HRD climate and its impact on employee empowerment: an empirical study of public sector, private sector and foreign banks in India.

Jain, Ravindra ; Jain, Sheelam

Introduction

Human resource development (HRD) is increasingly gaining wide currency as a key practice in maximizing the internal capabilities of the firm, and thus enhancing its competitive strength. Extant research indicates that incremental investment in HRD influences employee behaviour to benefit the organization through their better response and higher level of job performance. Therefore, in the current globally competitive atmosphere, it has become imperative for HRD professionals to nurture developmental climate, formulate positive workplace policies and their effective implementation with focus on potential development and well-being of the employees. HRD climate of an organization plays a vital role in ensuring the capability and commitment development of its employees. HRD climate decides the extent to which employees are satisfied in an organization and the same ultimately influences the overall performance of the employees. In prior Indian studies (e.g., Rao and Abraham, 1986; Mishra and Bhardwaj, 2002; Srimannarayana, 2008; Pillai, 2008; Srimannarayana, 2009; Saxena and Tiwari, 2009; Saraswathy, 2010; Choudhary, Rangnekar and Barua, 2011; Solkhe and Choudhary, 2011; Mohanty and Sahoo, 2012), general HRD climate in Indian organizations was found to be at moderate level.

However, "a comparative analysis of the earlier study leads to the conclusion that overall HRD climate in India has improved marginally over a period of time and that the organizations in manufacturing sector could provide better HRD climate than service sector organizations" (Srimannarayana, 2008, p. 255). For example, it was found at 54 percent in the study of Rao and Abraham (1986); 59 percent in the study of Srimannarayana (2008), 59 percent (Mfg. organizations) and 66 percent (soft-ware organizations) in the study of Saraswathy (2010), and 54.5 percent in the study of Mohanty and Sahoo (2012). It is expected that due to incremental focus on HRD efforts HRD climate might have remarkably improved in some Indian organizations. In order to see recent HRD trend in various sectors of Indian economy, more systematic HRD studies taking sample of different sectors including comparative studies need to be carried out. The present study is a step in this direction.

The banking industry in India is dominated by the public sector banks; however private sector and foreign banks also have increasing and impressive growth in India. They have grown faster over the last two decades.Such a trend has major HR implications for the Indian banking sector thereby posing serious challenges for the public sector to maintain their status quo and for the private and foreign sectors to stabilize and enhance their market share. Human resource development has also been identified among crucial determinants of success in the banking sector. A few research studies in the area of HRD in Indian Banks (e.g., Rohmetra, 1998; Gani and Shah, 2001; Salokhe, 2002; Priyadarshini and Venkatapathy, 2003; Pillai, 2008; Saxena and Tiwari, 2009; Shrivastava and Purang, 2011; Akinyemi, 2012; Mittal, 2013; Lakkoju, 2014; Ramanathan, 2014) have been carried out in the past. However, none of the studies addressed simultaneous assessment and comparison of HRD climate among public sector, private sector and foreign banks operating in India. The present study is an endeavour to address such a research gap.

Review of Literature

Rao and Abraham (1986) conducted HRD climate survey for the first time in India and reported a moderately favourable HRD climate in Indian organizations. Srimannarayan (2008) also revealed that there exists moderate HRD climate in Indian organizations. In the study of Mishra and Bhardwaj (2002), a favourable HRD climate was found in a private sector undertaking of India. In a comparative study of private and public sector and multinational organizations, Purang (2006) revealed that better HRD climate in private sector and multinational companies prevailed than that of public sector. Better HRD climate was found in software companies as compared to manufacturing organizations (Saraswathi, 2010) while in public sector banks average HRD climate was reported by Saxena and Tiwari (2009). Rohmetra (1998) found some inadequacies in a private sector bank. Gani and Shah (2001) found inadequately conducive climate in the banking industry. Kumar (2005) revealed that while making comparison with Indian public sector banks, perceived organizational climate (OC) in Indian private sector banks and foreign banks operating in India prevailed significantly superior in the matter of leadership, motivation, communication, interaction influence, decision making, goal setting, and control. Srinivas (2014) found a favourable HRD climate in State Bank of India. Salokhe (2002) found conducive HRD climate in public sector banks. In an empirical research carried out in Dubai-based organizations, Srimannarayan (2007) found that banking sector had favourable HRD climate as compared to insurance, shipping, trading and food industry. Mittal (2013) found that the perceptions of employees towards HRD climate was found better in public sector bank (SBI) than private sector bank. In his empirical research, Lakkoju (2014) made a comparison between HRD climate in a leading public sector bank and the same in a leading private sector bank and he found that the general climate in the private sector bank is more effective than that in the public sector bank. Jain, Singhal and Singh (1997) found positive correlation between HRD climate and individual efficiency, organizational efficiency and productivity. Agarwala (2002) found significantly high correlation between HRD climate and an extent of satisfaction with the implementation of innovative HR practices. HRD climate was found to be a strong predictor of organizational commitment (Purang, 2008), job satisfaction (Solkhe and Choudhary, 2011), attitude and role efficacy (Kumar and Patnaik, 2002). In a study conducted by Chandrashekhar (2009), a significantly positive correlation was found between HRD climate and employee engagement. Chaudhary, Rangnekar and Barua (2011) reported that HRD climate has positive impact on employee engagement. In an empirical study of HRD climate in banks, Rainayee (2002) reported that 'State Bank of India' was found successful in facilitating open communication among its employees.

