Pal. Jour., 2017, 16, 134:140 Copyright 2017 by Palma Journal, All Rights Reserved Available online at: http://palmajournal.org/ Examining the Relationship between Empowerment and Organizational Agility and Organizational Entrepreneurship in Education Ministry Employees of Lorestan Province Zeynab Dolat Shah, M.A of Educational Management, university of Allameh TabaTabaei, Tehran, Iran. Mohammad Bagher MajidianFard, M.A of Educational Management, university of Allameh TabaTabaei, Tehran, Iran. Amane Lataifian, M.A of Curriculum planing, university of Allameh TabaTabaei, Tehran, Iran. Reza Farahani, M.A of Training and human resource development, Center Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Mahshid Sahebi, M.A of Educational Management, university of Allameh TabaTabaei, Tehran, Iran. Abstract This study aimed to investigate the relationship between organizational empowerment and entrepreneurship Bachabky was done, the field and the correlation of the General Administration of education in the province was conducted. Of the 204 subjects, stratified random sampling based on Morgan table, 133 subjects were selected. Collect data based on employee empowerment questionnaire Spreitzer (1995) and organizational agility Poor Nick and the Seljuks (1389) and corporate entrepreneurship Margaret Hill (2003), the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the order of 0. 95, 87 and 0.83 they came face and content validity was confirmed by specialist s terms. For analysis, test, Pearson correlation, multiple regression test was used. The results showed that, between empower employees with enterprise agility and a significant positive correlation in the level of corporate entrepreneurship. Less than 01 / there. The results of multiple regression showed that the factor most influenced Mtghyrchabky recognition of organizations and components of choice, efficiency, and reliability has not been a significant impact. And at the end of the factors, choice and meaningful showed a positive impact on entrepreneurship variable component efficiency, and confidence was not significant. Key words: empowerment, organizational agility, corporate entrepreneurship. Staff education. Introduction Main source of competitive advantage lies not in technology, but in dedication, quality, commitment and the ability of workforce. The most important resource of any organization can be mobility and creativity of its employees and mobile empowerment of new stimulus in the work environment. Organizations are seeking to design a way to use energy and ability of people to do their works and achieve pre-determined objectives. Therefore, if managers are able to increase their employees ability, organizations will naturally grow and improve (Abdullah Zadeh, 2013). In this regard, the empowerment of human resources is one of the most important approaches to human resource development leading to the development of human resources in organizations (Mahzun, 2007). On the other hand, today's world is a Palma Journal
Examining the Relationship between Empowerment... 135 world of constant change and era of instabilities that have profound impact on organizations. Hence, it is important for organizations to adapt themselves directly or indirectly with changes that threat the organization (Ebrahimian, et al., 2011). In addition, the individual is one of the elements in the wide changes of organization. In this era, those organizations are successful that are prepared to take risks and to determine the decision-making process up to lowest organizational level. This new paradigm is to empower the individuals (Hasani Ghale Hassan, 2012). On the other hand, perhaps the most important wealth in the third millennium is known as the information age. To reduce the accountability time and improve the flexibility, new form of organizations should be formed that organizational agility was used for the first time in this regard (Nikpoor, 2011). Therefore, concept of agility for an organization means ability to overcome unexpected challenges as well as flexibility and speed in responding to environment (Jafarnazhad et al, 2007). Studies have been carried out in relation to how an organization can act successfully in an unpredictable, dynamic and constantly changing environment. It was already believed that by introducing advanced technologies, organizational agility is obtained, but it is today stated that organizations and economy of communities depend on individuals (Meurs). Generally, all experts of management believe that the ability of employees to advance the organization toward its pre-specified goals plays an important role and educational organizations are not an exception in this regard (Mollahosseini, et al., 2009). In addition, one of the tools to achieve organizational agility is employees or human resources. On the other hand, organizations need to be adapted with environment to survival and enhance their efficiency in the face of extensive and ongoing environmental changes and threats. Employees who have entrepreneurial activities within administrative organizations cause improvement in organization and entrepreneurial managers (Abedi, 2004). Entrepreneurship is one of the most important resources in all societies and one of the important assets of any country. In fact, entrepreneurship is a very important issue that many developed and developing countries have paid attention to it (Imanipour et al., 