Psychological empowerment, work engagement and organizational affective commitment in a local supermarket chain

Abstract

To ensure the success of their operations and maintain competitive, managers expect employees to be committed to their organizations while being engaged at their work simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to investigate how psychological empowerment acts as a mechanism that affects employees’ organizational commitment directly and indirectly through work engagement. Generally speaking, psychological empowerment enhances the ability to predict and understand organization-based self-esteem, commitment and satisfaction. Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used on a sample of 151 employees that are currently working for the largest and most successful local supermarket chain located in Arta. Employees received an email invitation to participate in the survey and complete a Google Form Questionnaire. This study fills the gap in the literature because according to our knowledge, psychological empowerment, work engagement and commitment had been emerged and examined separately as different constructs without consideration of a potential mediation. There is not adequate knowledge on how they are associated. The findings show that the frontline employees who feel more empowered demonstrate higher levels of engagement and organizational commitment. Specifically PE components (meaning, competence, self-determination and impact) had a strong relation with employee engagement which in turn had a positive impact on organizational affective commitment. We discuss the findings and we give suggestions on how managers can foster empowerment for retaining their workforce.