Globalisation radically changed the way in which talent is sourced, organised and managed. The chemical industry as competitor in the global landscape is increasingly faced with challenges to attract and retain talent. The success and global competitiveness of the chemical industry largely depends on its employees, their ideas and intellectual resources. Highly talented employees are targeted by competitor companies and head hunters with substantial financial incentives and benefits. Leadership plays a vital role in creating a stimulating, empowered and challenging work environment that will attract and retain employees. Employees need to experience a sense of meaning, have the resources to do their jobs and most importantly, need to be empowered beyond being asked to meet performance goals. The aim of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between leadership empowerment behaviour, psychological empowerment, work engagement and turnover intention in a chemical industry. The study secondly examined whether leadership empowerment behaviour affected turnover intention via psychological empowerment and thirdly the study investigated if leadership empowerment behaviour affected work engagement via psychological empowerment. A random cross-sectional design with paper-based surveys as the primary method of data collection was used to accomplish the research objectives. The measuring battery for this study consisted of the Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire (LEB), the Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire (MEQ), the Work Engagement Scale (WES) and the Turnover Intention Scale (TIS). The simulation and statistical analysis was carried out using the Statistical Program for the Social Sciences IBM SPSS version 21 and Mplus. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) which is theory driven was used in the study. The results showed that a significant relationship existed between leadership empowerment behaviour, psychological empowerment, work engagement and turnover intention. Regression analysis indicated that leadership empowerment behaviour had significant predictive value towards psychological empowerment and work engagement. The results showed that leadership empowerment behaviour did not affect turnover intention via psychological empowerment, but rather had a direct effect on employee’s turnover intention. The results further showed that psychological empowerment did have an indirect effect on the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and work engagement. The results indicated that it would be worthwhile if organisations develop leader’s competence and skills to empower their workforces. This would lead to higher levels of psychological empowerment, work engagement and retention of talent. Recommendations for future research were made. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Incidents of computer abuse, proprietary information leaks and other security lapses have been on the increase. Most often, such security lapses are attributed to internal employees in organizations subverting established organizational IS security policy. As employee compliance with IS security policy is the key to escalating IS security breaches, understanding employee motivation for following IS security policy is critical. In addition to several types of extrinsic motives noted in prior studies, including sanctions, rewards, and social pressures, this study adds that an important contributing intrinsic factor is empowerment. Per Thomas and Velthouse’s (1990) intrinsic motivation model, empowerment is the positive feelings derived from IS security task assessments. Through survey data collected from 289 participants, the study assesses how dimensions of psychological empowerment (i.e., competence, meaning, impact, and choice) as derived from IS security task may impact the IS security performance of the participants, measured by their compliance with IS security policy. The study demonstrates that the competence and meaning dimensions of psychological empowerment have a positive impact on participants’ IS security policy compliance intention, while impact has a marginal negative influence on compliance. Furthermore, dimensions of psychological empowerment can be predicted by structural empowerment facets, particularly IS security education, training, and awareness (SETA), access to IS security strategy and goals, and participation in IS security decision-making. In addition, the competence and meaning dimensions of psychological empowerment may act as mediators for the relations between structural empowerment and participants’ IS security policy compliance. Theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and directions for future research of this study will be discussed.

