Showing papers on "Empowerment published in 2011"

Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: A meta-analytic review.

Abstract: This paper provides meta-analytic support for an integrated model specifying the antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment. Results indicate that contextual antecedent constructs representing perceived high-performance managerial practices, socio-political support, leadership, and work characteristics are each strongly related to psychological empowerment. Positive self-evaluation traits are related to psychological empowerment and are as strongly related as the contextual factors. Psychological empowerment is in turn positively associated with a broad range of employee outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and task and contextual performance, and is negatively associated with employee strain and turnover intentions. Team empowerment is positively related to team performance. Further, the magnitude of parallel antecedent and outcome relationships at the individual and team levels is statistically indistinguishable, demonstrating the generalizability of empowerment theory across these 2 levels of analysis. A series of analyses also demonstrates the validity of psychological empowerment as a unitary second-order construct. Implications and future directions for empowerment research and theory are discussed.

A Social Capital Framework for the Study of Institutional Agents and Their Role in the Empowerment of Low-Status Students and Youth

Abstract: This article builds on a sociological account of working-class minority youth development and differential access to social capital—defined in terms of key resources and support provided by institutional agents (Stanton-Salazar, 1997, 2001, 2004). The article elaborates on the concept of institutional agents—specifically, high-status, non-kin, agents who occupy relatively high positions in the multiple dimensional stratification system, and who are well positioned to provide key forms of social and institutional support. The article focuses on the kinds of institutional support such agents are able to provide, and on the multiple and simultaneous [help-giving] roles assumed by those who provide this support. Drawing from empowerment theory in critical social work, the article provides a discussion about manifesting one’s capacity as an institutional agent in ways that not only entails providing key resources, but also that enables the authentic empowerment of the student or young person. Influenced by Fre...

Rethinking Resilience from Indigenous Perspectives

Abstract: The notions of resilience that have emerged in developmental psychology and psychiatry in recent years require systematic rethinking to address the distinctive cultures, geographic and social settings, and histories of adversity of indigenous peoples. In Canada, the overriding social realities of indigenous peoples include their historical rootedness to a specific place (with traditional lands, communities, and transactions with the environment) and the profound displacements caused by colonization and subsequent loss of autonomy, political oppression, and bureaucratic control. We report observations from an ongoing collaborative project on resilience in Inuit, Metis, Mi'kmaq, and Mohawk communities that suggests the value of incorporating indigenous constructs in resilience research. These constructs are expressed through specific stories and metaphors grounded in local culture and language; however, they can be framed more generally in terms of processes that include: regulating emotion and supporting adaptation through relational, ecocentric, and cosmocentric concepts of self and personhood; revisioning collective history in ways that valorize collective identity; revitalizing language and culture as resources for narrative self-fashioning, social positioning, and healing; and renewing individual and collective agency through political activism, empowerment, and reconciliation. Each of these sources of resilience can be understood in dynamic terms as emerging from interactions between individuals, their communities, and the larger regional, national, and global systems that locate and sustain indigenous agency and identity. This social-ecological view of resilience has important implications for mental health promotion, policy, and clinical practice.

What Works to Prevent Partner Violence? An Evidence Overview.

Abstract: Lori Heise reviews the empirical evidence of what works in low- and middle-income countries to prevent violence against women by their husbands and other male partners. The review focuses on prevention programmes rather than responses or services, and on research-based evaluations rather than insights from practice. Individual chapters cover: changing gender norms, childhood exposure to violence, excessive alcohol use, women’s economic empowerment, law and justice system reform. Heise summarises the evidence that links each factor with the risk of partner violence as well as the effectiveness of prevention programmes.

