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The Role of Psychological Empowerment as the Moderator Between

Developmental Experience and Perceived Organizational Support

Article  in  Advanced Science Letters · January 2017

DOI: 10.1166/asl.2017.7175

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 RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Copyright © 2015 American Scientific Publishers Advanced Science Letters

All rights reserved Vol. XXXXXXXXX
Printed in the United States of America

The Role of Psychological Empowerment as the

Moderator between Developmental Experience and
Perceived Organizational Support
Jeniboy Kimpah1,, Hazril Izwar Ibrahim1, Jurgita Raudeliuniene2
1School
of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Gelugor, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
2Faculty of Business Management, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 10223 Sauletekio, Vilnius, Lithuania

The purpose of the current study was to examine how the psychological empowerment as the moderator influences the
relationship between developmental experience and perceived organizational support (POS). A survey from a sample of 100
nurses from five private hospitals in Johore Bahru was conducted. Developmental experience and psychological
empowerment are significantly related to POS and psychological empowerment was also significant as a moderator. This
indicates that exposure to developmental experience directly increases sense of psychological empowerment and this will
affect POS. The result of the study is an indicator to employers that psychological empowerment is a valuable management
tool in developing a positive work environment.

Keywords: Nurses, Private Hospitals

1. INTRODUCTION experience and more psychological empowerment

Nurses have been feeling exploited by employers
due to increasing demands with respect to efficiency and
continuous reorganization in private hospitals. This has
increased their job stress levels as well. Junior and senior
nurses, the clinical environment in private hospitals is
quite hectic since the number of patients and
competitiveness among private hospitals has been
increasing. Canadas-De la Fuente, Vargas, San Luis,
García, Cañadas and Emilia (2015) stated that those
nurses are more vulnerable to have stress and depression
syndrome who have severe workload. It has been reported
in previous studies that nurses require developmental
1
process to improve their healthcare job skills and their
efficiency. Nurses are able to decrease stress or
depression syndrome through psychological
empowerment.
It is believed by Laschinger, Heather, Ashley, Joan
and Piotr (2010) that ensuring a positive work
environment for employees and employers requires
employers to motivate their employees through
empowerment of their jobs. In private hospitals, high
turnover intention amongst nurses has been very high.
This is mainly due to the negative beliefs regarding
organizational support. Wagner (2010) mentioned that it
is quite common to have high turnover of nurses, which
Adv. Sci. Lett. X, XXX–XXX, 2015
results in worsening organizational performance and loss
of healthcare expertise. It also has negative impact on
healthcare quality, reduction in morale, increased
workload, and increased turnover.
The research framework for the present study is
outlined in Figure 1. The framework exhibits the critical
aspects of psychological empowerment in the moderator
role and its’ contribution on the relationship between
developmental experience and organizational support.
Figure 1: Research framework
Psychological
empowerment
Perceived
Development organizational
experience
support
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the
significance of the moderating role of psychological
empowerment in the link between development
experience and POS.
2. PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT
This study aims to analyse how important is the role
of moderator of psychological empowerment with regard
to the relation between development experience and POS.
POS has been described by Eisenberger, Huntington,
Hutchison, and Sowa (1986) as global perspectives
developed by employees regarding the level to which
companies value their contributions and is concerned
about their well-being. This shows that POS could be
described as playing a significant role in improving self-
confidence of their employees and perform as a form of
motivation to instigate loyalty in the employees in the
company (Nisar, Anam, Umair and Ahmad, 2014).
Employees’ can be influenced by the information
received from the top management.. Negative POS can
happen if any information is received which is uncertain,
contradictory, or considered by several employees as
being harmful to their interests (Ou, Tsui, Kinicki,
Waldman, Xiao and Song, 2014). This type of
information could lead to depression, having a damaging
effect on the motivation of employees, as they will most
likely comprehend such information in a negative way.
Their sense of meaning, competence, choice, and impact
will be greater. This means that when compared with
employees having low POS, nurses which receive high-
perceived organizational support will have more
psychological empowerment through information sharing.
Employees’ POS is influenced by the manner in
which employees respond when they are given greater
access to resources. Most successful organizations are
based on the integral foundation of their human resources
are motivated and committed and this permits
organizations to grow faster than their competitors
RESEARCH ARTICLE
(Tiwari and Singh, 2014). Positive perceptions about the
organizations have the ability to provide a safe and
supportive environment, regardless of content, that allows
nurses to learn a variety of simple and complex
experience in a stress-free and safe environment
(Azzopardi, Johnson, Phillips, Dickson,
Hengstberger‐Sims, Goldsmith and Allan, 2014).
Additionally, it is suggested in the norms of
reciprocity that employees having high POS will feel
morally obligated to respond to the offer of the
organisation regarding better resources by developing
positive in-role and extra-role behaviours (Wong, Wong
and Ngo. 2012). On the contrary, employees who perceive
low organizational support may feel no commitment.
They might not have the confidence that the management
will appreciate and acknowledge their efforts. This
signifies that greater psychological empowerment through
access to resources will be experienced by employees
with higher POS levels than workers having lower levels
of POS. This was also suggested by the Social Exchange
theory and Their core principles of reciprocity are often
applied to describe the mechanisms which lead POS (Yu
and Frenkel, 2013).
The social exchange literature examines the ability
of POS to generate ‘give-and-take’, supportive responses
from individuals within the organization (Yu and Frenkel,
2013). It is speculated in this literature that employees
believe to have organisational support when they feel that
