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Introduction
1.1 Employee Empowerment
Employee empowerment is a term used to express the ways in which non-managerial staff can
make autonomous decisions without consulting a boss/manager. Employee empowerment is
employees actual involvement and influence over organizational processes and decisionmaking.
In this era of globalization there is need for employees empowerment in organization so that
employees will be in position to make quick decision and respond quickly to any changes in the
environment. Organization that are committed to employee empowerment they are in a position
to motivate and retain their employees, although its a complex management tool which needs to
be nurtured and handled with a lot of care (Nick et al., 1994). Employee empowerment is a
motivational technique that is designed to improve performance if managed properly through
increased levels of employees participation and self determination. Employee empowerment is
concerned with trust, motivation, and decision-making. When employees feel that they have
choice and can make direct decisions related to their work, this does often lead to a greater
feeling of self-worth. And an employee who does not feel constantly watched and criticized is
more likely to consider work as a positive environment, rather than a negative one. Thus
employee empowerment will lead to improving productivity, performance and job satisfaction.
There are two views of empowerment. The first one is proposed by Robbins(2005) defining the
concept of empowerment as a participative management, delegation, and the granting power to
lower-level employees to make and enforce decisions. This definition is consistent with a
functional view of empowerment. According to this view, a manager intervenes to delegate more
of his or her power to employees, to reduce direct supervision and to provide overall vision. The
employees enjoy more flexible job descriptions. This framework presupposes that the amount of
power in the organization is fixed; hence the management can simply distribute its power
throughout the hierarchy to empower the employees. This way, an organization could achieve the
goals of the employee empowerment creating better business outcomes, happier and motivated
workforce.
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The second view of empowerment is proposed by Thomas and Velthouse (1990). They define it
in term of cognitive motivational concept or psychological empowerment. It is mainly based on
the following five tasks related cognitions: (1) choice fullness, i.e., the employees feelings of
choosing what work activity they ought to put their effort on, (2) meaning, i.e., the employees
determination of the intrinsic value of a particular work role, (3) competence, i.e., self-belief in
the employees ability to fully perform specific tasks, (4) self-determination, i.e., the employees
belief that he or she has control over decisions about work-related activities and behaviors, (5)
impact, i.e., the employees belief that his or her actions can make a difference in the
organization strategies, tactics, and outcomes.
increase motivation to reduce mistakes and have individuals take more responsibility for
use peer pressure and self-managing team methods for employee control and productivity
relieve middle and upper management from being the control dogs and from doing
lower level tasks, thereby allowing more time for strategic planning and achieving a
greater market share and customer satisfaction increase the bottom line by such methods
information and matching employees to their tasks according to training and experience
(Hammuda et al., 1997).
activities skilfully.
Self determination (or choice); autonomy in the initiation and continuation of work
In order for the individual to be empowered, the person must experience all four dimensions of
empowerment mentioned above.
Job Satisfaction can be an important indicator of how employees feel about their jobs and a
predictor of work behaviors such as organizational citizenship, absenteeism, and turnover
(Wegge et at., 2007). Further, job satisfaction can partially mediate the relationship of personality
variables and deviant work behaviors. Job satisfaction has a rather tenuous correlation to
productivity on the job and the relationship between satisfaction and performance can be
moderated by job complexity, such that for high-complexity jobs the correlation between
satisfaction and performance is higher than for jobs of low to moderate complexity (Judge et at.,
2001).
b. Financial Compensation
d. Advancement Opportunities
f. Support/Encouragement
h. Training
j. Challenging/Personal
The literature review also disclosed following elements that contribute most to employee
empowerment (Halvorsen 2005):
a. Training
c. Freedom/Autonomy
e. Authority/Power
g. Decision Making
i. Responsibility
k. Growth Opportunity
b. Necessary Resources
d. Information Sharing
f. Management Support
h. Accountability
j. Recognition
2. Review of Literature
Studies on employee empowerment:
Tulli (2009), Social cognitive theory provided an appropriate framework to integrate
empowerment climate, psychological empowerment and job performance behaviours from a
multilevel perspective and to subsequently test the resulting relationships. Results lend empirical
support to the theoretical distinctiveness of empowerment climate and psychological
empowerment but also confirm that the experience of empowerment can be fostered by an
empowering work climate. This is supported by the substantial variance that empowerment
climate accounted for in both individual empowerment (42%) and team empowerment (46%).