The review of extant literature clearly indicates that HR practices have significant effect on organizational performance outcomes such as productivity, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, employee engagement, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour. However, previous studies on HRD in Indian banks appear to be insufficient in comparing the HRD systems of foreign banks with domestic banks, and between public sector and private sector banks. The present research work addresses these gaps and makes an attempt to study HRD climate in the three sets of Indian commercial banks. Management is expected to ensure that employees are empowered because it is through employee empowerment that an enterprise nurtures a culture that leads to employee commitment. In a service organization like banking, employees' role is more of customer facing and therefore they become the voice and face of the organization; it is not enough to just provide them training on delivering quality service, but it is also significant that employees should have necessary skills as well as confidence in their abilities to perform their tasks in diversified situations (Jain and Jain, 2014). In a Chinese study of Wang, Zhang and Jackson (2013), several dimensions of organizational climate, viz., professional communication, decision-making, appraisal and recognition, supportive leadership, and professional growth, were found as positive predictors of psychological empowerment. Baired and Wang (2010) examined the influence of organizational and cultural factors on the extent of adoption of employee empowerment within Australian manufacturing business units and their results revealed a moderate level of employee empowerment. Chaudhary, Rangnekar and Barua (2012) examined the effect of HRD climate on self efficacy and work engagement relationship in Indian industries and they revealed that HRD climate partially mediate the relationship between occupational self-efficacy and work engagement. Amenumey and Lockwood (2008) identified aspects of employees' work environment that were related to their feelings of psychological empowerment in a luxury hotel group of the UK and they found that 'managerial support' positively influenced employees' feelings of psychological empowerment. Gkorezis and Petridou (2012) carried out a study in Greece based public and private hospitals and they revealed that relations with supervisor and peers were significant predictors of employees' psychological empowerment. The study of Carsun and Enz (1999) of service workers show that supportive peer relationship is predictive of higher levels of employee empowerment. In the study of 59 manufacturing companies in Taiwan carried out by Liu and DeFrank (2013), transformational leadership climate was found associated with employees' intention to share knowledge. Thus, in India the studies on employee empowerment are sparse. In the light of the observations regarding research gaps noted above, the present study is fully justified.

The Study

This empirical research aims to assess the perceived HRD climate in the banking sector with respect to six dimensions viz., supportive HR policies, supervisor support, organizational support, teamwork, trust, and openness in communication. 318 managers of Indian public sector banks (42.7 percent), Indian private sector banks (39.3 percent), and foreign banks operating in India (18 percent) participated in the study. The participant managers include 12.3 percent senior bank managers, 36.8 percent middle level bank managers and 50.9 percent junior bank managers. Our sample appears as a representative of various strata as it covers managers of three different cadres, both genders, various age-groups, varying qualifications and length of experience.

