Toward a group empowerment model in mexican organizations : A structural equation modeling approach

A model of group empowerment within the context of Mexican organization is proposed and empirically tested. Studying groups in the workplace has attracted increasing attention during the last years from academics and practitioners. The construct of group empowerment has been scarcely studied; however, group motivation is a crucial element for the group effectiveness. The study of group motivation has not completely covered the process through which group empowerment is generated. Social values and norms are elements that might influence this process. Additionally, there is no reported study of group empowerment in the Mexican organization context. In the theoretical perspective of work group effectiveness, a series of variables are conceived as causes of group effectiveness. Thus, the proposed model in a heuristic way describes a series of hypothesized relationships among the variables incorporated. Therefore, the proposed model includes variables from the organizational context, group V structure and group processes, such as: group mental model, group coordination, and group membership. Group empowerment that includes six dimensions: potency, meaningfulness, autonomy, impact, group trust, and group affective tone. Group effectiveness, conceived as performance outcomes, such as: productivity, proactivity, and customer service; then, conceived as attitudinal results: group satisfaction, teamwork, and team commitment. Five organizations from Monterrey, Mexico gave their authorization to apply all the instruments designed to measure the variables of the study and recollect the information from their employees. Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach of structural equations modeling is utilized to prove the hypotheses proposed. Results of the study expand the conceptual work in group empowerment and contribute to the work group effectiveness stream of theory. Additionally, results provide information that can be utilized to design more effective work groups in the context of Mexican organizations.