The results further suggest that such a work climate can be created through the provision of
access to information, support, resources, opportunity to learn and grow as well as access to
formal and informal sources of power Our results also confirm that taskwork and teamwork
behaviours are empirically distinct from their individual analogues of task and contextual
behaviours. While individual and team empowerment both explained almost equal variance in
task behaviours (average 45%), team empowerment was a stronger predictor of contextual
behaviours. This is also an important finding as it suggests that while individual empowerment
may contribute to high performance of ones tasks.
Voisard (2008), investigated the impact of employee empowerment on employee satisfaction in
healthcare industry. Using a model that combines the employees age, tenure, community time to
work, having or not a flexible work schedule, job-rank, and perceived degree of employee
empowerment. It may also indicate that employee empowerment has a more relevant effect on
employee satisfaction over other employment variables such as salary. The reported evidence
may have two limitations. First, the scope of this research was limited to the analyzed variables.
Second, the sample utilized on this project was representative of the employee population
studied. However, it cannot be said to be representative of other employers in healthcare or
across industries. Even though limited in its scope, this research project presented compelling
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and valuable insights on the positive and statistically significant effect of employee
empowerment initiatives on employee satisfaction.
Zeng (2008), investigated whether empowerment can work in the collectivism, high power
distance and how western concepts of empowerment works in the Chinese context and then finds
out which factors influence the effectiveness of empowering progress. Study concluded that an
important part of enterprise effectiveness is employee empowerment and their work incentives
the empowering elements which impact their working attitudes, satisfaction and performance.
The further way of empowerment management in leader aspect, employee aspect, culture aspect
and other effective aspects. Study also supports that less employee control may lead to positive
staff satisfaction, emotional well-being and inversely associating with stress. If cultural
differences are not well understood by managers, they may actualize those empowered theories
in the organization dogmatically, which may affect employees performance, job satisfaction and
may fail the organizational changing practice.
Sutherland et al. (2007), examined the relationship between conscientiousness, empowerment
and job performance among information technology professionals. An Employee Empowerment
Questionnaire (EEQ), a Conscientiousness Scale and a Social Desirability Scale were
administered to 101 information technology customer service engineers. Managers completed a
Performance Evaluation Questionnaire (PEQ) for each customer service engineer. The results
indicated a significant relationship between conscientiousness and empowerment. A curvilinear
relationship was found between empowerment and performance.
Hechanova (2006), employee empowerment gives job satisfaction to the employees and
associated with positive outcomes. Although the relationship between psychological
empowerment and job satisfaction was robust, the relationship of empowerment and
performance was weak, although still significant. This is understandable given that performance
is determined by many other factors (e.g. supervisor-worker relations, degree of supervision)
outside the control of worker, supervisory style, personality of the rater, etc. Thus, empowerment
is just one of the many determinants of performance. The results support gender differences in
empowerment; men report greater confidence in their abilities as well as more meaning in their
work. It was also found significant differences in the level of empowerment across service
sectors. Respondents in call centers and airlines reported the lowest levels of empowerment
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whereas bank and hotel front-liners reported significantly higher levels of empowerment and job
satisfaction.
Bhatnagar(2005), Psychological empowerment results in organizational commitment and
greater job satisfaction in Indian managers. The level of psychological empowerment of powersector managers was the highest while the level of organizational commitment of the banking
sector was the highest. The managers of this sector had almost a parallel level of psychological
empowerment and organizational commitment. Looking at these two variables was beyond the
scope of this study; thus future studies may look at the variable of psychological contract and
psychological empowerment with organization commitment as a mediating variable.
Melhem (2004), Access to information is an important element of empowerment. Transparent
sharing of information is an essential requirement of empowerment, since employees cannot act
responsibly even if they wish to do so without adequate information. Adequate internal
communication is likely to affect the empowerment of employees who deal with customers,
ensuring that employees obtain necessary information to plan and deliver effective customer
service. Sharing of information about the firms vision is also important as this helps to create a
sense of meaning and purpose, and enhances an employees ability to make decisions that are
aligned with the firms mission.
