Abstract:
In an ever evolving environment nearly every firm undergoes re-organization at some
point in time. Structural modifications are considered as a pre-requisite to bring
change in the overall strategy of an organization, and it must be aligned with the
environment, technology, size & culture, and life-cycle of the organization. While
there is no doubt that hierarchy acts as a backbone for conventional organizations, its
appropriate applicability by managers harnesses undeserved criticism. The problem
lies in its adequate use. This research has been conducted to evaluate the dependency
of formal organization structure on employees’ psychological empowerment in
Pakistan International Airline (PIA).
In this research, formal organizational structure variable has been defined on the
basis of Robins’ theory of organizational structure in three dimensions: formality,
complexity, and centralization; whereas, psychological empowerment variable has
been taken from Spreitzer’s research with four dimensions: meaning, competence,
self-determination, and impact. Research sample comprises of middle managers of
PIA based in Islamabad & Rawalpindi. A total of sixty employees were selected
randomly. Rationale for selecting middle managers for this research is based on their
role of implementing the strategic goals/objectives chalked out by the top managers.
In organizations having tall/vertical hierarchal structures, the autonomy granted to
the middle managers is less as compared to flat/horizontal hierarchal structures.
Considering PIA’s tall hierarchal structure, this research is an attempt to study the
effect of formal vertical structure and employees’ psychological empowerment.
The following research is quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional in nature.
Questionnaires were used for data collection and analysis. By means of descriptive
statistical tools like Regression analysis and Cronbach alpha, obtained information
was accumulated and summarized. Results of the research indicate that formal
organization structure has a significant effect on employees’ psychological
empowerment. It also indicates that vertical organizational structure has negative
effect on employees’ psychological empowerment in PIA.
