The impact of workplace empowerment, organizational trust on staff nurses' work satisfaction and organizational commitment

Abstract

A predictive, nonexperimental design was used to test Kanter's work empowerment theory in a random sample of 412 Canadian staff nurses. Empowered individuals reported higher affective commitment and work satisfaction. Moreover, empowered employees experienced greater organizational trust, which in turn influenced these job attitudes. Since research has shown that affective commitment is related to productivity, our results suggest that fostering environments that enhance perceptions of empowerment will have positive effects on employees and ultimately, enhance organizational effectiveness. © 2002.