Thesis M.Com. (Human Resources Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2014. / The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) in leader-member exchanges (LMX) and the association of these leadership variables on employee outcomes, customer service orientation and turnover intentions. The specific context for this study is call centres. The growth in the call centre industry has warranted an investigation into variables that lead to their success. With an increased focus on retaining satisfied customers, the need to understand the factors that lead to this is emphasised. The importance of leadership and its impact on the success of organisations is often accentuated in the literature This research aimed to gain a better understanding of the variables which affect the success of call centres from a leadership perspective. The effect of leadership and specifically leader- member exchange - on employee and organisational outcomes is studied. These outcomes include job satisfaction, commitment, psychological empowerment, turnover intentions and customer orientation. The effect of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) on LMX was also assessed. This research was conducted in the South African call centre context. The target population was defined as call centre agents in the Gauteng region. 192 call centre agents from various call centres formed part of the sample. Data was gathered using self-report questionnaires. The questionnaire was administered in two parts and once all the data was collected, the relationships were tested using structural equation modelling in the SAS 9.3 statistical program. Various other tests were conducted, including tests for reliability and validity. Cronbach alphas were calculated in order to confirm the reliability of the variables. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in order to confirm validity. Furthermore, correlation analysis iv and path analysis was conducted to ascertain the significance of the relationships identified. LMX and psychological empowerment were found to be central in this research, having the greatest impact on the outcome variables studied; turnover intentions and customer orientation. Important recommendations for further research include the assessment of a more balance mix of in-bound and out-bound call centres since differences may exist and this research was predominantly comprised of in-bound call centres. With one of the most significant paths identified being psychological empowerment to employee customer orientation, the findings suggest that call centre managers may need to consider the long term effects of psychological empowerment on employee customer orientation and turnover intentions. The cost involved with employees leaving the organisation or losing dissatisfied customers may warrant an initiative to empower call centre agents. The use of self-managed teams may be one way to achieve this. Leaders were also found to play a central role in the outcomes studied in this research. In this regard, leaders should also go on extensive training programmes on how to deal with individual employees and on establishing good relationships with them. Managers could get peer reviews of leaders to understand where and if any problems exist. The use of team building exercises may also assist in developing good, high quality LMX relationships.

Syfte: Tidigare forskning har undersökt sambandet mellan empowerment och arbetstillfredsställelse och funnit att empowerment ökar arbetstillfredsställelsen. Däremot saknas forskning om hur sambandet skiljer sig åt beroende på utbildningsnivåer. Syftet är att förklara om variabeln utbildningsnivå påverkar upplevd empowerment och arbetstillfredsställelse hos medarbetare i företag där styrfilosofin präglas av empowerment.   Metod: Studien utgår från en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi och en deduktiv forskningsansats. Den empiriska datainsamlingen har genomförts med en enkätundersökning där målpopulationen är företag som präglas av empowerment. Studiens urval var ändamålsenligt och bestod av totalt 503 respondenter från 31 företag. Den insamlade datan analyserades i Jamovi genom deskriptiv statistik, bivariat korrelationsanalys, och faktoranalys. SEM-analyser genomfördes sedan i SmartPLS 3. Resultatet redovisades, analyserades och utmynnade sedan till en slutsats.   Resultat & slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att det finns en skillnad mellan en hög och en låg utbildningsnivå. Respondenterna med en hög utbildningsnivå upplevde både en högre grad av empowerment och arbetstillfredsställelse än respondenterna med en låg utbildningsnivå. Resultatet uppmärksammar även att det finns ett starkt positivt samband mellan empowerment och arbetstillfredsställelse, samt att empowerment har en påverkan på arbetstillfredsställelse för de lågutbildade respondenterna. Vi kunde däremot varken bekräfta eller förkasta att empowerment ökar arbetstillfredsställelsen för de högutbildade respondenterna.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Resultatet har främst visat att högutbildade individer upplever både en högre grad av empowerment och arbetstillfredsställelse, samt att empowerment ökar arbetstillfredsställelsen till en viss del för lågutbildade individer. Därmed är studiens teoretiska bidrag en ökad kunskap om hur en låg respektive hög utbildningsnivå förhåller sig till empowerment och arbetstillfredsställelse. Studiens praktiska bidrag är att det kan vara svårare att lyckas med empowerment i företag med lågutbildade anställda jämfört med företag med högutbildade anställda. Bidraget riktar sig till ledningen i företag som syftar till att implementera empowerment eller som använder empowerment som en styrfilosofi.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Till framtida forskning finns det ett behov av att undersöka varför svenska högutbildade individer visade sig vara mer komplexa i hur de associerade variabler i faktoranalysen, än individerna med en låg utbildningsnivå. Det finns även ett behov att undersöka om empowerment ökar arbetstillfredsställelse för högutbildade individer då denna studie inte lyckats undersöka detta. / Aim: Previous research has examined the relationship between empowerment and job satisfaction and found that empowerment increases job satisfaction. However, there is no previous research that has examined how the relationship differs depending on the level of education. The purpose of this study is to explain if the variable educational level affects experienced empowerment and job satisfaction among employees in companies where the management philosophy is characterized by empowerment.   Method: This study is based on a quantitative research strategy and a deductive research approach. The empirical data was collected through a questionnaire survey where the target population was companies that are characterized by empowerment. The study used a judgement sample that consisted of 503 respondents from 31 companies. The data was analyzed in Jamovi through descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation analysis and factor analysis. SEM- analyzes was then performed in SmartPLS 3. The result was reported, analyzed and then concluded to a conclusion.   Result & Conclusions: The results of this study shows that there is a difference between a high and a low level of education. The respondents with a high level of education experienced both a higher degree of empowerment and job satisfaction than the respondents with a low level of education. The result also draws attention to the fact that there is a strong positive correlation between empowerment and job satisfaction, and that empowerment increases job satisfaction to a certain extent for the respondents with a low level of education. However, we could neither confirm nor reject that empowerment increases the job satisfaction for the highly educated respondents.   Contribution of the thesis: The result has mainly shown that highly educated individuals experience both a higher degree of empowerment and job satisfaction, and that empowerment increases job satisfaction to a certain extent for low-educated individuals. The theoretical contribution of this study is an increased knowledge of how the two levels of education relate to empowerment and job satisfaction. The study's practical contribution is that it can be more difficult to succeed with empowerment in companies with low-educated employees compared to companies with highly educated employees. The contribution is of interest to the management in companies that want to implement or who already use empowerment as a management philosophy.   Suggestions for future research: For further research, there is a need to examine why the Swedish individuals with a high education turned out to be more complex in how they associated variables in the factor analysis, than the individuals with a low level of education. There is also a need to examine whether empowerment increases job satisfaction for individuals with a high education, since this study failed to examine this.

