of an attitude – evaluation, cognition, and
behaviour, as the latter is defined by Greenberg and Baron (2003). First, an employee
responds emotionally to the task based on what Thomas and Velthouse (1990) refer to
as an “environmental event”, or experienced-based expectations of the consequences of
a particular task completion, which can be paralleled to the cognitive element of an
attitude. Next, an individual’s perception of the task meaningfulness, his/her ability to
perform it, its impact on overall organisational performance, and degree of
self-determination require what Thomas and Velthouse (1990) have termed as “task
assessment”, or an evaluative initiative on the side of an individual. Finally, in
response to the aforementioned perceptions, an individual develops some
predispositions towards a subsequent behaviour. Thus, psychological empowerment
will be referred to hereinafter as an employee work-related attitude.