their company values them, their contributions, and is
concerned about their well-being (Eisenberger, Fasolo
and Davis-LaMastro, 1990). Within this social exchange
framework, individuals who view their organizations as
supportive will be more supportive of their organizations
and this will be displayed through improved job
performance and lowered workplace deviance
(Eisenberger and Stinglhamber, 2011). This mutuality has
been correlated by empirical evidence with numerous
positive results for individual and organizations. This
comprises of improved affective commitment, job
performance, work attendance, job satisfaction, and job
involvement.
3. THE MODERATING ROLE OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT
According to Bowen and Lawler (1995) there is a
"considerable vagueness about what actually constitutes
empowerment, where and how it works, and how to
implement it" (p.1). It could be considered as a delegation
having accountability, which could be optimally achieved
through provision of information and resources to the
employees. Others argue that empowerment through
psychological approach can happen only if the
organisations develop a supportive environment which
inspires the employees to take innovative but risky
choices Nevertheless, a lack of attention to organizational
conditions which impacts the psychological
2
 RESEARCH ARTICLE
empowerment process has been the main reason for its
weak application. It has been evident through nursing
related studies that in the nursing environment, the
psychological empowerment process are mainly structural
psychological empowerment since it is measured as per
how aware are nurses regarding empowering work
conditions which has a considerable impact on their
intrinsic task motivation, resulting in favourable nursing
outcomes (MacPhee, Skelton Green, Bouthillette and
Suryaprakash. 2012).
The uncertainty surrounding psychological
empowerment and belief in its potential has prompted
calls for research on the process of empowering
employees and the factors that characterize its’
implementation (Farmer, 2011). Psychological
empowerment is viewed as a matter of degree rather than
a single process. Employees experiencing a higher level
of these four dimensions: (a) meaning (sense of caring); (b)
self-efficacy (one’s ability); (c) self-determination (initiating
behavior); and (d) personal control (influencing actions and
offering inputs) in their work are considered more
empowered (Spreitzer, 1992). The objective of
psychological empowerment programs and practices are
to foster these attributes in workers. Among the various
practices believed to generate a greater sense of value,
competence, choice, and personal consequence among
nurses, is the sharing of information with employees, and
the creation of a clear work role. While there is some
empirical evidence of the benefits of these four practices,
identified by Spreitzer (1992), on individual
psychological empowerment levels, there has not been
much research on its role to as a moderator to between
various relationships. This study attempts to address this
gap, proposing that psychological empowerment will
influence the relationship between developmental
experience and POS. In other words, nurses whom have
experienced on challenging assignment, exposed to new
skills, personal development, and training, will feel
empowered and consequently, this will affect their POS.
4. DEVELOPMENTAL EXPERIENCES
The skills, capabilities, and knowledge of nurses
improve through developmental experiences. A higher
POS can occur through developmental efforts made by
the employers. The duties of nurses are quite varied and
extensive and they perform for different departments and
sub-units. Through this, their skills and practical
experience are improved. The work environment for
nurses provides them with the chance to continuously
learn. They learn new facts from other staff.
Simultaneously they experience and perform together as a
team so as to lessen the number of mistakes. It is
presented in the human capital theory that people have
different experiences by performing in various situations
(Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen and Bolino, 2012). Regarding
staff development, continuous learning and work
experiences play a very significant role.
3
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Developmental experiences are regarded to be tools
of training for the staff nurses. Intensive skill
enhancement opportunities are provided through
developmental experience since the nurses learn by
performing challenging tasks in which the given new role
has new responsibilities, and by learning new skills which
are task-related, and by dealing with pressures and
limitations. One of the best ways for providing in-depth
learning experiences to nurses is through job rotation.
They try to perform the best they can and attempt to make
sure that there is a perfect workflow mechanism.
5. MEASUREMENT
Developmental Experiences. This variable was
measured using the four-item scale developed by Wayne,
Shore and Liden (1997), and the scale had good internal
consistency, with a Cronbach alpha coefficient reported
at .87. This scale assesses nurses beliefs with regard to
whether or not their organization provides challenging
assignments, implement projects that develop new skills,
managerial help with development and formal training
and development opportunities. Consistent with Wayne et
al. (1997), all responses were provided in the form of a 5-
point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree; 5= strongly
agree). For the purpose of this study, the Cronbach alpha
coefficient was .71
Psychological Empowerment. This variable was
measured using twelve-item scale developed by Spreitzer
(1992). This scale includes four dimensions: (a) meaning
(sense of caring); (b) self-efficacy (one’s ability); (c) self-
determination (initiating behavior); and (d) personal
control (influencing actions and offering inputs). Nurses
were asked to rate each of the 12 items on a 5-point,
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree) The items discovered a variety of
behaviors that each nurse would exhibit in an
empowering situation. In this current study, the Cronbach
alpha coefficient was .72.
Perception of Organizational Support. The eight items
for this variable is a shortened version of the Survey of
POS by Eisenberger et al. (1986), as utilized by
Hochwarter, Kacmar, Perrewe and Johnson, (2003).
Respondents respond to a 5–point scale (1= strongly
disagree; 5= strongly agree). According to Hochwater et
al. (2003), POS has good internal consistency, with a
Cronbach alpha coeffience reported at .92. For the current
study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was .81.
Sample and Data Collection
The sample in this study was collected from 100 nurses
from five private hospitals in Johore Bahru. The
questionnaires were self-administered and the
respondents were assured that their anonymity and the
confidentiality of the data would be respected.
Adv. Sci. Lett. X, XXX–XXX, 2015 RESEARCH ARTICLE