2008). Organizations can create innovation through encouraging employees to corporate entrepreneurship, and then give people freedom so that they can implement their plans without involvement with cumbersome rules (bureaucracy). According to what was mentioned, the overall goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between the empowerment of human resources and organizational agility and organizational entrepreneurship from the perspective of Education Ministry employees in Lorestan. In this regard, the following hypotheses were suggested: There is significant relationship between empowerment of employees and organizational agility and organizational entrepreneurship. Components of employees empowerment predict organizational agility. Components of employees empowerment predict organizational entrepreneurship Methodology The study is applied research, which has been implemented by using descriptive method. Statistical population of research included all 204 employees of the Education Ministry of Lorestan province in the academic year 2015-2016. Simple random sampling method was used. Sample of study was determined to be 133 using Cochran formula. For the data collection required in the research, three questionnaires were used that assessed employees empowerment, organizational agility, and organizational entrepreneurship. To assess the empowerment of employees, employees empowerment questionnaire of Spreitzer (1995) was used that consists of 18 questions. Items related to trust were derived from the questionnaire of Mishra (1994). In this scale, the attitude has been considered at five dimensions of sense of significance, sense of competence, sense of right to choose (independence), sense of being effective, and sense of trust. In addition, in order to assess the organizational agility, questionnaire of Nick and Seljuk (2000) was used. The questionnaire of organizational agility has 16 items and 4 dimensions of accountability, competence, flexibility and adaptability and speed. Finally, in order to assess the organizational entrepreneurship in this study, organizational entrepreneurship questionnaire of Margaret Hill (2003) with 48 items and 6 components of organizational actions, individual approach, flexibility, status of reward, entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial culture (Hosseini Aghdam, 2011) was used. To obtain the validity of the research, content and face validity were used. Accordingly, the questionnaires
136 Z.D.Shah.et.al were provided for several experts and professors and questionnaires were distributed once they were approved. For reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used. Cronbach's alpha for organizational intelligence questionnaire, job satisfaction, and organizational entrepreneurship were obtained 0.87, 0.91, and 0.81, respectively. The study was conducted using regression analysis and spss software. Data analysis Table 1.Descriptive statistics of research variables Row Descriptive statistics M SD Variance 1 Empowerment of 2.4045 0.48458 0.235 employees 2 Significance 2.5884 0.55390 0.307 3 Competence 2.2985 0.62051 0.385 4 Right to Choose 2.2926 0.84812 0.719 5 Being effective 2.4924 0.46682 0.218 6 Trust 2.4275 0.51561 0.266 7 Organizational Agility 2.06766 0.34910 0.122 8 Entrepreneurship 2.8240 0.28362 0.080 Inferential statistics The main hypothesis of this study: there is significant relationship between empowerment of employees and organizational agility and organizational entrepreneurship. Table 2. The correlation between employees empowerment and organizational agility and entrepreneurship According to the table above, it can be explained that the correlation coefficient obtained for organizational agility is r=68.9 at the significance level of P.01. Therefore, there is a significant positive relationship between employee empowerment and organizational agility. In this study, the amount of regression (R2) was 47.5. It means that percent employees empowerment can predict the organizational agility by 47.5%. In addition, correlation coefficient obtained for the variable of organizational entrepreneurship is r = 81.4 at significance level of P.01 and the amount of regression (R2) was 66.3%. It means that empowerment of employees can predict organizational entrepreneurship by 66.3%. agility. Statistical index of variable organizational agility entrepreneurship The correlation coefficient ** 68.9 ** 81.4.0000.000 The second hypothesis: the components of employees empowerment predict organizational Table 3.Results of regression tests Model R R 2 Adjusted R-squared The standard error of estimate 1 73.6 a 0.542 0.523 0.23961 a: Trust, being effective, right to choose, significance, competence Table 3 shows that the correlation coefficient of model is 0.736. In other words, there is a relationship between the remaining component and organizational agility. R2 amount shows that 0.523% of changes in the organizational agility are due to the effect of empowerment of employees. R 2 ** 47.5 ** 66.3
