Global Empowerment Research Articles

Elliot, C.M., editor, 2008: Global empowerment of women: Responses to globalization and politicized religions. New York: Routledge, 399 pp. £60cloth. ISBN: 978 0 415 95545 4 cloth

Elliot, C.M., editor, 2008: <i>Global empowerment of women: Responses to globalization and politicized religions</i>. New York: Routledge, 399 pp. £60cloth. ISBN: 978 0 415 95545 4 cloth

Relationships among leadership practices, work environments, staff communication and outcomes in long-term care

To examine the role that work relationships have on two long-term care outcomes: job satisfaction and turnover intention. It is easy to overlook the impact that human relations have in shaping work environments that are conducive to organizational effectiveness. Employee job satisfaction and retention are important organizational outcomes. Six hundred and seventy-five nursing and other staff from 26 long-term care facilities were surveyed about their work environments, work group relationships, observed leadership practices, organizational support, job satisfaction and turnover intention. Higher job satisfaction was associated with lower emotional exhaustion burnout, higher global empowerment, higher organizational support, higher psychological empowerment, stronger work group cohesion and higher personal accomplishment. Higher turnover intention was associated with lower job satisfaction, higher emotional exhaustion burnout, more outside job opportunities, weaker work group cohesion, lower personal accomplishment and higher depersonalization. No relationship was found between leadership practices and job satisfaction or turnover intention. Stronger work group relationships, stronger sense of personal accomplishment and lower emotional exhaustion have direct effects on increasing job satisfaction and lowering turnover intention. To retain long-term care staff, attention should be paid to fostering positive work group cohesion, supporting and acknowledging staff accomplishments and minimizing staff burnout.

Measuring empowerment in patients with psoriasis: the psoriasis empowerment enquiry in the routine practice (PEER) questionnaire

While empowerment is an outcome pursued by advocacy groups and health care providers, no data are yet available about empowerment in patients with psoriasis in the literature. Our aim was to develop a tool for measuring levels of empowerment in psoriatic patients, and to assess its validity and reliability. A cross-sectional study among outpatients with psoriasis was carried out. Principal component analysis was performed to validate the questionnaire and to measure any associations with demographic and clinical data. The 12-item questionnaire (Psoriasis Empowerment Enquiry in the Routine practice, or PEER) showed acceptable consistency and reliability, and three distinct and interpretable factors have been identified: Knowledge, Experience, Skills. Patients older than 44 years and patients with psoriasis for more than one year showed statistically significantly higher levels of empowerment. Neither educational level nor the number of consultations influenced the global empowerment score (GES). A link between GES and prescribed therapy was found, suggesting that patients receiving systemic drugs have better knowledge, more insight and superior skills to manage their psoriasis. We conclude that PEER is an appropriate tool to assess empowerment among patients with psoriasis and may be used to evaluate the efficacy of educational interventions. Further studies are needed to assess its convergent validity and to improve its reliability.

Workplace empowerment, job satisfaction and job stress among Italian mental health nurses: an exploratory study

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between staff nurses' structural empowerment, work stress and job satisfaction in two health care settings in Italy using Kanter's Empowerment Theory. With the current scarcity of economic resources and shortage of nurses, it is essential to empower nurses to perform at a high level to ensure high-quality patient care. Structural empowerment is a process that can optimize use of nursing skills and professional expertise, thereby increasing job satisfaction among nurses. A convenience sample of 77 nursing staff employed in the Department of Mental Health in central Italy was used in this study (return rate 64%). Structural empowerment was significantly related to their job satisfaction (r = 0.506, P < 0.001), as was global empowerment (r = 0.62). Empowerment also had a significant negative relationship to nurses' work stress (r = -0.28, P < 0.05). The results of this study support Kanter's theory of structural empowerment in an Italian nursing sample--a previously unstudied population. Organizational administration must make every effort to create organizational structures and systems that empower nurses to practice according to professional standards and optimize the use of their knowledge and expertise.

Health Promotion in Action – From Local to Global Empowerment

INTRODUCTION: Localizing the Global Health Promotion Practice: Concepts and Context Health Promotion Practice Power, Empowerment and the Social Determinants of Health Pathways to Local Empowerment Working to Build Empowerment: The Local Challenge Pathways from the Local to the Global Working to Build Empowerment: The Global Challenge Globalization: Health Promotion's Next Grand Challenge? References Index

Book Review – Health promotion in action: from local to global empowerment. By Ronald Labonte and Glenn Laverack.

Book Review – Health promotion in action: from local to global empowerment. By Ronald Labonte and Glenn Laverack.

