The Power of Psychological Empowerment as an Antecedent to Organizational Commitment in Indian Managers

The current study attempts to measure psychological empowerment and organizational commitment in a sample of 607 managers drawn from various organizations in India, grouped together in terms of the technology they adopt. The study attempts to predict psychological empowerment (measured through Spreitzer's (1995) standard scale) through the organizational commitment variable (measured through Allen and Myer's (1990) scale). The study is based on two-stage sampling design. In the first step, fifty Indian organizations were chosen randomly from the national capital region of India. In the second step, out of these fifty organizations, 1000 managers from the top, middle and lower levels, either HR or line managers, were randomly selected to fill in the questionnaires. The response rate to the survey was 60.7 per cent. The data are treated to univariate, bivariate and multivariate data analysis methods. Means, standard deviation, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, using the SPSS 11.5 statistical package, are administered on the sample. The results of the study support the hypothesis, and we find psychological empowerment being predicted by affective, normative and continuance commitment in our Indian sample. Conclusions and implications for Indian industry and theoretical considerations are discussed further.