Work Place Empowerment: An Assessment for the Omani Civil Service Agencies

Human resources are the most valuable assent of any organization. However, in general are the least utilized asset in the organizations. Due to economic constraints, organizations are striving to maximize the utilization of their human resources through empowering of their employees. Through empowerment, an organization allows its employees to take the initiative without compromise, and to serve the whole organizational interest with no detailed supervision. Work place empowerment is a combination of the Social Structure Empowerment (SSE) that provides the fundamental climate of empowerment and PE that is associated with individuals’ cognitive process. This study focus is psychological empowerment (PE) because it has an active role in overall work place empowerment. Even so, there is a tendency to overlook PE by the organizations since it is not part of the formal organizational process of empowerment and only affects the psychological statues of the employees to their work role. SSE, however, is clearly stipulated in the organizational process and employees terms of reference. Finally, the lack of PE studies in Oman called for further investigation on this variable. Based on quantitative methodology, 458 heads of sections of the Oman Civil Service Agencies (OCSA) completed this study survey. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) for Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The overall results indicated that the heads of sections of OCSA have a high level of the overall PE. In the subscales analysis, the results indicated that competence is the highest state of psychological empowerment as perceived by the heads of sections. Meaning is the second most perceived dimension of PE. Self-determination is the third dimensions of psychological empowerment and Impact is the least perceived subscale of psychological empowerment in this study. However, as revealed by this study, and as compared to the previous studies’ findings that, the levels of perception of psychological empowerment by the employee are not equal. Thus, the degree of contribution and influencing of work outcomes is also expected to vary. These results have important theoretical and practical implications for both the researchers and practitioners. For the academic, the results give a picture of the existence of the variables in this area of research. For the practitioners, the results may be used to indicate the areas that require improvement and sustainably by establishing a continuing process of assessment, feedback, and training in their organizations. This study provides recommendations to the Ministry of Civil Services as a practical contribution to the Omani National Plan for the Human Resources Development. The training and employee development plans should focus on employees’ empowerment and particularly PE. The Ministry of Civil Services may utilize this information to establish the ground rules for the training for the OCSA employees.