Measures: To measure HRD climate, a nine item five-point Likert scale has been administered for the purpose of collecting primary data. The scale administered in the study is an adapted and modified version of the HRD measure developed by Rao and Abraham (1986). The reliability of the scale has been tested and the reliability coefficient, that is, Cronbach's alpha (a) score was found as 0.90 which indicates towards overall reliability of the measure. The two dimensions of employee empowerment: Participative decision making (PDM), and Self-efficacy were measured by using 4 items of PDM adopted from scale of Nyhan (1994), 6 items from Personal Efficacy Beliefs Scale of Riggs et al. (1994) and 3 items from New General Self Efficacy scale of Chen et al. (2001). Cronbach's alpha (a) score of the overall 13 item EE scale was found as 0.72 which indicates the overall reliability of the scale.

Analytical Tools: Statistical measures like mean, standard deviation, coefficient of correlation, t-test and ANOVA have been applied as analytical tools and also for making inferences.

Hypotheses: In this empirical research, the hypotheses given below have been taken to test: [H.sub.01]. The favourable HRD climate as regards to supportive HR policies, superior or supervisor support, organizational support, teamworking, trust and open communication prevails in the selected three sets of Indian banks. [H.sub.02]. Various study aspects of HRD climate have positive relationship with one another. [H.sub.03]. The male and female managers have no significant difference in the matter of their perceptions of HRD climate. [H.sub.04]. The junior, senior, and middle level bank managers have no significant difference in the matter of their perceptions of HRD climate. [H.sub.05]. There exists no significant difference as regards to the perceived HRD climate of public sector, private sector and foreign banks in India. [H.sub.06]. Employee empowerment (EE) is well taken care of in the selected banks. [H.sub.07]. The male and female managers have no significant difference in the matter of their perceptions of the level of employee empowerment exercised in the selected banks. [H.sub.08]. The junior, senior, and middle level bank managers have no significant difference in the matter of their perceptions of the level of employee empowerment exercised in the selected banks. [H.sub.09]. There is no significant difference between the perceived levels of employee empowerment exercised in the selected three sets of Indian banks. [H.sub.10]. HRD climate as exists in the selected banks has significant positive impact on empowerment of the bank employees of the selected banks.

The Study Variables: A brief description of the study variables is as follows: Supportive HR policies: These indicate towards alignment of HRM / HRD policies to organization's policies of other functional areas, open and transparent systems, commitment of top executives and contribution of all functional managers for the cause of HRD, focus on organizational learning and keep inspiring the employees to learn and develop on a continuous basis. Organizational support: Organizational support represents employee perceptions that their organizations have a developmental environment where employees are encouraged in developing themselves by acquiring new knowledge and skills and low job performers are helped to acquire competence rather than being left unattended. Supervisor support: Employees expect from their superiors to take active interest in their development and provide them required information, resources, facilities, guidance and emotional support when needed. Employees also expect that their superiors are tolerant to their mistakes and facilitate them to learn from their mistakes. Teamwork: Teamwork reflects that people work together and use one another's skills to achieve a common goal. Such collaborative attitude encourages employees to develop mutual understanding and helping relationship. Trust: Trust is taking people at their face value and believing what they say. It indicates that employees, departments, and groups trust each other and can be relied upon to do whatever they say they will do (Rao, 1987). It also includes maintaining the confidentiality of information shared by others, so that nobody can misuse it. Openness in Communication: Openness in communication is recognized when the employees have freedom to share and discuss their views, information, problems and feelings / emotions with one another. Openness promotes free interaction, feedback and discussion between management and employees as well as among employees, thereby help in creating a climate conducive for the development of employees. Employee Empowerment: "From a managerial perspective, employee empowerment is a relational construct that describes how those with power in organizations share power, information, resources, and rewards with those lacking them" (Fernandez and Moldogazlev, 2013, p.491). From psychological perspective, "empowerment is defined as a process of enhancing feelings of self-efficacy among organizational members through the identification of conditions that foster powerlessness and through their removal by both formal organizational practices and informal techniques of providing efficacy information (Conger and Kanungo, 1988, p.474)". In this study, both the perspectives are fused together.

Survey Results: Data Analysis and Findings

Analysis as summarized in Tables 'I-IV' revealed the following results pertaining to the evaluation of HRD climate in the selected three sets of banks operating in India:

1. Perceived Climate concerning human resource development in the selected banks operating in India: It was found that HRD climate and all its dimensions (viz., supportive HR policies, supervisor support, organizational support, teamwork, trust, and openness in communication) were found to exist at moderate level across the various banking sectors. The finding thus supports the hypothesis, '[H.sub.01]: The HRD climate as regards to supportive HR policies, superior or supervisor support, organizational support, teamworking, trust and open communication exists favourably in the selected banks' (refer Table-I).

