Antecedents of psychological empowerment: the effects of developmental experience, learning goal orientation and authenticity

Although considerable research has explored the antecedents of psychological empowerment, few studies have examined the combined effects of personal factors and task characteristics. Building on self‐determination theory, this study examines the relative and interactive effects of developmental job experience, learning goal orientation and authenticity on psychological empowerment, using a longitudinal survey of 260 nurses in Japanese hospitals. Results suggest that developmental job experience and authenticity have positive effects on psychological empowerment, yet learning goal orientation has no significant direct influence on psychological empowerment. There was a positive interaction effect for developmental job experience and learning goal orientation on psychological empowerment, while there was a negative interaction effect for authenticity and learning goal orientation in predicting psychological empowerment. The main contribution of this study to the literature is to identify the separate and combined influences of the personal factors and task characteristics on psychological empowerment.Keywords: Key points Organizations should assign employees developmental tasks to enhance their psychological empowerment. Learning goal orientation positively influences psychological empowerment when combined with developmental tasks. Organizations can improve employees’ psychological empowerment by enhancing their authenticity. When employees’ authenticity is low, learning goals can facilitate psychological empowerment.