Psychological Empowerment on Organizational Commitment as Perceived by Saudi Academics

Abstract

Various scholars have identified commitment as one of the major contributors of workplace productivity.
Commitment provides the interest and morale for handling tasks which results in organisation progress and growth.
Commitment is perceived as either continuance, normative, or continuance commitment. The three commitment
categories are fundamental, and academics have established empowerment as a fundamental tool for developing
workplace commitment. Significantly, empowerment is categorized as either psychological or structural.
Psychological empowerment is purported to increase the commitment levels in institutions. Basically, psychological
empowerment is concerned more with personnel experience and their responsibilities in the organization rather than
focusing on managerial activities. This study, therefore, establishes the validity of psychological empowerment in
improving the commitment levels among institutions.
The study sampled 100 employees from varied departments in King Saudi University. The participants were
distributed in accordance with their working experience; twenty of the respondents had worked for between 11 and 15
years, thirty had a working experience of 6-10 years, and the majority (50) had worked for less than five years. The
level of psychological empowerment (PE) and the corresponding organization commitment (OC) was measured
through a survey questionnaire. In both questionnaires, the items were measured in 7-point Likert- type, with the
least value being 1 (strongly disagree) and the highest 7 (strongly agree). The results of the study indicated that that
the average of psychological empowerment and the five dimensions relating to it with organization commitment
were on the higher side. Notably, organization commitment relied heavily on the level of autonomy given to the
employee in decision making at the workplace.