Psychological Empowerment and Prosocial Service Behaviour in Indian Universities: The Mediating Role of Non-violent Behaviour

Abstract

The empowerment of non-academic staff in higher education institutions is a significant area of research, given their heightened need for patience and non-violence in social interactions with clients and colleagues. The present study explores the intricate relationship between psychological empowerment and prosocial service behaviour, with an emphasis on the mediating role of non-violent behaviour among staff at the university level. The study surveyed 501 non-academic staff at Indian universities and analysed the data using SPSS AMOS 24. The findings indicate a significant correlation between psychological empowerment and prosocial behaviour among university staff. Additionally, non-violent behaviour fully mediates the relationship between psychological empowerment and prosocial service behaviour, highlighting how empowered individuals are more likely to engage in non-violent behaviours, which in turn creates an environment that supports prosocial service behaviour among staff. The findings offer implications for the development of interventions that are designed to improve psychological empowerment in order to promote non-violent and prosocial service behaviour; thereby comprehending these relationships, it is possible to foster more supportive, productive and harmonious social environments. The article also discusses the limitations and potential avenues for future research.

Keywords

Psychological empowerment non-violent behaviour prosocial service behaviour non-academic staff

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Agyeiwaah

, & Bangwayo-Skeete

(2024). Segmenting and predicting prosocial behaviours among tourists: A latent class approach. Current Issues in Tourism, 27(15), 2462–2481.

Alshemmari

J. M. H. J.

(2023). An empirical study on employee empowerment role in increasing efficiency of employee performance. Journal of Logistics, Informatics and Service Science, 10(1), 52–71.

Amrutha

V. N.

, & Geetha

S. N.

(2024). Green employee empowerment for environmental organization citizenship behavior: A moderated parallel mediation model. Current Psychology, 43(6), 5685–5702.

Appelbaum

S. H.

, Karasek

, Lapointe

, & Quelch

(2015). Employee empowerment: Factors affecting the consequent success or failure (Part II). Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(1), 23–30.

Asthana

H. S.

(1990). TAT responses of some violent individuals. In Kool

V. K.

(Ed.), Perspectives on nonviolence (pp. 39–53). Springer..

Bansal

, Punia

B. K.

, & Singh

(2025a). Workplace mindfulness and job satisfaction: The mediating role of prosocial service behavior in the Indian service sector. International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-025-02828-y

Bansal

, Punia

B. K.

, Singh

, & Jopeen

(2025b). Enhancing innovative work behavior: Unleashing the role of affective commitment, emotional intelligence, and collectivism. European Economic Letters, 15(1), 2715–2731.

Baron

R. M.

, & Kenny

D. A.

(1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.

Bettencourt

L. A.

, & Brown

S. W.

(1997). Contact employees: Relationships among workplace fairness, job satisfaction and prosocial service behaviours. Journal of Retailing, 73(1), 39–61.

10.

Bhalerao

, & Kumar

(2015). Nonviolence at workplace: Scale development and validation. Business Perspectives and Research, 3(1), 36–51.

11.

Bitner

M. J.

, Booms

B. H.

, & Tetreault

M. S.

(1990). The service encounter: Diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents. Journal of Marketing, 54(1), 71–84.

12.

Blau

P. M.

(1964). Justice in social exchange. Sociological Inquiry, 34(2), 193–206.

13.

Bowen

D. E.

, & Lawler

E. E.

(1992). The empowerment of service workers: What, why, how and when. Sloan Management Review, 33(3), 31–39.

14.

Brayfield

A. H.

, & Rothe

H. F.

(1951). An index of job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 35(5), 307–311.

15.

Brief

A. P.

, & Motowidlo

S. J.

(1986). Prosocial organizational behaviours. Academy of Management Review, 11(4), 710–725.

16.

Chahal

, Punia

, & Punia

B. K.

(2022). Workplace implications of psychological empowerment on emotional exhaustion: Review and outlook. Delhi Business Review, 23(2), 33–42.

17.

Chi

, Cai

, & Han

(2021). Festival travellers’ pro-social and protective behaviours against COVID-19 in the time of pandemic. Current Issues in Tourism, 24(22), 3256–3270. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1908968

18.

Chiang

C. F.

, & Hsieh

T. S.

(2012). The impacts of perceived organizational support and psychological empowerment on job performance: The mediating effects of organizational citizenship behaviour. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(1), 180–190.

19.

Chiang

C. F.

, & Jang

(2008). The antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment: The case of Taiwan’s hotel companies. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 32(1), 40–61.

20.

Chin

W. W.

, Gopal

, & Salisbury

W. D.

(1997). Advancing the theory of adaptive structuration: The development of a scale to measure faithfulness of appropriation. Information Systems Research, 8(4), 342–367.