Effectiveness of a Community Health Worker Intervention Among African American and Latino Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract: Objectives. We tested the effectiveness of a culturally tailored, behavioral theory-based community health worker intervention for improving glycemic control. Methods. We used a randomized, 6-month delayed control group design among 164 African American and Latino adult participants recruited from 2 health systems in Detroit, Michigan. Our study was guided by the principles of community-based participatory research. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was the primary outcome measure. Using an empowerment-based approach, community health workers provided participants with diabetes self-management education and regular home visits, and accompanied them to a clinic visit during the 6-month intervention period. Results. Participants in the intervention group had a mean HbA1c value of 8.6% at baseline, which improved to a value of 7.8% at 6 months, for an adjusted change of -0.8 percentage points (P<.01). There was no change in mean HbA1c among the control group (8.5%). Intervention participants also had significantly greater improvements in self-reported diabetes understanding compared with the control group. Conclusions. This study contributes to the growing evidence for the effectiveness of community health workers and their role in multidisciplinary teams engaged in culturally appropriate health care delivery. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 16, 2011: e1-e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2010.300106).

Microfinance and Its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh

Abstract: Preface Abbreviations Introduction: Neoliberalism, Microfinance, and Women's Empowerment 1. The Structural Transformation of the NGO Sphere 2. The Research Terrain 3. The Everyday Mediations of Microfinance 4. The Social Life of Debt 5. NGOs, Clergy, and Contested "Democracy" 6. Power/Knowledge in Microfinance Conclusion: From Disciplined Subjects to Political Agents? Glossary of Bengali Words Notes Index

China's "Networked Authoritarianism"

Abstract: While social networking platforms can be powerful tools in the hands of activists seeking to bring down authoritarian governments, it is unwise to assume that access to the Internet and social networking platforms alone is sufficient for democratization of repressive regimes. The case of China demonstrates how authoritarian regimes can adapt to the Internet, even using networked technologies to bolster legitimacy. The emergence of Chinese "networked authoritarianism" highlights difficult issues of policy and corporate responsibility that must be resolved in order to ensure that the Internet and mobile technologies can fulfill their potential to support liberation and empowerment.

Analysing the ‘Black Box’ of HRM: Uncovering HR Goals, Mediators, and Outcomes in a Standardized Service Environment

Abstract: This multi-level study analyses the ‘black box’ of HRM in an Australian cinema chain, a standardized service environment. Management's espoused goals for the casual workers who run the cinema service include attempts to build customer-oriented behaviour, both directly and via empowerment, and also efforts to ensure compliance with company policies and to enhance employee commitment. Our analysis of an employee survey and supervisory performance ratings shows that it is behavioural compliance that is positively associated with rated performance rather than customer-oriented behaviour. While customer service is an important value, it is willing engagement with a highly scripted, efficiency-oriented work process that makes it happen, not a more empowering form of work design. On the other hand, the management process also fosters a level of employee commitment, which has some value in a tight labour market. The study demonstrates the way in which actual models of HRM can contain a complex and ‘contradictory’ set of messages, consistent with critical accounts of the labour process and suggesting that notions of ‘internal fit’ need to recognize such tensions. It underlines the importance of identifying the multiple goals in management's espoused theories of HRM and then assessing their links via managerial behaviour and employee responses to performance outcomes.

Between affiliation and autonomy: navigating pathways of women's empowerment and gender justice in rural Bangladesh.

Abstract: Inasmuch as women's subordinate status is a product of the patriarchal structures of constraint that prevail in specific contexts, pathways of women's empowerment are likely to be "path dependent" They will be shaped by women's struggles to act on the constraints that prevail in their societies, as much by what they seek to defend as by what they seek to change The universal value that many feminists claim for individual autonomy may not therefore have the same purchase in all contexts This article examines processes of empowerment as they play out in the lives of women associated with social mobilization organizations in the specific context of rural Bangladesh It draws on their narratives to explore the collective strategies through which these organizations sought to empower the women and how they in turn drew on their newly established "communities of practice" to navigate their own pathways to wider social change It concludes that while the value attached to social affiliations by the women in the study is clearly a product of the societies in which they have grown up, it may be no more context-specific than the apparently universal value attached to individual autonomy by many feminists

