Relationships among leadership empowerment, job satisfaction, and employee loyalty in university dining student workers

Student workers are an important component of the workforce in university dining services, but retention of these student employees is challenging. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among the five sub scales of leadership empowerment, job satisfaction, and employee loyalty among student workers in university dining operations. In this study, 240 questionnaires were distributed to student employees of dining services at five universities during summer 2007: a total of 161 students responded (67.1%). Three group interviews were conducted with students to obtain more information about their perceptions of the three constructs. Results suggested that differences in ratings existed based on demographic characteristics (i.e., length of employment, hours worked per week, gender, and position held). Of the five dimensions of leadership empowerment, participating in decision making, confidence in high performance, and autonomy influenced job satisfaction while confidence in high performance influenced employee loyalty. Confidence in high performance and autonomy were significant indicators of employee loyalty to non-supervisory student workers while goal accomplishment was a significant indicator of employee loyalty to supervisory student workers. Findings suggested that leadership empowerment influences job satisfaction and employee loyalty. In order to increase student worker\u27s job satisfaction and loyalty, university dining managers might consider ways they can enhance leadership empowerment particularly by demonstrating their confidence in the student\u27s performance, and allowing them student workers to increase their input in decision making process.;Keywords: Leadership empowerment, Job satisfaction, Employee loyalty