Examining the Relationship between Empowerment... 137 Table 4.Analysis of variance to predicting components Model Source of Sum of squares df Sum of squares F value changes Regression 8.482 5 1.696 1 Remaining 7.177 125 0. 57 29.546 0.000 Total 15.658 130 Based on the results, obtained value F (29.546) that is significant at the error level smaller than 0.01 shows that independent variables had high explaining power and they can explain the changes and variance of dependent variable. In other words, the regression model of study is a good model and by using it, we can explain the changes in dependent variable of organizational agility based on components of empowerment of employees. 1 Table 5.Standardized and non-standardized correlations coefficients of independent variables to predict the organizational agility Model Fixed Significance Competence Right to choose Being effective Trust Non-standardized correlations coefficients B Standard error 0.761 0.136 0.136 0.051 0.343 0.056 0.061 0.034 078-058 070-0.055 standardized correlations coefficients Beta 0.217 0.609 0.150 105-104- T statistic value 1.9552 2.681 6.134 1774 1.348-1.267-.000.008.000 078 180 208 Table 5 shows the standardized and non-standardized correlation coefficients, the t-statistic, and significance level of predictor variables to predict the organizational agility. The components of right to choose, being effective, and trust are not significant. The third hypothesis: the components of employees empowerment predict organizational entrepreneurship Table 6. Regression test results Model R R 2 Adjusted R-squared The standard error of estimate 1 822.2 a.0676 0.663 0.16312 A: Trust, being effective, right to choose, significance, competence Table 6 shows that the correlation coefficient of model is 0.822. In other words, there is a relationship between the remaining component and organizational entrepreneurship. R2 amount shows that 0.663% of changes in the organizational agility are due to the effect of components of the empowerment of employees. Table 7.Variance analysis for significant predictor components Model Source of changes Sum of squares df Mean of sum of squares 1 Regression 6.926 5 1.385 F value 52.064 0.000 Remaining 3.326 125 0.027 Total 10.252 130 Based on the results of table, obtained value F (29.546) that is significant at the error level smaller than 0.01 shows that independent variables had high explaining power and they can explain the changes and variance of dependent variable. In other words, the regression model of study is a good model and by using it, we can explain the changes in dependent variable of organizational entrepreneurship based on components of empowerment of employees.
138 Z.D.Shah.et.al Table 8.Standardized and non-standardized correlations coefficients of independent variables to predict the organizational agility 1 Model Fixed Significance Competence Right to choose Being effective Trust non-standardized correlations coefficients B Standard error 1.815 0.093 0.087 0.035 0.221 0.038 0.74 0.023 0.007 039.038.038 standardized correlations coefficients Beta 0.171 0.485 0.223 0.011 0.069 T statistic value 19.619 2.506 5.813 3.140 0.175 1.001 0.000 0.014 0.000 002 0.861 319 Table 8 shows the standardized and non-standardized correlation coefficients, t-statistic, and significance level of predictor variables to predict the organizational agility. In addition, components of being effective and trust are not significant. Discussion and conclusion This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the empowerment and organizational entrepreneurship and organizational agility. Accordingly, three hypotheses were developed that their results will be discussed: Present study showed significant relationship between employee empowerment and organizational entrepreneurship and organizational agility. As results of Table 2 showed, the correlation coefficient obtained for organizational agility is r=68.9 and it is r=81.4 for organizational entrepreneurship, which is significant at the significance level of P.01. Therefore, there is a significant positive relationship between employee empowerment and organizational agility. Therefore, according to the results achieved, the main hypothesis of study stating that there is a relationship between psychological empowerment of human resources and organizational agility from the employees perspective was confirmed. Investigations revealed that these three variables have a direct relationship with each other. As a result, it is concluded that psychological co empowerment provides conditions necessary for improvement of the organizational agility and based on the findings of the research, it is considered one of the key factors in creating entrepreneurship and agility for organization in a competitive and variable environment. Some of the benefits resulting from improved agility and increased level of entrepreneurship and agility is faster advance of the organization towards the pre-specified goals, serving better, ability of organization in changing the processes and to improving the working operations, faster response to customer needs, the appropriate response to the changes, the development of employees skills and their satisfaction (Nick and Berkman, 2012). Since an agile and entrepreneur organization is organized in the direction to have ability to cope with unpredictable changes and developments, its human resources are organized in such a way that it can adapt itself quickly with the changing environment and the opportunities available in the market. Therefore, as education ministry and it managers are able to take step to increase the empowerment of employees in light of a coherent planning, education ministry will have higher flexibility in dealing with unexpected changes in the environment, its accountability for the