2. Comparison as regards to HRD climate in banks as perceived by male and female bank managers: By applying t-test, it was found that the overall HRD climate was perceived at moderate level without any significant variation by the managers of both sexes, thereby supporting hypothesis, '[H.sub.03]: The male and female managers have no significant difference in the matter of their perceptions of HRD climate. The dimensions of HRD climate viz., supportive HR policies, supervisor support, trust and openness in communication were perceived without any significant

variation between male and female managers at 0.05 level of significance. However, perceptions of two dimensions of HRD climate viz., organizational support and teamwork were found with significant variation between male and female managers (refer Table-I).

3. Comparison as regards to HRD climate in banks as perceived by the bank managers at the three managerial levels viz., senior level, middle level and junior level: ANOVA results indicated that overall HRD climate was perceived at high level by senior managers and at moderate level by both middle-level as well as junior managers, but such variation was not found significant between the three managerial levels at 0.05 level of significance. The finding thus support hypothesis, '[H.sub.04]: There is no significant difference between the HRD climate perceptions of managers belonging to different levels'. The study variables viz., supportive HR policies, supervisor support, organizational support, teamwork, trust and openness in communication have been perceived at high level by senior managers and at moderate level by both middle level and junior managers but such variation was not found significant between the three managerial levels at 0.05 level of significance (refer Table-II).

4. Comparison among perceived HRD climate as prevailed in the three selected sets of banks operating in India: The results of ANOVA test showed that overall HRD climate was found at moderate level across the selected three sets of banks that too without any significant variation, thus supporting hypothesis, '[H.sub.05]: There exists no significant difference as regards to the perceived HRD climate of public sector, private sector and foreign banks in India'. All the study dimensions viz., supportive HR policies, supervisor support, organizational support, teamwork and openness in communication were perceived at high to moderate level by the managers of the various sectors of the selected banks and there is no significant variation between the perceptions of managers of the various banking sectors. It was found that 'trust' was perceived at high level by the managers of public sector banks and at moderate level by the managers of private sector and foreign banks and such a variation among various banking sectors has been found significant (refer Table-II).

5. Correlation between various aspects of HRD climate: Correlation analysis by determining Karl Pearson's coefficient of correlation indicates that a high degree of positive correlation (higher than 0.4) was found to exist between the study variables viz., supportive HR policies, supervisor support, organizational support, teamwork, trust and openness in communication. This finding supports hypothesis, '[H.sub.02]: There exists positive correlation between various study dimensions of HRD climate'. Only in case of correlation between trust and supportive HR policies, the degree of correlation is at medium level. Overall, the correlation analysis indicates that all the variables of HRD climate are positively and strongly related with one another.

6. Perceived level of employee empowerment among bank employees: As analyzed in Table-III, empowerment of the bank employees in the selected banks across the three sectors was found to exist at moderate level as perceived without significant variation by both male and female bank managers of the three management cadres.

7. Analysis of Impact of HRD climate on Employee Empowerment: The regression model (Table-IV) clearly explained the positive relationship between HRD climate and employee empowerment and Regression results (R square = 0.232) revealed that the HRD climate has significant and positive impact on employee empowerment. HRD climate accounts for significant amount (23 percent) of variation in Employee Empowerment.

Discussion and Implications

The intention of the present research was to measure the level of general HRD climate in selected Indian banks and also to make a comparison between the levels of HRD climate among public sector, private sector and foreign banks in India. The mean values indicate that the HRD climate in Indian banks prevail at moderate level. It implies that if the banks operating in India intend to develop and maintain their competitive edge during turbulent market conditions, they will have to focus on further enhancement of various aspects of HRD climate so as to strengthen the level of empowerment of the bank employees. Earlier research revealed a positive relationship between employee empowerment and several performance outcomes. As such level of employee empowerment needs to be enhanced for organizations to be more productive and to have competitive edge over its rivals. Our study suggests that increasing strength of HRD climate may be instrumental in the matter of enhancing the level of employee empowerment.