Petter (2002), Empowerment generally connotes the granting of authority or ability. Employee
empowerment, therefore, means the transferring of some managerial authority, prerogative, or
ability to employees. And yet employee empowerment entails so much more than simply the
rigid dispensing of managerial authority. Generally accepted components of employee
empowerment include: Power, Decision Making, Autonomy, Initiative and Creativity,
Knowledge and Skills, Accountability. The intended outcomes of employee empowerment align
themselves along two branches: those outcomes benefiting the employee and those that benefit
the organization. Empowerment to the individual are a sense of fulfillment, greater motivation
and heightened commitment. The expected organizational rewards for empowering their
employees include increased innovation, greater effectiveness and better performance.
Powell (2002), Survey results presents and explains that purport to show the perceptions of
employees involved in de-layering and horizontal management structures. To determine whether
or not the employees have acquired a real sense of empowerment, Powell examines the climate,
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job meaningfulness, communications, work intensity and personal motivation. The findings are
that old attitudes persist and an investment in changing the culture is required in order to
maximize employee empowerment in new structures.
Lawson (2001), Empowerment means making people feel valued by involving them in
decisions, asking them to participate in the planning process, praising them, and continually
providing adequate training and support. The virtues of empowerment and offers these four
keys for successfully empowering an organizations personnel: Involve your employees in the
decision-making process; involve your employees in the planning process; offer praise freely;
and provide continual training and support.
Randolph (2000) reiterates that empowerment requires fundamental changes in an organization
culture, behavior, leadership style, and employees shared of risks and responsibilities. The
autocratic leadership style defines the external commitment in term of job description, behaviors,
and performance goals for employees. In the other hand, the empowerment means building an
organization from an internal commitment paradigm where the employees define their own tasks,
action plans, and The Employee Empowerment goals in the context of the companys vision and
strategy. The best way to achieve an empowered culture is to adopt multifaceted, counterintuitive
and nonlinear processes. There are three major steps to do this. First, starting and orienting the
process of change, second, making changes and dealing with discouragement, and third, adopting
and refining empowerment to fit the organization subculture.
Hammuda & Dulaimi (1997), The idea of employee empowerment is a concept that is fairly
unused when compared with the size of the employee population. Also, empowerment can easily
be misconstrued, depending on an organizations use of the principle. Employee empowerment is
closely related to employee involvement, a concept that is easily understood and more uniform
throughout organizations. Employee involvement has been defined as a participative process to
use the entire capacity of workers, designated to encourage employee commitment to
organizational success (Lawler & Mohram, 1989). The process comes about by giving
employees a combination of information, influence, and/or incentives.
Gandz & Bird (1996), Empowerment offers much for many people in organizations and
dependent on organizations. For the most part the benefits are positive, leading to organizational
and individual growth but, as with any major organizational change, there are potential and
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actual causalities. The roles that people have learned to play so well in organizations have been
perfected at the behest of the organization in its old, pre-empowerment incarnation. Adjusting to
the new state of things in the empowered organization requires an organization to go beyond the
minimal obligations that it might adopt in a conventional redundancy situation. These standards
of excellence are based on full disclosure, patience in managing people through the change
process, the provision of the training and information required for people to succeed in their new
roles, and flexibility in relocating people whose roles are obsolete in the empowered
organization. In this respect the interests of the multiple stakeholders in the organization can both
be satisfied through good management practice.
Parker & Slaughter (1995) equated employee empowerment as management-by-stress strategy
that pushes people and systems to the breaking point by forcing workers to do more. Lack of
employee empowerment in organization is considered as a stressor to individual and members of
the team. Management has a prerogative duty to ensure that stressors are caused by lack of
employee empowerment are minimized by encouraging employee empowerment. Employee
empowerment is a management practice, which all managers should practice to improve
organizational performance. Management needs to take into account the following facts to ensure
that empowerment in their organizations is enhanced and nurtured.