Alternative Media and Social Networking Sites: The Politics of Individuation and Political Participation

Abstract: The rapid growth in usage of social networking sites begs a reconsideration of the meaning of mediated political participation in society. Castells (2009) contended that social networking sites offer a form of mass communication of the self wherein individuals can acquire a new creative autonomy. Stiegler (2009) and the Ars Industrialis collective believe that the processes of individuation, and of speaking out, hold the key to empowerment, agency, and resistance. In this article the authors offer a critical reflection on the logic of mediated participation promoted by social media through a consideration of the differences between individual and collective forms of mediated political participation. Drawing on ethnographic research on alternative media within the Trade Union Movement in Britain and recent research on the political culture of social networking sites, the authors argue that far from being empowering, the logic of self-centered participation promoted by social media can represent a threat for political groups rather than an opportunity.

Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time City

Abstract: I hope that this book will stimulate your mental metabolism with a rich and multi-faceted degustation menu. Sampling the 'dishes' prepared for this urban smorgasbord will take you on a tour de force covering a great range of timely and significant topics and issues such as sustainability, digital identity, surveillance, privacy, access, environmental impact, activism, participatory planning, and community engagement. The book exposes research accounts which seek to convey an appreciation for local differences, for the empowerment of people and for the human-centred design of urban technology. Both contributors and coverage are international. They are not limited to cases based in Europe and America only. Rather, I purposefully sourced chapters covering Asia, Africa and Australia by a most engaging and prolific group of authors not afraid of presenting challenging and controversial ideas. The book starts with some introductory examinations that situate urban informatics research in the field and critique some of the assumptions behind urban informatics, as well as propose new ways of thinking. The second section focuses on ways people use technology to participate in urban planning scenarios and online deliberations. The engagement of urban communities is the central theme of the third section of the book and brings together examples from Germany, Mexico, Australia, and Canada dealing with multiculturalism, user-led innovation, creative expression and social sustainability. The fourth section comprises examples of studies which investigate the link between the physical and digital city in the context of location, navigation and space. Wireless and mobile technology and its socio-cultural impact on urban communities and environments is the topic of the chapters in section five. And for dessert, the book concludes with a selection of outlooking and speculative chapters which examine trends in Korea and China, socio- technical innovation that support location-sensitive tools for the real-time city and citizen science, and commentaries exploring the digital desaturation of the city and – in the afterword – the relation of urban informatics to social ontology.

Balancing between inspiration and exhaustion: PhD students' experienced socio-psychological well-being

Abstract: This paper explores doctoral students' experiences of their scholarly communities in terms of socio-psychological well-being. Further, the study examines how experiences were related to study engagement and to self-reported stress, exhaustion, and anxiety. Altogether 669 doctoral students from the University of Helsinki, Finland, responded a survey. The answers to an open-ended question were content analysed and then statistically compared to well-being and study engagement items. The results showed that there was variation in students' experiences of the scholarly community regarding socio-psychological well-being. More than half of the answers, where students had explicitly described their experience (n = 383), emphasised the scholarly community as source of burden (56%), but experiences of inspiration and empowerment were also frequently reported in the answers (44%). Feelings of empowerment were positively related to study engagement and negatively related to stress, exhaustion, and anxiety.

The Battle for Employment Guarantee

Abstract: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is a unique initiative in the history of social security-it is not just an employment scheme but also a potential tool of economic and social change in rural areas. This volume presents the first comprehensive account of the 'battle for employment guarantee' in rural India. Staying clear of the propaganda and mud-slinging that has characterized much of the NREGA debate so far, the book presents an informed and authentic picture of the ground realities. The essays are based on field studies of NREGA by a team of researchers who have been actively involved in the campaign for the right to work. They examine a wide-range of issues such as entitlements, corruption, people's perceptions of NREGA, women's empowerment, mobilization of unorganized workers, and socio-economic impact of NREGA. They also provide a comparative analysis of the challenges and successes in the implementation of NREGA in different states including Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

