Structural & psychological empowerment in rural India.
Pandey, Jatin
Rural women can be effectively utilized if empowerment can be used
as a strategy for working women in rural settings. The author deciphers
the transformation of structural empowerment to psychological
empowerment through the mediating mechanisms of self-efficacy and
perceived resource adequacy. Through a questionnaire administered to 80
women gram pradhans from rural India, it was found that self-efficacy
and perceived resource adequacy mediate this relationship. The author
then interviews ten of these eighty women to refine the understanding of
the results.
Empowerment of Rural Women
The rural populace in India represents a significant segment of
human capital that is not employed full-time. A section of this segment
consists of women who are confined only to their domestic sphere of
activity. Advancement in Indian economy warrants inclusion of these
untapped resources and bring them par with their male counterparts. The
potential inherent in this unused human capital can be realized through
empowerment (Spreitzer, 1992).
Panchayatraj
Panchayatraj is a system of local self-governance in the Indian
subcontinent. This system of governance is institutionalized in India
and is aided by a separate ministry of Panchayati Raj whose mission is
"Empowerment, enablement & accountability of panchayati raj
institutions to ensure inclusive development with social justice, and
efficient delivery of services" ("Ministry of Panchayat
Raj," n.d.). Women were rarely part of the panchayat system in
pre-Independence days. However, the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, to Indian
constitution mandated reservation of at least 1 /3rd of the seats in all
panchayat councils and 1 /3rd of the gram-pradhan (head of the
panchayat) positions for women. It was a landmark in women's
political empowerment ("Women's Empowerment through Panchayati
Raj," 2015). A gram-pradhan or sarpanch is the leader of the
panchayat for the village.
Background to the Study
We chose women from rural areas for this study as scholars are of
the view that studies relating to empowerment should focus on those
areas where fewer choices exist for individuals in lives (Kabeer, 2005).
Further, we chose the jobs of gram-pradhan (village head) for the study
as they constitute the structurally powerful leadership position and at
the same time practically and psychologically they remain powerless
(Maeroff, 1988). It has also been found that empowerment level among
women is lower as compared to the males (Hechanova, Regina, Alampay
& Franco, 2006), thus, providing more reasons for such a study. From
a sociological frame of reference, empowerment is warranted for changing
the imbalance of power and structure in society (Leonardsen, 2007). In
the pre-Independence era of India, women empowerment was assessed
through access to education, the extent of child marriage, widow
remarriage,etc (Subramaniam, 2004). Though the previously mentioned
problems still plague the country, the present discourse centers on
equality in the workplace and psychological aspects of empowerment. The
economic angle to women empowerment relates to their share of the earned
income and employment (Jayaweera, 1997). From apolitical frame of
reference, empowerment refers to the presence of women in
decision-making posts and elected offices (Beteta, 2006) with access to
political and economic networks (Lindberg, 2004).
The first step involves inclusion through granting them positions
which are further strengthened by grant of empowerment. Women are now
gaining structural empowerment through government actions and policies.
Reservation in positions for women among panchayat members is one such
constitutional provision in India (234D [2] of Indian
Constitution).Democratic participation of women in female sarpanch
villages have seen a rise. However, the improvements in service delivery
is still an issue of concern (Sathe, Klasen, Priebe& Biniwale,
2013).The other side of the story is that this structural empowerment
through reservation in posts of sarpanch had led to the emergence of the
husbands of these women as power centers. An informal salutation has
surfaced to denote the center of actual power. There have been efforts
by the government to curb this ("PM Modi seeks an end to proxy
rule, says no more 'sarpanch pati,'" 2015).The National
Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) was launched by Government of
India on International Women's Day in 2010 with the aim to
strengthen overall processes that promote all-round Development of
Women("National Mission for Empowerment of Women,"
n.d.).Gender equality and women's empowerment are central to
UNDP's strategy for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and
bringing about transformational change("Women's Empowerment
and Inclusion," n.d.). Taking these coordinates in mind, we study
the dynamics of the conversion of structural to psychological
empowerment for structurally empowered women (through reservation as
gram-pradhan) in rural India.
