Psychological Empowerment Experiences of Software Professionals in Post Lockdown Information Technology Organisations

Abstract

Organisations have the responsibility of not only empowering employees, but also, aiding them towards flourishing. Post lockdown (Covid-19) in Indian information technology organisations (ITOs), software professionals who experienced psychological empowerment are more likely to carry out their assignments better as well as having higher levels of trust, loyalty, employer branding and job satisfaction. Empowerment practices are expected to nurture heliotropic experiences among individuals, thus leading to their flourishing. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence in the Indian ITO context. A quantitative approach was adopted, with 200 software professionals participating in the study, aimed at investigating the correlation between psychological empowerment and flourishing. Two valid and reliable structured questionnaires were used to conduct the study using convenience sampling to identify the software professionals and stratified sampling to stratify the ITOs post lockdown (for COVID-19). Descriptive and regression analysis was performed to probe the experience of meaning, competence, self-determination and impact on flourishing. The results indicate that the software professional's experienced both psychological empowerment and flourishing. It also creates an emotional ability to enables intrinsically employees to have positive outcomes. Furthermore, the sub-dimensions self-determination and impact are found to be good predictors of flourishing even during the post-lockdown (Covid-19) period. Implications of how psychological empowerment of software professionals is important to ITO performance and accomplishment of objectives are discussed in detail.