NEOCOLONIAL COLLABORATION: Museum as Contact Zone Revisited

Abstract: Museums have increasingly been promoting their postcolonial status through inclusionist programs in exhibitions, shared curatorship, and use of collections. Where there are indigenous stakeholders, we have seen an unprecedented improvement in the empowerment of source communities in the management, use, and presentation of their patrimony in museums. Since James Clifford's 1997 essay, the phrase “contact zone” is now more or less synonymous with these inclusionist, collaborative programs. This paper, while being openly supportive of such collaborations in museums, is nevertheless critical of the use of the contact zone concept. Returning to Clifford's essay, as well as those of Pratt and others, this paper questions why museum scholars perpetuate only a partial portrait of the contact zone, despite clear warnings about its inherent asymmetry. The goal of this paper is not to undermine the ethically engaged work that has been done, but to expose the dark underbelly of the contact zone and, hence, the anatomy of the museum that seems to be persistently neocolonial.

Effects of Work Environments on Nursing and Patient Outcomes

Abstract: AIM To determine the relationship between nurses' perceptions of their work environment and quality/risk outcomes for patients and nurses in acute care settings. BACKGROUND Nurses are leaving the profession as a result of high levels of job dissatisfaction arising from current working conditions. To gain organizational support for workplace improvements, evidence is needed to demonstrate the impact of the work environment on patient care. METHOD A multi-level design was used to collect data from nurses (n=679) and patients (n=1005) within 61 medical and surgical units in 21 hospitals in Canada. RESULTS Using multilevel structural equation modelling, the hypothesized model fitted well with the data [χ(2)=21.074, d.f.=10, Comparative Fit Index (CFI)=0.985, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI)=0.921, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)=0.041, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) 0.002 (within) and 0.054 (between)]. Empowering workplaces had positive effects on nurse-assessed quality of care and predicted fewer falls and nurse-assessed risks as mediated through group processes. These conditions positively impacted individual psychological empowerment which, in turn, had significant direct effects on empowered behaviour, job satisfaction and care quality. CONCLUSIONS Empowered workplaces support positive outcomes for both nurses and patients. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Managers employing strategies to create more empowered workplaces have the potential to improve nursing teamwork that supports higher quality care, less patient risk and more satisfied nurses.

Linking leadership empowerment behaviour to employee attitudes and behavioural intentions

Abstract: Purpose – This study aims to investigate the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour (LEB), employee psychological empowerment and employee attitudes (affective commitment and job satisfaction) and behavioural intentions (intention to stay).Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses were simultaneously tested on a sample of 380 frontline service employees, using structural equation modeling.Findings – The paper found a direct relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and job satisfaction and affective commitment. Psychological empowerment partially mediates these relationships. Employee attitudes were also shown to be related to intention to stay.Research limitations/implications – This study provides validation of the LEB construct in an individualized working context and suggests that psychological empowerment is a relevant construct to link LEB to employee attitudes and behavioural intentions. The cross‐sectional nature of this study restricts the clear pinpointing of tempor...

Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development

Abstract: Empirical evidence suggests that money in the hands of mothers (as opposed to their husbands) benefits children. Does this observation imply that targeting transfers to women is good economic policy? We develop a series of noncooperative family bargaining models to understand what kind of frictions can give rise to the observed empirical relationships. We then assess the policy implications of these models. We find that targeting transfers to women can have unintended consequences and may fail to make children better off. Moreover, different forms of empowering women may lead to opposite results. More research is needed to distinguish between alternative theoretical models.

