PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN THE MALAYSIAN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: A REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment of academics in Malaysian Private Universities. The research is aim to appraise the existing literatures and eventually set the research agenda. Past studies revealed that there are relationships between the four cognitions of psychological empowerment: meaning, selfdetermination,competence and impact cognitions with organizational commitment. Furthermore, the extant literature also encapsulates the relationships between psychological empowerment and the three dimensions of organizational commitment: affective, normative and continuance commitment. However, results from the existing literatures are shown to be inconsistent. The paper concludes with suggestions for educational leaders to focus on enhancing psychological empowerment of impact, meaning, selfdetermination and competence cognitions in order to increase academic staff commitment within an organization. Successfully shaping the attitude of academics in private universities will lead to improvement of overall organizational performance. And, subsequently it will in transforming Malaysia from middle-nation income to high-nation income with both inclusive and sustainable.