Empowerment

ZONGCHAO CATHY LI
San Jose State University, USA

Conceptualizations of empowerment are diverse and broad. Empowerment is a multi-

level, open-ended construct that may occur at the individual level, organizational level,
and community level. Empowerment could refer to the act of granting power to others
(e.g., delegation), the internal mental process of the individual being empowered, or
the outcome of being empowered. Empowerment has been studied from both the indi-
vidual perspective and the organization perspective. Studies of empowerment can be
found in a variety of disciplines, including political science, social welfare, education,
health, management, and community psychology.

Psychological empowerment

Zimmerman’s (2000) conceptualization of empowerment in community psychology lit-

erature is among the most prominent. Zimmerman classified empowerment into three
broad contexts: individual, organization, and community. Among all three, the individ-
ual perspective has received most scholarly attention.
Empowerment at the individual level is referred to as psychological empowerment.
It is described as “the connection between a sense of personal competence, a desire for,
and a willingness to take action in the public domain” (Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988,
p. 725). Psychological empowerment includes the intrapersonal, interactional, and
behavioral levels. Intrapersonal empowerment concerns three individual traits of con-
trol, self-efficacy, and perceived competence. These characteristics describe how indi-
viduals think about themselves and their ability to exert influence in various contexts.
While early empirical investigations of empowerment have largely focused on
the intrapersonal level, scholars argued that a high sense of control, efficacy, and
perceived competence were sometimes inadequate to produce social change. Another
important aspect of individual empowerment concerns the interactional level, which
refers to one’s cognitive understanding of the social environment and the collective
power needed to produce change (Speer, 2000). Individuals high in interactional
empowerment are knowledgeable about the norms of a particular context and the
available options to achieve goals.
Finally, the behavioral component of psychological empowerment refers to the
empowered actions that may exert influence on outcomes. This is achieved through
participation in activities and community organizations such as political groups,

The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology. Jan Van den Bulck (Editor-in-Chief), David R. Ewoldsen,
Marie-Louise Mares, and Erica Scharrer (Associate Editors).
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0142
2 E M P O WE R M E N T

self-help groups, religious groups, service organizations, or helping others to cope with
problems.
It is important to note that a psychologically empowered individual may possess
either or both of the intrapersonal and interactional aspects. However, as cautioned
by Peterson (2014), researchers should not assume psychological empowerment as a
higher-order multidimensional construct. The intrapersonal, interactional, and behav-
ioral aspects of empowerment should be treated as separate constructs.

Employee empowerment

Another prominent theoretical development of empowerment theory arises from the

management literature. Empowerment was studied at the individual level as a psycho-
logical state as well as from the macro level which focused on organization structures,
policies, and practices.
Psychological empowerment at the individual level was defined as a cognitive
state characterized by three psychological dimensions: a sense of perceived con-
trol, perceptions of competence, and goal internalization (Menon, 2001). Perceived
control refers to “beliefs about autonomy in the scheduling and performance of
work, availability of resources, authority and decision-making latitude” (p. 161).
Strategies such as delegation can lead to a sense of perceived control. Perceived
competence emphasized self-efficacy and confidence in meeting routine tasks and
nonroutine challenges. Competence is also a major dimension of empowerment
in the leadership research. Finally, goal internalization could be achieved when
individual employees hold beliefs and attitudes in line with the organization’s
objectives and are ready to act on the organization’s behalf. Goal internalization
is an important component of leadership approaches such as transformational
leadership.
Focusing on the macro level, Seibert, Silver, and Randolph (2004) called for more
empirical investigations from the organization perspective. They conceptualized
empowerment as an organization climate that “shared perception regarding the
extent to which an organization makes use of structures, policies, and practices
supporting employee empowerment” (p. 334). An empowerment climate is composed
of three dimensions: information sharing, autonomy through boundaries, and team
accountability. Empowerment at the organization level is positively related to employee
psychological empowerment, and both have demonstrated impact on employee
performances.

