Showing papers on "Empowerment published in 2007"

A Multilevel Study of Leadership, Empowerment, and Performance in Teams

Abstract: A multilevel model of leadership, empowerment, and performance was tested using a sample of 62 teams, 445 individual members, 62 team leaders, and 31 external managers from 31 stores of a Fortune 500 company. Leader-member exchange and leadership climate related differently to individual and team empowerment and interacted to influence individual empowerment. Also, several relationships were supported in more but not in less interdependent teams. Specifically, leader-member exchange related to individual performance partially through individual empowerment; leadership climate related to team performance partially through team empowerment; team empowerment moderated the relationship between individual empowerment and performance; and individual performance was positively related to team performance. Contributions to team leadership theory, research, and practices are discussed.

Taking Stock: A review of more than twenty years of research on empowerment at work

Abstract: Today, more than 70 per cent of organizations have adopted some kind of empowerment initiative for at least part of their workforce (Lawler et al., 2001). To be successful in today’s global business environment, companies need the knowledge, ideas, energy, and creativity of every employee, from front line workers to the top level managers in the executive suite. The best organizations accomplish this by empowering their employees to take initiative without prodding, to serve the collective interests of the company without being micro-managed, and to act like owners of the business (O’Toole and Lawler, 2006). So what do we know about empowerment in work organizations? In this chapter, I will conduct an in-depth review of the literature on empowerment at work. I start by framing the two classic approaches to empowerment – social-structural and psychological – before outlining the current state of the literature. I then close the chapter by discussing key debates in the field and emergent directions for future research.

Understanding the Impact of a Microfinance-Based Intervention on Women’s Empowerment and the Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa

Abstract: Objectives. We sought to obtain evidence about the scope of women’s empowerment and the mechanisms underlying the significant reduction in intimate partner violence documented by the Intervention With Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity (IMAGE) cluster-randomized trial in rural South Africa.Methods. The IMAGE intervention combined a microfinance program with participatory training on understanding HIV infection, gender norms, domestic violence, and sexuality. Outcome measures included past year’s experience of intimate partner violence and 9 indicators of women’s empowerment. Qualitative data about changes occurring within intimate relationships, loan groups, and the community were also collected.Results. After 2 years, the risk of past-year physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner was reduced by more than half (adjusted risk ratio=0.45; 95% confidence interval=0.23, 0.91). Improvements in all 9 indicators of empowerment were observed. Reductions in violence resulted from a range of response...

Agency and Empowerment: A Proposal for Internationally Comparable Indicators

Abstract: This article proposes a short list of internationally – comparable indicators of individual agency and empowerment (and the corresponding survey questions). Data from these indicators would enable researchers to explore research and policy issues such as the interconnections between empowerment and economic or human development. The article surveys definitions of agency and empowerment, adopts the definition from Amartya Sen, supplemented by Rowlands’ typology. The proposed ‘short list’ of indicators includes; control over personal decisions; domain-specific autonomy; household decision-making; and the ability to change aspects in one’s life at the individual and communal levels. The strengths and weaknesses of each indicator are discussed, as is the need to supplement this shortlist with other variables. To ensure the feasibility of the proposal, we rely on previously-fielded questions wherever possible.

Agency and empowerment : a proposal for internationally comparable indicators

Abstract: This article proposes a short list of internationally comparable indicators of individual agency and empowerment (and the corresponding survey questions) Data from these indicators would enable researchers to explore research and policy issues such as the interconnections between empowerment and economic or human development The paper surveys definitions of agency and empowerment and adopts the definition from Amartya Sen, supplemented by Rowlands' typology The proposed “shortlist” of indicators includes: control over personal decisions; domain-specific autonomy; household decision-making; and the ability to change aspects in one's life at the individual and communal levels The strengths and weaknesses of each indicator are discussed, as is the need to supplement this shortlist with other variables To ensure the feasibility of the proposal, we rely on previously fielded questions wherever possible