Organizational commitment has been a topic of extensive interest in the organizational behavior literature since the 1950's. It has been associated with workforce stability, decreased absenteeism, organizational citizenship behaviors, and decreased turnover. This study focuses on the relationships between organizational commitment and turnover; particularly amongst K-12 school principals. A principal of a school is much like the CEO of a company. Principals impact schools in many ways. They supervise staff, develop culture, implement and enforce rules, guide instruction and ensure that all students receive a quality education. The United States is facing a shortage of principals. Many principals are nearing retirement age. Others are simply choosing to leave the profession. In many cases there are shortages of applicants and/or qualified candidates for available positions. Many teachers hold administrative credentials but, for various reasons, choose not to pursue the principalship. School systems are facing difficulties filling principal positions. One potential solution is to endeavor to keep current principals on the job. Organizational commitment is highly correlated with intent to stay; promoting the suggestion that schools may retain principals for longer periods where organizational commitment is significantly higher. This study focuses on the impact of job autonomy, psychological empowerment, and distributive justice on organizational commitment. The study uses data from a web-based survey of 1,078 principals. The data were collected from K-12 principals in the Midwest United States. The sample includes elementary and secondary principals from public, private/parochial schools, and charter schools. Hypotheses regarding the impact of job autonomy, psychological empowerment, and distributive justice on organizational commitment were tested using multiple regression and path analysis. Increases in each of these variables were found to be significantly associated with increases in organizational commitment. In addition, some support was found for the moderating effects of distributive justice and demographic variables on the relationship between job autonomy and organizational commitment, and on the relationship between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment. Implications for those who supervise principals are discussed. For instance, principals may be provided latitude and discretion in terms of the scheduling and sequencing of supervisory work, and may employ consultative, mutual-means approaches in principal evaluation. School systems should, moreover, provide appropriate professional development in order to increase feelings of self-efficacy. Recommendations for future research are also suggested, including replicating the study in other regions and with other organizational types, as well as including other variables, such as perceived organizational support, resistance to change, conflict, and teamwork.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