The influence of empowering leadership, empowerment and engagement on affective commitment and turnover intentions in community health service workers: Test of a model

Abstract: Purpose – This study seeks to extend research on the relationship between empowering leadership, empowerment and outcome variables by examining the mediating role of employee engagement. More specifically, the study sets out to test whether employee engagement mediates the effects of empowering leadership and empowerment on affective commitment and turnover intention.Design/methodology/approach – The sample on which conclusions are based consisted of 139 employees of a community health service. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equations modelling (SEM) were used to test the measurement and structural models proposed.Findings – CFA showed acceptable fit indices for the measurement model after respecifying a reduced number of items for the explanatory variables. Structural equations modelling of a respecified model also yielded acceptable fit indices and showed that empowerment mediated the influence of empowering leadership on engagement. Engagement was shown to partially mediate the influ...

The experience of community engagement for individuals: a rapid review of evidence

Abstract: Community engagement is central to strategies to promote health and well-being and reduce health inequalities in many countries, particularly interventions which focus on improving health in disadvantaged populations. Despite the widespread use of community engagement approaches, however, there have been relatively few attempts to review the evidence on the impact that participation has on the lives of individuals involved. Drawing on a wider review of evidence carried out on behalf of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), this article reports on a rapid review of evidence of the effectiveness of initiatives which seek to engage communities in action to address the wider social determinants of health, to explore individuals’ subjective experiences of engagement. The rapid review process was guided by NICE’s public health methods manual, adapted to suit the diversity of the evidence. A total of 22 studies were identified containing empirical data on subjective experiences of community engagement for individuals. The findings of the rapid review suggest that the majority of ‘engaged’ individuals perceived benefits for their physical and psychological health, self-confidence, self-esteem, sense of personal empowerment and social relationships. Set against these positive outcomes, however, the evidence suggests that there are unintended negative consequences of community engagement for some individuals, which may pose a risk to well-being. These consequences included exhaustion and stress, as involvement drained participants’ energy levels as well as time and financial resources. The physical demands of engagement were reported as particularly onerous by individuals with disabilities. Consultation fatigue and disappointment were negative consequences for some participants who had experienced successive waves of engagement initiatives. For some individuals, engagement may involve a process of negotiation between gains and losses. This complexity needs to be more widely recognised among those who seek to engage communities.

Beyond Access: Transforming Policy and Practice for Gender Equality in Education

Abstract: Introduction Part One: The Challenges for Gender Equality in Education: Fragmented frameworks? Researching women, gender, education, and development Ensuring a fair chance for girls Measuring gender equality in education Part Two:Transforming Action - Changing Policy through Practice: Educating girls in Bangladesh: watering a neighbour's tree? The challenge of educating girls in Kenya Learning to improve policy for pastoralists in Kenya When access is not enough: educational exclusion of rural girls in Peru Crossing boundaries and stepping out of purdah in India Pastoralist schools in Mali: gendered roles and curriculum realities Part Three:The Challenge of Local Practices - Doing Policy Differently?: Learning about HIV/AIDS in schools: does a gender-equality approach make a difference? Gender, education, and Pentecostalism: the women's movement within the Assemblies of God in Burkina Faso Enabling education for girls: the Loreto Day School Sealdah, India Conclusion: policy and practice change for gender equality Index

‘Street‐level Bureaucracy’ Revisited: The Changing Face of Frontline Discretion in Adult Social Care in England

Abstract: This reassessment of the continuing significance of Lipsky's (1980) work on ‘street-level bureaucracy’ for frontline decision making is based on a retrospective review of the author's research on assessment practice in adult social care in England. The studies span the past two decades during which time successive governments have restructured and modernized social services departments. When these were established in 1970, they represented the high watermark of bureau-professionalism – a mode of administration which dominated social welfare at the time Lipsky was writing. The subsequent dismantling of bureau-professionalism calls into question the validity of his findings, and the author draws on her own research to assess conflicting views about the impact of social care reforms on the discretion which social workers exercise as street-level bureaucrats. She concludes that the distinct types of discretion to emerge from her findings, represented in a taxonomy, are shaped by the differing micro environments of frontline practice which, in turn, affect the relative force of managerialism, professionalism and user empowerment in countering the defensive exercise of discretion described by Lipsky. Whilst her analysis affirms the continuing significance of Lipsky's analysis, it also points to the need for some revision to accommodate major shifts in welfare administration since the publication of his work. She highlights the potential relevance of these insights for investigating the next planned transformation of adult social care, personalization, as well as for the implementation literature more widely.