What & Why?
Empowerment have been referred to as "interesting fodder for
academic debates" (Potterfield, 1999: 30), as "socialism,
democracy gone wild, or worse yet, a form of communism" (Lawler,
1986: 9) and as "emperor's new clothes" that are talked
about but are not actually present (Argyris, 1998).However,many
researchers acknowledge the effects of empowerment at the workplace. In
a bunch of critical HR activities empowerment was found to be of great
importance (Agarwal & Ferratt, 1999). In the particular context of
women, empowerment is the process through which they know and then
correct gender issues that impede their development (Longwe, 1998). In
the context of jobs and organization employee empowerment aims at
transforming employees who have absence of control over work processes
to employees that have personal control over their work and work lives
(Wilkinson, 1998) and granting autonomy to employees to make choices
that have an effect on how and in what ways completion of their work
takes place (Ford & Fottler, 1995).The importance of empowerment
lies in its association with many benefits desired by the organization.
It has been found to be positively associated with job satisfaction
(Spreitzer, Kizilos & Nason, 1997), motivation and organizational
loyalty (Nykodym, Simonetti, Nielsen & Welling, 1994),
organizational citizenship behavior (Cushman, 2000) work engagement
(Bhatnagar, 2012), to name a few.
Different scholars have conceptualized as well as operationalized
empowerment in different ways. Employment literature can be divided into
three areas of structural, motivational and leadership empowerment
(Menon, 2001). However in the context of organizations, empowerment has
been conceptualized in two ways, psychological empowerment (Conger &
Kanungo, 1988) that is the belief that one has control over decision
making (Parker & Price, 1994:911) and structural empowerment
"which encompasses elements such as opportunities to grow and
develop, resources that include supplies and equipment, flexibility, and
access to data"(Andrews & Kacmar, 2014 :46).We see that
structural empowerment depends on workplace conditions whereas
psychological empowerment characterizes a response of employees to
conditions of structural empowerment.
Researchers have dissected empowerment in terms of its complexity
and elasticity that is exhibited conceptually. It takes many forms and
is implemented through many initiatives (Cunningham, Hyman & Baldry,
1996). Spreitzer(1995: 1444) suggests empowerment not to be seen as a
dichotomous construct, instead it should be regarded as a continuous
variable i.e. employees to be seen as less or more empowered instead of
empowered and not empowered. Two main dimensions carry forward the
operationalization of empowerment concept first involving the content of
the decisions on which influence is authorized to employees and second
with the extent of influence granted to them with to carry out these
decisions (Cotton et al, 1988). The content may range from operational
to strategic (Bacharach, 1990).
Hypotheses
Structural empowerment and psychological empowerment are two
different constructs. It can be argued that the structural empowerment
leads to psychological empowerment since the former forms the precursor
to the latter. Studies have also brought forth this positive relation
(Knol & Van Linge, 2009; Laschinger et al, 2001; Manojlovich &
Laschinger, 2007). It has been shown that even collectivization of women
like self-help groups (Pandey & Roberts, 2012) or voluntary work
like health activism in the case of ASHAs (Pandey & Singh, 2015c)
lead to empowerment in women in rural India. In our case, women who have
been structurally empowered by a leadership position i.e. gram pradhan
experience a sense of empowerment i.e. psychological empowerment.We,
therefore, propose:
Hypothesis 1: Structural empowerment is positively associated with
psychological empowerment.
