How Empowerment Can Help to Reduce Change-Related Uncertainty in Young Employees

Abstract

Change can affect employee work behavior and well-being in a variety of ways. The mediating and moderating factors that produce these effects, however, are not fully understood. This study examines the mediating role of uncertainty on affective commitment and organizational attractiveness and assesses whether psychological empowerment can mitigate the effects of change-related uncertainty. Survey data stems from 971 young German banking sector employees during a change period. Results reveal a negative relationship between change and affective commitment as well as between change and organizational attractiveness, with both relationships mediated by uncertainty. Furthermore, empowerment does not moderate this mediation for affective commitment but does for organizational attractiveness. Thus, there are fewer negative effects of uncertainty on organizational attractiveness when psychological empowerment is high. This has several implications for practice: uncertainty should be counteracted during change processes, for example, through transparent communication, and psychological empowerment should be promoted before and during change processes.