21.

Cho

Y. J.

, & Perry

J. L.

(2012). Intrinsic motivation and employee attitudes: Role of managerial trustworthiness, goal directedness, and extrinsic reward expectancy. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 32(4), 382–406.

22.

Corney

(2008). Aggression in the workplace. Journal of Health Organization and Management. 22(2), 164–177.

23.

Deci

E. L.

, & Ryan

R. M.

(1985). Conceptualizations of intrinsic motivation and self-determination. In Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. Perspectives in Social Psychology (pp. 11–40). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7_2

24.

Deci

E. L.

, & Ryan

R. M.

(Eds.). (2004). Handbook of Self-determination Research. University of Rochester Press.

25.

Dierendonck

, & Dijkstra

(2012). The role of the follower in the relationship between empowering leadership and empowerment: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(1), 1–20.

26.

Eren

, Burke

R. J.

, Astakhova

, Koyuncu

, & Kaygısız

N. C.

(2014). Service rewards and prosocial service behaviours among employees in four and five-star hotels in Cappadocia. Anatolia, 25(3), 341–351.

27.

Etikan

, Musa

S. A.

, & Alkassim

R. S.

(2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), 1–4.

28.

Fornell

C. G.

, & Larcker

D. F.

(1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.

29.

Frey

K. S.

, Hirschstein

M. K.

, & Guzzo

B. A.

(2000). Second step: Preventing aggression by promoting social competence. Journal of Emotional and Behavioural Disorders, 8(2), 102–112.

30.

Gagné

, & Deci

E. L.

(2005). Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 26(4), 331–362.

31.

Garg

, & Punia

B. K.

(2025). Effect of spirituality on employee wellbeing: Exploration and implications. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Technology, 6(7), 6–14.

32.

Garg

, Punia

B. K.

, Garg

, & Punia

(2022). Spiritual leadership and wellbeing in the context of the modern workplace. In Garg

& Punia

B.K.

(Eds.), Handbook of research on integrating spirituality in modern workplaces (pp. 170–185). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-2533-6.ch009

33.

Garg

, Punia

B. K.

, Singh

, & Bansal

(2025). Effect of workplace spirituality on organization based self-esteem, intrinsic work satisfaction and employee engagement: Exploration and implications. MANTHAN: Journal of Commerce and Management, 12(1), 46–68. https://doi.org/10.17492/jpi.manthan.v12I1.1212503

34.

George

J. M.

(1991). State or trait: Effects of positive mood on prosocial behaviours at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(2), 299.

35.

Girdhar

, Bansal

, Chahal

, & Punia

B. K.

(2025). Effect of servant leadership on volunteer retention: Mediating role of organizational identification in NGOs. Empirical Economics Letters, 24(1), 189–215.

36.

Grant

A. M.

, & Shandell

(2022). Social motivation at work: The organizational psychology of effort for, against, and with others. Annual Review of Psychology 73, 301–326.

37.

Griffin

M. A.

, Neal

, & Parker

S. K.

(2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behaviour in uncertain and interdependent contexts. Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 327–347.

38.

Grossman

D. C.

, Neckerman

H. J.

, Koepsell

T. D.

, Liu

P. Y.

, Asher

K. N.

, Beland

, Frey

, & Rivara

F. P.

(1997). Effectiveness of a violence prevention curriculum among children in elementary school. Journal of the American Medical Association, 277(20), 1605–1611.

39.

Hackman

J. R.

, & Oldham

G. R.

(1980). Work redesign. Addison Wesley.

40.

Hancer

, & George

R. T.

(2003). Psychological empowerment of non-supervisory employees working in full-service restaurants. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 22(1), 3–16.

41.

Henseler

, Ringle

C. M.

, & Sarstedt

(2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135.

42.

Hoffman

K. D.

, & Kelley

S. W.

(1994). The influence of service provider mood states on prosocial behaviours and service quality assessments. In Renaissance in Marketing Thought and Practice. American Marketing Association Winter Educators Conference, St. Petersburg, pp. 288–289.

43.

L. T.

, & Bentler

P. M.

(1998). Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 424–453.

44.

Jeon

C.-Y.

, Song

W.-G.

, & Yang

H.-W.

(2022). Process of forming tourists’ pro-social tourism behaviour intentions that affect willingness to pay for safety tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative analysis of South Korea and China. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 27(4), 357–373.

45.

Kang

H. J. A.

, Kim

W. G.

, Choi

H. M.

, & Li

(2020). How to fuel employees’ prosocial behaviour in the hotel service encounter. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 84, 102333.

46.

Kang

S. H.

, Lee

, & Park

H. J.

(2020). Prosocial behaviour in organizations: A meta-analysis on the roles of psychological empowerment and organizational support. Journal of Business Research, 115, 234–246.

