THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT: RESEARCH IN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION IN KARAMAN CITY CENTER

Empowerment is defined as the process by which employees make sense of their work, become aware of their capabilities and competences, and influence other employees. Organizational commitment includes attitudes and behaviors that emphasize the emotional participation of employees into the organization, reduce the intention to leave the organization and enable employees to continue working in the organization. In the study, it is aimed to reveal the importance of the employee empowerment in determining the level of organizational commitment of employees. Besides, the impact of employee empowerment components on organizational commitment components is premediated with the research in the study. The sample of the study consists of 100 people working in a public institution in Karaman. Data is collected by survey method from the participants and then these data are analyzed. According to the results obtained from the data, the perception of employee empowerment and the level of organizational commitment of the participants are determined to be high. Significant relationships are found between the dimensions of empowerment, namely meaning, self-determination and impact, and affective commitment while no relationship is determined at the competence dimension. While no relationship between empowerment and continuance commitment is found, it is revealed that only the competence dimension is related with normative commitment. It is observed that the views of the participants on commitment sub-dimensions do not change according to the gender, but the levels of affective and normative commitment change according to the marital status variable