Kelley (1993) distinguished among three types of discretionary empowerment: routine, creative,
and deviant, available during the service-delivery process. Routine discretion is implemented
when employees select an alternative from a list of possible actions to do their jobs. Creative
discretion is present when employees develop alternate methods of performing a task. Deviant
discretion, which is not preferred by organizations, involves behaviors outside the scope of an
employees formal job description and authority.
Ripley & Ripley (1992) in 1970s the U.S. was losing market share in many industries and
product lines despite superior productivity. By now the Japanese had turned their weaknesses
into strengths. By pursuing quality, worker empowerment, variety, customization, convenience,
and speed in getting to the market, they not only expanded the terms of competition beyond
productivity but also found new routes to products as they were made. Mounting evidence began
to suggest that productivity, on the one hand, and quality, worker empowerment, variety,
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customization, convenience, and rapid change, on the other, were not only compatible but also
mutually reinforcing competitive standards.
Vogt and
Marrel (1990) argued that power is a complex interactive process, whereas employee
empowerment is an act of developing and increasing power by working with others. In addition,
they identified six core dimensions to empower employees in organizations, educating, leading,
mentoring/supporting, providing, structuring and one that incorporates all the above. This clearly
indicates that empowerment is a multi-dimensional process which involves many elements in an
organization.
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3. Fidelity, Mohali
5. Infosys, Chandigarh
empowerment.
Questions 22 used to identify the top five elements employees think lead to
empowerment.
company.
Questions 12 and 15 identify the employees level of trust and confidence in
satisfaction.
Questions 21 used to identify the top five elements employees think lead to
employee satisfaction.
A five-point Likert scale was used for simplicity and effectiveness. The selections in the
Likert scale were:
(a) disagree strongly, (b) disagree somewhat, (c) neutral, (d) agree somewhat, and (e) agree
strongly.
19
Age in Years
21-25
26-30
31-35
Total
No of Respondents Percent
91
83.5
17
15.6
1
.9
109
100.0
Gender
Male
No of Respondents Percent
68
62.4
Female
41
37.6
Total
109
100.0
No of Respondents Percent
10
9.2
69
63.3
23
21.1
7
6.4
109
100.0
Salary/Month in Rs.
15000
15001 to 25000
25001 to 35001
35001 to 45001
45001
Total
No of Respondents Percent
7
6.4
16
14.7
76
69.7
8
7.3
2
1.8
109
100.0
Marital Status
Unmarried
Married
Total
No of Respondents Percent
95
87.2
14
12.8
109
100.0
Gender
Male
Female
Total
Qualification
Grad
Post Grad
Total
No of Respondents
68
41
109
No of Respondents
87
22
109
20
Percent
62.4
37.6
100.0
Percent
79.8
20.2
100.0
Job Satisfaction
.706(**)
.000
109
1
109
Correlation test is applied on the Employee Empowerment and job satisfaction using SPSS15.
From the test, Pearson correlation value comes out to be .706 which is significant at the 0.01
level (2-tailed) that shows there is strong positive relation between employee empowerment and
job satisfaction.
21
Mean Square F
Sig.
.239
2.027 .137
.118
employee empowerment and age using ANOVA, it is
found that p-value (.137) has come out to be greater than significant level (.05), hence there no
difference in level of empowerment in older employees and young employees.
So, the hypothesis that older employees will perceive themselves as being less empowered than
their younger counterparts is rejected.
22
No of Respondents
68
41
109
Empowerment Mean
3.178
3.205
3.188
Std. Deviation
.3372
.3660
.3469
The above table represents the employee empowerment scores of both the genders. The t-test
shows that that there was no significant difference in the mean employee empowerment of men
and women. The p-value for the two mean scores has come out to be 0.696 which is greater than
assumed alpha 0.05, so there is no significant difference in employee empowerment of two
genders.
So, the hypothesis that female employees perceive themselves as being less empowered than
their male counterparts is rejected.
4.2.3 Relation between Employee Empowerment and Work Experience of Employees
ANOVA has been applied to check is there any relation between employee empowerment and
work experience of employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-4: Employees with a longer work experience perceive themselves as being more
empowered than employees with shorter work experience.