47.

Katz

(1964). The motivational basis of organizational behavior. Behavioral Science, 9(2), 131–146.

48.

Katz

, & Kahn

R. L.

(1978). The social psychology of organizations. Wiley.

49.

Keaveney

S. M.

(1995). Customer switching behaviour in service industries: An exploratory study. Journal of Marketing, 59(2), 71–82.

50.

Khatoon

, Rehman

S. U.

, Islam

, & Ashraf

(2024). Knowledge sharing through empowering leadership: The roles of psychological empowerment and learning goal orientation. Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, 73(4/5), 682–697.

51.

Kim

, Losekoot

, & Milne

(2013). Consequences of empowerment among restaurant servers: Helping behaviours and average check size. Management Decision, 51(4), 781–794.

52.

Kim

, & Vandenberghe

(2021). Ethical leadership and organizational commitment: The dual perspective of social exchange and empowerment. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 42(6), 976–987.

53.

Kraimer

M. L.

, Seibert

S. E.

, & Liden

R. C.

(1999). Psychological empowerment as a multidimensional construct: A test of construct validity. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 59(1), 127–142.

54.

Krishna

Y. R.

(2007). Psychological empowerment and organizational commitment. The ICFAI Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 6(4), 26–36.

55.

Lau

C. L.

(2010). A step forward: Ethics education matters!. Journal of Business Ethics, 92(4), 565–584.

56.

Leach

D. J.

, Wall

T. D.

, & Jackson

P. R.

(2003). The effect of empowerment on job knowledge: An empirical test involving operators of complex technology. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76(1), 27–52.

57.

Lee

, & Allen

N. J.

(2002). Organizational citizenship behaviour and workplace deviance: The role of affect and cognitions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(1), 131.

58.

Lee

Y. K.

, Nam

J. H.

, Park

D. H.

, & Ah Lee

(2006). What factors influence customer-oriented prosocial behaviour of customer-contact employees?. Journal of Services Marketing, 20(4), 251–264.

59.

Lillenstein

(2002). Efficacy of a social skills training curriculum with early elementary students in four parochial schools. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities & Social Sciences, 62, 2971.

60.

Llorente-Alonso

, García-Ael

, & Topa

(2024). A meta-analysis of psychological empowerment: Antecedents, organizational outcomes, and moderating variables. Current Psychology, 43(2), 1759–1784.

61.

Majekodunmi

S. A.

, & Olajide-Arise

T. O.

(2024). Employee participation and job satisfaction of non-teaching staff in public universities in Lagos State Nigeria. Economic Insights: Trends & Challenges, 13(3), 31–44.

62.

Mayer

(1995). Preventing antisocial behaviour in the schools. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis, 28(4), 467–478.

63.

McMahon

S. D.

, & Washburn

J. J.

(2003). Violence prevention: An evaluation of program effects with urban African American students. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 24(September), 43–62.

64.

Menon

(2001). Employee empowerment: An integrative psychological approach. Applied Psychology, 50(1), 153–180.

65.

Mercy

J. A.

, & O’Carroll

P. W.

(1988). New directions in violence prevention: The public health arena. Violence and Victimization, 3(4), 285–301.

66.

Muguella

, Mohd

, & Mohd

(2013). Supervisory support as a moderator of work–life demands and life satisfaction among Malaysian female academicians. World Applied Science Journal, 28(1), 32–37.

67.

Nistor

, Anghel

, & Popa

(2024). Identifying the prosocial orientations that influence choice of university studies in the social field for sustainable educational integration. Sustainability, 16(4), 1462.

68.

Olweus

(1979). Stability of aggressive reaction patterns in males: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 86(4), 852–875.

69.

Organ

D. W.

(1988). Organisational citizenship behaviour: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington Books/D. C. Heath and Com.

70.

Organ

D. W.

, Podsakoff

P. M.

, & MacKenzie

S. B.

(2005). Organizational citizenship behaviour: Its nature, antecedents, and consequences. Sage Publications.

71.

Orofino

(2024). ‘Groups are still a problem… but a different one!’: Reflecting on the role played by non-violent extremist groups in the radicalisation pathways of individuals in the UK. Social Sciences, 13(8), 424.

72.

Owan

V. J.

(2018). Conflict management strategies and secondary school teachers’ job effectiveness in Obubra local government area of Cross River state, Nigeria. BEd Project, University of Calabar.

73.

Pardo del Val

, & Lloyd

(2003). Measuring empowerment. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24(2), 102–108.

74.

Pedersen

N. L.

, & Nielsen

A. K.

(2003). Optimization of practical trusses with constraints on eigenfrequencies, displacements, stresses, and buckling. Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 25, 436–445.

75.

