Asian Journal of Social Psychology (2006), 9, 72–78 DOI: 10.1111/j.1367-2223.2006.00177.x © Blackwell Publishing Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association 2006 Hechanova et al. Correspondence: Ma. Regina M. Hechanova, Department of Psy- chology, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines. Email: rhechanova@ateneo.edu SHORT NOTE Psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and performance among Filipino service workers Ma. Regina M. Hechanova, 1 Ramon Benedicto A. Alampay 2 and Edna P. Franco 1 1 Department of Psychology, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, 2 Asian Institute of Tourism, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines The present study surveyed 954 employees and their supervisors to determine the relationship of empowerment with job satisfaction and performance in five different service sectors: hotels, food service, banking, call centers, and airlines. Psychological empowerment was positively correlated with both job satisfaction and performance. Although intrinsic motivation was associated with higher levels of empowerment and job satisfaction, contrary to hypothesis, intrinsic motivation did not moderate the relationship between empowerment and job satisfaction and performance. Men reported greater empowerment than women even when job level and performance were controlled for. Cross-industry analyses indicated differences in empowerment across different types of service sectors with employees in call centers reporting less empowerment compared to employees in hotel, airlines, food establishments, and banks. Key words: empowerment, Filipino, job satisfaction, performance, service. Introduction Employee empowerment sounds, on its face, like a concept that should logically be married to service operations. Employees are the core ingredients of service products. Because minimal time separates the production of the ser- vice from its delivery, the idea of providing workers the flexibility, latitude, and ability to meet customer service demands as they arise is intuitively appealing. Thus, it is not surprising that more and more service organizations are embracing employee empowerment programs (Enz & Siguaw, 2000; Taborda, 2000). However, as more organizations pursue this course, there seems to be an assumption that empowerment is an end- state to which all companies should aspire. Given the amount of time and money invested in employee empow- erment programs, perhaps it is timely to ask whether this premise is valid. Is psychological empowerment related to employee satisfaction and performance? If so, is the impact of empowerment contingent on the nature of the organiza- tion and the individual? The present study looks into the relationship of empowerment on satisfaction and perfor- mance and the factors that may influence such relation- ships. Empowerment Empowerment may be viewed in two ways. One approach is to look at empowerment as actions taken by organiza- tions to share power and decision-making. Bowen and Lawler (1995) defined empowerment as sharing four orga- nizational ingredients with frontline employees: (i) infor- mation about the organization’s performance; (ii) rewards based on the organization’s performance; (iii) knowledge about contributing to organizational performance; and (iv) the power to make decisions that influence the organiza- tion’s direction and performance. Such sharing can be done on three basic levels. The simplest level involves ‘sugges- tion empowerment’, or granting employees the power to recommend. A step higher would be ‘job involvement’ wherein employees are given greater discretion in how they do their work. Finally, in ‘high involvement’ mode of empowerment, mechanisms like employee ownership, as well as various schemes allow employees to directly par- ticipate in the management of their work units. Another approach looks at empowerment from a psycho- logical perspective. In this approach, empowerment is viewed as the perception or attitudes of individuals towards their work and their role in the organization (Conger & Kanungo, 1988). Thomas and Velthouse (1990) describe empowerment as manifested in a set of four cognitions about workers’ orientation to work role: meaning, compe- tence, self-determination, and impact. That is, psychologi- cal empowerment involves workers’ beliefs about the meaning of their work, their capability to do their job well, their sense of self-determination and their autonomy in