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

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.