Personality variables play a significant role in empowerment
dynamics and have been studied by researchers (Samad, 2007) as
empowerment is perceived by different people differently (Ford, 2011). A
work situation might be considered empowering by one and stressful by
other. An individual's assessment of a situation to be empowering
depends on his/her belief that he/she can handle the situation. Conger
and Kanugo (1988) define psychological empowerment as the motivational
concept of self-efficacy. Psychological empowerment is a workplace
construct and its effect on every employee cannot be same in magnitude
and direction. Employee's psychological empowerment has been seen
to increase stress in some cases and satisfaction in others. An
individual's personality is thus a major determinant of the
direction in which empowerment affects these constructs.Therefore,
self-efficacy is an important variable that would decide how empowerment
initiatives are perceived by the employee. Self-efficacy is the belief
that one's actions are responsible for successful outcomes
(Bandura, 1977).Scholars contend that differences between self-efficacy
levels in employees are primarily responsible for differences in a
displayed engagement where engagement can be defined as expressed
empowerment pertaining to a role (Pati & Kumar, 2010).However, as
has been proposed by researchers, there exists a difference between the
two constructs of self-efficacy and psychological empowerment (Lee &
Koh, 2001).In our case women tend to believe that they can accomplish
the leadership position i.e. gram pradhan and associated tasks of the
job once they receive a chance to occupy that position (i.e. through
reservation). We, therefore, propose:
Hypothesis 2: Self-efficacy will mediate the relation between
structural empowerment and psychological empowerment.
Resource adequacy is an important variable in the work environment
(Lake, 2002). Resource adequacy has been found to be an important
variable for structural empowerment (Armstrong & Laschinger, 2006).
A similar finding has also been reported in the case of teachers
(Dorman, 1996). In the case of psychological empowerment, the perceived
resource adequacy takes a greater role. The perceived resource adequacy
will guide the impact of structural empowerment on psychological
empowerment. Structural empowerment would lead to a sense of
availability of resources and which would further lead to psychological
empowerment. In our case, the position of gram pradhan brings in many
powers to take decisions and allocation of resources, which leads to
women feeling psychologically empowered. We, therefore, propose:
Hypothesis 3: Perceived resource adequacy will mediate the relation
between structural empowerment and psychological empowerment.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The combined model developed from all hypothesis is presented in
Figure 1
Research Design & Participants
The study was conducted in the villages located at the hills of
Uttarakhand in India and uses a sequential combination of quantitative
followed by qualitative approaches. Since empowerment also has its
rooting in a feminist methodological paradigm which focus exclusively on
women; a single prescribed methodology does not exist (DeVault, 1996).
The remote locations with difficult geography (Pandey & Singh,
2015b) and low access to facilities (Ghanshala, Pant & Pandey, 2013)
added complexity to the study of the phenomenon in rural settings which
are prone to many natural disasters (Pandey & Joshi, 2011). The fact
that the state of Uttarakhand reserved fifty percent (higher than
national) seats for women in panchayat was also a motivating factor. We
then adapted a survey instrument anchored on a seven-point
scale;composed of established scales and personally administered the
instrument to 90 women gram-pradhans individually and in groups.Since
the respondents were Hindi-speaking, we needed the questionnaire to be
in Hindi. The items which were not in Hindi were translated to Hindi by
a bilingual, a back translation of these measures in English was done by
a different person, and it was found to be similar. After slight changes
in language based on feedback from pretest which is essential in
research involving respondents who are not familiar with English (Pandey
& Singh, 2015a), the Hindi questionnaire was given to four experts
for content validity and to five villagers to interpret the items for
face validity. Based on their inputs suitable contextualization of the
questions was done.
We received back 80 usable questionnaires after the exercise. In
this sample mean age of the respondents was 38.5 years (SD = 9.5 years)
and among them 21 (26.25%) had studied till 10th standard or lower, 20
(25%) had studied till 12th standard, 36 (45%) held bachelors'
degree and (3.75%) had master's degree. All of them were married.
After the analysis of quantitative results a post hoc qualitative
analysis through interviews of 10 women gram-pradhans was done to gain
adeeper understanding of our findings. These interviews were conducted
at their workplace and were gathered to elicit their perspective on
empowerment. In both stages of data collection i.e. questionnaire and
interviews the purpose of the study was explained to the respondents,
and then verbal permission was taken after assuring complete anonymity
of individual-level responses.
