Free Essay with Employee Empowerment Article Review

According to the article, employee empowerment is seen as an important business priority for any senior executive in any organization. To them, they have already realized that engaging and empowering their employee's yields increased innovation, performance, and productivity. From the article, it is also clear that employee empowerment leads to quick decision making and response to environmental changes. Therefore, the process of transferring power and authority with a sense of responsibility and accountability to one's employees' leads to employee flexibility and improvement and it is beneficial to both an individual and the organization.

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According to this article, employee empowerment is viewed as a strategic tool leading to the success of most organizations. One of the reasons behind this is that employee empowerment is among the most effective and powerful human resource activities that make the highest contribution by yielding individuals who are in a position to add value in a service or product. Employee empowerment enhances both the job involvement and satisfaction, organizational commitment and career satisfaction. Another issue that came up in the article about employee empowerment is that an empowered employee adds value thus creating an added advantage to an organization. It is seen as a motivational technique that if properly managed it improves performance.

The reason why the article chose to discuss employee empowerment and engagement is to measure the effects and influence of both employee engagement and empowerment on the organizational commitment. And towards the end of the article, the researchers find out that employee empowerment practices can be associated with organizational concepts. From the study, it can be concluded that employee empowerment creates an empowered and engaged workforce which seen to be very reliable and committed.

A Study on Impact of Employee Empowerment and Employee Engagement on Organisational Commitment

Srividya Prathiba

Dr. Srividya Prathiba C. S, is Associate Professor & Head Dept. of Accounting & Finance, Shift II, M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women (Autonomous), Chennai. Email: pravid1284@yahoo.com

Abstract

The conventional role of HR has undergone a tremendous change due to high levels of uncertainty and complexity, disruptive technologies, speed, alternatives choices available, and innovation. This paradigm shift possess great challenge as HR departments move from being mute participants in strategy discussions to key contributors to assess business needs and planning ahead for mobilizing resources at optimal costs. This includes manpower planning, talent building, employee engagement, employee empowerment etc. One of the fundamental concerns of HR managers today is how to engage and empower their people in the organization so that they contribute whole heartedly to it during their tenure at workplace. This paper explores to study the effect of empowering and engaging employees on the organizational commitment in public, private sector banks operating in Chennai. For this purpose, a conceptual framework is formulated and tested. The results reveal that employee engagement and empowerment enhances organizational commitment of employees.

Keywords

Employee engagement, employee empowerment, organizational commitment

1. Introduction

Employee engagement has become a top business priority for senior executives. In this current and challenging globalized economy, business leaders need high-performing workforce for growth and survival. They recognize that a highly engaged workforce can increase innovation, productivity, and bottom-line performance and thus enable employees to be committed the organization. More so, empowered employees are said to be in position to make quick decisions and respond to any changes in the environment. Thus process of transferring power, authority with responsibility and accountability to the employees enables organizations to be more flexible and responsive to lead improvements in both individual and organizational performance. This paper explores the concept of employee empowerment and engagement, and its relationship to organizational commitment. Thus, this study explores at understanding the link between employee engagement and employee empowerment on organizational commitment.

2. Rationale

Employee engagement and employee empowerment is considered today as a strategic tool for organization's success due to the following reasons:

Srividya Prathiba

Firstly, employee empowerment is considered to be one of the most powerful and effective HR practices that facilitates to make greatest contribution by the people who are capable of creating added value in product and service which is rare and inimitable. It enhances job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and organizational commitment. (Noorliza et al, 2006).

Secondly, empowered employees are said to add value and create competitive advantage to the organization. (Cogner & Kanungo 1988).

Thirdly, employee empowerment is a motivational technique that is designed to improve performance if managed properly through increased levels of employees participation and self-determination. (Ongori 2009).

Fourthly, there is clear evidence to suggest what employees look for in their work is a mixture of both tangible and intangible elements that creates a stimulating environment where their contribution is recognized and suitably rewarded. (V M Kaul- 2011a).

Fifthly, commitment plays an important role in shaping attitudes and thoughts. They contribute significantly to the view that the employees also have a stake in the organisation. (V M Kaul-NHRD Network Journal volume 4 issue 3 July 2011b).

Sixthly, organizational commitment is said to be the force that binds an employee's course of action to achieve one or more targets. Cohen (2003).

