A Theory of Dysempowerment.

Drawing on work from transfer theory at the individual unit of analysis, this study examines positive and negative transfer effects in organization acquisitions. Data University of California, Riverside We use the term "dysempowerment" to represent a concept that describes a faulty or impaired process of empowerment, rather than a lack of empowerment implied by the more commonly used term "disempowerment." We extend the model of psychological empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995, 1996) by introducing the concept of dysempowerment (in contrast to discempowerment) as an interference with an individual's intrinsic task motivation. Dysempowerment is operationalized as a set of negative affective responses that produce an aversive mood resulting from a receiver's perception of messages that lack consideration from another organizational actor.