Workplace empowerment, psychological empowerment and work-related wellbeing in southeast Asian employees: a cross-sectional survey

There is a growing body of research examining the nature and correlates of salutogenic factors in the workplace and employee wellbeing, and the role of empowerment therewithin. A paucity of research has distinguished between structural and psychological forms of empowerment in the workplace and examined how they independently and collectively relate to employee wellbeing. Much of the existing research has examined such considerations in western samples, with limited exploration of eastern working populations. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between structural empowerment (SE) and employee self-reported work-related wellbeing (operationalized as psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction), and the postulated mediating role of psychological empowerment (PE). With a sample of 324 southeast Asian employees from a single organization, this study used a cross-sectional case study design using self-report measures to examine the relationships between SE, PE and employee job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. PE was postulated to mediate the relationship between SE and work-related wellbeing outcomes of job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. Mediation analyses revealed that SE was positively associated with PE which, in turn, completely mediated the positive relationships between SE, and job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. The results of this study contribute empirically and practically in the following ways: (i) it expands upon previous research on employee empowerment, (ii) contributes to the developing field of positive occupational health psychology and (iii) highlights the crucial role of organizations in creating sources of SE and PE.