In the selected three banking sectors, the HR policies as well as the general climate of the banks facilitate employee development and managers take active interest in competence development of their juniors. It was also found that employees trust each other and have team spirit among them. In the prevailing climate, employees do not feel afraid to share their feelings with their co-workers. The outcomes of the study are consistent with the findings of Choudhary, Rangnekar and Barua (2011) who found a moderate level of HRD climate in public and private sector firms in India. Similar such findings were noted in other studies also (e.g., Solkhe and Choudhary, 2011; Saxena and Tiwari, 2009). Existence of a moderate level of HRD climate suggests that quality management in the matter of HR policies and practices needs to be focused further in Indian banks. All correlations were found significantly positive which shows that the selected dimensions of HRD climate strengthen each other which indicates that an incremental improvement in one dimension leads to qualitative improvement in the other. The results of the study revealed that female managers perceived that they were being provided with better organizational support. It indicates towards the existence of women friendly climate in Indian banks across the sectors. On making a comparative analysis, it was observed that various HRD climate dimensions were found at moderate level across the three banking sectors, however, the dimension of mutual trust was found at significantly higher level in public sector banks as compared to private sector and foreign banks. The reason for such a finding may be attributed to the truth that the public sector banks have a long term existence in India and they have high retention rate of employees as compared to private and foreign banks. Therefore, employees have been working together for quite long time and during such long tenures of working relationship, they have established a sense of mutual trust amongst themselves. A highly favourable HRD climate ensures the effective implementation of HRD systems / sub-systems as well as encourages employees to be more receptive to new interventions. Hence, if the Indian banks are to develop and maintain their competitive edge during turbulent market conditions, it is significant for them to emphasize on further enhancement of various dimensions of their HRD climate.

Conclusion

Taking the outcomes of all the prior studies (including the present study) together, it may be broad generalized that HRD climate in Banks operating in India is still moderately favourable. The HRD scenario in other Indian organizations is not much different from that of commercial banks in India. Based on these findings top executives and HRD managers are expected to evolve innovative HRD strategies to ensure the better HRD scenario in Indian organizations prevail in future. In order to project better picture of HRD scenario before HRD professionals, it is high time to take up a meta-analytical research of HRD climate studies carried out across the Indian organizations and also across the cultures.

Ravindra Jain

Professor and Dean, Faculty of Management Studies, Vikram University, Ujjain.

Sheelam Jain

Associate Professor in Management and Career Mentor, Mahakal Group of Institutes, Ujjain.