The Equity and Legitimacy of Markets for Ecosystem Services

Abstract: Markets for ecosystem services are being promoted across the developing world, amidst claims that the provision of economic incentives is vital to bring about resource conservation. This article argues that equity and legitimacy are also critical dimensions in the design and implementation of such markets, if social development goals beyond economic gains are to be achieved. The article examines this issue by focusing on two communities involved in a project for carbon sequestration services of forests in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The perceived legitimacy of the activities and the distribution of economic outcomes and project-related information are found to be mediated by organizational allegiances and the history of social relations regarding access to property and forest resources. Political affiliation determines the project's legitimacy, while the poorest farmers and women have been excluded from project design and implementation. The authors argue that pitfalls such as these contribute to reinforcing existing power structures, inequities and vulnerabilities, and suggest that this is a product of the nature of emerging markets. Markets for ecosystem services are, in effect, limited in promoting more legitimate forms of decision making and a more equitable distribution of their outcomes.

Taking the power out of empowerment – an experiential account

Abstract: This article traces the centuries-long evolution of the concept and practice of empowerment, its adoption by radical social movements, especially women's movements from the 1970s onwards, and its conversion, by the late 1990s, into a buzzword. Situating the analysis in the context of women's empowerment interventions in India, the article describes the dynamic of the depoliticisation and subversion of a process that challenged the deepest structures of social power. The ‘downsizing’ and constriction of the concept within state policy, the de-funding of genuine empowerment strategies on the ground, and the substitution of microfinance and political quotas for empowerment are examined and analysed.

Decentralization, Local Government, and the Welfare State

Abstract: Despite growing interest in decentralized governance, the local government systems that comprise the most common element of decentralization around the world have received little systematic attention. This article, drawing on the first systematic index of decentralization to local government in 21 countries, demonstrates a close relation between Social Democratic welfare states and an intergovernmental infrastructure that in important respects ranks as the most decentralized among advanced industrial countries. This empowerment of local government in these countries was less an outgrowth of Social Democratic welfare state development than a preexisting condition that helped make this type of welfare state possible.

Leader-member exchange and member performance: a new look at individual-level negative feedback-seeking behavior and team-level empowerment climate.

Abstract: From a basis in social exchange theory, the authors investigated whether, and how, negative feedback-seeking behavior and a team empowerment climate affect the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and member performance. Results showed that subordinates' negative feedback-seeking behavior mediated the relationship between LMX and both objective and subjective in-role performance. In addition, the level of a team's empowerment climate was positively related to subordinates' own sense of empowerment, which in turn negatively moderated the effects of LMX on negative feedback-seeking behavior.

Engaging Young Adolescents in Social Action Through Photovoice: The Youth Empowerment Strategies (YES!) Project

Abstract: The Youth Empowerment Strategies (YES!) project is an afterschool empowerment program and research project for underserved early adolescents. Central to YES! is an empowerment intervention that pro...

Studying Your Own School: An Educator's Guide to Practitioner Action Research

Abstract: Foreword by Susan E. Noffke Acknowledgments Preface About the Authors 1. What Is Action Research? 2. Merging Educational Practice and Research: A New Paradigm 3. What Does Practitioner Action Research Look Like? 4. Empowerment and Practitioner Action Research: An Example 5. The Research Question, Ethical Considerations, and Research Design 6. Qualitative Research Approaches for Practitioner Action Research References Index

Self-efficacy and empowerment as outcomes of self-stigmatizing and coping in schizophrenia

