4.2 Empowering Behavior Questionnaire (EBQ)

Purpose 

The Empowering Behavior Questionnaire (EBQ) is designed to assess psychological empowerment in the workplace. It focuses on four key cognitive dimensions: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. The instrument aims to measure employees’ (Zaccaro et al., 1999):

perceptions of empowerment

sense of meaning and purpose in their work

confidence in their abilities

autonomy in decision-making

belief in their ability to make a difference or have an impact in their roles

This instrument is designed for mid-level employees in the industrial and insurance sectors. The instrument captures their subjective perceptions of empowerment based on their experiences and interactions within the workplace.

The results of the EBQ can be used by various stakeholders within an organization, including human resources departments, managers, team leaders, and organizational development professionals. Results provide valuable insights into the level of psychological empowerment among employees, which can inform strategies for improving employee engagement, job satisfaction, motivation, productivity, and overall organizational effectiveness. Managers and leaders can use the results to identify areas where empowerment practices can be enhanced and to tailor leadership approaches to better support employee empowerment.

Description 

The questionnaire was first conceptualized by Thomas and Velthouse in 1990 and later refined in 1995 by Gretchen M. Spreitzer at the University of Southern California’s School of Business Administration in Los Angeles. It comprises four scales, each with three items sourced from other measures: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. The meaning scale features three items from Tymon (1988), the competence scale includes three items from Jones’s (1986) self-efficacy scale, the self-determination scale has three items from Hackman and Oldham’s (1985) autonomy scale, and the impact scale comprises three items from Ashforth’s (1989) helplessness scale.

A reliability analysis on two samples of mid-level employees from industrial and insurance organizations produced an overall empowerment construct reliability of 0.72 for the industrial sample and 0.62 for the insurance sample. Test-retest reliability for the insurance sample indicated moderate stability over time.

Access 

The EBQ is accessible via academic journals and research databases, including in the relevant articles listed in the references section. Prior to usage, permission from the authors or copyright holders may be necessary. Contact the authors directly or consult the articles for more information on the availability and permissions.

References

Ashforth, B. E. (1989). The experience of powerlessness in organizations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 43(2), 207-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(89)90051-4

Chiles, A. M., & Zorn, T. E. (1995). Empowerment in organizations: Employees’ perceptions of the influences on empowerment. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 23(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909889509365411

Jones, G. R. (1986). Socialization tactics, self-efficacy, and newcomers’ adjustments to organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 29(2), 262-279. https://doi.org/10.2307/256188

Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38(5), 1442-1465. https://doi.org/10.2307/256865

Spreitzer, G. M., Kizilos, M. A., & Nason, S. W. (1997). A dimensional analysis of the relationship between psychological empowerment and effectiveness satisfaction, and strain. Journal of Management, 23(5), 679-704. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639702300504

Thomas, K. W., & Velthouse, B. A. (1990). Cognitive elements of empowerment: An “interpretive” model of intrinsic task motivation. Academy of Management Review, 15(4), 666-681.  https://doi.org/10.2307/258687

Zaccaro, S. J., Klimoski, R. J., Boyce, L. A., Chandler, C., Banks, D., & Gade, P. A. (1999). Developing a tool kit for the assessment of army leadership processes and outcomes: Version 1.0 (ARI Research Note 99-35). U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA368448.pdf