EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT AND CONTINUENCE COMMITMENT IN THE NIGERIAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

Abstract

Employee empowerment and continuance commitment are two concepts that are of significance to all modern corporate entities. A robust appreciation and application of employee empowerment will contribute in measurable respects to the growth and sustainability of various organizations and continuance commitment of their employ-ees. This study is an assessment of the relationship and the effect of employee empow-erment on continuance commitment in the Nigerian manufacturing industry. A cross-sectional survey design method was adopted and data was collected via a survey of three hundred and three (303) respondents randomly selected from a population of 1243 employees of 25 manufacturing companies in Delta State, Nigeria. Data collect-ed were analyzed using Spearman’s Rank Correlation and linear regression analysis with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23. The results of the study showed that there is significant relationship between employee empowerment and continuance commitment. As predicted, the study also revealed that employee empowerment exerts a positive and statistically significant effect on continuance commitment in manufacturing companies in Delta State, Nigeria. Based on these find-ings, we conclude that employee empowerment has significant influence on continu-ance commitment. The study therefore recommends among others that management of manufacturing companies in Nigeria should grant their employees power to initiate change, thereby encouraging them to take charge of their work tasks.