Paper received on September 17, 2015

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Wright, Bradley E., & Soonhee Kim (2004). Participation's influence on jobsatisfaction: The importance of job characteristics. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 24 (1), 18-40. Table--I Assessment of Perceived HRD Climate in the Selected Public Sector, Private Sector and Foreign Banks in India and Comparison between Perceptions of Male and Female Managers Dimensions of Mean SD Level of HRD Climate Value HRD (N = 318) Climate Supportive HR policies 3.77 .868 Moderate Supervisor support 3.88 .756 Moderate Organizational support 3.76 .722 Moderate Teamwork 3.93 .824 Moderate Trust 3.99 .782 Moderate Openness in 3.83 .811 Moderate communication Overall HRD climate 3.85 .629 Moderate Dimensions of t Test Results HRD Climate Males' Females' t Sig. Perception Perception Value (N = 237) (N = 81) Mean SD Mean SD Supportive HR policies 3.80 .863 3.67 .880 1.210 .828 Supervisor support 3.90 .775 3.82 .695 .821 .554 Organizational support 3.75 .753 3.80 .626 -.575 .038 * Teamwork 3.93 .882 3.99 .628 .022 .004 * Trust 4.01 .818 3.95 .669 .574 .117 Openness in 3.84 .829 3.80 .757 .376 .187 communication Overall HRD climate 3.86 .654 3.82 .548 .488 .626 Notes: (1) Standards for analysis: If mean value of the specific HRD Climate perception is above 4.0, it has been regarded as 'High'; if the mean value is between 3 and 4, it has been considered as 'Moderate '; and, if the mean value is less than 3, it has been regarded as 'Low'. (2) t Test Results: * Significant at .05 level of significance (Table Value = 1.96) Table--II Comparative Assessment of HRD as Perceived by the Bank Managers of the Three Levels and the Three Sectors (Results of ANOVA) Dimensions of Perceived HRD: Comparison HRD Climate among Bank Managers of the Three Sectors Public Private Sector Sector Banks Banks (N = 136) (N = 125) Mean SD Mean SD Supportive HR 3.71 .835 3.78 .888 policies Supervisor 3.90 .735 3.89 .729 support Organizational 3.71 .698 3.83 .675 support Teamwork 3.88 .817 3.93 .825 Trust 4.16 .680 3.84 .874 Openness in 3.80 .771 3.86 .827 communication Overall HRD 3.84 .578 3.85 .619 climate Dimensions of Perceived HRD: Comparison HRD Climate among Bank Managers of the Three Sectors Foreign F P Banks (Sig.) (N = 57) Mean SD Supportive HR 3.89 .900 .961 .384 policies Supervisor 3.82 .864 .263 .769 support Organizational 3.75 .867 .935 .394 support Teamwork 4.04 .844 .688 .503 Trust 3.93 .728 5.920 .003 * Openness in 3.86 .875 .208 .812 communication Overall HRD 3.86 .764 .024 .976 climate Dimensions of Perceived HRD: Comparison HRD Climate among Bank Managers at the Three Management Levels Senior Level Middle (N = 39) Level (N = 117) Mean SD Mean SD Supportive HR 4.05 .575 3.78 .792 policies Supervisor 4.12 .570 3.87 .779 support Organizational 4.01 .570 3.74 .714 support Teamwork 4.16 .764 3.81 .887 Trust 4.11 .906 3.97 .826 Openness in 4.08 .731 3.83 .722 communication Overall HRD 4.00 .555 3.84 .625 climate Dimensions of Perceived HRD: Comparison HRD Climate among Bank Managers at the Three Management Levels Junior Level F P (N = 162) (Sig.) Mean SD Supportive HR 3.69 .958 2.678 .070 policies Supervisor 3.84 .769 2.195 .113 support Organizational 3.73 .754 1.570 .210 support Teamwork 3.96 .781 2.839 .060 Trust 3.99 .722 .475 .622 Openness in 3.78 .876 2.143 .119 communication Overall HRD 3.82 .646 1.261 .285 climate * Significant at .05 level of significance (Table Value of F =2.6049) Table--III Assessment of Perceived Level of Employee Empowerment in the Selected Banks (Results of t Test and ANOVA) No. Mean S.D. t F P (N) Value Value Value Sig. Overall Perceived Level of 318 3.74 .426 -- -- -- Employee Empowerment (PLEE) Assessment of Perceived Level of Employee Empowerment (PLEE) in the Three Sectors (ANOVA) Level of employee 136 3.74 .389 -- 2.07 1.28 empowerment as perceived by Bank managers of public sector banks Level of employee 125 3.79 .446 empowerment as perceived by bank managers of private sector banks Level of employee 57 3.65 .456 empowerment as perceived by bank managers of foreign banks Assessment of Level of Employee Empowerment (PLEE) as perceived by the Managers at Three Levels (ANOVA) Level of employee 39 3.74 .407 -- .165 .848 empowerment as perceived by senior bank managers Level of employee 117 3.73 .450 empowerment as perceived by middle level managers Level of employee 62 3.76 .414 empowerment as perceived by junior managers Assessment of Level of Employee Empowerment (PLEE) as perceived by Male and Female Managers (t Test Results) Level of employee 237 3.75 .434 .122 -- .903 empowerment as perceived by male managers Level of employee 81 3.74 .404 empowerment as perceived by female managers * Significant at 0.05 level of significance (Table Value of F=2.6049, Table Value t = 1.96). Table--IV Impact of HRD Climate on Employee Empowerment among Bank Managers (Results of Regression Analysis) Coefficients (a) Model Unstandardized Standardized t Sig. Coefficients Coefficients B Std. Beta Error 1 (Constant) 2.488 .130 19.102 .000 HRD Climate .326 .033 .482 9.773 .000 (a.) Dependent Variable: Employee Empowerment Model Summary Model R R Adjusted Std. Error Square R Square of the Estimate 1 .482 (a) .232 .230 .374 (a.) Predictors: (Constant), HRD Climate. ANOVA (b) Model Sum of df Mean F Sig. Squares Square 1 Regression 13.343 1 13.343 95.505 .000 (a) Residual 44.149 316 .140 Total 57.492 317 (a.) Predictors: (Constant), HRD Climate. (b.) Dependent Variable: Employee Empowerment