The Effects of Empowerment on Employee Psychological Outcomes in Upscale Hotels

Abstract

Empowerment is considered to be the right of individuals to make decisions and solve problems by themselves. Existing literature indicates four empowerment components: meaning, impact, competence, and self-determination. This article focuses on the role of empowerment on one's psychological responses (i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job dedication, and turnover intention). The impact of organizational commitment as a mediator is also examined in an Asian hotel setting. Data obtained from a sample of 200 respondents from upscale hotels in Busan, Korea were analyzed with SPSS for Windows, Version 11.0. The results of regression equations supported eight hypothesized relationships among study constructs. Specifically, analyses confirmed that meaning is a main subfactor in forming job satisfaction, demonstrated moral commitment explained much in forming job dedication and affective commitment played a critical role in decreasing employees’ turnover intention. Functions of affective commitment and moral commitment have been made clear: affective commitment contributed relatively more to decreasing turnover intention and moral commitment makes employees exhibit less job dedication. Therefore, managers should consider allocating more resources to the implementation of empowerment programs.