The general aim of this thesis was to study the transition process from dependency towards anatomy and psychological empowerment among teenagers with type 1 diabetes. Thirty-two teenagers (18 female/14 male) aged 13-17 took part in conversational interviews. The interviews followed a semi-structured question guide. Data comprised 31 tape recorded interviews (one informant did not want to be tape recorded). The research design was based on a phenomenological and life world perspective including two different analysis methods. The transition towards autonomy among teenagers with type 1 diabetes was elucidated in a phenomenological approach (paper I). Through the teenagers’ narratives about their daily life experiences with type 1 diabetes there emerged the over-riding theme “Hovering between individual actions and support of others”. This theme illustrates the main problem related to diabetes management - duality in dependence and independence. The themes “growth through individual self-reliance” and “growth through confirmation of others” seem to facilitate the transition process from dependency towards autonomy. Experiences of the Empowerment Education Programme (EEP) were studied by a qualitative content analysis (paper II). From the teenagers’ descriptions the over-riding theme was formulated as “Sense of community”, and this covered the categories of social fellow feeling, collaborative learning, and community of interests. A synthesis of the findings illustrates that individual self-reliance, confirmation of others, and sense of community are closely related to individual inner resources, trust in others, and the feeling of belonging, which are all suggested as specific goals of empowerment and fulfilment of psychological empowerment. A model was created to explain the relation between psychological empowerment and growth through individual self-reliance, confirmation of others, and sense of community. Professional nursing care might start from the unique situation and context the individual experiences and exists in. Social meetings with like-minded youth were highly appreciated among the teenagers. The teenagers showed their willingness to transform themselves towards becoming more independent in self-management, and the teenage years may be the right period to empower and coach the teenagers towards autonomy and prepare them for adulthood living with type 1 diabetes.

<p>The primary objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the impact of psychological empowerment and job satisfaction on organizational commitment amongst employees in a multi-national organization. For the purpose of this study a quantitative, non-probability convenience sampling design was used to assess the three variables. The sample consisted of (N = 120) permanent employees were employed in the following departments namely: Administration, Engineering, Production, Quality and Commercial.</p>

As the growing living standard, the public have higher and higher expectation to the health-care service. On the other hand, under the pressure of cost and budget limitation, the hospitals would like to enhance the competitively have to promote their service quality. Research has indicated that the nursing personnel¡¦s working attitude and behavior has significant influence to the patient¡¦s impression. For this reason, it is necessary to clarify what is the factor that would affect nursing personnel¡¦s service behavior. This research used the method of questionnaire survey, and collected the data from 8 hospitals. In this study, transformational leadership is used as the independent variables, organizational commitment is used as the mediate variable, psychological empowerment is used as the moderate variable, and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior is used as the dependent variable. The purpose of this research is mainly to find out the relationship among transformational leadership ,organizational commitment, and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, using the psychological empowerment as the interfered variable, the study would investigate the effect the psychological empowerment to transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. The important discoveries are stated separately as follows: (1) Transformational leadership is positively significant to customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. (2) Organizational commitment has influences to customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. (3) Transformational leadership is positively significant to organizational commitment. (4) Organizational commitment is found to have a partial mediating effect between transformational leadership and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. (5) Psychological empowerment is found to have a partial moderating effect between transformational leadership and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. According to the results of research, some suggestions are provided: (1) Reinforce the transformational leadership to promote the nursing personnel¡¦s organizational commitment. (2) The supervisor should emphases on the vision of providing excellent service quality to encourage the nursing personnel¡¦s customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. (3) Empower the nursing personnel and educate them knowledge and skills that are needed to delivery better service. (4) Value the feedback system for service performance.

In response to increasing global economic competition, many companies have undergone dramatic structural changes. To improve the overall flexibility and efficiency of their organizations, many companies have replaced their traditional hierarchical management structure with empowered (semi-autonomous or self-managing) work teams. The purpose of this research is finding the relationship between empowering leader behavior, psychological empowerment, job performance, and job characteristic. In this research empowering leader behavior is independent variables, job performance is dependent variables, the psychological empowerment is a mediator variables, job characteristic is intervening variable. The findings of this thesis can be summarized as follows: 1. Accountability leadership behavior impacts the meaning of psychological positively; Self-Directed Decisions Making leader behavior impacts the Self-Determination of psychological positively. 2. Competence of psychological impacts IRB, OCBI & OCBO; Impact of psychological impacts IRB. 3. Psychological empowerment has not mediating effect between Empowering Leader Behaviors and Performance. 4. Task Variability cause intervention on Competence, Self-determination and OCBI,