Impact of Psychological Empowerment on Employee Job Performance of Machine Operator’s in Apparel Industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Human Resource Management has become a significant and vital management area, and it has many positive impacts on the employees’ behavior. This study aimed to discuss psychological empowerment on employee job performance. The main problem of the study is: does psychological empowerment affect the employee job performance of the machine operators in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka? The problem of the study derived from the research gap, which is the knowledge gap and empirical gap of psychological empowerment on employee job performance. The primary method of the study was scientific research methodology, and the research setting was a non-contrive setting. This study was cross-sectional, and machine operators were units of analysis. The population was all machine operators in the apparel sector in Sri Lanka, and 205 machine operators were selected randomly for this study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the primary data, and univariate and bivariate analyses were used to analyze the data. Psychological empowerment is an extensively accepted principle worldwide to job performance alleviation through enhancing jobs of the employees and needy people excluded from the apparel industries. The apparel industry is one of the leading industries that gained significant foreign exchange to Sri Lanka. The key findings of the study were that the dimensions of psychological empowerment affect the achievement aspects of the employee. These dimensions are the meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. The study results conveyed that there is a significant positive relationship between psychological empowerment and employee job performance. Future research in this area must focus on other variables which mediate and/or relationship between psychological empowerment and employee job performance. Further, it is suggested that a similar study should be done for a larger sample of machine operators.