Abstract: The concept of internalized stigma or self-stigma is central to the understanding of the psychological harm caused by stigma. In this study, we aim to demonstrate how the evaluative dimension of self-concept (self-efficacy and empowerment) mediates the psychological effects of self-stigmatizing and coping with stigma. As important examples of psychological effects, depression and quality of life were focussed on. In 172 outpatients with DSM-IV schizophrenia, measures of self-stigma and devaluation, coping with stigma, self-efficacy, empowerment, quality of life and depression were assessed. It was hypothesized that withdrawal and secrecy as important coping strategies yielded to higher levels of anticipatory anxiety of future stigmatizing. Higher levels of perceived discrimination and devaluation were hypothesised to undermine self-efficacy and illness-related empowerment. Lowering of empowerment was supposed to enhance depression and reduce quality of life. This hypothesis was tested by Structural Equation Modeling as a method of data analysis. The results supported the hypothesized model; i.e., 46% of depression and 58% of quality of life reduction could be explained by eroded empowerment. Moreover, 51% of the empowerment reduction was explained by reduction in self-efficacy at a more general level by dysfunctional coping and higher levels of anticipated stigma. Taken together, our data suggest an avoidant coping style as a risk factor for anticipatory stigma, which erodes self-efficacy and empowerment. These data have implications for cognitive behavioral approaches, which should focus on anticipated stigma to improve recovery in schizophrenia.

Guest Editorial, part of a Special Feature on Strengthening adaptive capacity Powerless Spectators, Coping Actors, and Adaptive Co-managers: a Synthesis of the Role of Communities in Ecosystem Management

Abstract: We provide a synthesis of the papers in the Special Issue, the Communities Ecosystems and Livelihoods component of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), and other recent publications on the adaptive capacity of communities and their role in ecosystem management. Communities adapt because they face enormous challenges due to policies, conflicts, demographic factors, ecological change, and changes in their livelihood options, but the appropriateness of their responses varies. Based on our synthesis, three broad categories of adaptive communities are identified. "Powerless spectator" communities have a low adaptive capacity and weak capacity to govern, do not have financial or technological options, and lack natural resources, skills, institutions, and networks. "Coping actor" communities have the capacity to adapt, but are not managing social-ecological systems. They lack the capacity for governance because of lack of leadership, of vision, and of motivation, and their responses are typically short term. "Adaptive manager" communities have both adaptive capacity and governance capacity to sustain and internalize this adaptation. They invest in the long-term management of ecosystem services. Such communities are not only aware of the threats, but also take appropriate action for long-term sustainability. Adaptive co- management becomes possible through leadership and vision, the formation of knowledge networks, the existence or development of polycentric institutions, the establishment and maintenance of links between culture and management, the existence of enabling policies, and high levels of motivation in all role players. Adaptive co-managers are empowered, but empowerment is a consequence of the capacity for governance and the capacity to adapt, rather than a starting point. Communities that are able to enhance their adaptive capacity can deal with challenges such as conflicts, make difficult trade-offs between their short- and long- term well-being, and implement rules for ecosystem management. This improves the capacity of the ecosystem to continue providing services.

Gender equality poverty and economic growth.

Abstract: This paper reviews empirical findings from economic analyses of the role of gender equality and women's empowerment in reducing poverty and stimulating growth. Going beyond the large literature documenting the impact of female education on a range of development outcomes, the paper presents evidence on the impact of women's access to markets (labor, land, and credit) and women's decision-making power within households on poverty reduction and productivity at the individual and household level. The paper also summarizes evidence from studies examining the relationship between gender equality and poverty reduction and growth at the macro level. Although micro level effects of gender equality on individual productivity and human development outcomes have been well documented and have important ramifications for aggregate economic performance, establishing an empirical relationship between gender equality and poverty reduction and growth at the macro level has proven to be more challenging. The paper concludes by identifying priority areas for future research.

Power and empowerment in nursing: looking backward to inform the future.

Abstract: There are compelling reasons to empower nurses. Powerless nurses are ineffective nurses. Powerless nurses are less satisfied with their jobs and more susceptible to burnout and depersonalization. This article will begin with an examination of the concept of power; move on to a historical review of nurses' power over nursing practice; describe the kinds of power over nursing care needed for nurses to make their optimum contribution; and conclude with a discussion on the current state of nursing empowerment related to nursing care. Empowerment for nurses may consist of three components: a workplace that has the requisite structures to promote empowerment; a psychological belief in one's ability to be empowered; and acknowledgement that there is power in the relationships and caring that nurses provide. A more thorough understanding of these three components may help nurses to become empowered and use their power for better patient care.

