El empowerment psicológico en el trabajo

Abstract

The term empowerment (which means to grant power. and whose translation into Spanith. is potenciación) refers generallty speaking to the mechanism by means of which people, organizations and communities gain control/mastery/authority over their own lives' (Rappaport. 1981, 1985: Rappaport, Swift and Hess, 1984). The concept of empowerment admits a double reading: on the one hand, it refers to the psychological sense of person at' control or influence, and on the other, it mentions social influence, political power and legal rights (Rappaport, 1987). The study of empowerment must be done in relation to the different contexts in which people are immersed, admitting different levels of analysis: individual, organizational año' community. At the same time, a distinction can be made between enzpowermentprocesse and results (Zimmerman, 1995). Empowerment processes are those in which people creaté' or receive opportunities to control their own destinies and influence on the decisions affecting. their lives in different fields; whereas empowerment results refer to the effects or consequences of such processes. In the following article the concept of empowerment at an individual level (psychologica.l-' empowerment) is reviewed, dealing with its multidimensional nature and differentiating, at a theoretical level, between three components: intrapersonal, interactional and behavioral; Also some models are explained that take into account socio -structural factors of the' - organization as antecedents of the psychological empowerment at the workplace. The results obtained in research studies that relate the experience of psychological empowerment to. organizational efficacy and occupational mental health are also commented.