environmental requests increases, and it will have competitiveness power in the environment as an agile organization. The second hypothesis of the research on the prediction of organizational agility by means of empowering human resources in table 3 shows that the correlation coefficient of model is 0.736. In other words, there is relationship between remaining components and organizational agility. The value of R2 indicates that 0.523 of changes in organizational agility is due to impact of empowerment of employees. With regard to these findings, it can be said that environmental changes and increased competition have placed the subject of empowerment at the center of the today s organizations, since organizations by having capable, committed and motivated employees will be better able to adapt themselves with changes. In interpreting these results, it can be said that when employees feel that when employees follow important and valuable goals, they feel that they move on the road that their time and force is valuable. In addition, when they feel that are influential on their strategic and operational results, they are feeling effectiveness. On the other hand, the right to choose is related to their freedom of action and independence in determining the activities necessary to perform
Examining the Relationship between Empowerment... 139 their job duties. As a result, high levels of these factors makes that these employees to feel empowerment and since having these capable individuals can better respond to the needs of customers and flexibility in providing a variety of services to the community and adaptability with complex and changing environment, to enhance the agility of employees, psychological empowerment programs should be planned to help ministry of education in achieving to goals. The results of the research are in line with a study conducted by Mir Haydari et al (2005) under the title of the relation between empowerment of employees and organizational agility at the Frahangian University of Isfahan. They showed that there is a significant relationship between empowerment of employees and organizational agility at the Frahangian University of Isfahan. In addition, the result of this study is in line with the result of study conducted by Azizi Asl (2004) under the title of the relationship between psychological empowerment of human resources and organizational agility from the perspective of employees of Shiraz University. Its results showed a significant and positive correlation between psychological empowerment and its dimensions and organizational. In addition, the third hypothesis on predicting the organizational entrepreneurship by empowering human resources in table 5 shows that the correlation coefficient of model is 0.822. In other words, there is a relationship between the remaining component and organizational entrepreneurship. The value of R2 (0.676) indicates that changes in entrepreneurship are due to the impact of employees empowerment components, and one of the indicators of entrepreneurship is organizational entrepreneurship, which it has a significant share in the success and excellence of organizations. On the other hand, direct and positive effects of the organizational entrepreneurship in the organization on job satisfaction of human resources have been proven. It seems that special attention to the development of the entrepreneurship components and expansion of entrepreneurial culture in distinctive form to be a suitable solution in solving the problem of reduced satisfaction among the employees. The results of this hypothesis are in line with results of Farahani et al (2011) in a study examined the relationship between psychological empowerment factors (sense of being significance, competence, self-determination, being effective, and trust) and organizational entrepreneurship of physical education organization in Razavi Khorasan Province. They found that there is direct and significant relationship between four key factors of psychological empowerment including sense of significance, sense of self-determination, sense of being effective, and sense of trust and organizational entrepreneurship. However, there is no significant relationship between competence and organizational entrepreneurship. In addition, Mahdavi (2014) in a study entitled the mediating role of creativity in the relationship between empowerment and entrepreneurship of employees of University of Shiraz concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between empowerment and entrepreneurship and between empowerment and organizational creativity. Hossein Pur et al (2011) in a study entitled Empowerment of employees: a step towards the promotion and development found that there is a significant positive relationship between psychological empowerment and entrepreneurial behavior of small industries and industrial parks of Iran. The results of this study are also in line with findings of Beramvand et al 92011) in a study titled as investigating the status and relation of components of empowerment and organizational entrepreneurship and each of their dimensions and job satisfaction of employees working in Islamic Azad University of Dezful. In the mentioned study, they found that each of the components of empowerment and organizational entrepreneurship and their dimensions have significant correlation with job satisfaction.
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