Linking Psychological Empowerment, Self-leadership and Psychological Capital among Y oung Entrepreneurs: Role of Positive Psychology in Building a Self-reliant India

The present study focuses on exploring the linkages between psychological empowerment, self-leadership and psychological capital among young entrepreneurs. A total of 35 entrepreneurs (18 males & 17 females) within the age range of 23-30 years were selected from the tri-city , based on the inclusion criteria. The study participants were administered the standardized measures of Psychological Empowerment Scale (Spretizer, 1996); Revised Self- leadership Questionnaire (RSLQ) (Houghton & Neck, 2002); and Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans et al., 2007). The results indicated that for the total sample, significant positive correlations were obtained between Self-leadership, Psychological Empowerment and Psychological Capital. For males, significant positive correlations were obtained between Self Leadership and Psychological Empowerment and also between Self- leadership and Psychological Capital. For females, significant positive correlations were obtained between Self- leadership and Psychological Empowerment. Gender differences emerged on Self-punishment and Self -talk constructs of Self-leadership and on all constructs of Psychological Empowerment, with males scoring higher than female entrepreneurs. These findings can direct the policy makers to determine the focal areas in which training the entrepreneurs can enable self-direction and self-reliance.