Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

Exploring the Evolution of the Empowerment Construct in Iran with an Interdisciplinary Approach

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

A. Shirin 1
L. Forozandeh 2
H. Danaeefard 3
A. Khaefelahi 4

1 PhD Student in Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Terabit Modares University. Tehran, Iran

3 Professor of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

4 Associate Professor of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Terabit Modares University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22631/isih.2017.2365.2813
Abstract
The empowerment construct, which means “to empower” and “to enable”, has been discussed as an interdisciplinary construct at multiple times and in different fields. At the beginning of transformation, in the fields of religion and sociology the construct referred to power sharing. During the following years, when the empowerment construct was discussed in the fields of education, psychology, and social work, the promotion of human welfare was identified as its ultimate goal. The main connection between productivity and empowerment has been considered in the field of management. This article aims to analyze the evolution of the empowerment construct in natural science, social sciences, and humanities in Iran. Thus, the required data was collected from 250 articles published in Iranian journals based on the qualitative content analysis method. The data was then analyzed according to the cluster analysis method using SPSS 23 and the Kruskal-Wallis statistical methods. The results indicate that the construct focused more on improving human resource productivity in the field of management while in other disciplines, the construct is focused on power sharing and promoting human welfare. Moreover, Iran has tried to model the subject of human excellence on an Iranian-Islamic approach. The authors recommend adopting an interdisciplinary perspective along with a psychological, structural, or combined approach for a proper understanding of the empowerment construct and designing a comprehensive model. This empowers researchers to design a comprehensive understanding of construct with multiple approaches. More extensive studies need to be conducted for the localization of these structures.

Keywords

empowerment
interdisciplinary construct
productivity
human resources
human welfare
power sharing

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 14 March 2017
  • Revise Date 18 July 2017
  • Accept Date 28 October 2017

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