The Relationship between Teacher Empowerment and Organizational Commitment

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher empowerment and organizational commitment in selected high schools and branch high schools. The subjects of this study consisted of all teachers who had at least one year of service at current schools. Quantitative descriptive research method was utilized for this study. As instruments, School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) developed by Short and Rinehart (1992, cited in Kirika, 2011), and Organizational Commitment Questionnaires (OCQ) developed by Mowday et al. (1979, cited in Kirika, 2011) were used. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Software) was used to analyze the obtained data. School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) was measured by six dimensions: decision making, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy and impact. Descriptive statistics revealed that teachers from all selected high schools and branch high schools possessed high levels of teacher empowerment. Descriptive statistics revealed that there were high levels of organizational commitment in selected schools. According to the results, all teachers from selected high schools and branch high schools perceived that they had high level of organizational commitment. Pearson correlation (r) described a statistically significant, positive relationship between teacher empowerment and organizational commitment