Measures
Structural empowerment was assessed through the Conditions for Work
Effectiveness Questionnaire (CWEQ)-II(Laschinger, Finegan & Shamian,
2001). The 19 item scale is designed to measure the four empowerment
dimensions: access to opportunity, support, information and resources in
an individual's work setting; and two types of power that enhance
access to empowerment structures, formal and informal power. The alpha
coefficient for the scale was 0.85.
Psychological empowerment scale (Spreitzer, 1995) was used to
measure psychological empowerment. It consists of 12-item divided into
four components of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact.
Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.83.
Self-efficacy was measured by the available Hindi version of the
General Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995). It is
composed of ten items and assesses optimistic self-beliefs to cope with
a variety of difficult demands in life. Cronbach alpha was 0.88.
Perceived resource adequacy was measured by the perceived adequacy
of resources scale (Rowland, Dodder & Nickols, 1985). It consists of
28 items that assessed "the adequacy of resources categorized as
physical environment, health/physical energy, time, financial,
interpersonal, knowledge/skills, and community resources"(Rowland
et al., 1985 :218).The scale had Cronbach alpha of 0.77.
Preliminary Analysis
Initially, we examined the convergent as well as the discriminant
validity of the measurement model by means of confirmatory factor
analysis followed by regression analysis.
Convergent Validity: Cronbach's alpha and average variance
extracted values are above the desired cutoff of 0.7 (Nunnally,
Bernstein& Berge, 1967) 0.5 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981)
respectively.
Discriminant Validity.The average variance extracted was higher
than all squared correlations of first-order latent variables (Fornell
& Larcker, 1981)and the factor scores weighed high on their own and
low on other constructs.
Common Method Effect:Common method bias was tested through
Harman's single-factor test which was performed before the main
analyses. Exploratory factor analysis was done for evaluation of the
amount of variance in the observed variables that can be explained by a
single factor (Podsakoff et al, 2003). Exploratory factor analysis,
using un-rotated principal components factor analysis was done. The
number of factors to be extracted was constrained to one. This single
factor accounted for 48 % of the total variance which is less than 50%.
Thus, no universal factor was observed, and thepresence of common method
variance can be negated.
Analysis
The dependent variable in our study was psychological empowerment;
the independent variable being structural empowerment. Perceived
resource adequacy and self-efficacy are mediators of this relationship.
Following Baron and Kenny (1986), three separate hierarchical regression
analyses were performed to test for the mediating effect of perceived
organizational support and self-efficacy on the relationships between
structural andpsychological empowerment. Table 1 presents the means,
standard deviation, and zero-order correlations for the study variables.
Self-efficacy has the largest mean value (4.37) and standard deviation
(1.90), whereas psychological empowerment has the smallest mean value
(2.51). All variables are significantly and positively correlated with
each other at p<.001.
A linear regression showed that structural empowerment had a
significant and positive effect on psychological empowerment (F = 91.57,
b = 12.96, [R.sup.2] = 0.445, p < 0.001,), thus supporting hypothesis
1.
Table 2 shows the regression analysis results to test mediation for
self-efficacy. In order to test all conditions of mediation three
regressions were evaluated. First step (model 2) showed that structural
empowerment had a significant effect on psychological empowerment (b =
0.689, [R.sup.2] = 0.474, p < 0.001). Second step (model 1) showed
that structural empowerment had a significant effect on self-efficacy(b
= 0.749, [R.sup.2] = 0.561, p < 0.001). In the third step (model
3),self-efficacy was added to structural empowerment. Our results showed
that self-efficacy predicted psychological empowerment (b = 0.863,
[R.sup.2] = 0.801, p < 0.001) and the effect of structural
empowerment on psychological empowerment was not significant (b=.042
n.s.).The results indicate that at a significance level of 0.001, there
is a complete mediation of self-efficacy on the relationship between
structural and psychological empowerment.
