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Purpose: The aim of the study is to consider the use of the Internet as a potential facilitator of positive health-related perceptions. Specifically, we propose that online health information seeking fosters positive perceptions of health. Using path modeling, we theorized several mechanisms through which information seeking could be conducive to positive health perceptions, which we conceptualized into the following four dimensions: (1) sense of empowerment in managing health, (2) self-reported ability to take better care of health, (3) sense of improved health-related quality of life, and (4) self-reported improvement of health.

Methodology: Our sample consisted of respondents who have used the Internet as a resource for health information (n = 710), drawn from the largest national probability-based online research panel. Our comparison subsample consisted of older respondents (age ≥ 60; n = 194). We used Internet-specific measures and employed structural equation models (SEM) to estimate the direct, indirect, and total effects of health-related use of the Internet on subjective health perceptions. Based on our review of the literature, competent health communication with healthcare providers and sense of empowerment in managing personal health were modeled as mediator variables. We assessed whether the proposed mediational relationships, if significant, differed across our indicators of positive health perceptions and whether any differential associations were observed among older adults. We run parallel models for each indicator of positive health perception.

Findings: Provider-patient communication informed by the Internet resources were perceived to impart a greater sense of empowerment to manage health among our respondents, which in turn, was associated with perceived contributions to better self-reported ability to provide self-care, increased health-related quality of life, and improvement in self-reported health. The SEM results revealed a good fit with our full sample and subsample.

Research Implications: Conceptualization of the multidimensional aspects of online health information seeking with separate multi-indicator analyses of the outcome variable is important to further our understanding of how technology may impact the pathways involved in influencing health perceptions and as a result health outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship between teachers’ professional role, their sense of empowerment, and their attitudes toward managerial promotion (career development) following the implementation of educational forms.

The study was conducted in Israel in 2015 and included 663 teachers, 250 elementary school teachers and 413 middle or high school teachers. A questionnaire and statistical analyses (ANOVA, multivariate analysis, and correlations) examined the attitudes of teachers in one of four professional roles toward managerial promotion (their desire for future promotion and sense of organizational fairness). This was compared with their sense of empowerment (comprising feeling respected, professional growth, influence, autonomy, self-efficacy, and decision making), while controlling for their demographic and professional backgrounds.

Four-fifths of teachers were interested in pursuing managerial promotion and they perceived the promotion process as moderately fair. The greater teachers’ sense of empowerment, the greater their desire for future promotion and their belief in the fairness of the promotional process. Teachers currently holding a leadership position expressed the strongest sense of empowerment.

The study presents a multivariate model to predict teachers’ attitudes to managerial promotion on the basis of their professional role and sense of empowerment. The findings have implications for educational policy-making, particularly where there is a national focus on increasing school autonomy.

The findings will contribute to local and international research on teacher empowerment and career development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether posting on Instagram contributes to empowerment and through what mechanisms.

A sample of 372 women instagrammers from Kuwait participated in the survey. LISREL 8.2 was used to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, employing the maximum likelihood estimation method.

Instagram posts have direct and indirect effects on psychological empowerment. The indirect effect appears through two perceptual mechanisms: sense of self-efficacy and sense of community (SOC). The former provides women with a sense of mastery and control and the latter gives them the perception of belonging to a community that equips individual participants with a collective efficacy. Of the two mechanisms, the SOC plays a more significant role in creating psychological empowerment. Having a sense of virtual community, as opposed to participating in real ones, can act as catalyst in creating empowerment.

This study investigates the impact of a recent new technology, namely, Instagram, in regions where women are marginalized for generations. Instagram is important, because images, photo captions, short texts and hashtags are vital elements of communication in the present day. Furthermore, women are twice as likely to think highly of a brand that makes an empowering ad and are more likely to share, comment and like the ads.

Describes the everyday micropolitical facilitative strategies and personal characteristics of exemplary school principals who have influenced and enhanced teachers’ sense of empowerment. The data discussed here were drawn from a qualitative study of teachers in 11 schools affiliated with Glickman’s League of Professional Schools in Georgia. An open‐ended questionnaire designed by the researchers, according to general guidelines for grounded theory inquiry, provided teachers with the opportunity to identify and describe in detail characteristics of principals that enhanced their sense of empowerment. Inductive analyses of the data generated a description of facilitative leadership that includes seven major “facilitative” strategies and one set of facilitative personal characteristics that enhanced teacher empowerment. Focuses on the strategies and characteristics teachers identified as facilitative principal leadership. Discusses findings in terms of the relevant empirical and theoretical literature.

Encouraging patient involvement is a cornerstone of many healthcare interventions and decision-making models to ensure that treatment decisions reflect the needs, values, and desires of patients. Involved patients are thought to be empowered patients who feel a sense of efficacy in regards to their own health. However, there is a lack of understanding of how patients relate to empowerment and involvement and, most importantly, how these constructs relate to one another in patients’ decision-making experiences.

Through an inductive analysis, this chapter draws on qualitative interviews of women diagnosed with breast cancer prior to 40 years of age (n = 69).