“Pre-Modern” Online: Converging Discourses of Globalization and Development

This study seeks to understand the ways in which global capitalist control and local empowerment in the context of development are acted out on the Internet, involving a venture based in the United States, and rural communities in developing regions. It entails analysis of the web site of the company Greenstar, which promotes environmentally conscious, sustainable development through new information and solar energy technologies in return for local cultural products (many in digital form) from these regions that are then sold on the Net by Greenstar. Its corporate approach to sustainable development and its ecommerce in cultural artifacts produced by rural communities have made the company a constituent of a new global cultural economy. Drawing from theories of development and globalization, and incorporating Giddens's idea of the third way, I constructed a conceptual framework within which to locate the Greenstar phenomenon. To understand the persuasive discourses in which Greenstar engages to inform its audience and influence its donors, I examined the Greenstar web site, its principal presence as a virtual company, using two modes of analyses. First, drawing from Jackson's recently proposed network analysis for web texts, I conducted a qualitative, critical analysis of the architecture of Greenstar's web site. I then employed frame analysis to examine the site's content. The structural analysis indicated the corporation's domination over the site, though some suggestions of a more dispersed, satellite structure in the architecture of the web site were apparent. Mainly, a radial, branching structure positions the company at the center of gravity. Frame analysis yielded five competing frames - the commodity frame, the activist frame, the empowering frame, the developmentalist frame, and the culture-as-nature frame. It is evident from the company's self-representation on the web site that it is seeking a third way of doing development by connecting global capitalism to the grassroots, trying to mobilize it for the empowerment of rural communities in developing regions. The findings reveal a novel and persuasive approach to social change in developing societies. Simultaneously, they also suggest that such a path may not be able to avoid privileging and hierarchizing key aspects of global capitalist over local indigenous cultures.

Staff Nurse Empowerment in Line and Staff Organizational Structures for Chief Nurse Executives

The authors tested a model linking chief nurse executive (CNE) organizational structures (line and staff) to staff nurse perceptions of workplace empowerment in 2 large Canadian hospitals. Kanter's theoretical constructs of empowerment (ie, access to information, support, resources and opportunity, and formal and informal power) were used to explore this phenomena. No published studies were found linking organizational structure to staff nurse empowerment. Staff nurses (n = 256) were surveyed in 2 large teaching hospitals, one with a CNE in a line structure, the other with a CNE in a staff structure. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the proposed model. Staff nurses with a CNE in a line structure felt significantly more empowered in their access to resources than nurses with a CNE in a staff structure. Kanter's empowerment structures explained 63% of the variance in nurses' global empowerment in a line structure and 42% in the staff structure. Access to information, resources, and formal power was an important predictor of nurses' global empowerment in the line hospital, whereas only access to support was a significant predictor in the staff hospital. Support for the model tested in this study highlights the importance of the CNE in creating and sustaining healthy work environments for nurses.

Christianity and Feminism: Do they need each other?

This article presents personal reflections on the relationship between Christianity and feminism. It argues that Christian ideas have influenced the historical development of feminism, and that there exists a continuing affinity between some debates of the contemporary secular women's movement and those of committed Christian feminists. It presents an historical example front the nineteenth century which shows how Christian and early feminist ideas were combined in the work of Florence Nightingale. It then discusses the global empowerment of women in relation to the challenge and opportunity this poses for the Christian churches, and reflects on the wisdom of women as an important source for Christian renewal. The article argues that Christianity and feminism both challenge and need each other for mutual transformation. Without a rightly understood feminism Christianity will not remain true to its own nature and, without Christianity or rather without religion and spirituality, feminism will lack an essential source of empowerment. It also raises the question of what difference the participation of women will make to the future of Christian theology.

Public participation and the politics of environmentalism

Once, environmentalists called for new public virtues, now they call rather for better managerial strategies. Once, they advocated more democracy and local self reliance, now they tend to support the global empowerment of governments, corporations and science. Once, they strove for cultural diversity, now they see little choice but to push for a worldwide rationalisation of life-styles. Indeed, as ecological issues have moved to the top of the agenda of international politics, environmentalism appears in many cases to have lost the spirit of contention, limiting itself to the provision of survival strategies for the powers that be. As a result, in recent years a discourse of global ecology has developed that is largely devoid of any consideration of power relations, cultural authenticity and moral choice; instead, it rather promotes the aspirations of a rising eco-cracy to manage nature and regulate people worldwide. Ironically, a movement which once invited people to humility has produced experts who succumb to the temptation of hubris (Sachs, 1993:xv).

Global Empowerment of Impaired Learners: Data Networks will Transcend both Physical Distance and Physical Disabilities

Abstract The article describes pilot computer learning projects at The Rochester Institute of Technology, NY where courses include deaf and blind students as well as regular students. The views of students and teachers are given, together with the conclusions which can be drawn.