| The problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between empowerment, locus of control and organizational commitment.; Method. The Psychological Empowerment Questionnaire, Organizational Empowerment Questionnaire, Work Locus of Control Scale, and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire were administered to 171 employees of public service organizations in the fields of health and education. A correlational study was conducted to examine the relationship between perceived organizational empowerment and psychological empowerment, as well as between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment. A multiple regression technique was used to investigate whether the combined variables of locus of control, perceived organizational empowerment, and psychological empowerment would predict a significant amount of the variance in organizational commitment.; Results. A statistically significant relationship (p < .01) was found among all three predictors---locus of control, psychological empowerment, and organizational empowerment---with the criterion variable, organizational commitment. Organizational empowerment predicted more than twice the variance in organizational commitment than the other two predictor variables. These findings supported the premise that there is a relationship between empowerment and organizational commitment. Although there was a significant relationship between psychological empowerment and perceived organizational empowerment, there was not sufficient evidence of multicollinearity to warrant concern that they were measuring the same construct. Implications for organizations are discussed. |