By examining the intersection of how patients define their own involvement in treatment decisions and their sense of empowerment, we find four orientations to decision-making (Advocates, Bystanders, Co-Pilots, and Downplayers) with involvement and empowerment being coupled for some respondents, but decoupled for others.

Our findings suggest expanding what it means to be an “active” patient as respondents had multiple ways of characterizing involvement, including being informed or following their doctor’s advice. Our findings also suggest a more critical examination of the origins and potential downsides of patient empowerment as some respondents reported feeling overwhelmed or pushed into advocacy roles. The sample was disproportionately higher socioeconomic status with limited racial/ethnic diversity. Empowerment and involvement may be enacted differently for other social groups and other medical conditions.

By examining first-person patient narratives, we conclude that patients’ experience may not fully align with current academic or clinical discussions of patient involvement or empowerment.

Since 1990, the number of empirical and applied research dealing with employee empowerment has proliferated. This article will examine four dimensions of power: various resources to influence the outcome of decision‐making; controlling access to those processes; through hegemonic process to legitimize power through culture and norms; and determining the limits of power. A critical perspective from other behavioral sciences will present various designs. Foucauldian Theory will challenge the devolution of power via prior research attempts. Contemporary research on organization culture and structure will be examined via the validation of six hypotheses. Organizational characteristics facilitating empowerment such as vision, openness and teamwork, discipline and control, support and security will be discussed, along with the impact of leadership on an empowered workforce. Psychological dimensions of empowerment: choice, competence, meaningfulness and progress are examined in addition to trust issues. Some conclusions and recommendations will integrate the diverse theories.

This study examined the relationship of adult 4-H volunteers’ perceived leadership styles of 4-H Youth Development Educators to the adult 4-H volunteer sense of empowerment. There were 498 Oregon adult 4-H volunteers randomly selected to participate. Participants rated the leadership style of their 4-H Youth Development Educator (YDE) using Bass and Avoilio’s (1990) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and self assessed their sense of empowerment using Spreitzer’s (19915) Psychological Empowerment Instrument. In the structural model, transformational leadership style was shown to have a significant positive relationship ( = 0.031) to adult 4-H volunteer sense of empowerment. The 4-H YDEs who were rated as using transformational leadership were very likely to be empowering adult 4-H volunteers.

This paper examines the relationships between four contextual factors related to empowerment (communication with supervisor, general relations with company, teamwork, and concern for performance) and the four components of psychological empowerment (meaning, impact, self‐determination, and competence) identified by Spreitzer and her colleagues. We surveyed 203 employees of a manufacturing firm, using new and established measures of contextual factors and Spreitzer’s measures of empowerment components. The contextual factors were found to be differentially associated with the elements of psychological empowerment. Communication with supervisor and general relations with company were significantly related to the empowerment facets of meaning, self‐determination, and impact, but were not related to the facet of competence. Teamwork was related to meaning and impact. Concern for performance was related to meaning and self‐determination. These associations also varied by type of job. We conclude with implications for research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between school leadership practices and teacher empowerment in the Finnish policy culture. Specifically, moral leadership and distributed leadership enacted by school principals are tested in a simultaneous design as predictor to two distinct yet related aspects of teachers’ sense of empowerment, respectively, in their work domain and their classroom domain.

The study investigated a field sample of 246 individual teachers from ten Finnish primary schools. Hypotheses were developed and tested by structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that moral leadership exerted by school principals support teachers’ sense of empowerment both in work domain and classroom domain. Distributed leadership, in the meaning of sharing instructional leadership tasks with teachers, supported work domain empowerment but did not predict classroom domain teacher empowerment. Taken together, the model show the value of school principals facilitating teachers in decision-making processes paired with showing a strong moral basis in their relationship with teachers.

The study reinforces the importance of moral leadership and distributed leadership as conjoint drivers for teachers’ sense of empowerment. It would be highly valuable to replicate this study in various multi-level settings.

The findings recommend school leaders to put emphasis on facilitative, ethical, and authentic practices in immediate relationships with their teachers.

The study provides empirical evidence regarding the partial relationships between principal leadership practices and teacher empowerment.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on elderly people who have adopted Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and participated in ICT-based activities, and explore variables associated with their individual and collective empowerment by using data collected by a questionnaire survey.

A set of 14 questions was developed to measure older adults’ perceived psychological empowerment. A factor analysis was conducted to condense 14 individual variables into several large categories. Finally, a set of multiple regression analyses was employed to identify variables associated with the elderly’s individual and collective empowerment.

Three factors, including a sense of meaning; competence/self-determination; and collective empowerment were extracted from the 14 questions. Multiple regression models revealed that elderly empowerment is not a matter of social skills, ICT skills, or complementary skills, but is more likely to result from their being interested in ICT and ICT-based activities. Learning activities in ICT-based activities and participation frequency were found to be predictors of both meaning and competence/self-determination dimensions.

The major finding of this study concerns the development of a measure that assesses three factors of empowerment in older adults, i.e., sense of meaning, competence/self-determination, and collective empowerment. This study represents an initial step in establishing the measure, and therefore, further work is needed to establish its psychometric properties, particularly external validity.

This study is one of the first studies to focus on older people’s empowerment construct and its relation to ICT-based activities.