Psychological empowerment-a mechanism for well-being of teachers: Psychometric evaluation of a tool

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Psychologically empowered employees are more innovative and proactive. Individual well-being is greatly impacted by psychological empowerment. Examining school teachers’ “psychological empowerment” is important since it motivates them more than external circumstances and contributes to their well-being. Spreitzer’s “Psychological Empowerment Scale” (PES) is a well-known instrument used for this purpose. Scarcity of studies on teachers’ psychological empowerment and cultural differences in populations prompted the researcher to re-evaluate PES. This research would help bridge this gap by adapting PES to teachers and generating a valid and reliable measure of their psychological empowerment in India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using convenient sampling, data was gathered from 498 secondary school teachers (age range of 30-55 years) in Assam (India) in 2023 for this cross-sectional study. IBM SPSS version 26 was used to conduct descriptive statistics, including Cronbach’s α for evaluating internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to investigate the factor structure of the instrument, followed by confirmation of factor structure via Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). RESULTS: EFA provided considerable evidence of 4-factor structure, viz., meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. The 12-item factor structure depicted good reliability and evidenced good model-fit indices values. CONCLUSION: Psychological empowerment (PE) scale with four factors and 12 items is a reliable and valid tool for assessing PE of Indian teachers. The scale can be a good resource for principals, educational administrators, and teachers themselves to assess overall as well as dimension-wise components of PE while norms development of PE as per Indian teachers is recommended.