From Employee Perceived HR Practices to Employee Engagement: The Influence of Psychological Empowerment and Intrinsic Motivation

Abstract

In this study, we developed and tested a theory of how employee perceived human resource (HR) practices affect employee psychological empowerment that facilitates intrinsic motivation and resultant employee engagement in the work. Based on self-determination theory, employee engagement was rooted in the basic psychological needs satisfaction including competence, autonomous and relatedness. A survey of 485 employees from financial firms showed that the employee perceived HR practices were positively related to the psychological empowerment including the feeling of meaning, impact, autonomy and competence. In turn, the psychological empowerment was related to intrinsic motivation, a relationship that predicted employee engagement.