Psychological empowerment at workplace

0
507

Zahra Ali

 Email: [email protected]

Psychological empowerment is a concept originating from industrial-organizational psychology. An increased interest in empowerment has been seen in diverse subject areas within psychology and management practices. Empowerment is giving an individual the opportunity for autonomy, to be able to make a choice, to take responsibility, and participate in decision making at workplace.

Empowering work conditions magnify active work engagement/involvement by stimulating employees’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Namely, Development opportunities, Career Advancement, Job Security, Social Support, Social Structure, Feedback, Help, and Guidance at workplace directly fosters learning and devotion, as a result mounting proficiency, competence, relatedness, and wellbeing of the employees, and effectiveness of the organizational goals. Psychological Empowerment is the underlying mechanism of improved and active work engagement.

Research databases suggest when employees who have access to pertinent knowledge about performance, both at the individual level and organizational level, about the values and policies; they are able to perceive work as more meaningful, rewarding, and substantial.

A positive, gratifying, fulfilling, work-related state-of-mind cultivates dedication and commitment, and prevents energy depletion, emotional exhaustion and health impairments. This is important not only for health and wellbeing, but also for retaining top performing employees.

 These emotions widen thought-action repertoires. Research on active work engagement has burgeoned because actively engaged employees report better health and higher well-being, while they contribute to organizational effectiveness, goals, productivity, performance, sales, and customer satisfaction etc. This piece of writing can provide worthy and useful insights for education sector as well. In other words, this can assist educational institutions to maintain high levels of psychological empowerment among faculty members, in turn, enhancing their employees’ commitment and effectiveness and students’ academic achievement.

 Education is a social institution that requires continued learning opportunities, workforce development, collaboration and partnerships, school-to-work transitions, including coaching and mentoring, to respond to contemporary global challenges and achieving sustainable development goals. The writer is a regular contributor towards SDGs, and at present an M.phil Scholar.