Relationship Between Empowerment and Organizational Commitment: An Empirical Study of IT Industry

Introduction

In recent years the issue of employee empowerment has received increasing attention (Zani and Pietrantoni, 2001). Despite its popularity though relatively little rigorous empirical research has been conducted on its antecedents and consequences (Menon, 2001). Today's organizations are continuously developing technologies and operational processes for excellence in the field of competition. In today's competitive world, one of the important tools for change, to survive organization and to achieve the goals and the concerned missions is human element.Dramatic changes are taking place within the world of work, as organizations seek to keep pace with an ever-growing rate of change driven by technological advances and changes in patterns of consumer demand (Howard, 1995).

Empowerment is the new fuel for the growing and booming workplace (Scott & Jaffe, 1993). Moreover, according to Lawler, Mohrman and Benson, (2001, cited in Spreitzer, 2007) today, more than 70 percent of organizations have adopted some kind of empowerment initiative for at least part of their workforce. Other than that, to be successful in today’s business environment, companies need the knowledge, ideas, energy, and creativity of every employee, from front line workers to the top level managers in the executive suite.

For the purpose of global or even stay at some level, training and placement of new forces to continue the growth and development is required and the future belongs to those who have plan and goal for it (Robbins el al., 2002). Therefore, nowadays the most important source of competitive advantage in organizations is committed, motivated and conscientious employees. Unfortunately, its potential talent often does not use in the organization. Therefore, empowerment is remembered the main challenge of managers in the current era. As a result of these challenges, managers must prepare organizations condition so that each person can be stronger, as a committed and competent workforce is one of the conditions necessary for the effective functioning in the modern organization.

Aspirations, goal and ambitions of today's workforce are high as it consists of young and comprehend people. So, it can be said that, there is a need of paradigm shift for today’s HR. So, that its primary role, people management should be shift to aspirations management. Employees must be understood firstly as an individuals and then as professional.

As we know that IT sector is a highly service-oriented sector and the employees have direct contact with the customers. To provide better and prompt services to its customers it is essential for the employees to be empowered. The aim of the current study is to identify the extent of usage of empowerment tools in an organization and also to study how empowerment contributes to the working in organizations by measuring the role efficacy level of the employees working in the IT sector.

Organization are continuously upgrading their technology, process & systems to cope with competition & challenging environment. Organizational commitment is defined as an individual identification with and involvement in the organization characterized by strong beliefs & acceptance of the organization.

“While there is agreement among scholars that the concept of organizational commitment indicates the link of an employee to an organization, there has been a controversy over the nature of organizational commitment” (Kumari & Priya, 2017). Organizational commitment focuses on employees’ commitment to the organization. Meyer and Allen (1997) refer to Morrow & McElroy's (1993) statement that organizational commitment is the most maturely developed of all the work commitment constructs.