Table 2 shows the regression analysis results to test mediation for
perceived resource adequacy. In order to test all conditions of
mediation three regressions were evaluated. First step (model 2) showed
that structural empowerment had a significant effect on psychological
empowerment (b = 0.689, [R.sup.2] = 0.474, p < 0.001). Second step
(model 1) showed that structural empowerment had a significant effect on
perceived resource adequacy (b = 0.557, [R.sup.2] = 0.311, p <
0.001). In the third step (model 3)perceived resource adequacy was added
to structural empowerment. Our results showed that perceived resource
adequacy predicted psychological empowerment (b = 0.559, [R.sup.2] =
0.690, p < 0.001) and the effect of structural empowerment on
psychological empowerment was also significant (b=0.377,p < 0.001),
there was, however, a decrease in the strength of the relationship. The
results indicate that at a significance level of 0.001, there is a
partial mediation of perceived resource adequacy on the relationship
between structural and psychological empowerment.
Sobel test was conducted to evaluate the mediations. The test
showed that there is a mediation effect of self-efficacy (Sobel test: Z
= 7.454 p < 0.001) and perceived resource adequacy (Sobel test: Z =
4.579 p < 0.001) for the relationship of structural and psychological
empowerment. Thus, the hypotheses 2 and 3 are supported.
Post hoc Analysis
As mentioned in the research design we interviewed 10 women to
refine our understanding of the findings. Following were the conclusions
from the interview. Structural empowerment was seen as a motivational
tool which led to an increase in their confidence levels and they felt
that the resources that were provided were adequate. A woman who was
famous for the work she had done for the village said: "I have a
lot of autonomy. I am educated, and 1 can decide on many things ... it
boosts my confidence, I keep track of the fund that I have been
allocated by the government ... also, I am ready to accept challenges
and work in any difficult situation".
Structural empowerment many times did not translate into
psychological empowerment as women felt that the task they were required
to perform is a difficult one. This can be seen from the narrative of a
sarpanch: "I am the grampradhan but the work is very challenging.
My family told me to stand in the election, and I won, but I am not a
very literate person though I can read and write. My husband handles all
the associated works. I am afraid if I do something wrong then who will
be accountable.?"
Further, the amount of resources provided was also many times
perceived as low. For example one of them said: "I really want to
do something for the village but look at the infrastructure and
facilities they (Govt.) have provided ... how much can we do? We try our
best, but we need more infrastructure as well as monetary support".
These findings hinted at the importance of empowerment as such in rural
lives and role of self-efficacy and perceived resource adequacy in
translating structural empowerment to psychological empowerment.
Discussion
The results provide a useful insight into the black box of how
structural empowerment leads to psychological empowerment especially for
women employees in rural India. The two variables of self-efficacy and
perceived resource adequacy help translate the structural empowerment to
psychological empowerment. A significant theoretical contribution that
this research brings forth is the importance of these two psychological
variables in realizing actual empowerment. The psychological individual
level variables decide whether structural empowerment turns out to be
felt as empowering by individuals. The roles that they are required to
perform as part of the structural empowerment should be seen as those
that they believe they could perform, else these are seen as burdening
and may lead to negative consequences. Perceived resource adequacy
captures whether the resources provided as part of empowerment
initiatives are seen by employees as adequate to carry out the required
roles. Thus, it reveals the existence of a gap between what may be
considered as actual resources allocated and the allocation that is felt
or perceived by those for whom these allocations are done. It was also
observed that women many times were not aware of the power that their
jobs entail them therefore, they need to be made aware of the choices
that exist for them and induce them to use those choices (Alsop &
Heinsohn, 2005). A loss of self-efficacy was seen among educated
grampradhans also, the social upbringing, their background (Charmes
& Wieringa, 2003) and attachment to domestic sphere of work (Kantor,
2005) where they have limited choices accentuated this phenomenon.