Following results have been obtained as:
Descriptive Statistics of employee empowerment and Work Experience
Work Experience No of
Empowerment
in years
<1
Mean
3.320
Respondents
10
Std. Deviation
.3645
23
Std. Error
.1153
1-2
3-5
6-10
Total
69
23
7
109
3.148
3.222
3.286
3.188
.3359
.3680
.3579
.3469
.0404
.0767
.1353
.0332
The above table represents the employee empowerment scores of employees with varied work
experience.
Result of ANOVA between employee empowerment and Work Experience
Sum of
Between
Groups
Within
Groups
Total
Mean
Squares
Df
Square
Sig.
.379
.126
1.050
.374
12.616
105
.120
12.994
108
From the above analysis made between employee empowerment and work experience using
ANOVA, it is found that p-value (.374) has come out to be greater than significant level (.05),
hence there no relationship in empowerment and work experience of employee So, the
hypothesis that employees with a longer work experience perceive themselves as being more
empowered than employees with shorter work experience is rejected.
4.2.4 Relation between Employee Empowerment and Salary of Employees
ANOVA has been applied to check is there any relation between employee empowerment and
salary of employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-5: Employees earning a high salary perceive themselves as being more empowered
than employees earning a lower salary.
Following results have been obtained as:
Descriptive Statistics of employee empowerment and Salary
Salary/Month in Rs. No of Respondents Empowerment Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error
15000
7
3.357
.3910
.1478
15001 to 25000
16
3.231
.3554
.0888
24
25001 to 35001
35001 to 45001
45001
Total
76
8
2
109
3.154
3.225
3.400
3.188
.3408
.3240
.5657
.3469
.0391
.1146
.4000
.0332
The above table represents the employee empowerment scores of employees with varied salary.
Result of ANOVA between employee empowerment and Salary
Sum of Squares
Between Groups .419
Within Groups
12.575
Total
12.994
Df Mean Square F
Sig.
4
.105
.867 .487
104 .121
108
From the above analysis made between employee empowerment and salary using ANOVA, it is
found that p-value (.867) has come out to be greater than significant level (.05), hence there no
relationship in empowerment and salary of employee So, the hypothesis that employees earning
a high salary perceive themselves as being more empowered than employees earning a lower
salary is rejected.
4.2.5 Relation between Employee Empowerment and Marital Status of Employees
T-test has been applied to check is there any relation between employee empowerment and
marital status of employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-6: Married employees perceive themselves as being less empowered than unmarried
employees.
Following results have been obtained as:
Group Statistics
Marital Status
Unmarried
Married
Total
No of Respondents
95
14
109
Empowerment Mean
3.176
3.271
3.188
Std. Deviation
.3439
.3688
.3469
The above table represents the employee empowerment scores of both married and unmarried
employees. The t-test shows that that there was no significant difference in the mean employee
empowerment of both married and unmarried employees. The p-value for the two mean scores
25
has come out to be 0.338 which is greater than assumed alpha 0.05, so there is no significant
difference in employee empowerment of married and unmarried employees.
So, the hypothesis that married employees perceive themselves as being less empowered than
unmarried employees is rejected.
4.2.7 Relation between Employee Empowerment and Level of Qualification of Employees
T-test has been applied to check is there any relation between employee empowerment and level
of qualification of employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-7: Employees with a higher level of qualification perceive themselves as being more
empowered than employees with lower level of qualification.
Following results have been obtained as:
Group Statistics
Qualification
Bachelors Degree
Masters Degree
Total
No of Respondents
87
22
109
Empowerment Mean
3.182
3.214
3.188
Std. Deviation
.3575
.3075
.3469
The above table represents the employee empowerment scores of employees with different level
of qualification. The t-test shows that that there was no significant difference in the mean
employee empowerment with different level of qualification. The p-value for the two mean
scores has come out to be 0.701 which is greater than assumed alpha 0.05, so there is no
significant difference in employee empowerment with different level of qualification.
So, the hypothesis that employees with a higher level of qualification perceive themselves as
being more empowered than employees with lower level of qualification is rejected.
Df Mean Square F
Sig.
2
.211
2.793 .066
106 .076
108
From the above analysis made between job satisfaction and age using ANOVA, it is found that pvalue (.066) has come out to be greater than significant level (.05), hence there no difference in
level of satisfaction in older employees and young employees.
