Psychological Empowerment and Job Stress in Higher Education Institutions in Ecuador

Both psychological empowerment and job stress have been the subjects of great concern, studied mainly in developed countries. In emerging economies, few studies have contributed to the knowledge of the relationship between these two constructs. This study analyzed the relationship between the dimensions of psychological empowerment and job stress in tenured professors from public higher education institutions in Ecuador during 2019, providing insights for achieving better results regarding the productivity and well-being of teachers. This research seeks to bridge the knowledge gap concerning psychological empowerment and job stress within an academic context in an emerging economy.

In this quantitative study, a confirmatory model was proposed. Correlation analysis was used to investigate whether psychological empowerment dimensions are related to job stress. Data were collected from a sample of 200 tenured professors working at public universities located in Zone 3 of Ecuador in 2019. The instrument applied for psychological empowerment was proposed by Spreitzer, composed of four dimensions-meaning, competence, impact, and autonomy. For job stress, the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised (OSI-R) instrument applied was proposed and revised by Osipow.

Through structural equation modeling with partial least squares, it was possible to demonstrate that psychological empowerment reduces levels of job stress only when it is perceived that there is autonomy, fewer limitations, and more freedom. No evidence was identified that other components of psychological empowerment, such as meaning, competence, and impact, are related to job stress.

The results indicated that the model used to explain the relationship between these variables had weak predictive power. Furthermore, only one research hypothesis is accepted. Finally, these findings are corroborated and explained by the different perspectives presented by various authors.