Psychological empowerment in a recruitment company

Abstract

People are without a doubt our most important asset. It is imperative that companies develop their people to unleash their full potential, which will in turn be a benefit to the company. The future of successful, competitive companies will depend on the work force of that company. The context that organisations operate within has undergone a change from a hierarchical structure to one of building of human capital. This means that organisations need leadership as a vehicle to ensure successful empowerment. It is essential that leaders utilise and develop the potential of their people. This study conceptualises empowerment from a psychological and organizational perspective. Empowerment is defined and divided into the categories of leadership empowering behaviour, motivational empowerment (psychological empowerment) and structural empowerment. The psychological perspective measures the four cognitions (meaning, competence, self-determination and impact) that provide employees with a sense of empowerment. The objective of this study is to determine the levels of psychological empowerment, leader-empowering behaviour, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. Data were gathered from 90 employees of the financial division within a recruitment company. The research results of the empirical study were reported and discussed according to the empirical objectives. The descriptive statistics and the internal consistency of the measuring instruments of the total population were highlighted. Thereafter reliability and validity of the measuring instruments were discussed. A correlation design was applied to determine the relationship between the constructs. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient and factor analysis was determined for the measuring instrument and the Pearson correlation was computed. A regression analysis has been conducted to determine to what extent psychological empowerment and leader empowering behaviour predicts job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Results of the empirical study indicated that differences exist between organizational levels, tenure, age and gender groups in terms of psychological empowerment, leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment experienced. Employees reflected a positive experience with regard to psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and organisational commitment whereas leader empowering behaviour is not experienced at a positive level. Recommendations are based on the research results. The implications of psychologically empowered employees for organisations were discussed. The recommendations focus on management and leader development, career development, career counselling, creating a motivational climate, performance and team development.