The implications of this study for practice are that unplanned
empowerment initiatives which are basically structural in nature may end
up being just ornamentations without actual empowerment being felt by
those for whom it is intended. Theory suggests that on the intensity of
empowerment it has been divided into surface and deep empowerment (Biron
& Bamberger, 2011). Surface initiatives are based on the perception
of empowerment whereas, deep initiatives grant actual authority to
employees in order for them to feel empowered. Thus, policy makers must
take into cognizance whether a structural empowerment initiative is
perceived favorably by those for whom it is intended especially in rural
settings. Further capacity building initiatives should be encouraged
that help to improve the self-efficacy of rural women coupled with
making them aware of the existence, adequacy, effectiveness and
efficiency of resources available to them. Use of technology can also be
a boon for difficult geographies with low access (Pandey & Pathak,
2013; Pathak & Pandey, 2012). These findings hold special
significance for organizations that are targeting of expansion of their
bases in rural India and hire women from rural India.
Initially, we had targeted 150 women but many of them refused to
respond, and only 90 responded out of which 80 were complete in all
respects. The sample size for the study poses limitation for this study
which can be mitigated by future large scale studies. Also, multiple
rater perspectives and time series data with more variables can shed
more light on the phenomenon. Since their work and family lives are
entwined, future studies can look at variables like family support,
work-family and family-work conflict to better understand factors from
the sphere of the family that affect this relationship.
Conclusion
The study tries to bring forth the issue of empowerment of rural
women in India. It highlights how self-efficacy and perceived resource
adequacy are important for the transformation of structural empowerment
initiatives to psychological empowerment. A strong focus on the
perception of structurally empowering tasks needs to be done in order
for empowerment initiatives to be felt as actually empowering women.
Self-efficacy and perceived resource adequacy must be instituted,
inculcated and encouraged in women leaders to better take advantage of
the reservation provided to them. The empowerment of rural women
warrants delicate and dedicated efforts to gain the expected results.
Jatin Pandey is from Human Resource Management Area, Indian
Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Vastrapur 380015. E-mail :
[email protected]
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Table 1 Mean, Standard Deviation, Cronbach's Alpha & Zero-Order
Correlation among Variables
Mean SD PE
PE 2.505 0.934 (0.85)
SE 3.344 0.715 0.689 ***
S-E 4.365 1.897 0.895 ***
PRA 3.958 0.666 0.769 ***
SE S-E PRA
PE
SE (0.83)
S-E 0.749 *** (0.88)
PRA 0.557 ** 0.787 *** (0.77)
N=80 *** p<.00l, ** p< 0.01, * p<.05 SD= standard deviation.
Cronbach's alpha in parenthes is PE=Psychological empowerment,
SE= Structural empowerment, S-E= Self-efficacy, PRA=
Perceived resource adequacy
Table 2 Results of Regression Analysis for Mediation Test for
Self-efficacy on Structural Empowerment--Psychological
Empowerment Relationship
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Self-efficacy Psychological Psychological
Empowerment Empowerment
[R.sup.2] 0.561 *** 0.474 *** 0.801 ***
Independent Variable
Structural 0.749 *** 0.689 *** 0.042 (n,s.)
empowerment
Mediator Variable
Self-efficacy 0.863 ***
F 99.63 *** 70.39 *** 155.43 ***
Standardized beta weights are shown.
n.s.= not significant *** p<.001,
Table 3 Results of Regression Analysis for Mediation Test for
Perceived Resource Adequacy on Structural Empowerment--Psychological
Empowerment Relationship
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Perceived Psychological Psychological
resource Empowerment Empowerment
adequacy
[R.sup.2] 0.311 *** 0.474 *** 0.690 ***
Independent Variable
Structural empowerment 0.557 *** 0.689 *** 0.377 ***
Mediator Variable
Perceived resource 0.559 ***
adequacy
F 35.150 *** 70.39 *** 85.588 ***
Standardized beta weights arc shown. n.s.= not significant *** p<.001,
[R.sup.2] change from model 2 to model 3 = 0.215 ***