Seventhly, studying management skills show that subordinates' empowerment and engagement is an important part of organizational and managerial effectiveness. It further increases organizational effectiveness and commitment.

Eigthly, as Fernandez 2007 points out that an 'engaged' and empowered employee has a high level of commitment and involvement in the day-to-day process of decision-making and contributes actively towards achieving the goals of the organization.

Lastly, Robert 2006 most of the organizations have started investing substantially in policies and practices that inculcates engagement and commitment in their workforce (Robert 2006) SHRM.

Gebauer and Lowman (2008) expounded this by stating that there has to be an inclination to walk the extra mile to help the company achieve its business objectives. Thus it can be understood that organizational commitment occurs when employees understand and show perseverance and enthusiasm to the achievement of objectives of the business. (Abraham, 2012).

Need for the Study

A K. Khandelwal, A Report of the Committee on HR issues of Public sector Banks (2010) PSBs of today presents a different picture as compared to the past. Many have turned tech-savvy. Some are getting aggressive by the day in marketing and quick product roll out. These developments have deep rooted impact on the employees of the banks. Thus the challenge before banks is to inform, engage, empower, marshall and channelize the employees' dynamisms towards these developments with a view to transform them into active and willing partners in the change process thus, paving way for organizational commitment. Therefore it is imperative that we identify what are the engagement drivers used and the extent to which employees are empowered in banks and how does this enable an employee to be committed to the organization.

Objectives

To measure the effect of employee engagement on organizational commitment

To measure the influence of employee empowerment on organizational commitment

To measure the influence of employee empowerment and employee engagement collectively on organizational commitment

46SIES Journal of Management, December 2016, Vol. 12(2)

A Study on Impact of Employee Empowerment and Employee Engagement on Organisational Commitment

Research Methodology

The methodology opted for the survey consists of the following: Primary data was collected specifically for the purpose of the research needs at hand.

Research Design

The researcher used qualitative and quantitative research methods to describe, examine, and statistically analyze the primary data that were gathered from the survey process. A descriptive correlational design was used to determine and describe the perceptions of the respondents regarding the employee engagement drivers, empowerment practices and organizational commitment.

Research Instrument

The questionnaire consists of three subdivisions.

Part I relates to 15 engagement drivers used by banks to engage their employees. These drivers focus on employee's characteristics on learning and development activities, compensational benefits given to employees etc.,

Part II relates to employee empowerment. This section tries to elicit response from the employees as to what extent is the employees empowered in executing the day to day operations of the banking activities. It also considers the association between empowerment practices and engagement drivers. It further explores the influence of employee empowerment on organizational commitment. This also aims at understanding what motivates employees, drives job satisfaction, commitment, pride and advocacy. The categorical variables are measured based on a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from "strongly agree", to "strongly disagree". Respondents were are asked to express agreement or disagreement of a five point scale.

Part III relates to organizational commitment. The study has adopted the organisational commitment scale propounded by Mowday,

Steers, and Porter was used to measure individual performance. The same was modified slightly to reflect the self-rating process. The response scale was also changed to five point scale. The questions are framed using simple direct and unbiased words and its flow is also logically designed.

Sample Size

The sampling unit of this study comprises of 250 employees working with banks (public sector and private sector banks) from the city of Chennai as the sample.

Limitations of the Study

The study is not a longitudinal study.

Time constraint.

The study is restricted to 250 respondents.

Respondent's Details

In this study, we were able to locate 250 employees who.

Are working for public and private sector banks.

Were at the officers and clerical level.

Held the same position in different functional areas

Each of these employees was assessed using the questionnaire and personal interview.

Pilot Study

A initial investigation is conducted to check the reliability of the statements. In Likert's five point scale. The reliability is measured through Cronbach's Alpha method to verify the simultaneous variance for all the items regarding engagement drivers and empowerment scales and organizational commitment. At the point of inception the Cronbach alpha revealed are .938,

.936, and .944, this shows that the primary data domain is highly conducive to conduct the research with high variances of 93.8%,

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Srividya Prathiba

93.6% and 94.4%, respectively for the three predominant factors. These values are above the bench mark values of .75 therefore it can be concluded that the statements are very clear for the respondents to express their insight.