Linking Psychological Empowerment to Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment: Investigating the Mediating Effect of Organizational Trust

Sanad A Alajmi

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v11n10p120

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to examine the influence of psychological empowerment and organizational trust on job satisfaction and organizational commitment among Kuwait free trade zone employees. Data were obtained for this research through a set of questionnaire which was divided into four parts and administered to a total of 271 respondents. The results showed that psychological empowerment mainly affects employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The results indicated that two dimensions of psychological empowerment, i.e. Meaning and Impact, are significant and positively related to job satisfaction. The existing literature supports the relationships between psychological empowerment dimensions and three dimensions of organizational commitment: normative, continuance, and affective commitment. However, results from this study showed inconsistency. The results showed that only one dimension of Psychological Empowerment, Meaning, is significant and positively Associated to Affective Commitment; two dimensions of Psychological Empowerment, Meaning and Competence, are significant and positively Associated to Normative Commitment; and no dimensions of Psychological Empowerment are statistically contributed to Continuance Commitment. Moreover, analysis has also showed that organizational trust mediates the relationships between psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Some practical implications are also discussed. The research concludes with limitations and future research suggestions to enhance psychological empowerment in public and private organizations in Kuwait.

Highlights

In light of the global competition and rapid changes in the business environment, organizations seek to enhance the efficiency of human resources through the adoption of managerial applications that achieve optimum utilization of the human resources
The results show that Psychological Empowerment explains about 33.5% of the variation in the Job Satisfaction
This can go with Seibert et al (2004) and Avey et al (2008) who believe that job satisfaction is one of the most important results of psychological empowerment

Summary

Introduction

In light of the global competition and rapid changes in the business environment, organizations seek to enhance the efficiency of human resources through the adoption of managerial applications that achieve optimum utilization of the human resources. It is generally accepted that this concept consists of four dimensions, i.e. Meaning, Competence, Self-Determination, and Impact (Spreitzer, 1995; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990), and is linked with a number of different work behaviors like employees’ performance and attitudes (Fulford & Enz, 1995 ; Hall, 2008; Koberg, 1999; Spreitzer, 1995, 1996; Suzik, 1998), job satisfaction (Gazzoli et al, 2010; Avey et al, 2008; Bordin et al, 2007; Ugboro & Obeng, 2000) and organizational commitment (Dehkordi et al, 2011; Joo et al, 2010; Chen & Chen, 2008; Bhatnagar, 2005)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion