On the Causal Relationship between Psychological Empowerment and Information Technology Capability with Mediating Role of General Self-Efficacy in High School Principals in Isfahan

The aim of this study was to survey the causal relationship between psychological empowerment and IT capability، with mediation of self-efficacy، in female high school principals in Isfahan. The method of the study was descriptive-correlational. The study population was 250 female school principals in the academic year 2013-2014 in Isfahan City. A subset of 152 people was chosen by Cochran''s formula and random sampling method stratified based on various regions. The data collecting tools were the psychological empowerment questionnaire of Spritzer، et al.، self-efficacy questionnaire of Schwartz and Jerusalem and that of IT capability. The face validity of the questionnaires was confirmed and، using Cronbach alpha، the reliability of empowerment، self-efficacy and IT capability questionnaires were 0. 85، 0. 80 and 0. 82، respectively. The data were analyzed via both SPSS-18 and Lisrel softwares at the level of descriptive and referential statistics with step-wise regression tests، Pearson correlation and structural equations. The results confirmed that there was a positive significant relationship between principals'' empowerment and their IT self-efficacy. There was also a positive significant relationship between their self-efficacy and IT capability. Moreover، the significance of psychological empowerment component was the best predictive factor for IT capability. The findings of structural equations revealed that the psychological empowerment through self-efficacy could influence IT capability.