Empowerment and job satisfaction in university teachers: A theory of power in educational organizations

Abstract While the importance of teacher job satisfaction is well documented, the processes and mechanisms by which educational institutions manage to influence the satisfactions of their members are not. Studies on the organizational elements associated with satisfaction have focused on isolated factors without the common umbrella of a consolidated theoretical model. Based on Kanter's theory of power in organizations, we aimed to analyze the mediator role of psychological empowerment between structural empowerment and job satisfaction in a sample of 267 university teachers in southern Spain. A cross‐sectional study was carried out, utilizing questionnaires for data collection and convenience sampling. Percentile confidence intervals, based on 5000 resamples, were calculated to test the mediation model. Results showed that a two‐way effect of structural empowerment on job satisfaction: a direct effect based on access to organizational resources of power and an indirect effect through the development of positive cognitions at work. Access to opportunities, resources, information, and support empower university teachers psychologically, fostering their intrinsic motivation and increasing their job satisfaction, key elements for teaching quality in higher education.