So, the hypothesis that older employees will perceive themselves as being more satisfied than
their younger counterparts is rejected.
4.3.2 Relation between Job satisfaction and Gender of Employees
T-test has been applied to check is there any relation between job satisfaction and gender of
employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-9: Female employees perceive themselves as being more satisfied than their male
counterparts.
27
No of Respondents
68
41
109
Satisfaction Mean
2.641
2.676
2.654
Std. Deviation
.2787
.2826
.2794
The above table represents the job satisfaction scores of both the genders. The t-test shows that
that there was no significant difference in the mean job satisfaction of men and women. The pvalue for the two mean scores has come out to be 0.536 which is greater than assumed alpha
0.05, so there is no significant difference in job satisfaction of two genders.
So, the hypothesis that female employees perceive themselves as being more satisfied than their
male counterparts is rejected.
4.3.3 Relation between Job satisfaction and Work Experience of Employees
ANOVA has been applied to check is there any relation between job satisfaction and work
experience of employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-10: Employees with a longer work experience perceive themselves as being more
satisfied than employees with shorter work experience.
Following results have been obtained as:
Descriptive Statistics of job satisfaction and Work Experience
Work Experience in years
<1
1-2
3-5
6-10
Total
No of Respondents
10
69
23
7
109
Satisfaction Mean
2.650
2.641
2.648
2.814
2.654
Std. Deviation
.3440
.2799
.2391
.3132
.2794
Std. Error
.1088
.0337
.0498
.1184
.0268
The above table represents the job satisfaction scores of employees with varied work experience.
Result of ANOVA between job satisfaction and Work Experience
28
Df Mean Square F
Sig.
4
.028
.347 .846
104 .080
108
29
From the above analysis made between job satisfaction and salary using ANOVA, it is found that
p-value (.846) has come out to be greater than significant level (.05), hence there no relationship
in satisfaction and salary of employee So, the hypothesis that employees earning a high salary
perceive themselves as being more satisfied than employees earning a lower salary is rejected.
4.3.5 Relation between Job satisfaction and Marital Status of Employees
T-test has been applied to check is there any relation between job satisfaction and marital status
of employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-6: Married employees perceive themselves as being more satisfied than unmarried
employees.
Following results have been obtained as:
Group Statistics
Marital Status
Unmarried
Married
Total
No of Respondents
95
14
109
Satisfaction Mean
2.647
2.700
2.654
Std. Deviation
.2809
.2746
.2794
The above table represents the job satisfaction scores of both married and unmarried employees.
The t-test shows that that there was no significant difference in the mean job satisfaction of both
married and unmarried employees. The p-value for the two mean scores has come out to be
0.513 which is greater than assumed alpha 0.05, so there is no significant difference in job
satisfaction of married and unmarried employees.
So, the hypothesis that married employees perceive themselves as being more satisfied than
unmarried employees is rejected.
4.3.6 Relation between Job satisfaction and Level of Qualification of Employees
T-test has been applied to check is there any relation between job satisfaction and level of
qualification of employee and to test the following hypothesis as follows:
Hypothesis-7: Employees with a higher level of qualification perceive themselves as being more
satisfied than employees with lower level of qualification.
30
Points
29
9
108
84
80
26
44
17
Percentage
5.82
1.80
21.68
16.87
16.06
5.22
8.84
3.41
31
i. Responsibility
j. Recognition
k. Growth Opportunity
Total
19
25
57
498
3.82
5.03
11.45
100
Points
76
90
44
57
23
27
31
33
42
47
22
492
Percentage
15.45
18.29
8.94
11.59
4.67
5.49
6.30
6.71
8.54
9.55
4.47
100
32
1. Value of Pearsons Coefficient of Correlation between comes out to be .706 which shows
that there is a strong positive relation between employee empowerment and job
satisfaction. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
2. Mean value of employee empowerment for 109 respondents has come out to be 3.188
which show there is good level of employee empowerment in IT sector.
3. Mean value of job satisfaction for 109 respondents has come out to be 2.654 which show
that employees in IT sector are moderately satisfied.