Family–Professional Partnerships and Parenting Competence, Confidence, and Enjoyment

Abstract: A growing body of research demonstrates that the nature of the relationship between parents and professionals and parents' judgements of their feelings of empowerment are closely linked. This article focuses on one component of this relationship—partnerships—and reports on the association between parent–professional partnership and both parent empowerment and parenting capabilities in a sample of parents with a child with a disability or developmental delay. The results of this study extend our knowledge about the nature of help‐giving that is likely to produce desirable outcomes for families.

Spatialising Participatory Approaches: The Contribution of Geography to a Mature Debate

Abstract: This paper explores the contribution that geographers can make to debates about the nature and utility of participatory approaches It argues for a constructive reconciliation between these approaches and the growing poststructural critique of participation Through an examination of the similarities and entanglements between power and empowerment it highlights the centrality of geographical issues to understanding how participation works and how its resources might be distanciated beyond the arenas of participatory projects to produce empowering effects elsewhere

The impact of leader-member exchange quality, empowerment, and core self-evaluation on nurse manager's job satisfaction.

Abstract: Objective:The purpose of this study is to test a theoretical model linking nurse managers' perceptions of the quality of the relationship with their supervisors, and empowerment to job satisfaction, and to examine the effect of a personal dispositional variable, core self-evaluation, on the relation

The Expert Patients Programme: a paradox of patient empowerment and medical dominance.

Abstract: Self-care is seen as a key element in managing resource demand in chronic disease and is also perceived as an empowering right for patients. The Chronic Disease Self-Management Programme developed in the USA has been adopted in a number of countries and in the UK has been as adapted as the Expert Patients Programme. However, despite its potential as a lay-led empowering initiative, the Expert Patients Programme has been criticised as perpetuating the medical model and failing to reach those in most need. This paper revisits a critique of the Expert Patients Programme, and drawing upon a qualitative study seeks to explore whether the Expert Patients Programme enables empowerment or replicates traditional patterns of the patient–professional relationship. A grounded-theory approach was adopted utilising focus groups, in-depth interviews and participant observation. Data were analysed through the constant comparative method and the development of codes and categories. Conducted in the relatively affluent area of the south-east of England, this paper draws on data from 66 individuals with a chronic illness who were knowledgeable, active and informed. The study revealed a number of characteristics common to expert patients that were linked to a systematic, proactive and organised approach to self-management, a clear communication style and the ability to compartmentalise emotion. The study included participant observation of an Expert Patients Programme and a professional-led self-management course. The paradoxical nature of the Expert Patients Programme was revealed, for whilst there was evidence that it reinforced the medical paradigm, there was a concurrent acknowledgement and support for the subjective experience of living with a long-term condition. Furthermore, whilst the policy emphasis has been on individual empowerment within the Expert Patients Programme, there is some evidence that it may be triggering a health consumer movement.

The effects of structural and psychological empowerment on perceived respect in acute care nurses.

Abstract: Background The recruitment and retention crisis has catalyzed interest in workplace empowerment for nurses. Many nurses feel that they do not receive the respect they deserve in hospital settings; however, there are few systematic studies of respect for nurses. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between structural and psychological empowerment and their effects on hospital nurses’ perceptions of respect. Method A secondary analysis was conducted of data from a larger study of 500 randomly selected hospital staff nurses. A predictive, non-experimental survey design was used to test a hypothesized model derived from Kanter’s Work Empowerment Theory. Results Both structural and psychological variables were significant independent predictors of respect, although structural empowerment had considerably greater explanatory power. Conclusions The findings support Kanter’s theory. Hospital nurses who perceive themselves to be structurally and psychologically empowered are more likely to feel respected in the workplace. Implications for nursing management Changing workplace structures is within the mandate of nurse managers in their roles as advocates for and facilitators of high-quality care. Nurse managers have the influence and resources to facilitate empowering work conditions that can increase nurses’ feelings of being respected. In addition, promoting collaborative inter-professional and intra-professional relationships and assuring continuous support to nurses are particularly important strategies for building respect.

