Measuring Staff Empowerment: Development of a Worker Empowerment Scale

Abstract

Growing interest in the empowerment of workers is evident in for-profit organizations as well as nonprofits. Empowerment is understood as a result of better matches between worker characteristics and organizational needs, and it is believed to result in increased satisfaction and productivity. Whether such assumptions are empirically supported remains to be demon strated. A key requisite for such studies is a valid and reliable scale for measuring empowerment. This article descnbes the development and field testing of such an instrument, followed by discussion of its strengths, limitations, and applications in further research on this topic, particularly in the area of staff empowerment m social service organizations.