4. There is no significant relation between employee empowerment and age as p-value has
come out to be .137 which is greater than significant level (.05).
5. There is no significant relation between employee empowerment and gender as p-value
has come out to be .696 which is greater than significant level (.05).
6. There is no significant relation between employee empowerment and work experience as
p-value has come out to be .374 which is greater than significant level (.05).
7. There no is significant relation between employee empowerment and salary as p-value
has come out to be .487 which is greater than significant level (.05).
8. There is no significant relation between employee empowerment and marital status as pvalue has come out to be .338 which is greater than significant level (.05).
9. There is no significant relation between employee empowerment and qualification as pvalue has come out to be .701 which is greater than significant level (.05).
10. There is no significant relation between job satisfaction and age as p-value has come out
to be .066 which is greater than significant level (.05).
11. There is no significant relation between job satisfaction and gender as p-value has come
out to be .536 which is greater than significant level (.05).
12. There is no significant relation between job satisfaction and work experience as p-value
has come out to be .485 which is greater than significant level (.05).
13. There is no significant relation between job satisfaction and salary as p-value has come
out to be .846 which is greater than significant level (.05).
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14. There is no significant relation between job satisfaction and marital status as p-value has
come out to be .513 which is greater than significant level (.05).
15. There is no significant relation between job satisfaction and qualification as p-value has
come out to be .666 which is greater than significant level (.05).
5.4 Conclusion
The results show that the employee empowerment has strong influence upon job satisfaction of
employees which in turn lead towards high commitment to organization. It implies that more an
employee feels empowered, more he tends to feel satisfied and committed with his job and thus
more committed towards the organization. They start working towards various other activities
which were never touched upon too. Also empowerment fosters innovation and creativity as
more autonomy gives a person liberty to look for his own ways of doing things.
Results of ANOVA and T-tests applied between empowerment and demographic variables show
that empowerment has no significant relationship with age of the respective employees in case of
software engineers. Similar results are in relation of empowerment with gender, qualification,
salary, marital status, work experience. This may due to the fact that sample used is of very
young age group and early in their career and share similar interests.
Results shows that top four elements, which gives feeling of empowerment to employees, have
received maximum points are freedom/autonomy(21.68%), information sharing(16.87),
authority/power(16.06) and growth opportunity(11.45). Freedom/autonomy received highest
point, it suggest that software engineers likes independence, free will and liberty. And top four
35
6. References
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within people for astonishing results San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1999.
Bhatnagar, Jyotsna. The power of psychological empowerment as an antecedent to
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Conger JA., Kanungo, RN., "The empowerment process: integrating theory and practice",
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Gandz , Jeffrey. & Bird, Frederick G. The Ethics of Empowerment Source Journal of Business
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Hammuda, I., & Dulaimi, M.F. The theory and application of empowerment in construction:
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376-407, 2001.
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Lawson, Karen. Build Your Business from the Inside out: Four Keys to Employee
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and patterns in employee empowerment: Assessing what matters to street-level bureaucrats
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Powell, L. Shedding a tier: Flattening organizational structures and employee empowerment
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dynamics, 29(2), 94-107, 2000.
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management in innovative organizations in the 1990s. Management Decision, 1992, vol 30, 2043, 1992
Robbins, S.P., Organizational behavior (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005
Rosset, J. (2009, August 25). Employee Empowerment Done Right!. Retrieved September 13,
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Spatz, David. (2000). Team-building in construction. Practice Periodical on Structural
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39
Ref No.
7. ANNEXURE
A QUESTIONNAIRE TO DETERMINE EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT
I am a post-graduate student of University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh. As a
part of my curriculum I am carrying out a research on employee satisfaction and empowerment
in the IT industry. Empowerment involves the delegation of responsibility down the hierarchy so
as to give employees increased decision-making authority in respect of the execution of their
primary work tasks with less control and direction from their manager. I would appreciate your
help by completing the linked survey.
All answers to questions remain anonymous and will be treated confidentially; there will be no
reference to your identification at any point in the research.
You are requested to answer the questions with absolute honesty and to answer according to what
takes place in your work environment. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions.