Opportunities for Enhancing Poor Women's Socioeconomic Empowerment in the Value Chains of Three African Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)

Abstract: SUMMARY The value chains of three internationally important dry forest NTFPs, namely gum arabic, gum olibanum (frankincense) and honey from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Zambia respectively, were assessed in terms of the roles played by women and the benefits they obtain from their involvement. Women perform a variety of functions at different stages in the value chains, but their roles tend to be poorly visible and inadequately acknowledged, largely because they are either operating in the informal sector, are part-time employees, or carry out their activities at home between family responsibilities. Where women’s roles are more prominent, this is primarily due to gender orientated interventions by external agencies. Several constraints to fostering women’s empowerment were identified, with some easier to overcome than others. Particularly difficult to address are gender based, social-cultural barriers. Suggestions for enhancing women’s benefits include: greater recognition of informal markets, the opportunities and constraints associated with them, and their position relative to export markets; improved support for collective action where this can provide women with greater voice, negotiating power, and help with economies of scale; more targeted training that addresses areas identified by women as useful and important to them; time-saving technologies and support systems such as child care; and creating greater gender awareness amongst stakeholders.

“Women’s Bodies are Shops”: Beliefs About Transactional Sex and Implications for Understanding Gender Power and HIV Prevention in Tanzania

Abstract: Although transactional sex has been linked to undesirable sexual health outcomes, there is a lack of clarity as to the meaning of the practice, which appears to extend beyond behaviors related to women's economic circumstances. This article explored the perspectives of parents and unmarried young people on motivations for, and beliefs about, transactional sex in rural Tanzania using an ethnographic research design. Data collection involved 17 focus groups and 46 in-depth interviews with young people aged 14-24 years and parents/caregivers. Transactional sex was widely accepted by both parents and young people. Male parents equated sexual exchange to buying meat from a butcher and interpreted women's demand for exchange before sex with personal power. Young men referred to transactional sex as the easiest way to get a woman to satisfy their sexual desires while also proving their masculinity. Young women perceived themselves as lucky to be created women as they could exploit their sexuality for pleasure and material gain. They felt men were stupid for paying for "goods" (vagina) they could not take away. Mothers were in agreement with their daughters. Although young women saw exploitation of the female body in positive terms, they were also aware of the health risks but ascribed these to bad luck. Interventions aimed at tackling transactional sex in the interests of women's empowerment and as a strategy for HIV prevention need to understand the cultural beliefs associated with the practice that may make it thrive despite the known risks.

Women Have Found Respect: Gender Quotas, Symbolic Representation, and Female Empowerment in Rwanda

Abstract: Building on previous studies of women's formal, descriptive, and substantive representation in Rwanda, this article examines women's symbolic representation, defined as the broader social and cultural impact of the greater representation of women in the Rwandan political system. It explores the cultural meanings of gender quotas by analyzing popular perceptions of women, of women's roles in politics and society more broadly, and of changing cultural practices vis-a-vis gender. Data were gathered over 24 months of ethnographic research conducted between 1997 and 2009 and by ongoing documentary research. The study finds that although Rwandan women have made few legislative gains, they have reaped other benefits, including increased respect from family and community members, enhanced capacity to speak and be heard in public forums, greater autonomy in decision making in the family, and increased access to education. Yet there have also been some unexpected negative consequences, such as increased friction with male siblings, male withdrawal from politics, increased marital discord, and a perception that marriage as an institution has been disrupted by the so-called upheaval of gender roles. Most significantly, increased formal representation of women has not led to increased democratic legitimacy for the government.