Staff nurses' and nurse managers' perceptions of job-related empowerment and managerial self-efficacy

Although much has been written about the importance of empowerment in nursing, few theoretical frameworks provide guidance for nurse administrators in their attempts to create empowered nursing work environments. The authors describe a study testing Kanter's Theory of Structural Power in Organizations in a nursing setting. They argue that the findings provide evidence of the usefulness of this model for increasing perceptions of job-related empowerment of both staff nurses and managers. Specific empowerment strategies derived from Kanter's theory are described.