Thank you in advance for your participation.
Section: A
Instructions: Please tick [] (or write your answer if needed) the right answer to the following
questions
1. Name of the Company: (optional)
40
2. Name: (optional)
3. Designation:
4. Age (in years):
5. Gender:
6. Marital Status:
20
21-25
Male
31-35
35+
Female
Unmarried
7. Highest Qualification:
26-30
Married
2. Bachelors degree
4.Doctoral degree
<1
12
35
6 10
11 20
21 +
9. Salary (in Rs/month): < 15,000
15,001-25,000
35,001-45,000
10. Your scheduled work hours:
25,001-35,000
45,001& above
1. Day shift
2. Night shift
3. Flexi time
Section: B
Instructions: These questions should be answered with reference to work related matters. Do not
hesitate too long before you answer. The first answer that comes to mind is usually the most
relevant one. Please tick [] your answer for each question using the scale that follows:
Disagree
Disagree
Strongly
Somewhat
1
1
2
2
41
Neutral
Agree
Agree
Somewhat
Strongly
3
3
4
4
5
5
of my company
5. I receive encouragement to come up with new
which I am accountable
7. I have opportunities to learn and grow
8. I am involved in decisions that affect my work
9. I get the training I need to do my job well
10. My supervisor makes me feel like I am an
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
my job well
12. I have confidence in the leadership of my
company
13. I am encouraged to develop creative and
innovative ideas
14. I have the materials and equipment I need to
do my job well
15. My supervisor is an effective manager
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
accomplishment
19. I am a satisfied employee
20. I am an empowered employee (i.e. the power,
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
42
PTO
21. According to you what are the top five elements that lead to employee satisfaction? Please
select any 5 elements, which you think are more important than others, from the list given
below:a. Recognition/Appreciation
b. Financial Compensation
c. Work Environment
d. Advancement Opportunities
e. Benefits/Perks
f. Support/Encouragement
g. Management/Leadership
h. Training
i. Participation/Job Responsibility
j. Challenging/Personal
Accomplishment
k. Communication
22. According to you what are the top five elements that lead to employee empowerment? Please
select any 5 elements, which you think are more important than others, from the list given
below:a. Training
b. Necessary Resources
c. Freedom/Autonomy
d. Information Sharing
e. Authority/Power
f. Management Support
g. Decision Making
h. Accountability
i. Responsibility
j. Recognition
k. Growth Opportunity
THANK YOU
43
Table of Contents
Certificateii
Acknowledgement......iii
Executive Summaryiv
Table of Contentsv
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Employee Empowerment........................................................................................................1
1.2 Employee Empowerment Definition.......................................................................................2
1.3 Benefits of Empowerment.......................................................................................................3
1.4 Empowerment Misconceptions...............................................................................................4
1.5 Three Keys Approach to empowerment..................................................................................5
1.6 Psychological perspective.......................................................................................................6
1.7 Multidimensional Nature of The Empowerment.....................................................................7
1.8 Job satisfaction........................................................................................................................8
1.9 Elements of job satisfaction and employee empowerment.....................................................9
1.10 Need and Significance of Study..........................................................................................10
2. Review of Literature..................................................................................................................11
3. Methodology/ Research design..................................................................................................17
3.1 Research Objectives and Hypothesis....................................................................................17
3.2 Research Hypothesis.............................................................................................................17
3.3 Research Method...................................................................................................................18
3.4 Sampling Procedure and Data Collection.............................................................................18
3.4.1 Sampling Method..........................................................................................................18
3.4.2 Sample Size..................................................................................................................18
3.4.3 Method of Data Collection...........................................................................................19
3.4.4 Data collection instrument............................................................................................19
3.5 Data Analysis Technique:......................................................................................................21
3.5.1 Profile of the Sample obtained.....................................................................................21
4. Data Analysis and Interpretation...............................................................................................23
4.1 Relationship between Employee Empowerment and Job Satisfaction.................................23
4.2 Relationship between Employee Empowerment and Demographic Variables of employees
.....................................................................................................................................................24
4.3 Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Demographic Variables of employees..............29
4.4 Analysis of elements employee empowerment and job satisfaction.....................................34
44
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