Track: Business Management

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate the importance of having a committed, functioning employee empowerment and involvement program at a local university in Johannesburg, South Africa. The essence of the discussion focuses on the overall impact, positive or negative, that employee empowerment has on organizational effectiveness. The quantitative research approach was utilized for this study. The primary data was gathered through a survey that was structured and consisted of three constructs: employees’ participation in decision-making, perception of their immediate supervisors and perception of management of change within their institution. The survey instrument was distributed to a total of 100 employees, with a 72% response rate. The findings show that most respondents are of the view that they occasionally participate in decision-making, with their immediate supervisor poorly welcoming their involvement in decision-making, while perceiving management of change as slightly important regarding empowerment within the local university. The results reported in this study relate to one institution of higher learning, hence they cannot be generalized. Nonetheless, these findings add to previous findings on empowerment by stressing that social systemic features such as self-esteem, facts, awareness, incentives, institutional environment are a positive factor in the effect of empowerment on the company.