Variable measurement
Psychological empowerment measures
Psychological empowerment has been identified as comprising four dimensions. These
are competence, autonomy (self-determination or choice), impact (influence) and
meaningfulness (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990; Spreitzer, 1995). These four constructs
are defined and described in the following way. Competence is an employee’s feelings
of empowerment by identifying their feelings of competence to be able to complete
their work accurately and knowledgeably. Autonomy is the employee’s sense of being
delegated choice or autonomy in the way they carry out their work role, which allows
an employee a sense of self-determination. The construct of impact makes an employee
feel empowered when they have ability to influence people, or influence decisions and
situations in their work environment. Finally, meaningfulness of the work makes an
employee feel that they are able to create a product or service that provides an outcome
that has meaning.
The survey instrument used to measure the competence dimension of psychological
empowerment described above is adapted from Spreitzer (1995) and Gist (1987). The
remaining three dimensions, self-determination (autonomy), impact (influence) and