Gender Perceptions of Psychological Empowerment in The Workplace:  A Comparative Analysis from Two Cultures

Greg-Victor Obi

doi:10.47742/ijbssr.v2n7p1

Authors

Greg-Victor Obi Ohio University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47742/ijbssr.v2n7p1

Keywords:

Psychological Empowerment, Nigeria, United States, Perception, Gender, Power-equity

Abstract

This study investigates how female and male workers perceive feelings of Psychological Empowerment (PE), using respondents from two different countries with dissimilar cultural power dynamics. Two hundred ten non-managerial bank workers from Nigeria and the United States were selected for this study. A comparative quantitative method was used for this study. Statistical analyses were performed using both spreadsheets and SPSS.

My key research question is designed to determine if there are differences in how female and male employees perceive Psychological Empowerment. Data analysis indicates that in both countries combined, and individually, there is a statistically significant difference in the perception of PE between the female and male respondents. Hence, I propose that the first step toward achieving power equity amongst both genders is to first understand how women and men perceive empowerment at a personal level (Psychological Empowerment).

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ahmed, N., & Oranye, O. (2010). Empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational commitment: a comparative analysis of nurses working in Malaysia and England. Journal of Nusing Management (18), 582-591.

Ambad, A. S., & Bahron, A. (2012). Psychological Empowerment: the influence on organizational commitment among employees in the construction sector. The Journal of Business Management, 73-81.

Appelbaum, N. P., Dow, A., Mazmanian, P. E., KJundt, D., & Appelbaum, E. N. (2016). The effects of power, leadership and psychological safety on resident event reporting. Medical Education, 343-350.

Arogundade, O. T., & Arogundade, A. B. (2015). Psychological Empowerment in the Workplace: Implications for Employees' Career Satisfaction. North American Journal of Psychology, 27-36.

Awan, M. A., & Sarfraz, N. (2013). The Impact of human capital on Company performance and the mediating effect of employee's satisfaction. Journal of Business and Management, 76-82.

Britton, D. (2000). The epistemology of the gendered organization. Gender and Society, 14(3), 418-434.

Chisamya, G., DeJaeghere, J., Kendall, N., & Khan Marufa, A. (2012). Gender and Education for All: Progress and problems in achieving gender equity. International Journal of Educational Development, 743-756.

Corroon, M., Speizer, I. S., Fotso, J.-C., Akiode, A., Saad, A., Calhoun, L., & Irani, L. (2014). The Role of Gender Empowerment

on Reproductive Health Outcomes in Urban Nigeria. Maternal Child Health Journal, 307-315.

Dess, G., Eisner, A., Lumpkin, G., & McNamara, G. (2014). Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantage. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's Consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., & Gupta, V. (2004). Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Hur, M. H. (2006). Empowerment in terms of theoritecal perspectives: Exploring a typology of the process and components accross disciplines. Journal of Community Psychology, 34(5), 523 - 540.

Ismail, A., Mohamed, H. A.-B., Sulaiman, A. Z., Mohamad, M. H., & Yusuf, M. H. (2011). An empirical study of the relationship between transformational leadership, empowerment and organizational commitment. Business and Economic Research Journal, 2(1), 89-107.

Jeung, C.-W., & Yoon, H. J. (2016). Leader humility and psychological empowerment: investigating contingencies. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 1122-1136.

Kunze, F., Bohm, S., & Bruch, H. (2013). Organizational Performance Consequences of Age Diversity: Inspecting the role of diversity-friendly HP policies and top managers' negative age sterrotypes. Journal of Management Studies, 413-442.

Lakshmi, V. S., & Peter, J. A. (2015). GENDER DIFFERENCE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: REAL OR CONSTRUCTED. The Journal of Contemporary Management Research, 52-79.

Lawler III, E. E. (2015, May 15). Center for Effective Organization. Retrieved from University of Southern California: http://ceo.usc.edu/pdf/g08_15.pdf

Men, L. R. (2011). How employee empowerment influences organization–employee relationship in China. Public Relations Review, 435-437.

Meng, L., Jin, Y., & Guo, J. (2016). Mediating and/or moderating roles of psychological empowerment. Applied Nursing Research, 104-110.

Seibert, S. E., Gang, W., & Courtright, S. H. (2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 981-1003.

Speer, P. W., Peterson, N. A., Armstead, T. L., & Allen, C. T. (2013). The Influence of Participation, Gender and Organizational Sence of Community on Psychological Empowerment: The moderating effect of income. American Journal of Community Psychology, 103-113.

Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal (39), 1442-1465.

Unterhalter, E., Heslop, J., & Mamedu, A. (2013). Girls claiming education rights: Reflections on distribution, empowerment and gender justice in Northern Tanzania and Northern Nigeria. International Journal of Educational Developemnt, 566-575.

Valian, V. (1998). Why So Slow? the advancement of women. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Wang, J.-L., Zhang, D.-J., & Jackson, L. A. (2013). Influence of self-esteem, locus of control, and organizational climate on psychological empowerment in a sample of Chinese teachers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1428-1435.

Yoshino, K., & Smith, C. (2013). Uncovering talent: A new model of inclusion. Westlake, TX: Deloitte University Press.

Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations (8th Edition ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Inc.