Empowerment in the digital age

Web 2.0 has contributed to unprecedented user empowerment. The development of

electronic media has undermined the traditional hierarchical power structures of
organizations, government, and social groups. Instead of relying on mass media as
the information source, users can create content and engage in direct conversations
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with each other. The web applications offer features that have created new dynamics of
social interaction.
Empirical research has evidenced a connection between psychological empower-
ment and social media use. Researchers argued that active participation increased
senses of self-efficacy and self-esteem, which further led to greater personal
empowerment (Barak, Boniel-Nissim, & Suler, 2008). Leung (2009), for example,
found a positive association between user-generated content and intrapersonal
empowerment, especially for self-efficacy and perceived competence. On the other
hand, users’ familiarity and usage of new media platforms also enhanced their intel-
lectual understanding of resources online and the actions needed to produce change,
therefore contributing to interactional empowerment.
Empowerment by social media has been examined in a variety of disciplines. In the
corporate world, the rise of social media has empowered users to virally affect orga-
nizational decisions. User-generated content allows individuals to gain more control
and power by engaging in direct dialogues with companies to express frustration and
confront wrongdoings. The social networking sites provide netizens greater access
to information and the possibility of building strong rapport through various online
groups. The empowered action could spread to a large population with rapid speed,
thus making a considerable impact. A good example of social media empowerment
is citizen journalism in which case exposure of product failures or organizational
misconduct could reach a large audience online in a short time to make a considerable
impact.
In the political realm, new media has empowered civic participation and political
movements. Connectivity established through social media can enhance users’ abilities
to take collective actions and demand social change. A number of studies have shown
that new media use significantly increased civic involvement. Breuer and Groshek
(2014), for example, found that constituents’ political use of social media was positively
related to their perceived political efficacy and subsequent voting behaviors. Social
media also empowered political activists. As seen in the political movements in Egypt
and Tunisia, social media allowed activists to connect, communicate, and organize
offline protests, which eventually contributed to the autocratic breakdown.
Social media has empowered women and mobilized feminists. A recent high-profile
example of a feminist movement empowered by social media is the #MeToo campaign,
through which the intersection of sex and power has brought forth nationwide changes
in organizations, the legal system, and culture (Gill & Orgad, 2018). Moreover, empow-
erment has been studied in the context of online support groups and health communi-
cations (e.g., Barak et al., 2008).

SEE ALSO: Media Use, Sexual Identity, and Gender Identity

References

Barak, A., Boniel-Nissim, M., & Suler, J. (2008). Fostering empowerment in online support
groups. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(5), 1867–1883.
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Breuer, A., & Groshek, J. (2014). Online media and offline empowerment in post-rebellion
Tunisia: An analysis of Internet use during democratic transition. Journal of Information Tech-
nology & Politics, 11(1), 25–44.
Gill, R., & Orgad, S. (2018). The shifting terrain of sex and power: From the “sexualization of
culture” to #MeToo. Sexualities, 21(8), 1313–1324.
Leung, L. (2009). User-generated content on the Internet: An examination of gratifications, civic
engagement and psychological empowerment. New Media & Society, 11(8), 1327–1347.
Menon, S. T. (2001). Employee empowerment: An integrative psychological approach. Applied
Psychology, 50(1), 153–180.
Peterson, N. A. (2014). Empowerment theory: Clarifying the nature of higher-order multidi-
mensional constructs. American Journal of Community Psychology, 53(1–2), 96–108.
Seibert, S. E., Silver, S. R., & Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to the next level: A
multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction. Academy of Manage-
ment Journal, 47(3), 332–349.
Speer, P. W. (2000). Intrapersonal and interactional empowerment: Implications for theory. Jour-
nal of Community Psychology, 28(1), 51–61.
Zimmerman, M. A. (2000). Empowerment theory: Psychological, organizational and commu-
nity levels of analysis. In J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of community psychology
(pp. 43–63). New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Zimmerman, M. A., & Rappaport, J. (1988). Citizen participation, perceived control, and psy-
chological empowerment. American Journal of Community Psychology, 16(5), 725–750.

Further reading

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., McKenna, K. Y., & Tal, S. A. (2008). E-empowerment: Empowerment

by the Internet. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(5), 1776–1789.
Hur, M. H. (2006). Empowerment in terms of theoretical perspectives: Exploring a typology
of the process and components across disciplines. Journal of Community Psychology, 34(5),
523–540.
Kucuk, S. U., & Krishnamurthy, S. (2007). An analysis of consumer power on the Internet. Tech-
novation, 27(1–2), 47–56.

Zongchao Cathy Li is Assistant Professor of Public Relations at San Jose State Univer-
sity. Her research centers on how new media has changed the interactions between orga-
nizations and users, between technologies and users, and among network users them-
selves. Her recent work has been published in journals such as Computers in Human
Behavior, Internet Research, and the Journal of Public Relations Research. She is also the
author of several book chapters on new media and public relations measurement.