The Influence of Employee Empowerment on Employee Commitment Among Academic Staff at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)

Abstract

Organizations in today’s society have to be able to swiftly respond to the dynamism of the work environment dynamism in order to compete with their competitors within the same market. Employee empowerment is a great way to enhance this dynamism and its usefulness in attracting and retaining employees within an organization. This study thus aimed to determine the effects of employee empowerment on employee commitment among the academic staff in JKUAT. Specifically, the study aimed at determining the effect of perceived support, access to information, access to resources and access to opportunity on employee commitment. The study used a descriptive survey. The study’s target population was members of the teaching staff in JKUAT. The study used stratified random sampling technique to arrive at the sample size. A questionnaire was used to collect the data by the researcher. Descriptive statistics were alo utilized to analyse the data. Frequency tables were used to present the data for easy comparison. The findings of this study concluded that employees at JKUAT are affectively committed to the organization meaning they hold the university to a high regard and it holds a personal meaning for them that is beyond any form of monetary compensation. The study also revealed that the employees are empowered by the organization through offering perceived support, offering access of information to them and also offering opportunities for career development and growth. However the employees felt that the resources offered to them were not adequate for the completion of their tasks. Moreover, it was deduced that there is a significant positive relationship that exists between employee empowerment and employee commitment as revealed by the findings. This means that empowering employees through offering them support, giving them access to information, giving them ample access to the required resources and giving them access to opportunity subsequently leads to an increase in commitment among the employees. In reference to the findings, it is recommended that the university should empower their employees to attain ample commitment from them.