Effect of Perceived Supervisor Support on Affective Commitment: Mediation of Employee Empowerment

The major aim of the study was to explore the influence of perceived supervisor support (PSS) on affective commitment (AC), and examine the mediating role of empowerment. The study was conducted based on useable questionnaires collected from 537 respondents, working in 153 private-owned companies operating in Ethiopia. A cross-sectional design was used to collect one-time data from randomly selected respondents. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to confirm the dimensionality and validity of the study variables, with the help of Amos Version 21. Regression analysis and bootstrapping through process macro were employed with the help of SPSS to test the hypothesised model. The result of regression analysis shows that perceived supervisory support in the Ethiopian corporate sector has a positive and statistically significant effect on employees’ AC. Further, PROCESS macro and path analysis were applied to explore the mediated effect; the results have demonstrated that the relationship between perceived PSS and AC is significantly mediated by empowerment. Hence, the findings of the study imply that support from the supervisors, which comes in the form of recognition of employees’ contribution and access to autonomy and participation in decisions, results in creating employees’ affective attachment to the company. Implications and future research directions are discussed.