A meta-analysis of psychological empowerment: Antecedents, organizational outcomes, and moderating variables
verifiedrich profile · Current Psychology · 2023
Llorente-Alonso, Marta; García-Ael, Cristina; Topa, Gabriela
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
psychological empowerment → psychological strain
psychological empowerment → organizational commitment
psychological empowerment → turnover intention
psychological empowerment → organizational citizenship behavior ocb
psychological empowerment → job satisfaction
psychological empowerment → task performance
psychological empowerment → organizational commitment
psychological empowerment → job satisfaction
psychological empowerment → turnover intention
psychological empowerment → creativity
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
psychological empowerment correlates creativity
psychological empowerment correlates job satisfaction
psychological empowerment correlates organizational citizenship behavior ocb
psychological empowerment correlates organizational commitment
psychological empowerment correlates psychological strain
psychological empowerment correlates turnover intention
psychological empowerment predicts job satisfaction
psychological empowerment predicts organizational citizenship behavior ocb
psychological empowerment predicts organizational commitment
psychological empowerment predicts task performance
psychological empowerment predicts turnover intention
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Abstract Psychological empowerment (PE) is a subjective, cognitive and attitudinal process that helps individuals feel effective, competent and authorized to carry out tasks. Over the last twenty years, research into PE has reported strong evidence reaffirming its role as a motivational factor in organizational psychology. In this study, the aim is to systematically review, analyze and quantify correlational empirical research focusing on empowerment, as understood by the theory developed by Spreitzer et al. (1995a, b), using meta-analytical techniques. The study also analyses the antecedents and consequences of PE and explores potential moderators of the relationship between this variable and its correlates. The electronic search encompassed studies dating from the publication of Spreitzer's empowerment scale ( Academy of Management Journal , 38 , 1442–1465, 1995b) up to January 2019. It was conducted in database aggregators, as well as in Metabus, occupational psychology journals and doctoral thesis repositories. Of the 1110 records identified, 94 were included in the meta-analysis. Most of the studies included used purposive or convenience sampling and had a cross-sectional study design. We focused on searching for studies that use a survey analysis approach. We extracted information about effect size (ES) in the associations between PE and its antecedents and consequences, and used the Comprehensive Meta-analysis 2.0 program to carry out the analyses (Borenstein et al., 2005). Effect size was calculated as the Pearson correlation ( r ), processed using Fisher's Z transformation. A random effects model was used and heterogeneity was analyzed to detect moderator variables. In relation to antecedents, in all meta-analyses, non-significant results were found only for education ( r = -.001, CI [-.06, .06]) and organizational rank ( r = .10, CI [-.16, .36]). All meta-analyses focusing on the association between psychological empowerment and its consequences returned significant results. Job satisfaction ( r = .50) and organizational commitment ( r = .51) had the largest effect sizes. Our results suggest which factors may be more important for generating empowerment among employees in accordance with the profession in which they work and their culture of origin. The main novelty offered by our results is that they indicate that age moderates the relationship between empowerment and the majority of the antecedents studied, a finding not reported in other meta-analyses. The present meta-analysis may help encourage organizations to pay more attention to PE, focusing their efforts on improving or strengthening certain structures or factors. Empowerment initiatives or programs focused on employee well-being lead to a workplace in which people are motivated and have a sense of purpose. Our results allow us to recommend interventions that enhance and improve the antecedents of EP. Finally, the present meta-analysis may help encourage organizations to pay more attention to the antecedents and consequences of PE, focusing their efforts on improving or strengthening certain structures or factors.
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “Higher psychological empowerment is associated with higher organizational commitment [23].”
supports “Extant theoretical and empirical studies suggested that psychological empowerment may be an important mediator between organizational environment and work performance, commitment, and engagement (20, 38–43).”
supports “In workplace settings, a meta-analysis by Llorente-Alonso et al. [42] revealed significant negative correlations between psychological empowerment and adverse psychological states, such as job stress and emotional exhaustion.”
supports “Meta-analyses confirm that psychological empowerment is negatively associated with burnout and positively linked to well-being and performance [49, 62, 84].”
supports “Psychological empowerment, as a kind of intrinsic task motivation reflecting a sense of control in relation to one’s work, has been suggested to play a mediating role between supportive management and both employee performance and positive emotions (20).”
supports “Research studies supported the notion that psychological empowerment leads to higher levels of organizational commitment and work engagement and lower levels of procrastination and counterproductive work behaviour [23, 61, 62].”
supports “It is often known that psychological empowerment and nurses’ job satisfaction are associated [24].”
supports “Meta-analyses confirm that psychological empowerment is negatively associated with burnout and positively linked to well-being and performance [49, 62, 84].”
supports “Extant theoretical and empirical studies suggested that psychological empowerment may be an important mediator between organizational environment and work performance, commitment, and engagement (20, 38–43).”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.1186/s40359-025-02968-7
- 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1435432
- 10.1186/s40359-025-03382-9
- 10.1007/s44202-026-00717-4
- 10.1186/s12912-025-03260-0
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.