Nigeria's Economic Reforms: Progress and Challenges

Abstract: Following years of economic stagnation, Nigeria embarked on a comprehensive reform program during the second term of the Obasanjo administration. The program was based on the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and focused on four main areas: improving the macroeconomic environment, pursuing structural reforms, strengthening public expenditure management, and implementing institutional and governance reforms. This paper reviews Nigeria's recent experience with economic reforms and outlines major policy measures that have been implemented. Although there have been notable achievements under the program, significant challenges exist, particularly in translating the benefits of reforms into welfare improvements for citizens, in improving the domestic business environment, and in extending reform policies to states and local governments. Consequently, we argue that the recent reform program must be viewed as the initial steps of a much longer journey of economic recovery and sustained growth. This paper concludes by outlining a number of outstanding issues that future Nigerian administrations must address.

Listening to Battered Women: A Survivor-Centered Approach to Advocacy, Mental Health, and Justice

Abstract: Listening to Battered Women: A Survivor-Centered Approach to Advocacy, Mental Health, and Justice presents an in-depth, multidisciplinary look at society's responses to domestic violence. Though substantial reforms have been made in the services available to battered women since the 1970s, the book shows how the public and private systems available to victims of domestic violence are still failing to meet the needs of the women who seek help.Using a feminist perspective, authors Lisa Goodman and Deborah Epstein explore and critique the current available services in three different arenas: the domestic violence advocacy community, the mental health profession, and the justice system. In recent years, the options available to battered women have expanded dramatically. However, these reforms have been made at the expense of the contextualized, women-centered focus that was once at the heart of the anti-domestic violence movement.The authors argue that a renewed focus on the principles of the early feminist movement - for example, listening to individual women's voices, promoting supportive communities, and facilitating economic empowerment, could result in substantial progress in efforts to protect and counsel battered women. A series of concrete recommendations for improvements in the advocacy, mental health, and justice systems are also discussed.Researchers interested in the field of violence, gender studies, psychology of women, mental health trauma, or family law, as well as practitioners working with the victims of intimate partner violence, will find this book to be a valuable resource in their efforts.

The ‘User’: Friend, foe or fetish?: A critical exploration of user involvement in health and social care

Abstract: ‘User Involvement’ has become the new mantra in Public Services with professionals constantly being reminded that ‘user knows best’. The pur pose of this paper is to ask where the preoccupation wit...

Understanding Agency in Collective Action

Abstract: Participatory approaches to natural resource management encompass ideas about the desirability of citizens actively engaging in the institutions, policies and discourses that shape their access to resources. Underpinning such approaches are assumptions about the nature of human agency. Purposive individual action is seen as instrumentally desirable as well as potentially radical and transformatory. Through participation in collective resource management it is claimed that people can re‐negotiate norms, challenge inequalities, claim their rights and extend their access. This paper draws on insights from theories of structuration, governmentality and gendered empowerment to explore understandings of how individual human agency shapes and is shaped by social relationships and institutions. It outlines six factors that constrain and enable the exercise of agency for different people; cosmologies, complex individual identities, the unequal interdependence of livelihoods, structure and voice, embodiment and emo...

Youth sense of community: voice and power in community contexts

Abstract: Sense of Community theory suggests that people feel more attracted to groups and settings in which they feel influential or powerful. Unfortunately, young people have no voice or influence in many of the contexts in which they find themselves. Furthermore, teenagers are often unequipped and undersupported to participate fully and feel like they are making meaningful contributions to society. This is especially the case for young people who are disadvantaged or members of a minority groups. A two-part study was undertaken to explore sense of community in adolescents. The first phase utilized existing tools to measure adolescent sense of community in school, neighborhood, and city contexts. The second phase of the study relied on in-depth interviews with teenagers to better understand how they construct their sense of community. This article reports findings from the second phase and looks closely at the sense of community domain of “influence” as it applies to adolescents. Interviews with young people suggest that they feel a stronger self-described sense of community in contexts where they experience voice and resonance, some power and influence, and adequate adult support and challenge. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.