Abstract

Hong Kong Universig qfScience and Technolng) This paper examines the contribution of each of the four dimen-sions in Thomas and Velthouse’s (1990) multidimensional conceptual-ization of psychological empowerment in predicting three expected outcomes of empowerment: effectiveness, work satisfaction, and job-related strain. The literature on the four dimensions of empowerment (i.e., meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact) is reviewed and theoretical logic is developed linking the dimensions to specific outcomes. The expected relationships are tested on a sample of manag-ers from diverse units of a manufacturing organization and then repli-cated on an independent sample of lower-level employees in a service organization using alternative measures of the outcome variables. The results, largely consistent across the two samples, suggest that dcrerent dimensions are related to different outcomes and that no single dimen-sion predicts all three outcomes. These results indicate that employees need to experience each of the empowerment dimensions in order to achieve all of the hoped for outcomes of empowerment.