Piccolo

R. F.

, & Colquitt

J. A.

(2006). Transformational leadership and job behaviours: The mediating role of core job characteristics. Academy of Management journal, 49(2), 327–340.

76.

Pitman

(2000). Perceptions of academics and students as customers: A survey of administrative staff in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 22(2), 165–175.

77.

Punia

B. K.

, & Garg

(2012). High performance work practices in Indian organisations: Exploration and employees’ awareness. Asia-Pacific Journal of Management Research and Innovation, 8(4), 509–516.

78.

Rajagopal

N. K.

, Ba Zanbour

M. K. A.

, & Al Kaaf

N. M. A.

(2024). Exploring work–life balance among female staff members (teaching and non-teaching) in higher educational institutions of Oman: A study. Economies, 12(9), 2–30.

79.

Raub

, & Robert

(2010). Differential effects of empowering leadership on in-role and extra-role employee behaviours: Exploring the role of psychological empowerment and power values. Human Relations, 63(11), 1743–1770.

80.

Reid

J. B.

, & Eddy

J. M.

(1997). The prevention of antisocial behaviour. In Stoff

D. M.

, Breiling

, & Maser

J. D.

(Eds.), The handbook of antisocial behaviour (pp. 343–356). John Wiley and Sons.

81.

Richards

(2003). Management of workplace violence victims. Joint Programme on Workplace Violence in the Health Sector. ILO.

82.

Richardson

H. A.

, Kluemper

D. H.

, & Taylor

S. G.

(2021). Too little and too much authority sharing: Differential relationships with psychological empowerment and in-role and extra-role performance. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 42(8), 1099–1119.

83.

Rivara

F. P.

, & Farrington

D. P.

(1995). Prevention of violence: Role of the pediatrician. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 149(4), 421–429.

84.

Rospenda

K. M.

, Richman

J. A.

, & Shannon

C. A.

(2009). Prevalence and mental health correlates of harassment and discrimination in the workplace: Results from a national study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24(5), 819–843.

85.

Ryan

S. A.

, Aten

, Auinger

, & Miller

(2004). Preventing violence and aggression among youth: An evaluation of the ‘second step’ program in a community-based sample of adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 34(2), 136–137.

86.

Seibert

S. E.

, Wang

, & Courtright

S. H.

(2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), 981.

87.

Spreitzer

G. M.

(1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38(5), 14421465.

88.

Spreitzer

G. M.

, & Quinn

R. E.

(2001). A company of leaders: Five disciplines for unleashing the power in your workforce. Jossey-Bass.

89.

Sun

L. Y.

, Zhang

, Qi

, & Chen

Z. X.

(2012). Empowerment and creativity: A cross-level investigation. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(1), 55–65.

90.

Taub

(2002). Evaluation of the second step violence prevention program at a rural elementary school. School Psychology Review, 31(December), 186–200.

91.

Thomas

K. W.

, & Velthouse

B. A.

(1990). Cognitive elements of empowerment: An ‘interpretive’ model of intrinsic task motivation. Academy of Management Review, 15(4), 666–681.

92.

Tsaur

S. H.

, Wang

C. H.

, Yen

C. H.

, & Liu

Y. C.

(2014). Job standardization and service quality: The mediating role of prosocial service behaviours. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 40(July), 130–138.

93.

Turnipseed

D. L.

, & VandeWaa

E. A.

(2020). The little engine that could: The impact of psychological empowerment on organizational citizenship behaviour. International Journal of Organization Theory & Behaviour, 23(4), 281–296.

94.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth violence: A report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services; and National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health.

95.

Walker

H. M.

, Horner

R. H.

, Sugai

, Bullis

, Sprague

J. R.

, Bricker

, & Kaufman

M. J.

(1996). Integrated approaches to preventing anti-social behaviour patterns among school-age children and youth. Journal of Emotional and Behavioural Disorders, 4(4), 194–209.

96.

Washburn

(2002). Evaluation of a violence prevention program with low-income, urban African American youth [Doctoral dissertation]. Dissertation Abstracts International, 62(6A), 4242.

97.

Welbourne

T. M.

, & Paterson

T. A.

(2017). Advancing a richer view of identity at work: The role-based identity scale. Personnel Psychology, 70(2), 315–356.

98.

Williams

L. J.

, & Anderson

S. E.

(1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviours. Journal of Management, 17(3), 601–617.

99.

Woodman

R. W.

, Sawyer

J. E.

, & Griffin

R. W.

(1993). Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, 18(2), 293–321.

100.

Yadav

, & Punia

B. K.

(2016). Emotionality does but spirituality does not: The effect of emotional and spiritual intelligence on organisational citizenship behaviour. Asia-Pacific Journal of Management Research and Innovation, 12(1), 46–55.