The role of employee empowerment in overall marketing success of retail firms

In a dynamic world of business, empowerment of employees is of strategic importance to all internal activities of an organization. The corporate world is fast moving away from bureaucratic structure of organizations to a flatter and team oriented structure. Empowerment of employees is especially important to marketing as it needs to respond to the ever-changing demands of the market. It is also observed that retailers are challenged by turbulent business environment, where the ability of the employees to take quick decisions is of prime importance. Empowerment enables employees to take up responsibilities as they are given authority coupled with the resources to take decisions and act immediately. There is a growing realization that employee empowerment is positively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Empowerment focuses on liberating employees and facilitates the attainment of organizational goals. The study aims to explore the role of employee empowerment in a retail organization and also to find the relationship between employee empowerment and employee's involvement in marketing decisions of retail organizations. It further investigates the perception of employees towards empowerment. The questionnaire was administered to 100 employees of 5 retailers located in Pune. The findings of the study indicate that employee empowerment plays a vital role in the success of overall marketing strategies of retail organizations and also shows that there is a positive perception among employees towards employee empowerment.