6. RESULT and r= 0.691 at p<0.01. This indicates that increase in

development experience directly increases psychological
This section of study presents the results and empowerment and organizational support. Psychological
findings of the quantitative analysis that was carried out empowerment is also correlated to the organization
and analyzed using the SPSS 20 software. The data was support with the Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.424
collected from the sample of 100 study participants from at p<0.01 as shown by table 2F.
different five Malaysian private hospitals in Johore Bahru.
The first section of the study comprised the demographic Table 3: Hierarchical regression
information where data collected on the gender, age, Model R R Square Sig. F Sig.
working experience and education levels. The above Square Change Change
information was analyzed using the descriptive statistics 1 .512 .512 .000 .000
where frequencies and percentage were calculated. 2 .540 .028 .017 .000
Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to Model 2 significance (p-value < 0.000 and R2 change
determine the significance of the interaction between = .028) as indicated by the inclusion of the interaction
developmental experiences and psychological between developmental experience and psychological
empowerment on POS. empowerment signifies the significance of psychological
empowerment as a moderator between developmental
Table 1: Demographic data experiences and POS.
Variables Frequency Percent
Gender 7. DISCUSSION
Male 10 10
Female 90 90
Age This study found positive and significant relationship
Below 30 years old 100 100 between developmental experiences, psychological
Working experience
Less than 5 years 84 84 empowerment and POS. This relationship is further
More than 5 years and less than 10 years 16 16 strengthened by the interaction between developmental
Educational level
High school 7 7
experiences and psychological empowerment. This
Diploma 89 89 finding supports the view that psychological
Degree 4 4 empowerment practices are more effective under certain
Total 100 100
condition and that the success of psychological
empowerment efforts is dependent upon and enhanced by
Majorities of the participants were female at 90%
the presence of supportive relationships. It is also
and male accounted for only 10% respondents. All the
consistent with the notion that psychological
participants were aged below 30 years. Most of the
empowerment is cognitive, affected not merely by job
respondents (84%) had less than 5 years work experience
redesign efforts but also by worker interpretations of
and only 16% of the participants had more than 5 years
these actions.
and less than 10 years working experience. Most of the
Considering the limitations by individuals during
participants (89%) had diploma level of education, those
their work, there is significance of support mechanism
with high school level of education with 7%, and those
from co-workers and the organisation because they
with degree level of education at 4% as shown by table 1.
provide employees with coping mechanisms. This can
facilitate them to successfully accomplish the workplace
Table 2: Correlation
objectives (Madden, Mathias and Madden, 2015).
Development Psychological Organization
experience empowerment Support
Development 1 8. CONCLUSION
experience
100 This study has limitations, small items-scale may be
less accurate and effect on the sensitivity of normal
Psychological .362** 1 distribution. Furthermore, participators were limited in
empowerment .000 private hospitals in Johore Bahru. It cannot be
100 100 representative of general nurses in Malaysia private
hospitals. The sample should be extended to other states.
Organization .691** .424** 1
The results supported that psychological
Support .000 .000
100 100 100
empowerment moderated the relationship between
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). development experience and POS. This indicates that
private hospitals should pay more attention to the benefits
Development experience is positively correlated of developmental experience and psychological
with psychological empowerment and organization empowerment to enhance POS in the working process so
support with the Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.362 the nurses are less inclined to leave the organizations, and
are able to deliver quality services to the their patients.
4
 RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This study has important managerial implications.
Employers need to pay attention to psychological
empowerment as a motivation tool. Failure of the
employers to implement any form of psychological
empowerment exercises may result in the employees
perceiving that there is lack of a supportive work
environment. If so, employer must show support and
commitment in parallel with psychological empowerment
practices. It may be impossible to totally prevent turnover
intentions but, at least, it exhibits the willingness of the
employers to invest in their employees’ future.
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